Kraken Will Be Playoff Positioned On Thanksgiving 

It was somebody other than Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour who deduced years ago that NHL teams in a playoff position by American Thanksgiving the past two decades have a 77% chance of also being in one come season’s end.

Montour certainly wasn’t referencing any holidays now that the Kraken, courtesy of three more points from weekend overtime games, guaranteed they’ll be in a playoff spot come Thursday’s turkey break. Instead, his takeaway from what the Kraken have accomplished a quarter of the way through their season is they’ve gotten pretty good at this whole playing close games thing.

“We’re not out of it until we’re done,” Montour said after his team officially passed the quarter pole with a Saturday night overtime win in Pittsburgh. “I mean, we’ve shown that in, I don’t know how many overtimes. We’d like to kind of clean that up a little bit so we’re not dealing with that every time. But we are obviously a team that battles to the end.”

With a record of 11-5-6, the Kraken are on pace to surpass a bunch of team and even league records. Most important among those, their 104-point pace would surpass the team mark of 101 from their lone playoff campaign three seasons ago.

Typically, a Western Conference team has needed anywhere from 95-to-98 points to reach the postseason over the first four years of Kraken existence. And that means the Kraken have cushion to withstand whatever lies immediately ahead, including a formidable Dallas Stars team they haven’t beaten in nearly three years coming in for a Wednesday night clash at Climate Pledge Arena, followed by consecutive home-and-away games against two-time defending conference champion Edmonton.

Overtime has certainly played a huge factor for the Kraken, now tied with Edmonton for the league lead at 10 such games beyond regulation and having played two fewer matchups. At their current pace, just one shy of their total from last season, the Kraken would finish with 38 overtime contests and shatter the NHL record of 30 by the 2003-04 Boston Bruins.

But those overtime games, while taxing on the team itself, have been huge in the standings. The Kraken have accumulated half their 28 total points by extending games beyond regulation, just two shy of the 16 they notched from playing 11 overtime contests all of last season.

Those games were obviously one-goal affairs, as have been three other Kraken results decided in regulation. That means the Kraken are nearly halfway towards the 28 one-goal games played all last season, deciding 59% of their contests thus far in such fashion.

Which is exactly what Montour meant by the Kraken getting good at sticking in close games and never being out of it until the final horn sounds.

Of course, Montour and his defensive group, including goalies Joey Daccord, Philipp Grubauer and Matt Murray, have helped tremendously. The Kraken entered Tuesday, allowing the NHL’s second-fewest goals against at 2.55.

But 16 of the team’s 59 goals allowed have come in just three games. That means, the remaining 19 contests played have seen them allow an average of just 2.2 goals – a huge reason they are 11-3-5 over that span.

It's also why the Kraken remain in a playoff position despite the NHL’s fourth-worst offence at just 2.59 goals scored per game. Their 24.1 shots per contest is also the worst in the entire league, and something head coach Lane Lambert wants his team to do more of.

“It’s a common theme right now – shot volume, or lack thereof,” Lambert said after Sunday’s shootout loss on Long Island. “We passed up too many shots again. So, at some point, we have to figure this out.”

Lambert added, “I think we’re looking for something better (in terms of shot quality) and I don’t understand why. They’ve got to shoot the puck. It’s the only way you can score goals. And I’ve said it over and over again.”

For now, that means the defense hasn’t yet rested for a Kraken team scraping out wins by the slimmest of margins. Their team's save percentage of .908 is fourth best in the league, with Daccord at .909 in 14 appearances, Grubauer at .912 over six and the injured Murray at .922 in five matchups.

“They were really good,” Lambert said of active goalies Daccord and Grubauer on the recent 2-1-1 road swing. “They’re the reason we went the way we went on the trip. But at the same time, our guys battled in front of them, blocked a lot of shots.”

And they’ll need to keep on doing that while the Kraken await offensive improvement. They do have hopes for upgrades in that realm, given Jared McCann appears nearly recovered from a lower-body injury that’s kept him out for five weeks and could be back in action this homestand.

Kaapo Kakko is also expected back at some point in the near future, giving the Kraken extra firepower they’ve missed most of the season. Not to mention, Mason Marchment, who scored 22 goals each of his past two seasons with Dallas, finally snapped a 19-game scoreless drought with his second of this campaign against the Penguins on Saturday night.

“When you come to a new team, it might take some adjustment with everything,” Montour said of Marchment, his former teammate with the Florida Panthers. “The surroundings, teammates, players, linemates, little things like that. But the player, he’s likely to keep doing his thing. Keep working at what he knows he’s good at, and the rest will take care of itself.”

Just as the Kraken will look to keep winning these tight contests in hopes their season-ending record, regardless of its favourable Thanksgiving standing, takes care of itself the way it has for so many other similarly positioned teams before them.