Seattle SPORTs Now

When a player is benched – the polite term the National Hockey League uses is `healthy scratch’- said player can react in two ways when he returns to the lineup. He can continue making the plays that earned him a seat on the pines, or can he `up’ his game. Shane Wright, the number-four pick in the 2022 NHL amateur draft (many had him as the first overall pick), responded with the latter. Wright, a healthy scratch for three games, scored the first Seattle Kraken goal of the night in his return, and then earned an assist on Brandon Montour’s game winner as Seattle defeated the Anaheim Ducks, 3-1, last night at the Honda Center. Seattle improves its record to 11-10-1 on the season. Anaheim drops to 8-9-3. Last night marked the first of four games between the Kraken and the two bottom feeders of the Pacific Division and the Western Conference- the Ducks and San Jose Sharks (both in home-and-home series). The Kraken are now four points ahead of the seventh-place Ducks, but a regulation ...

  After a successful homestand that saw the Seattle Kraken take four out of five games, the Kraken dropped a 2-1 decision to the Los Angeles Kings yesterday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center). Following a slow start, the Kraken had a solid third period with Brandon Montour scoring his sixth goal of the season on his usual howitzer-like slapshot from the point with less than two minutes left in the game. But it was too little, too late as the Kings improve their record to 11-7-3 while the Kraken drop to 10-10-1. The goal came after the Kings had successfully killed a penalty to defenseman Brandt Clark. However, the Kraken offense came alive with a Montour shot from close-in hitting the top crossbar. Seattle gets off to slow start against Kings. The Kings had the first 14 scoring chances of the game, although they were credited with only four shots on goal in the period. The person counting the shots did seem a bit stingy. The Kraken were credited with only...

  For the Seattle Kraken all good things came to an end last night as the team’s four-game winning streak came ended with a 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers at Climate Pledge Arena. Ranger netminder Jonathan Quick stopped 24 shots to earn the shutout victory. The 38-year-old netminder also shutout the Detroit Red Wings in his previous start (Nov. 7). The Kraken drop to 9-9-1 on the season. ``We played them nose-to-nose and forced their goalie to make some great saves,” said Kraken coach Dan Bylsma. ``Maybe after the second goal went in, there was a little dip. But the guys responded on the bench with the mindset of getting back out there and getting two.” The teams played even hockey for most of two periods but Alexis LaFreniere put the Rangers (who are 11-4-1 overall) on the scoreboard at 17:30 of the second period off a pass from his All-Star linemate Artemi Panarin. The Kraken also had their best scoring chance in the latter stages of the second period. Brandon Tanev, ...

  The Seattle Kraken made it three in a row last night at Climate Pledge Arena with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. The wins come after four consecutive road losses as the Kraken improve their record to 8-8-1 on the season. Jaden Schultz scored what proved to be the game-winner, Seattle’s second goal of the game in the third period. It was a milestone score for Schultz – the 200 th of his NHL career. The goal came off a pass from Schultz’s childhood friend, Chandler Stephenson, who centered a pass as he sped down the left wing. Defenseman Ryker Evans also assisted on the score. ``It’s a cool milestone,” said Schwartz, after the game. “It's not something you really think about on a day-to-day basis. But certainly, it's fun to chip in and help the team.’’ Kraken coach Dan Bylsma played Nostradamus noting. “I thought there was no doubt he was going to score tonight. He had three chances in the second [period], not counting the one timer that was blocke...

  Falling behind 2-0 in the first period every night isn’t a recipe for success, but in their current homestand that’s been a winning formula for the Seattle Kraken. Last night at Climate Pledge Arena, the Kraken’s opening period against the Columbus Blue Jackets was a replay of the Kraken’s Friday night game with the Vegas Golden Knights. Seattle again trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes, with a lethargic performance against the Blue Jackets who came into the contest winless in their last five games. However, thanks to an explosive second period that saw the Kraken score four times – including two goals ten seconds apart – Seattle went on to post a 5-2 victory improving its record to 7-8-1 on the season. Five different players recorded goals for the Kraken and ten different players entered the scoring column. ``There were no surprises about the way Columbus was going to play,” said Kraken coach Dan Bylsma. “They were a desperate team and they came out really well, but we should hav...

    If success has many fathers, then an exciting victory can have many stars. In the Seattle Kraken’s 4-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights last night at Climate Pledge Arena, Jared McCann, Brandon Tanev and Joey Daccord were selected the three stars of the game. Those choices made sense as McCann scored the overtime game winner; Tanev jumped started the offense with two goals and Daccord turned in another sterling performance as he stopped 21 shots, some of the quality variety, including a sprawling stop on Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev with 4:43 remaining. But what about Oliver Bjorkstrand, who scored what looked like a possible game winning goal at 2:58 of the third period after intercepting a clearing pass and driving to the net? Then there was Tye Kartye, who set up Tanev for the tying goal in the second period. Ironically, both players were healthy scratches in the Kraken’s loss to Colorado on Tuesday night. And the save of the game may not have been by Daccord but fro...

  After two plus games without a goal, the Seattle Kraken finally entered the scoring column last night against the Colorado Avalanche. Unfortunately for the Kraken, the hometown team lit the lamp six times and went on to post a 6-3 victory at Ball Arena. The Kraken fall to 5-8-1 on the season, losers of their last four games. Seattle also finishes its latest road trip at 1-4, dropping four consecutive games after thrashing the Montreal Canadiens, 8-2, last week. Kraken coach Dan Byslma tweaked his lineup before the game, inserting John Hayden, a healthy scratch the previous two games, and Ryan Winterton, recalled from Coachella Valley. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Tye Kartye sat on the pines for the Kraken. Bylsma said he wanted to put more `bite’ and `compete’ in the lineup. ``In each one of the games we played, you could point to not being able to consistently play our game and compete at the level we need to compete at to win hockey games for 60 minutes,” said Bylsma. ``This game...

  For the Seattle Kraken, the takeaway from this weekend’s back-to-back road games with the Ottawa Senators and the Boston Bruins is this- things can’t get any worse. The Kraken bottomed out, not only losing two games but scoring nary a goal. The Senators defeated Seattle on Saturday night, 3-0, and yesterday afternoon the Bruins welcomed the Kraken to TD Garden with a 2-0 win. Ironically, Seattle opened its recent five-game road trip to Northeast Canada and the US with an 8-2 thrashing of the Montreal Canadiens. But the Kraken have now lost three straight – six of their last seven- and drop to 5-7-2 on the season. Maybe it was the quick turnover- a night game followed by an afternoon tilt in two different cities- but the Kraken didn’t come alive until the third period. The Bruins held a 15-3 shot advantage in the first period and 30-10 after two stanzas. The game was more lopsided than the final score indicated and the Kraken star of the game was netminder Joey Daccord. Th...

  After scoring a season-high eight goals against the Montreal Canadiens earlier in the week the Seattle Kraken could only muster one goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs – that coming with four minutes remaining in the game – dropping a 4-1 decision last night at Scotiabank Arena. The contest was the second of a five-game road trip for the Kraken who fall to 5-5-1 on the season. Seattle was without the services of its top offensive defensemen – Brandon Montour and Vince Dunn. Montour, who recorded a hat trick against the Canadiens, left the team to join his wife for the birth of their second child. Dunn, who’s on the long-term injured reserved list with an upper-body injury (believed to be a cranky shoulder which has bothered him since last season), is tentatively listed to return on Oct. 12. ``It sucks to have big names and a big part of our team out of the lineup,” said Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen who recorded the only Seattle goal, his fourth of the season. ``But in the ...