By Charles Hamaker 

Detroit, MI – While the big 7-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes might have been more fun considering the number of goals scored, the Seattle Kraken win on the road against the Detroit Red Wings may have been more of what this team needed to get back on track and use as a launching pad. The Kraken displayed resiliency, got big efforts from their stars, and ensured that they were not going to drop points as they got the gritty game winner in overtime. Seattle still has things to clean up from this win in Detroit, but those issues that were displayed in this game are manageable and fixable. It’s obviously much better to go deeper into the season and have less things to fix, rather than more of course, and tonight’s game felt much better in that regard than the loss to the Rangers the other day.  

The good: Eberle’s overtime winner, Seattle’s resilience 

Jordan Eberle’s game winner not only ensured that this team wasn’t going to be dropping points and squandering a strong effort, but also ensured that they wouldn’t have to go to a shootout. We’ve talked about it before, particularly after the St. Louis loss this season, but the Kraken have struggled heavily in the shootout and that’s come even when they have switched up the skaters that they send out there. Eberle was able to stick with the play in overtime, giving Jared McCann an option to pass to when it seemed like the Red Wings were going to cause enough chaos to send us to the shootout. His game winner could be the reason why the team is able to look back on this game with a fond lense as opposed to one where this got away.  

Last year’s Kraken squad that was able to rack up 100 standings points and come just inches away from the Western Conference final was able to be resilient, whether that was due to their self-inflicted wounds that they had to overcome or playing against some of the top teams in the National Hockey League. We haven’t particularly seen that sort of characteristic of this team this year, and certainly not to this extent. From conceding the first goal of the night, to the numerous penalties, which then played into the Red Wings scoring three power play goals on the night. Seattle didn’t wither up and disappear like they did in the loss to New York; they pushed back and grinded out a win thanks to the tying goal from Jared McCann and the overtime winner from Jordan Eberle. That resilience is a big key to them being a successful team once again this year.  

The bad: Giving up a two-goal lead 

As just mentioned, Detroit racked up three goals in the final period and their power play was humming like a car straight from one of the factories in Motown. The Kraken power play, a big positive for this Seattle team early into this season dating back to the all-star break of last season, got into some trouble as they were stretched out and the Red Wings were more than ready to take advantage. I wouldn’t pin this as much on the Kraken penalty kill as much as I would the team giving up these power plays in the first place. While the officiating as a whole was questionable at beast, there are a few instances where Seattle needs to be smarter and just better about their play as to avoid putting themselves and their opponents in the position to get close to tying this game up when the Kraken had a decent lead.  

And the ugly: Reckless calls, still not protecting teammates 

These two aspects of the game can kind of go together, as the Kraken have struggled with the physical aspect of the game in terms of being pushed around. It was especially highlighted in the loss to the Rangers, as New York seemed to realize that Seattle wasn’t going to push back, so they took advantage of that. Other teams have been able to do that throughout the early course of this year's campaign, but mainly in the aspect that they’ll lay a big and dangerous hit on one of Seattle’s players (injuring them, for example Brandon Tanev and Andre Burakovsky) and the Kraken won’t seem to do anything in retaliation or to assert that they won’t allow an instance as such to keep happening. I’m not at all calling for the Kraken to have an “enforcer” or something silly similar to that, rather not letting themselves be bullied.  

What’s next? 

Following the overtime victory over Detroit to begin their four-game road trip, the Seattle Kraken will now head over to Carolina for their second game this season against the Hurricanes. Seattle and Carolina will meet at PNC Arena on Thursday, October 26th with a puck drop of 4PM PST, being broadcast on Root Sports in the state of Washington while on ESPN+ nationally. The Hurricanes will be looking for a bounce back of their own, not only against a Kraken team that they lost to and allowed seven goals against, but because they are currently on a three-game losing streak. Seattle looks to take tonight’s strong effort, while cleaning up a few areas of poor play, into Carolina to try and start a winning streak.  

Cover photo by Paul Sancya