The Kraken pretty much laid an egg on Saturday night at Climate Pledge Arena in their 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. They stunk getting the puck out of their own zone against the Bolts forecheck.
Seattle hosts the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night after practising on Monday. Meeeeeanwhile …
1) With the loss, the Kraken are back to .500 on the season. Not a playoff pace obviously. It’s the 10th time Seattle has been at .500 on the season, see-sawing up and down, above and below the mark. (This doesn’t include OT or shoot-out losses)
The team needs a six or seven game winning streak, or something along those lines, to be considered a legitimate postseason threat.
2) I had a little chat with Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper after the game. (Much different than the goofy one we had after the morning skate, found at the bottom of this page).
I brought up his club’s inner confidence. So often when you watch the Lightning on TV or in person, there’s usually a sense that they will prevail, keeping in mind that this roster is obviously not the entire one that won two consecutive Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.
There are enough individuals remaining to carry on the identity, confidence and mindset that those teams utilized.
Coop’ simply pointed to the two Cups as the reason for the collective confidence, downplaying his role as head coach, although let’s face it, his approach, his communication skills, and he and his staff’s tactics have gone a long way in garnering success. It’s why he’s in his 12th season in Tampa, presently the longest tenured coach in the NHL.
(We also joke about his goaltender having saved his arse over the years and I suggest the coach deserves a statue outside the rink)
3) This is comical. And a little sad. It takes five (1) diving penalties before a player actually gets fined for embellishing infractions. Josh Norris of the Ottawa Senators has reached that plateau.
Here’s the video from December 5th. I’m not gonna look for them because I don’t feel like getting sick watching them, but I wonder what the first four dives looked like.
https://www.nhl.com/video/norris-fined-for-embellishment-6365951205112
This cost him $2,000. The next one will cost him $3K, then $4K, then $5K, and then after that, his coach also starts to get fined.
4) In my humble opinion, the Kraken have the best home-team-goal music (“goal song”) in the NHL, Nirvana’s “Lithium”, and they’ve incorporated more of that band’s music into their pregame presentation at Climate Pledge Arena. It’s impressive, or as I tweeted Saturday night upon observation from the press box:
“The Seattle Kraken game presentation is approaching Vegas standards with the multi-media elements. Excellent. No drum corps or cheerleaders, but it’s tight and it rocks.”
By the way, here’s the Kraken version of “Lithium”.
https://youtu.be/6M5nat8OoPk?si=9DfajI7j-_iIMfae
5) Shane Wright, 4th-overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft, is coming on strong. We have analyzed and nitpicked him more than any other Kraken over the last two years. Why? It’s called expectations.
He’s still “a kid”. He turns 21 on January 5th.
Wright has seven points over his last six games and a total of 12 over his last 11.
6) Kraken Trivia Time: In the club’s history, how many times have Seattle goalies posted consecutive shut-outs? (Answer below number-9)
7) 
The matinee view from where I park at a friend’s house for games. Not too shabby for a crappy old phone. Looks far doesn’t it? It’s about a 12 minute walk.
8) Apparently panic has set in up the road in Vancouver. After playing one of their best games of the season against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in a 4-0 win on Thursday, the Canucks stunk it up against the Boston Bruins in a 5-1 loss on Saturday night.
Holy smokes, you’d think the world was ending. Some people online are questioning the head coach’s future, and the mostly toxic local media were giving head coach Rick Tocchet Spanish Inquisition-like questioning. Relax people, they’re in a wild card spot with games-in-hand on all the teams around them.
Number-one goalie Thatcher Demko is back, he took the loss, as is top center J.T. Miller, so maybe expectations, there’s that word again, are through the roof and the natives want results NOW!
It also doesn’t help that the loss came to the Bruins, the Canucks most annoying nemesis from the east, dating back to Boston winning the 2011 Stanley Cup Final head-to-head.
9) If you’re ever on youtube, pop over to the ‘Simmerpuck’ channel and click to subscribe. Free and painless of course. Lots of fun/cool/informative interviews on there with more to come.
You can also follow yours truly on twitter/X @simmerpuck. Cheers, and thank you.
Enjoy the Hockey Action!!
Trivia Answer: None. Zero. The Kraken have never posted back-to-back shut-outs, and the only shut-out this season belonged to Joey Daccord, 3-0 against the Nashville Predators at Climate Pledge Arena on November 20th.
Recent Kraken:
— Kraken Founder Bonderman Remembered
— Here’s the fun and games for five minutes with Bolts head coach Jon Cooper …
