by | Jan 24, 2026 | 23 comments
Kraken coach Lane Lambert was on fire in his press conference following an uninspiring 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, in a critical “four-point” game against a team that entered the night two points ahead of Seattle in the standings.
The whole presser is worth a watch, but here were a few highlights:
Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken loss to the Ducks.
I really thought this team had figured out how to start games this season. But it has become a major problem again over the past month, a continuation of four previous years of periodic struggles in first periods. And Friday’s opening 20 minutes were especially ugly.
The issues began about a minute into the contest. Eeli Tolvanen tried to force a pass to Berkly Catton, which was easily cut off by Pavel Mintyukov at the Anaheim blue line. The Ducks transitioned quickly, with Jeffrey Viel then finding Cutter Gauthier at the Seattle blue line. Gauthier recognized that Vince Dunn was completely flat-footed, turned on the jets to burn around the defenseman with ease, and snapped a shot into the gaping opening that Philipp Grubauer—too deep in his net on the play—was giving him on the far side.
The early goals are getting ridiculous.
Cutter Gauthier burns around Vince Dunn, and Grubi gives him way too much net.
1-0 Ducks just 1:02 into the game.
That's NINE straight games in which the #SeaKraken have allowed a goal in the first six minutes. pic.twitter.com/m1pJzsUIxW
The goal came on the first shot of the game at 1:02 of the first period, extending Seattle’s streak of surrendering a goal in the first six minutes to nine straight games.
“We didn’t start in the first two periods,” Jordan Eberle said. “In my opinion, we were getting out-battled. We were kind of all over the place early on, our systems were disconnected. In the third, we made a push, but at the end of the day, you’re down two, and it’s a tough way to come back. We can’t keep doing this to ourselves.”
Things got worse before they got better, with another strange and ugly trend rearing its head once again: short-handed goals against. In the offensive zone, Matty Beniers and Eberle both lunged for a loose puck but were beaten by Ian Moore, who chipped it out of the zone to spring Ryan Poehling on a breakaway. Poehling deposited it behind Grubauer to make it 2-0.
…And now, a fourth short-handed goal against in five games.
2-0 Ducks. Ryan Poehling gets the goal.
BTW, no shots for the #SeaKraken on the power play. pic.twitter.com/bfUsqpZHre
That was the fourth short-handed goal the Kraken have allowed in their last five games.
Those two trends—early goals against and short-handed goals—are killing this team right now and have contributed heavily to its 2-5-2 record over the last nine games. Like Lane Lambert, I too am “dumbfounded” about how these two things keep happening.
Meanwhile, Seattle managed just three shots on goal in the first period and 11 through two before finally turning things on and doubling that total in the third.
For as bad as the Kraken were through the first two periods, Jared McCann did get them on the board with a classic Beniers-to-Eberle-to-McCann snipe at 1:55 of the second. They gave that goal right back, though, via a Chris Kreider power-play marker just 2:05 later, and continued to sleepwalk through the middle frame.
But in the third period, they finally woke up after the “It can’t get any worse” conversation Lambert alluded to, pulling within a goal and creating several bona fide scoring chances that made it feel like they were about to tie the game.
In fact, Chandler Stephenson appeared to have the equalizer after an insane touch pass from Berkly Catton in the neutral zone sprung his billet dad on a breakaway. Stephenson made a nice move, hitting the brakes and getting Lukas Dostal to slide the wrong way, but as he deked back to his left, the puck rolled off his stick.
WHOOP! What a pass by Berkly Catton. 😱
Chandler Stephenson had Dostal dead to rights but lost the handle on it. That would have been a goal of the year candidate. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/sXv0g25cp1
If there’s one silver lining from this otherwise miserable game, it’s that the Kraken reminded us in the third period that they are capable of playing on their toes.
Shane Wright did contribute in this game, setting up Jaden Schwartz for an easy tap-in goal that pulled Seattle back within 3-2.
The larger story surrounding Wright lately, though, has been his name popping up in trade rumors. Multiple national reporters have surmised that the Kraken would be willing to move the 22-year-old center.
We gave our takes on the situation on the latest Sound Of Hockey Podcast, so give that a listen. My general belief is that Wright could be traded if the right offer comes along—just like almost any player in the Kraken organization—but I don’t believe Seattle is actively “shopping” him, per se. Rather, they’re looking to upgrade offensively, and Wright is a young player who could bring back significant value, so of course they should be listening.
That said, I asked Wright how he’s been handling the “outside noise,” and he responded: “I don’t really care too much about that. It’s no offense to you guys, reporters, at the end of the day, you can’t really trust too much what they say. And at the end of day, it’s just rumors. I’m not too worried about that.”
