In the medical community, it’s called “Terminal Lucidity” – the phenomenon of a person in hospice care exhibiting a brief (and misleading) surge of energy.
The Seattle Kraken demonstrated those misleading signs of life Saturday in Buffalo, rallying for six straight goals in a confidence-restoring 6-2 victory over the Sabres.
Sadly, said patients usually flatline soon after, shattering the renewed, unrealistic hopes of loved ones. So it was with the Kraken 24 hours later, in a confidence-destroying 6-2 loss Sunday in Detroit. The Red Wings pronounced time of death at 7:53 of the 1st period, the moment they scored for the fourth time on six shots. “Too easy,” concluded medical examiner, er, TV voice John Forslund.
This game overflowed with Seattle mistakes. We’ll focus only on the 3rd and 4th Detroit goals. This is a gift of mercy, not because the identified culprits were any more responsible than their teammates for the Motown Meltdown.

Inside the red rectangle is the stick of Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson. His twig has just made contact with the head of Wings forward Jonatan Berggren. A quality blueliner closing in on 900 NHL games, Larsson knows better than to have his stick in this position, especially in the Kraken offensive zone. Larsson goes to the box for high sticking.

On the Red Wings power play, Alex DeBrincat, a veteran goal scorer, blasts a perfectly placed shot past Kraken goalie (but for only a moment longer in this game) Philipp Grubauer. Still, this Alex isn’t Ovechkin, so with no screen and needing a big stop, you’d like a seemingly set Grubauer – whose positioning does appear suspect – to make the save here.
Unfair to the goalie, in a game the skaters made so many poor decisions? Moneypuck doesn’t think so. By their metrics, the three goals Grubauer allowed were 2.42 more than he should have.

What’s wrong with this picture occurs entirely within the red rectangle. Larsson, Shane Wright, and Eeli Tolvanen converge on Red Wings puck carrier Andrew Copp. In junior high school, coaches used to refer to this as “cattle soccer” coverage. As in, everyone crowds around the ball, or in this case, the puck. As DJLR’s Sky On Air wrote in the game recap, “a total Hindenburgian effort on the backcheck.”

The problem is that this leaves no one left to cover Patrick Kane (88), who’s scored 480 NHL goals. No, make that 481. Newly inserted Kraken goalie Joey Daccord, forced to cover passer Erik Gustafsson, doesn’t have a chance. He might not be in the same zip code.
For a Detroit franchise that has played 6,848 regular season games over the last 98 years, you don’t need all the fingers on both hands to count the times they’d scored four goals before eight minutes had clicked off the clock.
To ask the season-long question that even the team has no answers for, what’s wrong with the Kraken? Lack of talent? Lack of effort? Lack of focus? Lack of discipline? All of the above? Something else? While the reasons for Seattle’s dreadful results may be a combination of factors, one common denominator is clear from Sunday’s postgame comments.
- “We weren’t ready.” – forward Jaden Schwartz
- “We didn’t look ready, we weren’t ready.” – defenseman Adam Larsson
- “It wasn’t a good enough start for our team.” – coach Dan Bylsma
Poor starts have become a recurring theme. Of the 13 Kraken games since Dec. 14, Seattle has held a lead at the end of the 1st period exactly once, Dec. 30 at home vs. Utah. Six times the score was tied and six times they trailed. Their record in that stretch is 3-9-1. Assistant coach Bob Woods confirmed in a KHN interview, “It’s frustrating for everybody in there.”
For everyone out here, too.