That was a huge 2-1 win by the Seattle Kraken over the Los Angeles Kings, extending their point streak to five games (3-0-2) since snapping out of their miserable eight-game skid.
Joey Daccord was outstanding, but his teammates did a fantastic job of keeping the Kings’ shots primarily to the perimeter. Still, you can only win in that fashion if your goalie plays great, and Daccord did just that on Wednesday, tying his own franchise record for saves in a game with 42.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an impressive Kraken win over the Kings.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): The old formula
The Kraken did the damn thing against a very good Kings team, and they did it using a time-tested formula; solid goaltending, team defense, and opportunistic scoring.
Daccord did bail out his mates a few times, like on the below save against Matt Roy in the waning moments of the first period. But for the most part, he was able to see the many shots the Kings threw his way from afar, and he did his part in gobbling up those shots.
When the Kraken got through the first period with a 0-0 tie, despite a 20-8 shots-on-goal disadvantage (more on that in John’s Takeaway #3), we had a feeling they would be the ones that got on the board first in the second period. Sure enough, Brandon Tanev scored his first goal since Nov. 22 at 5:19 of the second, and that put Seattle in the driver’s seat for the rest of the night.
Playing the way they played can work. Bend, but don’t break, keep as much as possible to the outside, and strike when the opportunities present themselves.
Once Jordan Eberle took advantage of a breakaway chance created by a sick pass by Matty Beniers in the third, the game was on the rails.
Of course, there was that gaffe by Justin Schultz to give Blake Lizzotte an easy goal, and there were two late penalties, but this one was NEVER A DOUBT!
Good job sticking to the structure and the gameplan. Big win.
Takeaway #2 (Curtis): Aggressive penalty kill delivers again
Once a source of concern for these Seattle Kraken, the penalty kill unit has played very well of late. Entering Wednesday’s game in Los Angeles, the Kraken penalty killers had held their opposition to just one goal in the last 19 man advantage opportunities dating back to the beginning of the last home stand–a 95 percent kill rate.
How have they managed it? The Kraken have played well in front of their net suppressing high-quality chances and have blocked outside looks at a high rate. Most important from our vantage, though, has been increased aggression pressuring the puck carrier when the puck reaches vulnerable areas of the ice.
A prime example of this aggressive play came at a critical moment in Wednesday’s game. At 12:40 in the third period, with the Kraken leading 2-1, momentum had swung to the Kings’ side following Lizzotte’s shorthanded goal. Justin Schultz took a dangerous boarding penalty on Carl Grundstrom. (On that point, we’re thankful that Grundstrom got up and skated away, and that Schultz wasn’t hit with a major penalty or worse.)
Anze Kopitar won the ensuing face-off for the Kings in the left circle. After a few passes, Kevin Fiala sent a low-angle centering pass that was blocked and bounced back towards the corner. Sensing a strategic opportunity, Adam Larsson pressured Fiala in the corner, and the other strong-side Kraken player, Alex Wennberg, attacked in unison farther up the boards. Their coordinated work led to a clear that killed off an additional 20 seconds of the power play.
Seattle used repeated efforts like this one to post yet another shorthanded shutout Wednesday, killing four out of four Kings power play opportunities. Seattle allowed just two shots on goal in 6:29 of shorthanded time Wednesday–less than a shot every three minutes. (By way of comparison, the Kings had 39 shots in 46:29 of five-on-five time–which equates to a shot every 1:11 of game time.)
And this work was all the more impressive because the Kraken were facing a hot power play unit. Los Angeles’ power play had scored a goal in six straight games entering Wednesday’s contest.
The Kraken penalty kill was too passive earlier in the season and was rightfully maligned as a poor-performing unit based on the shot quality it was conceding. Over the last few weeks, however, the Kraken have adjusted their approach to killing penalties and the changes have worked.
Takeaway #3 (John): Minimizing quality shots against
The Kraken were outshot 20-8 in the first period, and if it was not for a brief push by Seattle, the gap would have been more extreme. Getting outshot by a two-to-one ratio is not a recipe for success but as pointed out by Eddie Olczyk and Brian Boucher on the TNT broadcast, the Kraken did an outstanding job at limiting quality opportunities.
Suppressing high-danger shots over the last five games has been one of the keys to the Kraken’s success as of late. I pointed it out in Monday Musings, and the theme has continued over the last two games.
Here is an updated chart of high-danger shots against.
