Kraken Skid
Along with the 1st place Los Angeles Kings and the last place San Jose Sharks, the Seattle Kraken have played the most games (14) in the Pacific Division. They sit in 6th place, eight points out of first, with the NHL’s longest current losing streak at four.
It won’t get any easier on Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena against the powerhouse Vegas Golden Knights. The Kraken will have to play their best game of the season, barring a letdown from Vegas after playing their playoff nemesis Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night.
Next week the Kraken face two must win games. Too early for that terminology?! Nope. When you’re three games below .500, potentially going on four, you can’t afford to lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets or the Chicago Blackhawks on home ice in November.
At that point, it would suddenly becomes a loooong season.
The club can’t blame an injury to top defenseman Vince Dunn for their woes. Yes, he’s valuable, but no roster should be so fragile or limited that it costs a team a season.
Ahem: the 8-3-and-3 LA Kings lost perennial all-star, major minute muncher, two-time Stanley Cup champion and future Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Drew Doughty before the season even started, and he’s out for months following surgery for a broken ankle.
So how long is the adjustment period to new head coach Dan Bylsma supposed to take? Why are so many players underachieving? When will Andre Burakovsky stop hanging on to pucks too long? Probably never is the answer to that last one.
These and other questions will plague the Kraken in the coming days. The answers must be found much sooner than later.
“It’s a difficult time, it’s difficult lessons to learn, but we have to learn them,” an exasperated Bylsma said after Tuesday night’s 6-3 loss to the Avalanche. “We have to take it as growth and next thing is get ready for the game at home.”
