If you were looking for an inspiring performance from the Seattle Kraken on Monday to reinvigorate your belief that they could make the playoffs, well… you didn’t get that. The Kraken laid an egg for the first 40ish minutes of this game against the New Jersey Devils, ultimately lost 3-1, and dropped themselves farther out of the race.
The first period looked messy, and the second period was even worse. It seemed like the team sort of found its game in the third period, but not until the point when overcoming a three-goal deficit would have been bordering on miraculous. And after a stinker in Philadelphia on Saturday, Seattle’s first game back from the break, you can’t blame this one on rust.
“No, we’re not resting on that crutch tonight,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “Game 2 [since the All-Star break and bye week]. That’s on utter readiness, compete, [being] ready to go… For the first 35 minutes of this hockey game, we weren’t at a level that’s acceptable, and that takes us out of the game.”
It’s not looking good, folks. Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-1 Kraken loss to the Devils.
Takeaway #1: Costly mistakes from young players
It was a tough night for a couple of Seattle’s younger players. Matty Beniers and Ryker Evans each played starring roles on New Jersey goals, and even Hakstol—always reluctant to call out his players directly—made it clear Beniers had blown it on Jack Hughes’s second-period marker that ended up as the game winner.
After Seattle had broken up a rush, Beniers found himself with the puck on his stick and a clear lane ahead of him to either hit the gas and skate it out of the zone or make an outlet pass into the neutral zone. Instead, he came to an almost dead stop, allowing Erik Haula to catch up to him and strip him of the puck.
The Devils quickly transitioned back to offense, and Hughes eventually made an elite play to bank the puck in off Joey Daccord’s mask 48 seconds into the period.
“The turnover came off of his tape, and ultimately… that’s his responsibility,” Hakstol said. “But there’s five guys on the ice that have to be in the right spots in order to move that puck and get it going and look organized.”
Ok, so Hakstol sort of spread around the blame, but that miscue is on Matty. It’s just a lack of awareness for where the opponents are on the ice and the wrong decision to not immediately get his feet moving.
Evans followed that up four minutes later by getting burned up the wall by Timo Meier. Beaten on the play and trying to recover, Evans did well to avoid taking a penalty and actually got a piece of Meier’s shot to slow it down. That may have fooled Daccord, though, because he kicked the rebound on the off-speed pitch right into the slot for Dawson Mercer.
We should also point out that Evans didn’t get much help on the play, and Jamie Oleksiak missed an opportunity to lift Mercer’s stick. Still, it’s a bad read and a slightly too aggressive angle that created the rush.
Mistakes like these will happen for young players, and Evans and Beniers were certainly not alone in committing errors on this night. They have to keep playing, though, and learn from those moments.
Takeaway #2: Another poor offensive showing
Against Philadelphia, the Kraken had a sloppy start to the first period but were playing with decent pace. As the game went on, they got worse at creating offensive opportunities and only took two shots at Cal Petersen in the third period.
Monday’s game had a different script. The first 40 minutes were downright painful to watch, before the Kraken finally woke up in the third when it was extremely unlikely they would get back in the game.
“Really our compete, our execution just took us out of this hockey game for the first 35 minutes,” Hakstol said. “That’s really what led to most of our issues.”
Pepper in a couple ill-timed penalties, including a too-many-men call when two Kraken players jumped over the boards at once, and you have yourself another ugly loss.
“We came apart a little bit in the second period, and that’s something that can happen when things aren’t going well and things don’t look good,” Hakstol said. “You have to find a way to work out of it together, and that’s what the third period looked like to a certain degree, not to our level. But that was the positive of it.”
For the second game since the break, Seattle just wasn’t generating much of anything. Through those first two periods, there was such little push that goalie Nico Daws—a 23-year-old with a 3.12 goals-against average and .896 save percentage in 34 career games—looked completely untested.
Takeaway #3: They look like sellers
We’ve held out optimism that this team would find its game again after the break and get itself right back in the playoff bubble with a win streak. But after these two games against the Flyers and the Devils, the outlook is bleaker than ever.
It’s hard not to wonder at what point general manager Ron Francis starts pulling the trigger on selling off his expiring contracts. In theory, he may get better value for veterans like Alex Wennberg and Justin Schultz if he moves them now, when there’s an extra month of service time left in the season that they can provide to their future teams (Schultz may be more important to the Kraken now, though, if Brian Dumoulin’s lower-body injury causes him to miss significant time).
As of the writing of this story, the Kraken had dropped to six points out of the last wild card spot, with three teams to jump over in order to get back into the picture. How far do they need to sink for Francis to make moves?
“I think, regardless of where the standings are, I think we just have to focus on our game,” Oleksiak said. “It’s a test for us, in terms of adversity and character, how we respond to it. And I think it’s a good opportunity for us [to play again Tuesday against the New York Islanders]. So we’ve just got to focus on one game at a time and take it from there.”
