The Seattle Kraken are surging, but has their short- and long-term outlook changed?

The Seattle Kraken have played out a strange first few seasons in the NHL. In their inaugural campaign, a roster that many analysts thought reasonably well of fell flat on its face, due in large to appalling play between the pipes from their Vézina finalist goaltender that they'd signed in the offseason. Freed from the weight of expectations, they followed that up with a 100-point season, besting the defending Stanley Cup champions in a first-round series.

When faced with how to project this year's Kraken, many saw them as an overperforming team last season but not enough so to write them off entirely this year.

It didn't take long for that to change, though. The Kraken looked miserable from the word go, scoring eight 5-on-5 goals in their first seven games and playing at a 65-point pace through the first 30 games of the season. It was 

That changed pretty quickly. The Kraken looked thoroughly uninspiring from the word go, scoring eight 5-on-5 goals in their first seven games and playing at a 65-point pace at the 30-game mark. It was fair to assume that they were on the fast track to another lottery pick, but one nine-game winning streak later, they've veered off that course.

The Kraken aren't in the clear yet – not even close. They sit sixth in the division and 22nd in the league, and that's not even close to good enough for the playoffs. If anything, it's got them right in the mushy middle.

Does this recent resurgence augur a promising second half or is it just a brief hot streak bringing the team back to their natural state of mediocrity, previously distorted by the awful goaltending of 2021-22 and the red-hot shooting of 2022-23?