Kraken Reunite Last Year’s Top Line Ahead of Weekend Road Swing
SEATTLE, Wash - Lane Lambert is shaking things up a bit.
Following Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks, the Seattle Kraken returned to practice on Thursday with a higher pace and intensity, and also with some shuffling on the forward lines:
#Kraken Practice Lines 11/6
Schwartz-Beniers-Kakko
Catton-Stephenson-Eberle
Marchment-Wright-Winterton
Kartye-Meyers-Tolvanen
Nyman
Dunn-Larsson
Lindgren-Montour
Mahura-Oleksiak
Evans-Fleury
Daccord
Grubauer
Murray— Joe Pohoryles (@Joe_Poho) November 6, 2025
Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers and Kaapo Kakko were reunited as a line on Thursday after playing over 450 total minutes together at 5-on-5 last season. The trio had a 53.47 Corsi For Percentage and out-chanced opponents 216-201 at 5-on-5 last season, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Their familiarity and proven production pushed Lambert towards bringing them back together, especially after an overall lackluster performance by the team against the Sharks on Wednesday.
“I think they do have a little bit of a history, right?” Lambert said. “And we are challenged to score goals at the moment, so we’ve got to– you know, I like to keep lines pretty consistent, but when you’re not scoring, you have to make some changes.”
The Kraken fell behind 1-0 just 1:08 into the game on Wednesday, with young Sharks star Macklin Celebrini pushing his team ahead, before Ryan Winterton tied it with his first NHL goal at 16:30.
San Jose pulled back ahead just over two minutes later, and after extending the lead to 3-1 with a power-play goal midway through the second period, scored three goals in the first 3:54 of the third period as the wheels fell off for Seattle.
Joey Daccord got rocked with five goals on 20 shots, and was replaced by Matt Murray following Ty Dellandrea’s short-handed goal for San Jose that made it 5-1 at 3:24 of the third period. Murray allowed the final goal on the first shot he faced, a breakaway from Tyler Toffoli out of the penalty box just 30 seconds after the fifth goal to secure a 6-1 final.
“Honestly, the biggest thing last night was we got away from our game and played into San Jose’s game, which is run-and-gun, turnover hockey,” Beniers told the Emerald City Spectrum on Thursday. “That’s not the way we play and we know that. So it could be a good thing, little wake-up call showing us (that) if we don’t play the right way all the time, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Seattle will aim to regroup with a road back-to-back against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday and the Dallas Stars on Sunday. The Kraken lost both legs of their first back-to-back set this season — a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on October 20 followed by a 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on October 21 — and the team is 0-13-0 in the second game of back-to-backs since last season.
Like Beniers said, the team hopes to use Wednesday’s game as a chance to learn and propel them into the weekend slate. Expected to be back with Schwartz and Kakko again, Beniers said it felt natural getting back in the swing of things since they already know each other’s games and how they like to play.
Beniers cited Schwartz as an “elite” wall player, and touted Kakko’s overall skill. Schwartz echoed the excitement of playing alongside the two younger forwards again, but acknowledged the need to put in the work necessary to rebound this weekend.
“I think just, well, reading off each other, supporting each other, making the right reads,” Schwartz said about the basis of their past production as a line. “Being strong on pucks. Both guys are good defensively, strong sticks. Smart players, so excited to get going again with them and then start building that chemistry again.”
No Change in Goaltender Situation
Daccord’s sharp play in the crease is a significant reason why the Kraken have played close games and pulled out results in situations where they didn’t produce much offensively, but he couldn’t save them on Wednesday.
Murray entered game action for the first time since Seattle’s loss to the Capitals on October 21, meanwhile Philipp Grubauer has not seen the ice since relieving Daccord for the third period of Seattle’s 5-2 loss to the Flyers on October 20.
Despite Daccord flaming out during his sixth consecutive start on Wednesday — albeit in large part due to the caliber of play in front of him — Lambert said he has no plans to reevaluate Daccord’s workload, and consequentially, Grubauer’s or Murray’s either.
“That didn’t make me reevaluate anything,” Lambert said. “I thought as a team, as a whole, I thought we could have played a better game. I think our players agree with that, and so there’s a couple of things about that game last night. It’s what do you take from it, what lessons are learned from it, and how do you respond and rebound from it?”
As is typical with back-to-backs, one of the two backups should be expected to start a game this weekend. Despite both backups putting extra focus on getting quality reps during practice time, it’s fair to wonder if either Grubauer or Murray will be sharp enough to efficiently protect the net this weekend — and as a result, if it makes sense to split an already limited amount of reps between two goalies when Daccord is getting the vast majority of playing time.
For now, Lambert has made it clear the team will keep it ‘status quo’ in the crease.
Injury Updates
Ryker Evans logged a full practice on Thursday, and the 23-year-old defenseman appears to be reaching full health after missing the start of the season with an upper-body injury.
Evans remains on injured reserve, listed as day-to-day, but Lambert confirmed he will travel with the team this weekend.
Based on how the organization handled Kakko’s return — leaving him on injured reserve until the last minute despite seeing him log multiple full practices in a row — it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Evans make his season debut this weekend.
“I thought he looked good today,” Lambert said. “So I’d say he’s getting really close.”
Jared McCann, on the other hand, remains out with a lower-body injury. Lambert listed him as “day-to-day,” but also said that he’s “not close yet.”
Lane Lambert says Ryker Evans (upper body) is still on IR but will travel with the team on their road back-to-back this weekend: “I thought he looked good today, so I would say he’s getting really close.”
McCann (lower body) is day-to-day, but he’s “not close yet.”#Kraken— Joe Pohoryles (@Joe_Poho) November 6, 2025