There’s still a chance they can turn this thing around, but man, that was not a strong performance. If the Kraken players want to send the message to Francis and his staff that they intend to make the playoffs and should be kept together, they better do it in one of the next two games on this road trip. The longer they wait to deliver that information, the more likely it is that players get traded away. Once that happens, the towel will have been thrown in on the season.
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.
This team has a history of starting slow out of the gate in games, and now they’re doing it after having a ton of time off to re-energize, get healthy, and work on things.
Other than one nice winning streak, players seem disinterested.
Are the younger players showing progress while they’re up at this level? Doesn’t seem like it.
There are a ton of other things I could list, but since I’m on my phone I’ll keep it brief 😊.
At some point soon the coaching staff needs to be called into question for these things.
On the bright side… we won the second half of the game and didn’t get shut out.
I’m gonna hold out until the end of this road trip to “turn the page”… but a “Who Says No” Patreon Mailbag might be just around the corner, eh?
I almost fell out of my chair when Eddie O suggested they should pull Joey after the third goal and bring in Grubauer.
First, the “onslaught” through thirty minutes was the problem, not the goaltending. Pulling him would’ve been a senseless “kick-in-the-nuts”.
Second, as Olczyk himself pointed out, Grubauer hasn’t played in a game in months. Dropping him into that maelstrom would’ve also been a senseless “kick-in-the-nuts”. In the five minutes following that third goal, Joey stopped ten shots on net and more than a full expected goal against. That could’ve been some “welcome back”!
Third, they play tomorrow!
“Gru, sorry about that ‘kick-in-the-nuts’ last night. I know you’ve been eyeing this game for almost two weeks… but forget about that Red Devil bloodbath – and just stop the puck”.
Or
“Joey, sorry about that ‘kick-in-the-nuts’ last night. We thought pulling you after three goals for that guy who hasn’t played in over two months would really send a message to the guys… about how much we believe in you. Now forget about that hook – and just stop the puck”.
On the broadcast, they seemed a little surprised Joey was in net for the third. Wow! For the record, he finished with a .919 and 1.42 goals saved above expected.
Go Kraken!!!
I got the feeling that they believed the game was over and it’s really just about practice time for a goalie that’s been sidelined. Joey was very good again and not deserving of even considering pulling him, way off base thinking. Like you said it would have been a very odd message to the team… all right we’re finished here let’s call the rest of this game practice…. 😂
I agree that the “practice time” idea was likely what they – mostly Eddie O – were thinking, but for the reasons I mentioned, it was a terrible idea. I’m not on the road trip, but even I immediately recognized they play tomorrow. With a back-to-back, pulling the goalie has to be more than a “convenience”. Add in all the other stuff… just eye-rolling.
It is sure looking like the coach has lost the room. It was almost more frustrating to see them come to life after mailing it in all game then it was to watch the first 45 minutes. I know they have more in the tank then they are showing at the moment, heads are down motivation looks low. I saw good flashes from just about everyone tonight but really just flashes. Interesting thinking about who gets traded at or before the deadline but it’s also going to be interesting to see how long H’s rope is.
The Kraken appear stuck in the worst possible place, the middle.
Actually, they’ve improved to No.9 in the draft since before the All-Star break, up from No.11.
The most they could realistically improve their lottery odds is from 5% (current) to 8.5% (5th). No way they can pass the putrid quartet of CBJ, ANA, CHI, and SJS. And there really isn’t a huge difference between picking 6th and picking 9th. Also, in mid-March, their schedule gets easier again. They will inevitably rack up some useless standing points in the season’s garbage time, even playing AHL players and backups, like they did in Season 1.
I agree on the odds, lousy, and lousier odds aren’t really worth a thought.
On the schedule, Buffalo, Ottawa, and Seattle were all expected to be better than their record and Arizona has been better than expectation… so I don’t know if I can make any assumption about how those four teams will perform down the stretch.
On the “difference”. The difference between six and nine is four. I know the math would say three, but it’s actually four.* At six they have four players to choose from who they think may have dropped as opposed to possibly only one (or zero) of those players remaining at nine. Matvei Michkov is an example of this. Because of circumstance, he is clearly a player who dropped in the draft. At No.8, the Capitals would have almost certainly taken him, but they didn’t have that option. At No.7, the Flyers did… or they could have taken Ryan Leonard (Caps pick) instead. The point being, as much as we all peruse the “draft rankings” and lump the “tiers” together, the teams have their own lists. As good as Seattle seems to be at evaluating prospects, there may well be a “first tier” player from their list at six. There it is very doubtful will be a “first tier” player at nine. This is especially true if you look at the defensemen this year. Depending on who you read, there are two stud right-shot defenseman and a unicorn at the top of the draft. At six, there’s a decent chance they’ll be able to get one of them, and maybe it’s even their first or second rated choice. At nine those guys are are all gone and they’re probably looking at a “next tier” left-shot defenseman, a top winger, or the fourth center in the draft. I feel like in this draft, every spot counts… but hey, they might still make the playoffs! – and none of this will matter.
