The Kraken lost 6-3 to the Calgary Flames Saturday in an uncharacteristically poor effort. We’ve seen them lose in a lot of ways, but they don’t typically get outhustled, and that seemed to happen for a long stretch against a down-on-its-luck Flames team that had lost six in a row coming in.
Case in point, this play that made it 4-2:
“I feel like maybe they were more desperate than us,” said Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. “I think hungrier, won some battles, and it got away.”
Even through a sloppy middle period, in which the Kraken fired a measly three shots at Flames goalie Dan Vladar, it still felt like Seattle would come out victorious against its struggling opponent. But Noah Hanifin’s power-play goal late in that second period put the game in doubt, and the third period went sideways quickly.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 6-3 Kraken loss to the Flames.
Takeaway #1: Cheap shot by Mangiapane had big impact
Moments after Vladar made his biggest save of the game, sprawling to rob Alex Wennberg on what looked like a sure goal, Andrew Mangiapane took a cheap shot at Jared McCann. McCann had slid to block Mangiapane’s shot and was lying in a prone position on the puck. Mangiapane inexplicably cross-checked McCann across the back of the neck, smashing the star forward’s face into the ice and drawing blood.
Mangiapane was assessed a five-minute major for cross-checking and a match penalty for intent to injure, removing him from the game.
1:11 into the power play, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored a nearly identical goal to the one he scored Thursday against Nashville, again sniping from the top of the right circle over Vladar’s glove. That gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with nearly four minutes of power-play time left.
Seattle failed to score for the rest of the major penalty, though, and just 14 seconds after it expired, Martin Pospisil—who had been serving Mangiapane’s penalty—scored on his first NHL shot in his first NHL game after a three-on-two rush.
The goal by Bjorkstrand was nice, but if Seattle could have gotten a second one there, this is probably a different story. Heck, even just keeping Calgary from scoring seconds after the penalty ended may have done the trick.
McCann left the game for a while after the cheap shot, but he did return and played the remainder. We will be curious to see what supplementary discipline comes for Mangiapane.
Also, worth noting, there was no physical response from Seattle after that incident, which is becoming a pattern with this year’s team.
Takeaway #2: Second-period PPG turned the tide
The Kraken had a bad second period by every metric. It isn’t surprising to see Calgary had 70 percent of the shot quality in the frame, especially when you remember that Seattle only shot on goal three times. The share of shot quality would have been tilted even farther in the Flames’ favor, except Tye Kartye had a great look before getting blasted into the boards by Nikita Zadorov.
“We weren’t breaking out clean, we weren’t on the forecheck as a five-man unit,” said Justin Schultz. “Just kind of chasing it a lot in the second, and we couldn’t really recover from that.”
Even so, the Kraken were ahead 2-1 and nearly escaped the period with their lead intact. But Eeli Tolvanen and McCann took back-to-back penalties, giving Calgary 46 seconds of five-on-three time, then another 1:14 at five-on-four. The Kraken came within one second of killing off both penalties, but Hanifin’s shot through traffic squeezed through the wickets on Grubauer to make it 2-2 with just one minute left in the second.
“There’s not one singular turning point,” Hakstol said. “But, I mean the obvious one is we work our way through the five-on-three, and you get towards the end of the PK, but ultimately… that changes the complexion of the entire game and obviously changes what the result of the second period is.”
The ugly second frame carried into the start of the third for Seattle, and Yegor Sharangovich put Calgary ahead with a high tip at 1:33. The Flames never relinquished the lead from there.
Hakstol said, “I didn’t think we got lulled into a trap, I thought we got outhustled in the first 10 minutes of the third period, plain and simple.”
Takeaway #3: Not good enough
These games happen, so we’re trying not to overreact here. The Flames saw an opportunity building in the second period to snap their embarrassing losing streak, and they took advantage of a Kraken team that wasn’t relentless enough.
We saw a few games like this last season when the Kraken had gotten a smidge too comfortable with their position in the standings and let winnable games slip through their tentacles. But they’re also not in a position right now—at 4-6-2 on the season—to be taking any team for granted, especially a Calgary club that has dominated Seattle over three seasons (the Kraken are now 1-7-0 all time against Calgary).
We still think the Kraken are close to going on one of their runs like last season, ripping off a bunch of wins in a row, but this game was a step in the wrong direction. Hopefully it’s a case of two steps forward and one step back, and this loss can motivate the club to now take a bunch of steps forward.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
We got beat by a team that played Kraken hockey. Calgary looked like the Kraken and the Kraken looked like Calgary. I thought we were going to tie the game with the empty net when that pass deflected off of someone and right into the net. That was the “not tonight boys ” goal.
