KRAKEN WEEKLY: Change could be coming, but how much? (4/24)

Mike Benton is joined by Everett Fitzhugh and Al Kinisky on the Apr. 24 season finale of Kraken Weekly at 32 Bar and Grill.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Recorded nowhere else but right from hereat thirty two Bar and Grill. A
big thank you dude to Ken Moriartyfor taking care of us all the time.
And we just finished our meal.We're full the hockey season. We're
full. Now time to digest allof this mailbag segment, pull question as
well coming up by the way beforewe get to Everett and Now. You
can find this podcast at iHeartRadio app, also on KJAR, Twitter and X

(00:24):
ninety three three KJRFM, the Crackand Audio Network as well at Crack and
Audio Nets. Find me on Twitterand x also at Betton Underscore Mike and
we're gonna get to things right now. And the opening thought. First off,
I can't believe that we're at theend of three seasons of Crack and
Hockey already. It's incredible. Itseems like yesterday that we were opening up
at Vegas than the home opener againstVancouver. So this phase means growth and

(00:48):
the newness in a bit has wornoff. It's about shutting skin now and
becoming something that's bigger and better.So that's why the conversations we're having here
for today are good, they're healthy, and they're productive. What can make
this team better. You've got nochoice but to look basically everywhere here for
improvements. Because we've learned about onething, the crack. I don't want

(01:08):
to settle for less. They knowit, their players know it, and
their fans know it as well.Now we get along the way that that
next bix up, we're gonna talkabout it right now ever it fits you,
Al Katiski joining us again here fromthirty two, bar and grill,
gentlemen. I can't believe we aredone with eighty two games. It just
flew by. It feels like ina blink. I want to correct something

(01:30):
you just said. I'm not full. I'm still I'm still very very second's
coming. I'm still very hungry formore hockey. I'm sitting around watching these
games. I I'm a sore loser. I don't I don't like to lose.
Right, So when I'm watching otherkids outside having fun playing hockey,
and I'm like sitting on my couch, I swore off the first round.

(01:52):
I'm not watching a second of hockeyfrom now. Oh that SpongeBob mean with
Squidward in the house looking through Well. Then my two year old comes in.
He goes dad hockey hockey, AndI'm like you little, fine,
fine, fine, So I've beenwatching hockey all weekend, so no,
it makes you, it makes youmiss it, it makes you long for

(02:15):
that feeling again. So I verymuch am starving for some more hockey.
I think anger and resentment is whatI often do. Oh yeah, I'm
watching these games, going, oh, that's ridiculous. So that wouldn't happen
if the kracking were in the playoffs, or the cracking could be this team
that's in the playoffs, And Ijust feel I feel anger at this point,
and I'm gonna need a couple ofweeks to get through that. Well.

(02:36):
And you know what, it's funnyyou say that too, because,
like, I'm watching some of thesegames, and we all know the issues
that this team has had, right, I'm watching a lot of these games,
and the gap between some of theseteams and the Seattle Kraken isn't as
big as as it may seem.Right, this was a team of the
Kraken where goaltending was never the problem. Defensively, you're the old team in

(03:00):
the top eight or top ten rathergoals against not in the playoffs, you've
been able to limit goals. Yourgoaltending has not been the issue. It's
been scoring. It's been your offense. So you're watching these teams scoring goals,
shooting the puck, all things thatthe Kraken have had troubles with this
season, and you're like, areyou kidding me? Like we could do
this. That's the most frustrating thingfor me is watching these teams play who

(03:25):
on paper, I feel like theCrack and during the regular season matched up
with pretty well. You swept Boston, you played Edmonton well, although you
didn't win against them, you playedthem well. You had some great battles
with La beat Tampa in Tampa,Nashville, you had some good battles a
lot of these teams. You're like, man, the Kracking were right there,

(03:46):
if not for another goal and ahalf two goals a game. I
think we already got to one partof this where if we could maybe summarize
our feelings here for this season inone word and expand on it. You
guys touched on it right now nowof plenty, but I think it leads
me on here to this where theseason then got off the rails because the
Crack and miss the postseason by seventeenpoints. Final record thirty four to thirty

(04:10):
five and thirteen. To me,the glaring concern was maybe that first game
back out of the trade deadline againstWinnipeg at home, they lose three to
nothing, and then you had thatVegas game after that, up for two
and then losing overtime. I thinkfor me it was more the Vegas game
the Winnipeg game. It's hard tobeat a team two times in a row
in this league. Look at lookat the playoffs right, Very rarely do

(04:32):
you see do we see sweeps anymore? Very rarely do we see teams get
up to two nothing leads, oryou win one, then you lose the
next two. It's hard to beatthe same team twice. But for me
it was the Vegas game. Youwere right there in that game, a
couple of mistakes don't go your way, and at the risk of sounding a

(04:54):
bit too harsh, I think thatVegas game broke this team because they go
on that six and two straight afterthat, and then the season's behind it
right after that. That's what didit for me. Yeah, but there
were definitely signs before that, andthat's the way I look at it from
my standpoint. Mike, you talkedabout seventeen points. Fits you've gone back
and looked and found where those seventeenpoints could have come from. I'm talking