*Just kidding about the “fuzzy math” difference being four.
Go Kraken!!!
After Borgen scored the only goal he skated to the bench for his high-5 and they didn’t even seem remotely excited. They are in a really sad spot right now and I feel like they just don’t know how to get themselves out of it. They have to find another way to motivate themselves, besides winning because clearly that isn’t going to work. IMO they need a team leader – a captain who will rally them, keep them motivated and working hard. They seem like they’re wandering.
That is completely standard hockey practice not to celebrate a goal that only gets you within 2 (except if it’s momentous for some other reason, like if Evans had gotten his first NHL goal). Looking too happy about a goal when you’re still down 2 is the kind of thing that gets you yelled at by the coach and vets. Don’t get me wrong, they are indeed playing terribly right now, but Borgen’s lack of happiness/celebration after his goal does not mean anything.
My point was that they didn’t seem to care which seems par for the course for them on every level right now.
Before we sell how about canning the POS coach we have, he is so lost on what to do. People mention lack of emotion – urgency, well just look at the stoic figure we have behind the bench. Who in the hell wants to play for a coach that acts like he could care less. Sick of this guy. If no coaching change I’m done with being a season ticket holder after this year.
I completely agree, I didn’t follow the flyers when H was a coach but from what I’ve heard others say is that the flyers were a very streaky team when H was coaching them……. Sound familiar? I feel that he is very reluctant to alter his game plan and just tries the same things over and over hoping that next time it works. How long have we been watching the same power play with almost the exact same set ups… all year. I’ve been wondering why we haven’t see movement and cycling on the PP, last game we added that and our PP looked much more dangerous I thought. But it took all year to this point watching players just sit stagnant passing the puck from poor position to another poor position before getting a sub par shot or a turnover. When it takes 50 games to try to fix something that hasn’t been working…. This isn’t even getting into how he seems unable to get the team ready to start the game. I feel sometimes it’s a bad coaching strategy asking his players to sit back and read the game but I’m really not sure.
My initial thought to JAMS’ comment above was that this is an overreaction.
But how can they play so poorly for the same coach when they played so inspired this time last year? They’ve been listless and lazy this entire season. Forechecking has been non-existent, they seem very disorganized and sloppy exiting their own end, and they don’t cycle the puck in offensive end well (they made a living doing this last year). Their personnel aren’t drastically different from last year – yes, they lost their 4th line, but this can’t be the sole cause for their lack of success. They have regressed significantly, and the team is in no better shape than their inaugural season. Don’t see where any of their draft picks will change their fortunes. Ryker Evans and Shane Wright could be decent but they’re not franchise-changing talents.
There’s no obvious explanation for what’s happened above. If it’s inexplicable, then we have to look at the coach. So maybe it is time for a change; Kevin Dineen would be my first choice for a new coach.
We have someone in the valley that I wouldn’t mind taking a look at. I wonder if we can send H to the valley and bring Bylsma up 😂
Hakstol is starting to look like a coach with a very thin playbook. Playing Yamamoto at center when you have Jared McCann? Insisting on top line minutes for Matty when he’s still a young player in a sophomore slump? Moving Turbo up and down the lineup like he’s Tye Kartye? This team has good players (a couple on D not so good) and I don’t think they are to blame, though Hakstol would like us to think that. How much longer do we have to hear “we didn’t start on time” and “we didn’t execute tonight?”Maybe he should be admitting some fault of his own. For example…
1. Tatar-McCann-Eberle is a good line. McCann is a natural center who can win face offs. Hak doesn’t like this line. He stubbornly wants Matty with Ebs and put Canner on a wing. It makes no sense. Hak grasping at straws.
2. Schwartz-Wennberg-Burakovsky is a good line. Why tinker with that? Wennberg is a solid playmaking center and you have two Stanley Cup champions. Why would you switch Turbo with Schwartz? Hak grasping at straws.
3. Tolvanen-Gourde-Bjorkstrand has been a good line, and even Hakstol has resisted his urges to tinker with it.
4. Kartye-Beniers-Tanev/Yamamoto is actually a really interesting line. It potentially frees up Matty from having to face other teams’ top two lines . Matty and Karts also have some obvious chemistry, and could be playing on the same for years to come. You add Turbo for some veteran presence and his ability to disrupt (plus maybe step up for Matty when needed).
Oleksiak turns over the puck almost every time he touches it. Do we ever see him get benched or even sit out a couple of shifts? He should have been scratched about 20 times already, but it never happens.
The biggest issue this team faces today is coaching. Changing players isn’t going to help…other than somehow unloading Oleksiak, Dumoulin and Schultz, who are below average D-men taking too much salary.