Thursday’s 4-1 Kraken win over the Washington Capitals felt similar to Seattle’s 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. It again wasn’t the best start for the Kraken, but Joey Daccord made stellar saves in the early going, and then a Tye Kartye goal at 8:50 of the first period gave the road team some jump.
The Kraken got another goal from Alex Wennberg at 18:12 of the first, then another at 18:20 of the second by Justin Schultz to re-establish a two-goal lead heading to the third. With the way Daccord has been playing, once Schultz made it 3-1, you knew this game was in the bag.
Sure enough, Seattle added one more beauty of a goal in the third for their eighth win in a row, tying the franchise record they set last season and extending their points streak to 12 games.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken win over the Capitals.
Takeaway #1: The Save™️
Joey Daccord has done some unbelievable things during this streak, but we think he may have had his best save of the season in the first period Thursday. After a defensive-zone turnover by Schultz and a quick transition by Washington, Connor McMichael found himself in alone with the Kraken netminder. Daccord sprawled to get his right pad on McMichael’s first shot—an exceptional save in and of itself—but the follow-up scorpion save was even more impressive.
This was one of those that caused utter disbelief by anyone who saw it because there was simply no way the puck did not go in the net. And yet, somehow, Daccord managed to get his pad elevated just in time to rob McMichael of a sure goal.
Just moments after the save, Kartye scored off a rush with a simple shot from distance that beat Darcy Kuemper, a fine juxtaposition of the level of goaltending at the two ends of this ice on the night and a massive swing in momentum.
“I think it was a quick turnover, and they kind of had a breakaway,” Daccord said. “I felt it hit my pad, and then it’s kind of tough when you’re kind of face-down on the ice to see what’s going on. I assumed that he had the rebound, and I could just kind of see his body, I couldn’t see the puck. So I just kind of stuck my leg up and hoped it would hit it. I felt it hit my pad, and I was like, ‘That was probably pretty cool.’”
It was, indeed, pretty cool.
“It erases a mistake, and it erases an opportunity,” coach Dave Hakstol said.
Daccord ended the night with 25 stops for a .962 save percentage, while Kuemper stopped just 19 of 23 shots for an .826 night.
Takeaway #2: Beauty from the gritty guys
We’re never surprised to see Adam Larsson make a skilled play, because he has under-the-radar silky mitts. But there’s something mind boggling about one of Seattle’s grittier players in Brandon Tanev making a perfect saucer pass over Martin Fehervary, Larsson taking it in stride, deking to his backhand, and making the finish look downright easy.
The goal starts back in the Kraken end of the ice, too, with Vince Dunn winning a battle, then Jaden Schwartz making a deft pass to spring the 2-on-1 rush for his third point in two games since returning from injury, and then it’s just perfect execution by Tanev and Larsson.
It’s plays like this, from guys who aren’t known as exceptional offensive players, that remind us just how incredibly good at hockey you have to be to play in the NHL.
Takeaway #3: “Fourth” line strikes
We wrote last game about the depth of the forward lines now that Jaden Schwartz is back in the lineup, and the only line that didn’t score against the Buffalo Sabres was the de facto “fourth” line of Kartye, Jared McCann, and Andre Burakovsky.
As mentioned above, Kartye scored the opening goal of the game after a pass from McCann, and while it wasn’t the prettiest goal in the world, it was an important one in the script of this game. The goal came after a minor tweak to the line for this game, in which McCann moved to center and Kartye went back to the wing.
Interestingly, three of the four lines again contributed goals on this night, with only the Tomas Tatar / Matty Beniers / Jordan Eberle line coming up empty this time (Tatar thought he had another highlight-reel goal in the third period, but the puck was lodged under Kuemper’s pad).
Last game, it was the Kartye / McCann / Burakovsky line that was held off the scoresheet, another example of how this four-line system can work. When one line isn’t scoring, another should step up and find the back of the net.
That’s what happened again on Thursday, and the result was even higher vibes than before. Will the Kraken ever lose again?
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.
The vibes are high, Darren, the vibes are high!
Lars is up first on the shootout next time!
Go Kraken!!!
There are now 40 goalies in the league who have played more than 1000 minutes this season… and after giving up just one on twenty-one tonight, Connor Hellebuyck’s .923 is No.2 in the league behind Joey Daccord’s .925.