Seattle SPORTs Now

  While it might still be a little early in the season to talk about `must win’ games, the Seattle Kraken went into last night’s game at Climate Pledge Arena trailing the St. Louis Blues by one point in the suddenly tight Western Conference playoff race. For the Kraken it was a night of coulda, shoulda, woulda. Seattle dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Blues- a game they could have and should have won. Thanks to a solid second period, the Kraken took a 3-1 lead late into the second. But the visitors responded with three consecutive goals – including the tying (third period) and winning (overtime) goals off the stick of Blues’ forward Pavel Buchnevich. “That was a tough point to lose,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. “We would have liked to have capitalized on one or two opportunities that we had that maybe would have changed the game.” While St. Louis took an early 1-0 lead on Oskar Lundquist’s power-play goal, the Kraken tied the contest on Brian Dumoulin’s slapper (E...

  If one sequence encapsulated a hockey game, it occurred less than three minutes into the third period of last night’s game between the Seattle Kraken and the Chicago Blackhawks at Climate Pledge Arena. Nick Foligno’s power-play goal 39 seconds into the third period cut the Kraken margin to 4-2. Another quick goal would surely swing the momentum to a faltering Blackhawk team which has even more injuries than the Kraken. It looked like it was about to happen when Chicago’s Rem Pitlick took the puck away from Jordan Eberle at the red line. Pitlick sent a lead pass to Ryan Donato on a 2-on-0 breakaway. Kraken fans know Donato’s proficiency in these situations – he scored 30 goals in two years with Seattle. But Joey Daccord, who turned the Kraken’s season around in December when he spearheaded an eight-game winning streak, donned the Superman tights once again. Donato switched to the backhand at the last second, but Daccord sprawled to make the save. But the play wasn’t over yet...

The Seattle Kraken continued their `streaky’ ways with a 3-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs last night at Climate Pledge Arena. It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Kraken, playing their first home game since Jan. 4 after completing a six-game road trip. Previously, Seattle had gone 12 games with at least one standings point and prior to that run, had gone eight games without a victory. “There were a couple of turning points in the game,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. “We had a couple of power play advantages in the first period. If we could have taken advantage of one that could have changed the momentum. Then there second goal came after a penalty kill. (Toronto) came out of the penalty box and made a play.” The Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews opened the scoring and showed why he’s the leading goal scorer (38 goals) in the NHL. He took a centering pass from Mitch Marner but looked like he didn’t have control of the puck. But Mathews was still able to backhand the puck as ...

                                                  Farewell To Pete Carroll The Seattle Seahawks made longtime coach Pete Carroll a `special advisor’ two days after the 72-year-old Carroll announced he had no plans to leave coaching. Kudos to Channel 7, which accurately posted a cutline under a Carroll interview which read accurately ‘Carroll Fired.’ Seattle nation- `the 12’s’- registered their displeasure on social media. Well, some of them did. After all, Carroll’s the winningest coach in team history, including two Super Bowl appearances. But it was a different story 23 years ago when the New England Patriots announced they were relieving Carroll of his duties after three seasons with the team. Ironically, Carroll’s 27-21 mark as Pats’ head coach was the second-best winning percentage in the team’s history behind guess who? - Bill Belichick. But author J...

Pre-season games, especially early ones, are more about individual performances than they are about the final score. The Seattle Kraken dropped a 6-1 decision to the Calgary Flames last night at Climate Pledge Arena - really a Flames' rookie team- but there were still some bright spots as the Kraken begin a new era under new head coach Dan Bylsma.   The Kraken had their share of rookies on the ice in their first pre-season tilts, including the two top picks from the 2024 amateur draft - number-one pick Berkly Catton and number-two selection Nathan Villeneuve. Both made their presence felt in the game.   First the positive. Villeneuve, who played for the Sudbury Wolves a season ago, recorded the Kraken's only goal in the second period. He took a pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand stationed along the right wing boards, and snapped a shot past Calgary netminder Dustin Wolf, a former American Hockey League Most Valuable Player. Wolf, a former Everitt Silvertip, stopped 33 of 3...

  It’s been a quiet season for veteran Seattle Kraken forward Jordan Eberle with only one goal and five assists in the first 18 games of the season. But there’s something about facing the Vancouver Canucks. With a goal and two assists, Eberle led the Kraken to a 4-3 victory over the Canucks last night at Rogers Arena. Eberle, who began his NHL career with the Edmonton Oilers back in 2010, now has 24 goals in his career against the Canucks, the most of any active National Hockey League player. With the victory, the Kraken improve to 7-8-4. Vancouver’s 12-5-1 and last night’s loss marked the Canucks’ first regulation loss on home ice this season. It was Eberle’s assist that accounted for the game winner. After defenseman Jamie Oleksiak dumped the puck into the left corner, Eberle intercepted a clearing pass by Canuck defenseman Tyler Myers (another Kraken nemesis) and centered a pass to Matty Beniers in the slot, who sent home his third goal of the season. “We’ve been in almo...

By Raymond V. Murphy There were moments in the last two Seattle Kraken games where it appeared that the Kraken had rightened the ship and were playing the type of hockey that propelled the team to the second round of last season’s Stanley Cup playoffs. However, there were no 60 minute (or more) efforts as Seattle could only muster one standings point in the two games. The Kraken, looked to be headed for a road victory over the Edmonton Oilers last night at Rogers’ Center, boasting a 3-1 lead with seven minutes remaining in the contest. But then Edmonton’s Evander Kane, the proverbial thorn in the Kraken’s side in previous games, went to work. The veteran winger scored three consecutive goals, notching the game winner at 2:57 of the overtime frame. “This one’s gonna sting,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. “We’ve got to turn the page and get ready to go (tonight).” The Kraken were actually 46 seconds away from a victory, and Kane’s game-tyer provid...