Seattle Kraken, Martin Jones

Kraken NHL Daily: Seattle’s Happy Place; Ovie And Daly

Kraken Standings

All in all it’s been one heck of a season thus far for the Seattle Kraken as the NHL hits the Christmas break. The Kraken sit in third place in the Pacific Division by themselves while actually holding the second-highest winning percentage (.625).

That’s because the Kraken have games in hand on the entire division, including a whopping five games in hand on the second place Los Angeles Kings and four games in hand on the first place Vegas Golden Knights. Although not likely, should the Kraken actually win all of those extra games, they’d be six points ahead of LA and one point behind VGK.

The team has nine wins on the road and nine wins at home, similar to the balance they have in their scoring line-up. Help from everywhere.

The message at the Christmas time-out should be a good one considering the success rate to this point in the season. The last game before the break, a come-from-ahead shoot-out loss to the Vancouver Canucks, who the Kraken have never beaten (0-and-6), can easily be put behind them. They at least came away with a point.

“There’s a couple things we have to do better,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said in reference to losing the lead in the third period, “we have to do better when we have a two-goal lead, that’s a game that we feel we should be able to close out.”

“We worked really hard, we emptied the tank and today unfortunately it didn’t work out,” Kraken forward Alexander Wennberg said postgame. “Obviously it’s a team we battle against in the division but we got one point, they got two, move on.”

The Kraken remain seven points ahead of the Canucks, the Pacific Division’s sixth place team. Vancouver beat the Oilers in Edmonton Friday night 5-2.

The Kraken return to action out of the break at home on Wednesday against another division rival, the Calgary Flames.

Let’s Skate!

In case you missed it, Alexander Ovechkin scored career goals number 801 and 802 to pass Gordie Howe on the all-time NHL career goals list. He fired the first one from the right wing circle, going five-hole on Winnipeg Jets goalie David Rittich, while the second one was a half-blind, empty netter fired from the left wing boards just inside the offensive blue line .

Ovechkin is 92 goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky for the most ever.

A Worthy Watch

In case you missed it part-two involves NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly sitting down with Rob Simpson for “Simmer’s Morning Skate” on Friday. This first three minute clip is about the league NOT changing its playoff format.

The entire conversation, a good way to learn a lot about what’s going on around the league with some bonus holiday cheer, is available via the link below this one.

Bill Daly with Rob Simpson

Click this link for the entire NHL conversation with Daly on a variety of topics.

Merry Christmas! World Juniors start on December 26th; the NHL returns the next day.

Enjoy the Hockey Action !!

Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.