Kraken Playoff Hopes Vanish Without Improved Penalty Kill

At 5-on-5 last Saturday, the Seattle Kraken outscored the Vancouver Canucks, 2-1. The Kraken even tacked on a power play goal in the preseason finale.

The reason they still lost, 4-3, fell squarely on the Seattle penalty kill, which essentially failed on three of its four chances. Still, the game doesn’t count, so why worry?

Here’s why. A roster of Kraken regulars Saturday couldn’t improve on last year’s abysmal PK, 2nd worst in the league in 2025-26. Think about it this way. Seattle allowed the opposition to score on 27.8% of their extra-man chances. In the entire NHL, only the Oilers (30.6%) and Stars (28.6%) had a better power play percentage.

Seattle proved it can’t win enough games while making all the other teams feel like they have Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Dallas’s Wyatt Johnson as part of their PP unit.

If Kraken coaches didn’t create sufficiently more effective penalty killing schemes this past summer, then uh-oh. If they did, but the players don’t execute those schemes, then double uh-oh. Kraken coach Lane Lambert addressed his team’s shorthanded performances at length this week. Decide for yourself how much comfort his words provide.

New Kraken In New Shorthanded Places

Kraken, Lambert

“Certainly, we have a system and a structure in place that has to be followed. Things happen fast. If you make a mistake 5-on-5, it has less of a chance of getting in your net as you do when it’s 4-on-5.

“There isn’t a lot of room or space or time needed on the power play to make you pay. So there’s got to be an intelligence level there.

“We’ve got some forwards that we’ve lost over the course of the offseason (Jaden Schwartz, Eeli Tolvanen). We’re trying to integrate guys.

“We had some different combinations here and we’re working with guys sort of on the fly to get into penalty killing mode.

“Bobby (McMann) hasn’t killed a lot in his career, but we can have guys like that that have speed and can get to pucks a little quicker. You’re also looking at trying to have everyone have a role. If you get 10 minutes of penalties, you can’t have the same four guys out there all night, they do wear down.

“I felt like we ran into that last year. We know our penalty killing wasn’t up to standard. We need it to be better and it starts right from the goaltender on out.”

There’s a learning curve for players new to PK roles, no question. But the players they’re replacing (including defenseman Jamie Oleksiak) contributed to the NHL’s 2nd-worst PK. So replacements need to be better, and soon, right?

Shorter Kraken Training Camp Didn’t Help

This year’s truncated training camp, and the restriction that veterans could appear in no more than two preseason games, has complicated introducing new players and new PK systems.

“It’s a short training camp. If we had another 10 days… our DNA is our structure and our detail. That’s what practice is for, making sure that we’re in the right spots, right areas. But we have also allowed our players this training camp, because we’re playing in such a short period of time. to play a lot more five-on-five hockey and more offensive situations. ”

Let’s hope PK drills and whiteboard talk didn’t get slashed as part of the time-budget cuts. Because as the Kraken proved Saturday, penalty killing malpractice can ruin all the good achieved during the rest of the game.

“I think some of that stuff is going to be a work in progress. Other teams are going to be similar in that situation. 5-on-5-wise, I think we’re doing some good things. Offensively, we’re doing some good things. Power play, we took advantage of our opportunities. Penalty kill was pretty good up until the other night.”