We’re honestly not sure if it was great timing or terrible timing for Elmo to ask us how we were doing.
Tuesday was a tough night for Kraken fans, who watched their team mostly dominate the first 40 minutes against the bottom-dwelling San Jose Sharks, but a scoreless first two periods left the Seattle faithful feeling uneasy. If you watched that game rooting for the visitors, you knew what was coming in the third period.
Indeed, Marc-Edouard Vlasic broke through with a seeing-eye shot from the left point at 7:27 of the third period, bringing devastation and big reactions from across Kraken Nation. In the end, Seattle sent 32 pucks toward goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, finding zero offensive success on the night and getting shutout for the fifth time this season.
It WAS a trap!
The Kraken should have listened to Admiral Ackbar.
Every indication entering this game pointed toward Tuesday being a trap game for the Kraken. It was the last game before a long break, and Seattle’s players surely had their minds at least partially wandering to the vacations they had planned (well, except Oliver Bjorkstrand, who famously had to cancel his trip to San Diego in favor of a visit to Toronto for the NHL All-Star Game).
Mix in an almost empty building, an assumption the Kraken would win, and recent memories of the last time Seattle played San Jose (a 7-1 bloodbath after which the Sharks left Climate Pledge Arena feeling embarrassed), and you just knew this game could go in the wrong direction.
Coach Dave Hakstol acknowledged after Seattle’s win over Columbus on Sunday that bringing full focus would be important for the game Tuesday, and we do think the players brought a decent effort. It wasn’t the best they’ve had all season, but it was enough to beat San Jose most nights. Still, they didn’t do enough to get inside and get Blackwood moving in his goal crease, and the result was an uninspiring offensive performance.
Sure, the Sharks are one of the worst teams in the NHL, but they’re also professional hockey players who came into Tuesday with a chip on their shoulder. They defended well and got great goaltending, and the Kraken didn’t have a strong enough performance to break through.
Stay the course
So what should we feel about this dreadful loss? Is it truly time to jump ship and call for an organizational fire sale? Should Seattle cut ties with players on expiring contracts and play the Shane Wrights, Ryker Evanses, and Ryan Wintertons of the world?
Our short answers to each of the three questions above are, “Angry for now, but move on,” “No,” and “No.”
Kraken fans should be incensed about the outcome of that game, but it is not yet time to jump ship, and it is not yet time to sell off veteran players for draft capital. The Kraken’s playoff chances are hanging by a thread, but one game (or even a handful of games) does not an 82-game season make.
As terrible as that game felt—and don’t get us wrong, it was terrible to lose to the Sharks on a night when the Kraken just had to have the two points—it didn’t do that much damage to the team’s playoff outlook. It was a massive missed opportunity because the Kraken could have jumped back to level in the standings with Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Nashville, who all have 54 points (worth noting, the Kraken and Predators have each played 50 games, whereas the Blues have played 49, and the Kings have played just 47). But, it certainly didn’t eliminate Seattle from contention, and a lot can happen in Seattle’s remaining 32 games.
We aren’t trying to sugarcoat the loss; it was bad, horrendous, painful… whatever negative adjective you want to use to describe it, it was that. But it didn’t cost Seattle the season.
Hakstol talked us off the ledge
Every now and then, Hakstol’s level-headed approach to media availability is just what Kraken fans and media need. Even I—a perpetual optimist about the team’s chances—was ready to throw in the towel after that loss.
But when asked if he wants his players to spend the break dwelling on this performance, Hakstol guffawed and put things into perspective. He said Seattle lost a hockey game to a group that worked their tails off and defended hard, and the Kraken were disappointed to have lost. But did he want the team to sulk about the loss during their time away from the rink?
“We’ve worked extremely hard over the last couple of months, digging in and doing some good things to put ourselves in a position [to compete for a playoff spot]… It’s a sprint to the finish from there. It’s a 32-game playoff hunt, and for that, I want our guys to wash this pretty quickly, get a little bit of rest, and come back with a great mindset.”
He also used the phrase “control our own destiny,” which the Kraken can still do, even after this inconsistent stretch of play since Seattle’s 13-game point streak ended on Jan. 15.
Post-break games are pivotal
So we aren’t ready to jump ship yet, and the Kraken front office shouldn’t be cutting any ties either. But… BUT… the games after the All-Star pause and bye week will be make or break. The Kraken need to get out of the gate hot after this hiatus, or the time to sell will creep up very quickly.
Thinking back to last season, the Kraken were starting to sputter, having won eight in a row, then dropping four of their last seven before this break. But they won the last game before the All-Star Game, 3-1 over Columbus and went away with good feelings.
They exited the break with a five-game road trip to the East Coast (similar to what they face starting on Feb. 10 this season) and stunk, dropping four of five on the trip and seven out of 10 from Feb. 7 to Feb. 26. If the Kraken do something similar after the break this season, they will be cooked. So, those games on the other side are critical.
How are you feeling, folks? What’s your response to Elmo?
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.