If the Seattle Kraken hadn’t just lost their sixth game in a row, we would have left Climate Pledge Arena feeling positive about the way they played Thursday against the Devils. They had a good start to the game, they (briefly) erased a first-period deficit with a goal by Tye Kartye, and they did everything they could to get an equalizer in the third period.
But the Kraken just couldn’t get a second puck past Devils goalie Akira Schmid, despite peppering him with 16 shots in the final frame (38 in total) and racking up 3.53 expected goals on the night, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“We played our tails off tonight,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “I mean, it’s a hard outcome, right? We played against a good hockey team, we played really hard. We made a couple of mistakes. That’s the nature of the beast, and… we’re not getting the benefit of some of the hard work.”
Yeah, that pretty much sums up the night. Oh, and Ryker Evans had some exciting moments in his NHL debut, and Andre Burakovsky returned from injury but… wait for it… got hurt. Again.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a crushing 2-1 Kraken loss to the Devils, their sixth loss in a row.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): Morale is LOW
The way the Kraken typically run their post-game media availability is they open the dressing room within about 10 minutes of the final horn. Before that happens, the players that aren’t requested by media get a chance to get out of their gear and move out of the main area to go on with their recovery processes elsewhere. The players are almost always all gone by the time we get inside, and then we have our press scrums with a select few in the mostly quiet room.
On this night, while we waited to hear from Kartye, Alex Wennberg, and Hakstol, Jared McCann sat quietly in his stall for several minutes, still dressed in his gear from the waist down. He sat in stationary silence, staring dejectedly down at the floor. The Kraken’s leading goal scorer eventually got up and went on with his post-game routine, but he was visibly seething as he exited.
Of all the players on the team, McCann especially had every right to be frustrated after that game. He had at least three prime scoring chances in the third, only to get robbed twice by Schmid and rifle a shot off the crossbar on a short-handed two-on-one rush.
Asked how Hakstol manages that level of frustration from his players, the coach said, “We didn’t talk after the game. We’ll be together in the morning, and you know, we’ve got to live in the moment right now. When you go through these struggles and tough times– I thought our guys did a really good job of that today, not allowing anything that’s in the past or anything that’s coming affect our day or our game today.”
And while Wennberg–who we thought had a strong game, setting up Kartye’s goal and just missing on a rush chance in the second–always projects a positive message when speaking to the media, he too expressed frustration with how things have been going for Seattle.
“It feels like lately, we’ve just been finding ways to lose the game,” Wennberg said. “I mean, obviously we had the opportunities… we hit a couple of posts, and we could have turned this game around. But we’ve got to change something. I mean, obviously we can’t let this just keep going. It’s got to be a different mindset.”
The fact that Seattle played so well and still came up empty made Thursday’s loss an especially bitter pill to swallow. This team is desperate for some good feelings right now.
Takeaway #2 (Curtis): Strong effort not rewarded
The Kraken did a lot of things well in this game. The team needed a strong start to their home stand after a disappointing–and at points “embarrassing”–road trip. And both the effort and execution were there. Unfortunately for the boys in deep sea blue, the goals were not.
Though the team emerged from each of the first two periods down a goal, Seattle carried the balance of the play through two frames. It generated 22 shots on goal to New Jersey’s 14, including eight high-danger shot attempts to New Jersey’s four.
The Kraken then attacked the third period looking for the equalizing goal and thoroughly dominated. Seattle outshot New Jersey 16-3 in the final frame, with an astounding 10 high-danger attempts.
“You’ve got to like the chances, it’s just a little too little, too late,” Kartye said. “Hopefully we can start the game like that next game and keep it going for a full 60 instead of getting down early and then having to come back again.”
All told, according to Natural Stat Trick, the Kraken generated almost 64.77 percent of the total shot quality in the game. This was the team’s second-highest shot quality share of the entire season, trailing only the 7-1 shellacking of the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 22.
Full credit should be given to New Jersey goaltender Akira Schmid for withstanding several offensive flurries in the final frame.
“He helped us win a hockey game,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “Solid performance. There was a couple opportunities where they could have gained some momentum and he made big saves for us.”
