NHL

SEATTLE – If you’re one of the least popular kids in school, you’re not going to win a student-body election with a nice speech. That fresh haircut probably won’t do much either — nor will that crisp new outfit.

SEATTLE – The 2025-26 Kraken will officially miss the playoffs.

SEATTLE – After falling to the lowly Blackhawks for their fourth consecutive loss, a 4-2 home flop amid familiarly fading playoff hopes, defenseman Brandon Montour admitted Saturday that the Kraken came out “flat.” Minutes later, coach Lane Lambert was asked how he wraps his head around that statement, considering the stakes.

SEATTLE – The Kraken ended an era Wednesday afternoon, letting go of the man who built the expansion team. In what was described as a mutual decision, Ron Francis will step down as president of hockey operations when the 2025-26 season ends next week.

The Winnipeg Jets scored on each of the game’s three power plays and went on to rout the spiraling Kraken on Monday night.

The Kraken have still never beaten the Tampa Bay Lightning in regulation, but that was the last thing on anyone’s minds Thursday.

The Kraken fell behind the Florida Panthers by three goals with less than eight minutes left in Tuesday’s game and managed to come all the way back to tie it. Matty Beniers got the ball rolling, then Jordan Eberle and Bobby McMann scored on breakaways 14 seconds apart.

SEATTLE – I keep coming back to something Ron Francis said on April 29, 2024, the day he fired former Seattle Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. Seattle’s then-general manager and current president of hockey operations stood in a corner of the Kraken Community Iceplex, outside the locker room, and fielded the kind of questions that beckon when the bottom falls out.

The feel-good story of Thursday night’s game in St. Louis belonged to the home team. Blues forward Dylan Holloway scored a hat trick in his return after missing 23 of 24 games with a high-ankle sprain, and his St. Louis team handed the Kraken back-to-back losses coming out of the Olympic break.

MILAN – In the hours leading up to Sunday’s gold -medal game, Columbus Blue Jackets captain Zach Werenski and Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin came up with the idea.

MILAN – A “Miracle On Ice,” it certainly was not.

He’s only a few months into it, but so far, Derek Ryan is hitting the familiar markers of retirement.

Every Seattle Kraken player and coach not selected for a 2026 Olympic squad got a needed break from the six-and-a-half-month NHL regular season last week. Winger Jared McCann and coach Lane Lambert, among others, used the time to head somewhere warm and golf.

It wasn’t the victory the city of Seattle really wanted on Sunday, but not a bad start.

Philipp Grubauer made 27 stops and turned away a penalty shot but the Kraken couldn’t kick their bad tendencies in a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

The Kraken got back into the win column with Wednesday’s choppy 4-1 home victory over the New York Islanders.

One two-goal deficit is no problem for these Seattle Kraken.

The Kraken’s streaky winter continues.

The Kraken could only shake a single standings point out of the slumping New Jersey Devils, falling 3-2 in overtime at Prudential Center on Wednesday night. Seattle is 1-1-1 so far on a five-game road trip.