After a dreadful start to the season, the Seattle Kraken will try to continue their turnaround following the holiday break with a road clash against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.
Instead of building on last season’s first-round victory over the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Kraken struggled for two full months, but headed into the break on a 4-0-2 run following Saturday’s 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
“We’ve played very consistently,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “Our guys are playing hard regardless of what our lineup may or may not look like. Whoever is available is going out and doing the job, working hard together. We’ve put a good string together here … we will quickly get back on the gas pedal (in Calgary).”
The Kraken went winless in eight games prior to this current spree. Among the keys has been the goaltending of Joey Daccord, who has surrendered more than two goals only once in his last seven starts, and the reemergence of center Matty Beniers. Last season’s NHL Rookie of the Year has been in a sophomore slump but has netted one goal and five points in the last three games.
Another key has been the arrival of forward Tomas Tatar. Acquired from the Avalanche on Dec. 15 for a 2024 fifth-round draft choice, he has netted two goals and four points in four games since the swap.
“It feels great to have that opportunity. Hockey feels fun again,” Tatar said. “Looks like me, Matty and (Jordan Eberle) are building some chemistry, and I’m having a lot of fun.”
The Flames sit tied with the Kraken in the Western Conference and Pacific Division standings and have one game in hand on Seattle. They are back in action after seeing their season-best three-game winning streak snapped by a 5-3 loss to the host Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
The loss concluded a difficult 15-game stretch of games, 10 against teams holding playoff positions and four of the others versus squads right in the mix for wild-card spots. During that 15-game gauntlet, the Flames posted a 7-6-2 mark.
“When you look at our team and the way they play the games, they’re never out of a game,” coach Ryan Huska said. “They always stick around and they always fight back in those games. They can compete with the best teams. … We had a three-game winning streak, but now we need to string more than that together.”
Calgary boasts an 8-1-0 all-time record against the Kraken, with victories in two meetings already this season, both games played in Seattle.
The Flames head into the clash happy to see success on both sides of their special teams play. For the first time in more than six weeks, Calgary has scored a power-play goal in successive games, while the penalty killers have become an offensive threat.
The Flames lead the league with nine short-handed goals, four off Blake Coleman’s stick. He also scored the lone man-advantage marker against the Kings.
Now the question is whether the Flames can be a team capable of climbing into the playoff mix.
“We’ve got to keep pushing ourselves,” captain Mikael Backlund said. “No one here is satisfied. Twice or three times we’ve been .500 and the next game, we’ve lost every time. We haven’t gotten over .500 yet since the first few games. It’s time we take that step and push ourselves into a better spot.”
–Field Level Media