The shot count ended 43-30 in favor of the Kings on Wednesday, but Seattle had seven high-danger shots to the Kings’ six. Meanwhile, both Seattle Kraken goals were on high-danger shots. The goaltending has been great, but as I am sure Daccord would acknowledge, limiting high-danger opportunities is one of the contributing factors. Let’s see if the Kraken can keep it rolling in Anaheim on Saturday.
Great win against a great opponent. Kraken seemed to match the Kings’ physicality and out xGed the Kings at all strengths despite the shot disadvantage.
One thing they need to improve is their zone exits. The Kings had so much zone time partially because the Kraken kept passing it to them when trying to clear. Oleksiak had a particularly rough game in this regard. Schultz’s game has also taken like 5 steps back from last year. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Evans, especially over Schultz.
I agree the Kraken can improve their zone exits, but the Kings are really good at applying pressure and part of the reason the Kings have been so successful this year.
Also, Daccord was awesome yet again. There is a zero% chance Grubauer only gives up one goal in that game. They should send him to CV when he gets healthy.
I have to admit, when Joey jumped up on the late power play to clear the zone off the boards, I thought for split second he might go for a short handed goal. I think a goalie goal is coming this year.
Eberle’s tally gets my current goal-of-the-year nomination… Obviously, it was the game winner, but the assist from MattyB was nothing short of clinical: the shoulder shimmy + nutmeg, on to Ebs’ tape while onsides – outstanding!
On the season Gru and Joey are facing 2.34 & 2.35 expected goals against per 60 (xGA/60) at 5v5 respectively.* Those numbers are among the league’s best. Again, at 5v5, the Kraken are 5th in both xGA/60 and high-danger shots against per 60. Even before the last 5 games, the Kraken have been good overall at limiting chances against.
The limited high-danger chances lately has been great, but I think pointing at that misses something else that Joey has been doing. Among goalies who’ve played 600+ minutes at 5v5 he leads the league in medium-danger save percentage. His .950 is tied with Tristan Jarry for best. He’s also No.1 outright in medium-danger goals against average at .33. That seems like a very small number… but by comparison… Gru’s is .866 (36th of 40) and he’s giving up .91. This makes up more than half of the almost 1.1 goals against difference between the two of them.
Limiting high-danger chances is important – it is how the most goals are scored – but I think what is setting Daccord apart this season is the fact he’s making the saves he’s supposed to.
* I know five-on-five was recently pooh-poohed on the podcast, but as Shayna Goldman (Too Many Men, the Athletic) recently pointed out, there are too many variables on special teams to make good comparative analysis.
Oh… and if you take all strengths rather than 5v5, Seattle is even better at limiting xGA/60 and high-danger against at 4th & 2nd in the league… respectively.
Thanks for the research. This really highlights how bad Grubauer has been. He lets in total stinkers on a gamely basis. When that’s happening to a team that’s struggling to score, it often ends up being the difference between winning and losing. All hail Joey!
I mainly just want to point out that I don’t think the improvement in goaltending is simply because the team is playing better in front of Joey. The high-danger shots against have been a full shot per game better at 5v5 over the last 5 games and 2.7 per in all situations. That’s huge considering both Joey and Gru are two of the worst in the league in high-danger save percentage. But in all situations, they have been one of the best teams in the league at minimizing high-danger shots all season. Sometimes it is the goalie, and even though he’s getting a boost, he’s also actually making saves.
I’ve always thought the the biggest hole in Gru’s game is rebound control. It’s interesting that high danger chances are relatively equal with both goalies as a bad rebound creates a high danger chances. A friend of mine has a theory that lagging injury troubles dating back to the end of Gru’s days in Colorado may be the reason for his relatively constant poor play in Seattle, damaged goods? Regardless the kraken have some difficult decisions coming as it’s a lot of cap room to eat up on a mediocre goaltender, the only option might be to buy him out. Do we go him one more year?
https://www.expectedbuffalo.com/chaos-unmasked-part-1-an-exhaustive-search-for-trends-in-nhl-goalie-analysis/
Not really adding much but wanted to pass along link I had seen on a hockey Discord, thought others in discussion might find relevant especially when thinking about PG’s performance and judging his initial FA signing.
Jeff M, Thanks. I really enjoyed the article… both parts. The sample is a bit odd given Covid and all, but the insights were worthwhile nonetheless.
I came across a quote today from Hakstol after last game that I’d missed elsewhere. It’s probably out there but I just hadn’t seen it. From AP:
“He’s making timely saves. He’s making all the saves that he should and he’s making some big saves too,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s those kind of things that give your bench a lift and continue to lead to confidence.”
It’s probably nothing, but I find the choice of words there rather telling. I think Hakstol uses his words very specifically.