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Seattle Is A Normal Expansion Team and That's Okay. |
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Seattle has gone through half of December winning games at a higher rate than they did in November or October. The bad news is that isn't saying too much. Here is the point breakdown for the first 7 games of each month:
October: 2-4-1
November: 1-6-0
December: 2-3-2
The silver lining is that the Kraken are finding ways to at least pull out more points in their games. The bad news is that they are still proving they are not good enough to maintain any form of consistency. After beating the Oilers in an impressive showing which started that team on a six game losing skid, Seattle then dropped three games in a row before beating the Sharks and followed that up the next night with a lackluster performance against the Ducks in a 4-1 loss. We are well over a quarter of the way through the regular season so at this point I think it is fair to say this is what should be expected from this team moving forward this season.
These are the growing pains that should be expected of an expansion team. Vegas caught lightning in a bottle and none of us should have expected Seattle to come close to what that team accomplished. Let's take a moment to look at some of the good things we've learned this season.
Jared McCann is legit. Prior to the start of the season I signaled McCann out as a breakout player who would prove he is a top six forward and he has clearly done that. With 11 goals and 16 points in his first 24 games, McCann is well on his way to a new career high in both goals and total points. With Gourde out once again, McCann is being counted on to pivot the top line. Hakstol has been able to throw McCann out anywhere in the lineup and the 25 year old has managed to produce. Arguably the best pick Seattle made out of the expansion draft.
Next is the team leader in goals in Jordan Eberle. Ebs started the year off slow but after acclimating to his new team he picked up right where he left off on the Island and in Edmonton before that; scoring goals.
Another player who took even longer to pick up his pace was Jaden Schwartz but he alongside Eberle have been the two most reliable top six wingers that this team has. Other players have rotated in and out but these two guys are mainstays.
Who thought Joonas Donskoi would be leading the team in assists at this point? Donskoi has arguably been one of the best defensive players on this team and has teed the puck up for his linemates a team leading 14 times. What's surprising is with all this effort he hasn't managed to score a single goal yet. Donskoi has averaged 15+ goals a year over the past 4 seasons and while he may not reach that mark now, I do believe he will get back to scoring at that kind of rate soon.
After struggling to stay in the lineup due to injuries, Mason Appleton is finally showing the signs of life that made Ron Francis select him from the Winnipeg Jets and has started to push for top six ice time.
He has not broken out as quickly as we had hoped but we are seeing flashes from Morgan Geekie. The 23 year old has wheels and when he gets space he can do some creative things with the puck but there are many aspects of the game he still needs to work on. I'm still holding out faith for this player.
Larsson, Oleksiak, and Haydn Fleury have been in my opinion the Kraken's three best defenders this season for their roles and are getting the chance to do more with the puck than their previous teams ever seemed to feel comfortable with. Giordano started the season well but hasn't looked are steady in his most recent games but I will attribute some of that to COVID.
There are plenty of things that are not working and we could spend plenty of time discussing them but it's good to take a step back every once in a while and reflect on the positives. Hopefully we will have more of those to discuss on Saturday when the Kraken tries to take the season series lead against the Edmonton Oilers.
Seattle Kraken Blogger • 
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