Prior to the start of their lengthy road trip, I discussed the importance of the Kraken coming out with a winning record in order to push the gap further between themselves and other competing teams in their division. I thought a 4-2-1 record on their 7 game road trip should be looked at as a positive.
Those expectations have been blown out of the water as the team is undefeated on this road trip, going 5-0-0 thus far. Every win has also occurred in regulation. Add to that a home win against the Islanders on January 1st and Seattle is undefeated in the month of January. Their last loss was a big one, 7-2 against Edmonton and the Kraken have rebounded in a big way while the Oilers...
As has been the case all season, it's been a number of different players who are all chipping in to get the job done. Matty Beniers has gotten over his first NHL slump and has had 5 goals and 9 points in his last 6 games. McCann has 3 goals, as does Vince Dunn who leads the team in points in the last 6 games with 10. Ron Francis made roughly 20 other GMs look foolish as Eeli Tolvanen has 3 goals and 5 points through his last 6 games. and has found a comfortable spot next to Yanni Gourde and Bjorkstrand.
Seattle has six players that has scored at a ppg pace in their last six games and 10 players with at least 5 points.
Martin Jones (who is absolutely the starter right now) has a 0.947SV% at 5 on 5 this month. Jones is one of two goalies who have played over 200 minutes at 5 on 5 this month; Binnington is the other sporting a far less impressive 0.862SV%. Of the 12 goalies who have played 150 minutes at 5 on 5, Jones ranks 3rd, ahead of the likes of Sorokin, Kuemper, Georgiev, and Copley.
Seattle remains in third in the division by total points but they sit only 2 points back of LA with a whopping 4 games in hand. They sit 4 points back of Vegas with 2 games in hand, meaning the Seattle Kraken have a legitimate shot at securing the top spot in the Pacific. They have a Pacific Division best +22 goal differential.
We have seen this team ride some highs and lows this season and in order to have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs and even winning a round, they still need to find a way to prevent the more egregious issues with the lows from happening. In the past we have seen an underdog get hot at the right time and wow everyone in the NHL... could this be the case with this Seattle team?
At some point it's going to be tough to say that Seattle should not be aggressive at the trade deadline. Seattle currently has roughly 1.1 million in cap space and 11 draft picks in the 2023 NHL draft. They have the ability to make some good trades while also spending the assets to get other teams to take on cap space. This is one of the most fun teams to watch in the NHL and if you are not on the bandwagon yet I would jump on now while there is still space.
Thanks for reading!