The Seattle Kraken gave themselves enough at even strength and on the power play in Saturday’s preseason finale against the Vancouver Canucks. They still walked away with a 4-3 loss, and the reason was hard to miss: the penalty kill fell apart.
At 5-on-5, Seattle actually outscored Vancouver 2-1. The Kraken also added a power-play goal. None of that mattered much once the Canucks kept cashing in on the man advantage, with Seattle failing on three of its four shorthanded chances.
The game doesn’t count, but the concern does. A roster full of regulars didn’t show any real improvement from last season’s penalty kill, which finished second worst in the league in 2025-26. Seattle allowed opponents to score on 27.8% of their power plays, and only the Oilers at 30.6% and the Stars at 28.6% were worse in that department.
That kind of number makes life brutal for a team trying to stay afloat. The Kraken can’t keep giving opponents power-play looks that feel like they come with Connor McDavid or Wyatt Johnson on the ice every time.
If the coaching staff didn’t overhaul the penalty kill over the summer, that’s a problem. If it did, but the players can’t execute it, that’s another one entirely. Lane Lambert spent time this week addressing the issue, and he made clear there’s more to it than just effort.
“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 some logic to the adjustment period. New faces need time to learn new responsibilities, and players who aren’t used to PK work have to get comfortable in a hurry. But the players stepping in are replacing a group that already helped produce that ugly finish near the bottom of the league, so the bar is not exactly high.
The short training camp hasn’t made any of this easier. Veterans were limited to no more than two preseason games, which cut down on the time available to blend in new players and install new penalty-kill concepts.
“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.
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That leaves the Kraken with a clear task. The 5-on-5 play has been solid, the offense has done some good things, and the power play took advantage of its chances. But unless the penalty kill catches up fast, the good work elsewhere won’t matter much.
“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.”
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