Seattle Kraken return to ice after All-Star weekend
The Kraken will return to the ice Wednesday for the first time since the All-Star break, facing the Arizona Coyotes at Climate Pledge Arena.
As the second half of the season begins, Seattle will look to turn around a mostly underwhelming season. The Kraken (15-27-4) have 34 points and are in last place the Pacific Division, where they’ve spent most of the season. Only Arizona (26) and Montreal (23) have fewer points on the year.
“Four days off, you get out and knock as much rust off as possible,” head coach Dave Hakstol told reporters after Tuesday’s practice. “We got up and down the rink as much as we could. We didn’t stop and talk a lot. We just wanted to get out and get up and down the rink as much as we could, handle the puck and get feeling good.
“We got to dial in on some of the details tomorrow morning. We’ll do that before morning skate and use morning skate again and just like everybody else, we back after it tomorrow night.”
Heading into the break, Seattle had lost three of its last five games. But the Kraken started to perform more consistently in recent games, which was something Hakstol noted Tuesday.
“We had a couple of disappointing losses on that road trip, couple of losses late. We were certainly deserving of the two wins we did get — the bookend wins on that road trip,” Hakstol said.
“That’s just a continuation of the last few. weeks. We’ve had guys dialed in pretty well. Our game is pretty simple. We’ve checked well. Everybody’s just doing a lot of the little things that give us opportunities to be in games that all along we felt we should be in.”
Forward Jordan Eberle said he hoped the team has started to “create a little bit of an identity.”
“Understanding what we were doing to make us win,” Eberle said. “We were competing. We were playing good defensively and we were creating offensive out of our good D-zone.”
Injury updates
Hakstol offered several updates to reporters after practice.
▪ Defensemen Jamie Oleksiak and Carson Soucy, who had been sidelined by lower body injuries before the break, both skated before practice. “It’s getting closer,” Hakstol said. “Both are in that day-to-day range. We’ll get things reevaluated again (Wednesday) after having skated after the break.”
▪ Defenseman Will Borgen is out of COVID-19 protocol.
▪ While forward Jaden Schwartz has been on the ice, Hakstol said he’s still not ready to return to practice after undergoing surgery. “Good press,” Hakstol said. “He’ll be reevaluated again his week. We’re hoping to see good progress on his injury.”
Eberle returns from All-Star game appearance
Eberle was the franchise’s first representative in the All-Star game. He scored a breakaway goal for the Pacific Division in Saturday’s game against the Metro Division. The Pacific Division eventually lost the game, 6-4.
“Being the first Kraken All-Star, I really wanted to get a goal just to say that we had one, too,” Eberle said. “I’m really glad that that happened.”
Eberle said the best part of the event was having his family join him in Las Vegas.
“My little girl, got to bring her on the bench and enjoy the game,” Eberle said. “She probably won’t remember it, but I’ll remember it. Get pictures. That’s always fun whenever guys have their kids around and you can share with them.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Seattle Kraken return to ice after All-Star weekend."
