It hasn’t been the hottest start to the Seattle Kraken’s season through two games, both of which they have lost while mustering just one combined goal. They scored zero against Jusse Saros and the Nashville Predators Thursday en route to a 3-0 loss.
After a decent first period, Seattle got dominated in every metric in the second period, but was largely bailed out by netminder Philipp Grubauer, who stopped 32 of the 34 shots he faced on the night. A shorthanded goal by Colton Sissons was a huge turning point for the Predators, though, and Seattle couldn’t find a way to fight back.
“They took a lot of momentum out of that [shorthanded goal] for the second half of the second period,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “I wouldn’t say ‘chaotic’ is the word, but on the offensive side, a few too many missed nets.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-0 Kraken loss to the Predators.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): Grubauer’s awesome night spoiled
After Grubauer got off to rough starts in each of his first two seasons with the Kraken, we were curious if his stellar playoff run would carry into 2023-24. So far, we would say it has. While the German Gentleman gave up three goals on 27 shots against Vegas on Tuesday, we were unsure of what to make of his performance that night. His stat line wasn’t outstanding, and he did allow a goal on the first shot he faced, something we’ve seen from him many times before. But that goal was an easy tap-in off a rush, the second was a wonky redirect off a Brandon Tanev booboo, and the third was a partial breakaway.
Though he took another ‘L’ Thursday, there were no questions about his play in Nashville.
“Grubi’s been solid both nights here,” Hakstol said. “He’s been sharp, he’s seeing the puck well, and I really like his competitive level. So he played a good hockey game tonight.”
You could tell he was on his game early with how he was reacting to shots from in close and through traffic. Even with bodies in front, pucks were hitting him, and on plays where it seemed he shouldn’t have had enough time to react, he was still getting his extremities in the way.
Exhibit A:
Grubauer’s best save of the game came just past the midway point of the second period, when Roman Josi found himself with the puck on his stick and plenty of net to shoot at. The Kraken netminder made two big pushes with his left skate to get all the way across his crease and throw his blocker in front of what looked like a sure goal.
Exhibit B:
It wasn’t just about the shot volume Grubauer faced. With Seattle playing way too loose, especially in the second period, the Predators seemed to be getting breakaway after breakaway after open look, and Grubauer kept standing tall. In fact, according to Natural Stat Trick Nashville generated 65 percent of the shot quality in all situations, including a whopping 86 percent in the second period.
Unfortunately for Grubauer and for the Kraken, his teammates weren’t able to give him any offensive support, and his superb night was wasted.
“Grubi’s been great the first two nights,” said Yanni Gourde. “I thought he was unreal again, kept us in the game the whole night… We’ve got to give him more leeway a little bit, find a few goals.”
Takeaway #2: Adam Larsson’s tough shift
Adam Larsson had a few great moments defensively on Thursday, especially when he sprinted back to thwart a prime scoring chance by Cole Smith in the first period. But he also had one terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad shift in the third period when a Gustav Nyquist goal that directed off his foot literally added insult to injury. It effectively wiped out any chance for a Kraken comeback.
Larsson tried to hit Filip Forsberg in the corner behind Grubauer, but Forsberg sensed it coming and caught Larsson with a high “reverse” hit, throwing his back into Larsson’s face and causing some damage to his nose and lip. Incensed, Larsson retaliated with a wicked cross check, which caused the official to put his arm up for a delayed penalty.
With Saros pulled for an extra skater during the delayed penalty, the Kraken couldn’t get ahold of the puck long enough to get a whistle. So Larsson went to the front of the net and kept whacking away at Forsberg, perhaps figuring he wouldn’t get another penalty, so he might as well get a couple more licks in. Well, as he stood there at the top of the crease, Nyquist got a nice deflection off Larsson’s skate, just to drive home what an unfortunate sequence it was for Seattle’s most consistent defensive defenseman.
Of course, Larsson is a top-pairing stud, and we think the world of him as a player. His undisciplined penalty was uncharacteristic, and having a shift like that that goes from bad to worse is almost unheard of. Still, it cost the Kraken significantly on this night.
Takeaway #3 (John): Power play struggling while improving
Yes, we are going to talk about the lack of production on the power play again (it was minus-one on the night), but we are seeing promising signs. The Kraken failed to cash in for the second straight game on Thursday, though they only had four minutes of power-play time versus Nashville compared to 11 minutes on Tuesday against Vegas. We talked about it quite a bit on the podcast this week, and my theory is that with the team making so many changes in this area compared to last season, it will take some time to get everyone on the same page.
One thing I called out on the podcast this week was, despite the lack of goals scored on the power play, the Kraken averaged 3.6 shot attempts per two minutes of power-play time Tuesday compared to last season’s average of 3.3 shot attempts. That’s hardly a significant sample size, but they were still generating chances.
On the Kraken’s first power play against Nashville, they generated three shot attempts, with all of those coming from what I would call the first power-play unit of Justin Schultz, Andre Burakovsky, Jared McCann, Matty Beniers, and Jordan Eberle.
