Kraken look to shatter expectations, starting with Vancouver rematch

Kate Shefte, The Seattle Times on Jan 2, 2025

Published in Hockey

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On New Year’s Day, the Kraken broke through … the glass of their practice rink.

Yeah, All-Star Oliver Bjorkstrand did it, and he didn’t regret it either.

“It was already broken,” was his worthy defense.

He probably hit it at just the wrong spot. Or maybe it was raw power. We’ll never know.

It was just a few minutes after the first practice of 2025 officially began. The team left the shards where they fell and filed over to Starbucks Rink, which is also under the Kraken Community Iceplex roof.

“Thank goodness we have a great facility and we can switch to another rink right off the hop,” coach Dan Bylsma said.

The Kraken, winners of two straight games, are a week away from the season’s halfway point and gradually recovering from a five-game skid just before Christmas. They sit seven points from the playoff cutoff. If there are moves to be made, now is the time.

The Canucks are in town for a rematch Thursday night. The first of Seattle’s consecutive wins was in Vancouver, where the hosts coughed up a three-goal lead in the final five minutes and lost in overtime. That’s happened just three times in NHL history.

Pacific Division fellow Vancouver is in a slump of its own and has dropped five of six, falling out of a wild-card spot Wednesday night. Seattle-Vancouver is often a chippy matchup to begin with, and this time, there’s incentive to turn things around on both sides.

Newcomer Kaapo Kakko sparked the Kraken’s best line lately, alongside Matty Beniers and Jaden Schwartz. He has a goal and two assists since his trade from the New York Rangers. Beniers has two goals and a helper, and Schwartz has three goals, two assists in just the past two games.

Brandon Tanev, Yanni Gourde and Tye Kartye, Seattle’s best line earlier in the season, is back together. Eeli Tolvanen, Shane Wright and Bjorkstrand, at their best around Thanksgiving, haven’t split up since.

The Kraken have had one hot line, on a rotating basis, throughout the first 38 games. Making that several at once would make it easier to break through in the Western Conference standings.

“It’s been a search, I’ll say, for the majority of the year, to get where we have four full lines going each and every night. Some of it’s been injury, some of it’s been sickness or whatnot, but we haven’t had a ton of continuity,” Bylsma said.

Find a weak spot, like a tumbling playoff team they can replace? Use raw power, a la lengthy win streak? It’s now or, realistically, never.

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