(05:15):
about games against Calgary when they wereon a losing streak. I'm talking about
games against San Jose prior to thetrade den. There are a lot of
games along the way where you startedto go, huh, probably should have
won that game. Yeah, Andat the time we're like, well,
it's two points, Well it's fourpoints. Well it turns out it was
seventeen points. And I think youcan find those points over the course of
the season. Prior to maybe thatVegas game where that slow fall off the

(05:36):
cliff started happening, you got sweptby Montreal. This season, you lost
to Arvid Solderblomb in Chicago, whoat the time was statistically the worst ly
in the NHL. Later on thatsame road trip, you go into Ottawa
and you lose to Anton Forrestsburg,who at that time was statistically the worst
ulton in the NHL. So there'sfour points right there. We talked about

(05:57):
Montreal, there's eight points right there. You go back to the Jersey game,
the New Jersey Devil's game earlier inthe season when a Karrie Smid had
forty some saves. So there's tenpoints right there. So there's five more
wins for you. And we caneasily go back into the thirteen overtime losses.
Fourteen overtime losses. You cut thosein half, they're your seventeen points.
And you and I are getting readyto talk about Game two against Dallas

(06:21):
or Winnipeg or whoever. And Iremember stating too at a certain point,
maybe not the first one, butthe first or second or third one where
a team would come into Seattle thatwas struggling, and I thought, okay,
this is the makeup team. Yeah, first, this gets us back
on the on the winning, onthe winning road, and come to realize
we might have been that makeup teamfor those teams that were struggling. Later

(06:41):
on on Monday, GM Ron Francismet with the media and was that just
about Dave Hastall. So can youconturn at this point that they have dollars
coming back next season or any Youcan't do that yet. Well you're going
to read into it one way orthe other. But this is the process
we do every year, and that'swhat we're in right now, all right,
so Ron France is stopping sort ofgiving Dave hand all the confirmation that
he'll be back for this next season. So I mean, for this conversation,

(07:05):
guys, what got us here andwhat are the most telling numbers?
Are facts that will dictate the courseof this coming up. Yeah, I
think that the goals for has tobe a big, big part of it.
As we've talked about, you know, goaltending was fantastic, top ten
in the league. Defense as awhole, top ten. This team has

(07:25):
to find a way to score moregoals. That's the one statistic that has
to be figured out over the courseof this summer. You can't go into
the fall not having sorted out thattop line centerman, that top line winger
that can put the puck on thenet on a regular basis. Yeah,
I mean that's ditto, right.I mean, there's really not much more
to say. I think this wasa team last year everything flip flopped right.

(07:49):
Last season, the Kraken were ableto outscore their problems. They were
top three team goals four five onfive I think five sixth overall in the
league overall for, but defensively theywere in the twenties mid to low twenties.
But this team was able to outscoretheir problems. Look at the nine
to eight win in in La,which still stands probably my favorite game,

(08:11):
non playoff game to call during mytime here in Seattle. But it's been
the offense, and I think forme, it's also the lack of wanting
to shoot the puck. And thisis a team that I've been saying since
day one. They this is avery passive team in the literal sense of
the word. They want to makethe extra pass. This team always looks

(08:33):
for the pretty, the fancy,rather than put the puck onto the net.
I go back to one of thefinal games Saint Louis. I think
it was when Joey Decord was downon his stomach and I forget who scored
the goal, but he shot thepuck from the corner. It goes off
his skate and into the net.How many of those rebound how many of
those fluky deflection goals could the Crackethave gotten over eighty two games had they

(08:56):
have had that shoot first mentality,And you don't always see that on a
consistent basis with this team. Eighthlowis as far as a league in shots
for this season twenty eight point sixper game. As I even look at
as well how this team began andhow this team finished one four and one
from the start. Ron Francis saidthey have to start better this next season
and some players even admitting that theydidn't come out as prepared. They've got

(09:20):
to have ownership on that. Butagain it requires a deeper dive as so
far as as far as leadership herefor this team moving forward. We look
at how they finished as well,be to end this regular season from March
and into April four eight and twoand then four and six in April as
well. There is a higher standardsset which is the reason why that we're
here and ever I think that youtouched on the offensive part is before we

(09:43):
get to break and we're going tohave more of a conversation with the fans
on next year, the expectations.We'll get to more of this and we
have some male Bay questions coming inhere, but we got to duck out
here for a little bit. Butwe want to again guide you here to
the Crack and Weekly poll question,what is your minimal expectation for this next
season? Does it be in playoffcontention? Is to just make the playoffs?

(10:03):
Is a deep playoff run? Ordo you want the whole kit and
kuboodle win the Stanley Cup Cup orbus Hey. The floor is open to
you, friends, Go ahead andvote right now at crack an audio Net.
Everett now back with us in justa bit, but also a look
into Coachella Valley. That plus oneon one we go with Joey de Cord
how does he like his workload?Also Ron Francis and more of the conversation

(10:26):
from Exit Interview Day. We'll getto all that in just a bit right
here, ninety three three KJRFM