Takeaway #3 (Darren): Is Andre Burakovsky really hurt again?
After missing the second half of last season and all of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a torn groin, Burakovsky’s return to the lineup to start this season gave hope that the depth of the Seattle Kraken would be restored. But he got hurt again in the team’s sixth game of 2023-24 and went on to miss 20 games before finally returning Thursday with hopes he could help things around.
Burakovsky looked solid in the game through (almost) two periods and helped create Kartye’s goal by sticking with the puck after initially losing it.
But then he didn’t look solid anymore.
With six minutes left in the second period, Burakovsky took a hard hit from Kevin Bahl in the same corner where Jacob Trouba decked him nearly two months ago. It seemed like Burakovsky may have been wincing when he went to the bench.
He returned for one more short shift that period, but then went down the tunnel. He was back to start the third but only played two shifts and was then glued to the bench the rest of the game.
Hakstol confirmed Burakovsky was “unavailable” after those two shifts. “We’ll have to evaluate that as we go into tomorrow morning.”
It’s promising that Burakovsky A.) returned for the third after surely being checked out by the team’s medical staff during the second intermission and B.) remained on the bench after trying to gut it out.
Still, seeing him in discomfort after so many injury woes for this one important player was disconcerting.
Bonus Takeaway (Darren): Strong debut for Ryker Evans
Seattle’s top defensive prospect, Ryker Evans, had a strong showing in his first NHL game after being called up Tuesday from Coachella Valley. He replaced Justin Schultz, who was a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
“The impetus to call [Evans] up was the fact that Ryker is ready to take on the opportunity, and he has earned the opportunity,” Hakstol said. “As we continue to grow and move forward as a team, as an organization, the development of our youth is extremely important. As we all saw tonight, Ryker is ready for this league. One day does not make a career, but he played very well tonight.”
From the jump, he showed his offensive prowess, making a pass to his buddy, Kartye, and then joining a rush on his very first shift.
“That’s part of what he does, right?” Hakstol said. “And we want him to do the things that come naturally to him that he’s good at. He doesn’t do it at risk defensively. He’s a pretty intelligent player in that way.”
Our favorite Ryker play of the evening came with seven minutes left in the third period when the Kraken were pushing. He fought through an Ondrej Palat check on the half wall and maintained possession. Then he carried the puck down low and slammed on the brakes, bumping the puck behind his back and sending Palat flying. Reversing course, he tried to stuff the puck in behind Schmid, but the goalie read the play and was solid on his post.
Now, it wasn’t perfect. Evans got walked in the first period and had a few scrambles and mishandles, but all in, it was exactly the kind of debut the Kraken would have wanted out of their smooth-skating 21-year-old blueliner.
Best I’ve seen you guys play especially in the 3rd. Interested to see if they keep it going or if this was more of a last gasp….
Love the site/post game write ups!
Agree on all counts. Wennberg had I think his best game all season, Evans showed some nice flashes, Dunn looked awesome. Grubauer had a sv% below .900 as per his contract but he gave the team a chance to win. It’s just…hockey. Hockey and baseball are the two sports I follow, and in both you can vastly outplay the other team and still lose. This was just one of those games.
Definitely the best play I’ve seen all season from the Kraken. This scoring drought is brutal… Three goals total in the last three games. Ugh.
I’m a little curious if they’re showcasing Evans as a possible trade chip. I’d be ok with a left side of Dunn, Hanafin, and Oleksiak.
I think it’s more to see how he handles playing RD and LH defense. My guess is it’s also to see how he plays with Dumolin and they are shopping Schultz, or at least getting ready to.
There seems to be a lot of RHD on the market right now – Barrie, D’Angelo, Walker. I think they’re gonna have a hard time moving Schultz.
…but if they do move Schultz, another defenseman whose also available might look good in his spot… Chris Tanev.
This scoring drought has to break at some point. The boys played generally well. So frustrating….
Just wondering if anyone else thought Ryker reminded them a little of a younger Vince Dunn?
Burakovsky now out week to week. Welp that was quick.
As reported by Sound Of Hockey. Please credit.
(Just kidding, in case that wasn’t clear.)