We got used to losing. We really did. We were numb to it, and we didn’t even know it. This Seattle Kraken win over the Florida Panthers reminded us that leaving Climate Pledge Arena after a victory can actually make us feel invigorated, despite knowing Seattle may have already shot itself in the tentacle and sunk its season. Victory songs were played, fish were yeeted (albeit poorly in Joey Daccord’s case), and a Davy Jones hat was distributed for the first time since Nov. 22.
From outside the Kraken dressing room, we could hear the players hooting and hollering, and when we were allowed to enter, we immediately felt a very different vibe than what we’ve experienced on the rest of this homestand.
“It’s still a kids game, right?” coach Dave Hakstol said. “You play hard. You want to work hard and have success together, and then you have fun and enjoy that. And our guys were able to finally do that tonight after a real tough stretch.”
Joey Daccord got his first NHL shutout, Ryker Evans got his first NHL point, and the fourth line chipped in with two huge goals.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a freeing 4-0 Kraken win over the Panthers.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): Joey’s big night
Sound Of Hockey readers/followers/listeners will know that I am unabashedly pro-Joey and really want to see him succeed. He is just the best guy to deal with, so witnessing him earn his first NHL shutout was something that will stick with me for a while.
I could tell he was dialed in from the drop of the puck. He was tested early and often in the first period and stood tall, especially when Aaron Ekblad came barreling down on a 3-on-1 rush about five minutes into the game.
With Brandon Tanev backchecking and Evans the lone defender, Ekblad elected to take the puck to the net and try to deke around Daccord, who was aggressively challenging at the top of the crease. At the last instant, Daccord flared out his right pad and stuffed the star defenseman before smothering the puck for a whistle.
“It’s always nice to make any save, especially when they get a good chance early to kind of get the ball rolling,” Daccord said. “And, to just feel good moving forward, that’s definitely always nice.”
It wasn’t just that save, though, that made me think he was especially sharp on this night. There was a high tip play that seemed like one of those that should cause problems for a goalie, because of the way that it changed both speeds and directions. But Daccord tracked it all the way in and calmly redirected it away from the net with his stick, making it look easy.
In the end, Daccord racked up 24 saves on 24 shots.
“It means the world, honestly,” Daccord said. “I’m super grateful for the opportunity to play in the NHL every single night, and for the coaching staff and the guys to trust me out there and to get a shutout in the NHL, especially against such a high-caliber team with a lot of good players … yeah, it hasn’t really sunk in yet, but it’s pretty special, for sure.”
Having said all that, with Festivus right around the corner, I must air two grievances toward Daccord. First, he disappointed me by electing *not* to shoot for the empty net when he had a chance below his own goal line, even though Seattle held a comfortable 3-0 lead, and Florida had pulled Sergei Bobrovsky with more than five minutes remaining.
“[Adam Larsson] skated down and like looked at me like…” Imagine Joey doing back-and-forth shifty eyes at the end of that statement, mimicking his defenseman’s facial expression. “He was almost more surprised that I didn’t shoot. I’ll shoot if I get a good chance. That one wasn’t really a great chance. It was kind of a bouncy puck, and I was stuck behind the net, so that would have taken a really high-skill-level play to make that one.”
Alright, fine, I’ll let that one slide. But the other grievance I must air was about Daccord’s very poor fish yeeting, in which he twirled his fish around to amp up the crowd, made it look like he was about to fire the fish deep into the stands, and somehow whipped it straight down into the ice.
“I tried to throw it so far, and it just didn’t work,” Daccord said. “Yeeting a fish is harder than you think, so don’t make fun of me until you try it.”
Ugh. Alright, fine, I retract both of my grievances. Good game, Joey.
Takeaway #2 (Curtis): Kraken take advantage of scoring first
You’re right, Darren. Daccord is the no-doubt headline in this one. In particular, his save on Ekblad’s chance was vital to the Kraken taking two points tonight. It’s very easy to imagine a different outcome in this one had that puck found the back of the net, particularly given how difficult it was for the Kraken to get through the neutral zone and set up offensively in the first period.
But Daccord did keep the team in it, and this bought the offense enough time to find the smallest opening in Florida’s neutral-zone defense. At 3:02 in the second period, Kraken defenseman Will Borgen launched a stretch pass from the defensive zone that hit Kailer Yamamoto’s stick on the tape at the Florida blue line, as Yamamoto ducked in behind the Florida defense. It was a clean breakaway chance, and the Man from Spokane™ roofed it to put Seattle up 1-0.