This one was the stinker of the year so far. Why are these guys sometimes so slow to let a shot rip? It might be old school but you get more chances to score in the dirty areas close in. It doesn’t look like the coaching staff agrees.
Yeah, the other thing I noticed is they get fixated on dump/chase and passes along the boards, which the other team catches on to and anticipates. So 100% possessed pucks become 50-50 pucks, and then they lose possession without getting a shot off. That happened numerous times last night, where they would have good zone possession but nothing close to the middle of the ice with no screen in front and no shots on goal. Maybe they’re just too focused on looking for the perfect play and shot, but it never came. They only scored on that PP and the rush, but no goals from all that zone time. It’s looking like inaugural season Kraken Hockey all over again.
Another disheartening Saturday night home game. Maybe not as awful as the Ranger game but still pretty bad after the 1st period. Calgary didn’t look good at all, and certainly not like a playoff team. But, at this point, the Kraken don’t look like one either.
The offense looks so disjointed at times. As Boist commented: even when they get on a good cycle with lots of zone time, it’s leading to nothing – blocked shorts or no shot at all. And those point shots that don’t get through are leading to rushes the other way. Frustrating.
Beniers, Ebs, and Wennberg have combined for 1 goal and 9 assists through 12 games. Gonna need more production from that group.
And after a good start to the season, the PK has really dropped off. Opponents are 8-for-17 over the last six games vs. the Kraken PK units. Yikes.
I agree Mat and Matty is not even shooting the puck. I mention the circling on the outside and no one in front of the net. Every NHL knows how to defend against that but if you shoot, you get rebound chances. Something Matty is good at but with him on the outside, they play right into the other teams’ hands
In a stunning reversal from last season, the Kraken have lost every “Red Line” game and won every “Blue Line” game. Unfortunately, there have been 4 Red Line games and only 2 Blue Line games. So they have a lousy overall record at home (which is sadly NOT a reversal from last season, or the inaugural season).
Sorry, 3 Red Line games, not 2.
Tolvy seems to be heating up but Matty looks like they put something in his water. I know it’s a bit out there but swapping Matty for Shane, just for a bit, might help both?
This team is better than what we saw against the Flames but they seem quite disjointed.
Glad I don’t have to make these decisions….
Matty for Shane will not happen. Matty is too valuable to this team. These first one up and first one back type of players are what keeps the Kraken in low scoring games. I just think Matty is trying to do too much and has not found his game yet. He will start scoring and start scoring plays. He gets double teamed, and someone is also sitting in his pocket when he is on the ice. Teams recognize how valuable he is, and they defend that way.
Matty also seems to get knocked down every shift, and not because of “lack of toughness” of his linemates or whatever old hockey man nonsense. I think he’s just way too easy to knock down. He needs to get stronger on the puck and on his skates.
Of course, getting outworked happens at times. And I’m certainly not too worried about the standings this early. I am absolutely stunned, though, that they got outworked in a game where McCann took a cheap shot like that. I was anticipating a much, much different response. And I don’t mean fights. I just mean work.
This team is soft! They consistently are losing the physical battles along the boards and refuse to finish checks (Hakstol🙄). No one fears going into the boards with a Kraken player, especially the ‘Lil Rig!! This team’s coach wants them to play a finesse game when they don’t possess the depth and/or talent to do so. They must knock their opponents off the puck (and on their ass) and take advantage of those turnovers. Our defensemen “roam” instead of knocking guys on their ass and eliminating them as offensive threats, especially in front of the net. Maybe they’ll hear footsteps next time they go into the corner or won’t feel comfortable camping out in front of our keepers!
Matty will turn it around. Once again, Hakstol has messed with the lines and has Matty lost. Put him back between Canner and Ebs!! Why screw with last year’s success!!
Lastly, (while I’m ranting) the power play still sucks! It starts with the entry. STOP passing the puck back in the neutral zone!!! This ruins momentum and leaves the remaining guys idle at the blue line versus entering as a a 5-man attack! They also need to spread out and create more space in the zone. Notice how opponents don’t just sit back in a “box” but attack the puck and check their a man down. We crowd and teams know they can win the battles along the boards.
Here’s to making some positive changes. It’s early and no need to panic unless Hakstol sticks to his ways.