I also asked Lambert what he thought of Wright’s game and how he prevents trade chatter from becoming a distraction for his young center.
“I thought his game was good. It was really good tonight,” Lambert said. “I think his game’s been good for a while. I think there’s areas of Shane’s game that we’re working on that he’s improved on a lot since the beginning of the year. The outside noise is outside noise. The speculation is speculation. I have no idea [about any of that], but my job is to make sure that he’s ready to play, and I think he’s playing well. And I thought he played well tonight.”
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Boring night. I can’t get too worked up about Shane Wright. No honest fan should feel he’s untouchable in a trade scenario. Almost every team Seattle plays had better stick handling and more shots on net. I don’t see this team making the playoffs with the current effort. Might as well go younger through promotions and trades.
Berkly Catton continues to just get better and better. I’m looking forward to watching him play for the next decade.
Indeed, I’ll never get tired of hearing John Forslund say, “… and another great play by Catton.”
How is passing on Cutter Gauthier (G23 A22) to draft Shane Wright (7G 11A) looking right now, Ron Francis?
Apples to oranges. Gauthier forced a trade away from the team that drafted him. There is no saying he wouldn’t have done the same to Seattle.
Landing spot matters:
They had virtually identical seasons last year.
They have the same agent. Both turned 22 within the last 2 weeks.
One now has a multiple time Stanley Cup winning coach. The other plays for a coach using a pathetic offense-strangling system.
What bothers me is that they seem to have given up on their end which is development. Don’t set him up to fail. He’s like Kaapo Kakko at the Rangers. Underutilized and left hanging.
Listen to our latest podcast. Curtis points out that—statistically—they’re setting him up only to succeed.
This is a very odd view that you have.
The raw # of minutes matters. They took him off the PP1 even though he led the team in PP goals last year. They just need to let him run, that’s how these young guys improve. No sane system would have a 22 year old Wright playing fewer minutes than Gaudreau and claim he is being set up for success
They have the No.2 power play in the league behind only the Oilers since December 1st.
Whether folks like it or not, they are trying to win games.
Which makes sense if the objective is to make the playoffs in 2026.
If the objective is for an older Wright to contribute to a cup winning team, his usage would be different.
I frankly don’t understand why they’re still trying to play him at center. He’s below average at face-offs. More importantly, however, is that he just doesn’t consistently show the necessary situational awareness to effectively manage a line. He gets too focused on what he is doing and loses track of what’s going on outside of his more immediate surroundings. When I compare him to the other centers, including Catton, they own the position in a way that he doesn’t.
The armchair psychologist in me has a LOT of theories about why he’s struggled, but it seems like moving him to a wing position would provide some mental freedom and would give him an opportunity to play higher on the lineup, which would get him more minutes.
Seven shorthand goals given up this season already. Seattle I believe have yet to get one of their own? SMH…
Ridiculous and embarrassing!
And the crazy thing is that both Jared McCann and Chandler Stephenson have previously each scored two short-handed goals per season for nearly every year they have played. Historically speaking, these things should be going the other way.
Some players don’t mesh well with The System.
Definitely, front office hired the coach and built the team though.
The Shane Wright rumors suggest that the front office has chosen.
That was bad hockey. Glad to hear LL call it out. Not sure he can do much to fix it.
Ok yes there was bad hockey but….
“When you leave it up to chance, and you play 20 minutes in a 60-minute hockey game, you’re not going to have success very often. So, one word can describe the game for me, it’s ‘disappointment.’ Friday night, big game, division opponent, four-point game in front of our fans, I’m actually dumbfounded.”
Doesn’t LL realize that’s exactly what his system is and he’s the problem? If our goalies don’t win us the game we just don’t win. We give up these chances every F’ing game but apparently we play great team hockey when our goalie save the day but we’re making all these mistakes when he doesn’t. Just fire this guy already before he destroys the team and more of our offensive players want out of town.
On the Wright side of things, LL is clearly insane if he thinks he’s improving his game????? I honestly can’t even believe that he said that. Could be the most ridiculous statement of the season so far.
If it were only one or two players, I’d say they deserve some time in the press box. But last night it was about half the team. Maybe there needs to be a sudden outbreak of “food poisoning” that mysteriously afflicts several players and requires several emergency call-ups to fill the lineup card.
Will some one please inject them with caffein to start the game. Falling behid every game is not a winning formula. The are some veterans that like the payday but this is a game play and you get paid. I am liking this bad play because some players will be gone before the trade deadline and we can get some new fresh blood that has young legs.
You believe that or do you think that it’s a better chance that we trade some young legs for older established vets?
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