<p>After coming up one win shy of the Western Conference Finals in their second-ever season, the Seattle Kraken had high hopes coming into the 2023-24 campaign.&nbsp;</p>



<p>But the start of the season didn’t go the way they had planned, as they skated to a 10-14-7 record through their first 31 games of the season.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The situation has improved, though, and the Kraken are firmly in the playoff race. They’ve gone 9-2-2 since Dec. 15, with the two losses coming this week. Despite that, the Kraken believe they can have the same success that we saw them have last season.</p>



<p>They have taken on the motto of having “spunk,” which has become their version of playing with swagger. But the season’s first half has been a learning experience for the league’s newest team.</p><div class="injected-ad injected-video" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="0" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="132"></div>



<p>“To start the year, we took it for granted too much,” Jordan Eberle said. “We thought it would come easy and you can get humbled pretty easily in this league. I think the biggest thing is we got healthy. We had four lines rolling, we had a goalie who was playing outstanding and our defensemen were playing great.”</p>



<p>When the Kraken lost to the Rangers on Tuesday, they were doing so without Matty Beniers, Vince Dunn, and Andrei Burakovsky. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Philipp Grubauer have both been out since December as well, so the team’s a bit banged up. But that didn’t stop them from going on an absolute tear the past month, though.</p>



<p>“The foundation of this group is our depth,” Eberle said. “The way that we win is by committee, by rolling lines, by coming at you wave after wave. When we do that we’re an elite hockey team. We gotta get back to that, but first and foremost, we have to get healthy because it takes away from our group.”</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="1" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="173"></div>



<p>It’s fair to say that Beniers, Dunn and Burakovsky are three of the spunkier guys on this roster, so having them in last night’s game would have paid dividends. With that said, the Kraken still find themselves right on the brink of being in the playoff picture and have to continue playing to the standard they created last season, but things always change from season to season.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Swagger comes from having a little bit of success. This has been a really hard-working group. We’ve had to do it a little bit differently and find a new identity this year as you always do from year to year,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said.</p>



<p>Since Dec. 15, the Kraken have been the second-best defensive team in the NHL, only allowing 2.08 goals against per game, and their penalty kill has been the sixth-best at 86.1 percent.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="2" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="145"></div>



<p>“Our guys have really dug in,” Hakstol said. “They’ve found a gear to be able to grind defensively, and that’s turned into positive things for us. Our identity is the work we do defensively and how that sets us up on the offensive side of the game.”</p>



<p>The Kraken sit just two points out of the final wild-card spot, so things are about to get interesting in the second half of the season. And the team is ready for it. Between the playoff run last year, the slow start to 2023-24, the Winter Classic and now the recent run to kick off the new calendar year, they’re taking every opportunity to learn and improve.</p>



<p>“There’s little building blocks throughout a season and every single one counts,” Hakstol said. The season is a grind and we’re back in the middle of that grind right now. Every bit of camaraderie&nbsp;you can build helps.”</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="3" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="151"></div>



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