After Sunday’s eighth consecutive loss, Hakstol spoke about the importance of getting a lead and not always chasing the game. “We have to start better,” Hakstol said that night. “Early in the season, probably 10 of our first maybe dozen games, 10 of our first 15 games for sure, we scored first, and that’s something that’s… important.”
Playing from behind is difficult because the leading opponent can tighten up its defensive-zone coverage and turn down riskier plays to avoid the possibility of a counterstrike that catches them out of structure. When done effectively, this leaves the chasing team to fire pucks on the net from low-danger areas in desperation. The chasing team may pile up shots, but those may not be the types of shots that are likely to go in.
The Kraken saw this play out again and again over their eight-game losing streak. They actually generated the fourth-most shot attempts per 60 minutes in the NHL from Nov. 24 to Dec. 10, the dates of their losing streak. But the shot quality they produced was just 2.9 expected goals per 60 minutes, fifth-worst in the league.
Taken on a per-shot basis, the Kraken’s shot quality was dead last in the league over that stretch. A lot of this had to do with the team’s offensive schematic and personnel struggles to create quality high-danger chances, as we have talked about on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast and in previous Three Takeaways. The “score effects” described above were part of the story too.
Scoring first made all the difference for the Kraken on Tuesday night. After Yamamoto’s goal went in, Florida had to start taking chances, and all of a sudden, the Panthers’ neutral-zone defense and defensive structure weren’t nearly as tight. Gaps opened for Kraken strikes all over the ice.
According to Natural Stat Trick, in the third period, the Kraken had 21 shot attempts, 11 scoring chances, and shot quality expected to create almost two goals–more than the first two periods combined. It was a breath of fresh air for the Kraken and their fans.
Takeaway #3 (Curtis): Kraken penalty kill steps up
In addition to Daccord, the Kraken penalty killers deserve plaudits for keeping Seattle in the game early until the offense could find its footing. Florida drew three penalties in the first half of the game while it was still very much in dispute, and the Panthers managed a grand total of zero shots on goal in those six minutes five-on-four.
What makes this even more impressive is that two key penalty killers (Larsson and Brian Dumoulin) took two of the penalties, which forced Vince Dunn into rare action as a penalty killer. Even so, the Kraken special teams did not miss a beat. In particular, I thought Jamie Oleksiak made a number of impressive reads and physical closeouts to shut down low plays, and the forwards effectively created pressure and turned the puck over repeatedly.
The first penalty kill was crucial, since it came in the first period when the game was still scoreless. The Kraken effectively held Florida to the outside and blocked two shots. The only other shot attempt from distance missed the goal.
Don’t look now, but the maligned Kraken penalty kill unit has killed 10 straight penalties.
Bonus Takeaway (Curtis): Ryker Evans settling in
Evans’s transition to the NHL has not been perfect, although it seems that way sometimes. He has lost a few defensive-zone board battles, and it has been a mixed bag in front of his own net.
That said, everything else Evans has brought to the table has shown why he is unquestionably one of the six most talented (and NHL-ready) defensemen in the Kraken organization. He has a very good feel for when to push in transition or join a rush, and he has the mobility and puck skills to implement his reads.
At 5:52 of the second period, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare won an offensive-zone draw, which Yamamoto dove in to recover and tap back to Evans. While some defensemen may have stayed stapled to the point and shot the puck low around the boards, Evans saw Yamamoto (and the Panther covering Yamamoto) had vacated the wing. That left room for Evans to push down the wall with possession.
Once he got below the goal line, Bobrovsky most likely expected him to continue around the other side of the net. But the moment he cleared the goal, Evans skillfully centered the puck before anyone could react, finding an open Bellemare in the slot.
Bellemare converted the goal and deserves credit himself, but Evans made the play and earned every bit of his first NHL point.
“Obviously, this kid is going to be here a long enough time,” Bellemare said of Evans. “So, it was fun to see him [get a point], and he thanked me [for putting it] in, which was a funny thing.”
Evans has made offensive opportunities for his teammates like this each game he has played in the NHL so far. As long as he keeps doing it, he’ll stay right where he is–in the Kraken lineup.
Joe-y! Joe-y! Joe-y! Joe-y!