On the second power-play opportunity, Hakstol sent out the second unit to start, but with one wrinkle; Gourde subbed in for Jaden Schwartz, and the other four players on that unit were Eeli Tolvanen, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Kailer Yamamoto, and Vince Dunn. If my counting is correct, that group had nine shot attempts on that power play and kept the puck in the offensive zone for almost the entire two minutes.
“We switched up the unit with some tired bodies coming off of the previous shift to draw the penalty,” said Hakstol. “They generated good O-zone time. We missed a couple pucks that were directed towards the net early in that power play, so you’d like to get those on the net and find a way to find rebounds later in the power play.”
After only two games, it is still not close to a significant sample size, but I believe this shows promise. To really know what we have going on the power play, it will take about 10 games to even start to form real opinions.
You see it already. Scoring is going to be a problem this year. The is no defensive cohesion and I feel that this team is playing like a team with breakdowns coming in every phase of their game. Burkovsky and Manny are the only offensive speed guys and the loss of Sprong and Donato is evident. The pressure is a step behind thus the better team can break out on them at ease. Kartye has some jump but he is not a proven NHL goal scorer. Next u St. Louis and I fear more of the same until McCann and Burky can get back to playing like top scoring players again. Kole Lind should be back up with the Kraken but it won’t be enough until the team plays like a team again. My thought “who are these guys, this is not the same team we saw last year?
Last season they started 1-4… but they were scoring. I think both Hill and Saros – and Campbell – have been very good against them and they’ve had chances, but they don’t seem to be able to sustain pressure they way they did at the beginning of last season.
Alison Lukan – who is fabulous – also mentioned Grubauer’s stellar playoff run on the post game. I think it’s worth noting it was a stellar series against his old team. The performance against Dallas was not impressive.
A 3.42 GAA and .872 SV% isn’t good… and it wasn’t just one horrible outing. He was “stellar” in Game 7 but – like last night – the team couldn’t score for him. He also gave up four or more four times in the series, including a 4/20 and 5/22. To be fair, this was seven games against a very good Stars team, but the stellar “playoffs” was the Avalanche series.
He made several excellent saves last night, but in the last three games he still looks like he’s out of position and over-committing a lot. I can’t think of another goalie I see on his belly more than Grubauer.
I hope they start scoring soon, because I’m not convinced the problem in net has been solved.
Go Kraken!!!
You’re right about the stats from the two playoff series, but at the end of the day, Seattle wouldn’t have gotten to a goal away from the Conference Finals without him, even if he wasn’t perfect in the Dallas series. He gave them a chance in that series too. The point is that he showed real confidence during that run, and I was curious if he’d pick this season up looking equally confident. He has, and that’s important.
I disagree on the “over committing” comment. I don’t know how you can watch last night’s game, when he was the only reason the Kraken had a chance to win, and find a flaw in the way he played. Overcommitting would be sliding himself out of position, and I can’t remember a moment from last night when he looked out of position. Where I think he’s struggled historically has had more to do with how he’s tracking the puck early in a game and his confidence. It’s those games when he gets beaten cleanly with a shot in the opening minutes that things go sideways on him, and last night wasn’t one of those nights.
The shooting% has already started to regress!
With their lack of high end skill level, I’d expect a below average % for the year. It certainly doesn’t help facing VGK and Saros in the first two games, but still gotta find a way finish. Dunn and Burky have both had numerous opportunities from the slot but are missing the net or getting blocked. Frustrating start.
I remember the commentators during the game say that Seattle is not shooting enough. However, Nashville came out and challenged the shooter. Seattle had no other options. Grub was great and you can only stop a certain amount of quality shots. Seattle had only a few quality shots. Once the got that 2nd goal, it was over For Seattle. We just aren’t getting into position for rebounds but the worst part is we got dominated on the boards. Nashville broke out with ease too many times
Darren… you’re right…
I went back and rewatched last night’s entire game. While not “flawless”, he was very, very good and wasn’t guilty of “over-committing”.
He also made several saves that, had they gotten by him, folks would be saying, “can’t blame him for not stopping that one”.
The one off Larsson’s skate was an absolute fluke and in no way at all preventable.
And the short-handed breakaway… well, Seattle was 0-4 in the shootout last season with a league-worst .364 save percentage. Only one other team was under .500 and two-thirds of teams were over .600… so were gonna give that one up…
But I wasn’t giving enough due to just how well he played. One observation though… just after the first goal Grubauer made a good save on a backdoor shot from Josi. In addition to sliding out of position I also think “over-committing” is playing too high in the crease at the wrong time. In this case the puck-play is in the circles just above the dots. Grubauer is at the top of the crease leaving a huge “backdoor”. When the cross-ice pass goes to Josi it takes a lunge back and across to close the door. I think this type of positioning is part of why odd-man rushes have been so effective against us. But sliding out of the blue paint was not a problem last night. I understand closing angles, but if it expands the backside and there’s an option for a cross… uh-oh.
I hope you continue to be right on this one… I do think the scoring will come.
Go Kraken!!!