If the Seattle Kraken get hot enough down the stretch to make the playoffs, we will all remember their win against the big bad Boston Bruins in their barn on Feb. 15 as a signature moment of the 2023-24 season. Heck, we all remember the team’s 3-0 win at TD Garden on Jan. 12, 2023, which was then Seattle’s seventh win in a row and Boston’s first home loss of the entire 2022-23 season.
The circumstances of this one are a little different, but it’s a massive victory nonetheless. Seattle is at a stage where it feels like any loss could signal to the front office that it’s time to give up and start selling expiring contracts. But this result over one of the league’s best teams staves off any such decisions for at least a little longer.
The Kraken very much owe this win to their two Boston-area natives, Joey Daccord and Matty Beniers. Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken win over the Bruins.
Takeaway #1: Joey dazzled
The legend of Joey Daccord continues to grow throughout the Kraken sphere. As a kid, he grew up idolizing Boston sports teams, including the Bruins, and going to games at TD Garden. Thursday marked the first time he had ever played in that building, and with family and friends in attendance, he put together a marvelous performance.
“It was a really special night,” an emotional Daccord said. “I’m just kind of trying to put everything all in perspective. I grew up through and through a Boston sports fan, I was here when the Bruins won the Cup, I went to Game 6. It’s just… yeah it’s been a long road. I’m obviously pretty old for a rookie, and for my first time playing in the Garden, it couldn’t have been more special.”
Like Philipp Grubauer on Tuesday, you could tell early on that Daccord was locked in. The high-flying Bruins peppered him with shots in the first period, racking up 16 in the first 20 minutes. Boston scored its lone goal during that onslaught, but even that came after Daccord had robbed David Pastrnak with what looked like one of his best saves of the season. It took a bad bounce back to Pastrnak, though, and then pinballed around until it ended up in the net.
That’s it. That was all that got through the Kraken netminder, other than a few shots that hit posts and stayed out.
“He had lot of work early,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “He had less work as the game went on and in the third period, but maybe his biggest save came in the third period on 88… He’s continued the type of play that he’s provided for us over the past couple of months, and he was a real catalyst for us tonight.”
The third-period save Hakstol was reference was this sprawling glove save on Pastrnak:
In all, Joey stopped 36 of 37 shots, and had a whopping 3.16 goals saved above expected.
Here are more of his highlights from the game, for your viewing enjoyment.
Takeaway #2: Matty magic
Is Matty Beniers back? There have been a lot of questions about the 21-year-old sophomore center’s offensive production this season, which has fallen off a cliff after his Calder Trophy-winning season in 2022-23.
But since a rough game in New Jersey on Monday, in which he turned the puck over to Erik Haula and then watched Jack Hughes score an elite goal for the Devils, Beniers has four points in two games. He had Seattle’s only goal against the Islanders on Tuesday and notched three points (1-2—3) Thursday in his hometown.
Asked if these couple games could help him get going offensively, Beniers laughed and said, “I hope so… I think I’ve just been playing the right way and been able to get some points and everything you guys see. As long as we’re winning, I’m happy.”
It’s no coincidence, though, that two of Beniers’ better games of the season have led to Seattle getting two important wins. He is a key piece of this team, and it needs him producing. So, seeing him potting a couple and creating opportunities lately has been promising.
The way he produced Thursday also indicated that he is starting to feel it. On the 3-on-1 with Eeli Tolvanen and Oliver Bjorkstrand, his give-and-go return pass to Tolvanen was executed perfectly and placed right in Tolvanen’s wheelhouse. Swayman had no chance of stopping it, thanks to the way that Beniers quickly got the pass back in a spot where Tolvanen could unload for his 14th goal of the season.
And Beniers’ goal was a thing of beauty. Alex Wennberg came up with a daring shot block, then found Matty behind Boston’s first layer of defense. Before he shot, he made a hard cut to his right to improve his shooting angle and sniped it past Swayman to effectively put the nail in Boston’s coffin at 8:36 of the third period.
“It’s nice to see the offensive production,” Hakstol said. “You can feel good about that. And again, that play is at the right time… But I liked his 200-foot game tonight, and that’s what we really value within his abilities.”
Can Matty get on a roll now? And will that spark the rest of the team to also get on a roll?
Takeaway #3: An important win
This was a big one. The ice was tilted in Boston’s favor for much of this game, but the way you beat good teams is by getting outstanding goaltending and taking advantage of offensive opportunities when they present themselves.
The Kraken did just that, with a power-play goal off a rush by Jordan Eberle in the first period, then the 3-on-1 goal by Tolvanen and the quick-strike goal by Beniers in the third. For their efforts, the Kraken got to fly home in good spirits after salvaging four of eight points on a trip that started off in miserable fashion.
“It was a really good win,” Beniers said. “Great to come into Boston and beat one of the best games in the league right now. So it’s obviously a confidence booster and a testament that we can play the right way and win games like that.”
The two points were a big help in the standings for the Kraken, who continued their steep uphill climb to try to get back into the playoff picture.
“It was really important in terms of the road trip itself,” Hakstol said. “We finished the road trip [2-2-0], and just for our group to continue to— I feel like we’re building momentum.”
The Kings and Blues—the two teams in the last two wild card spots—each won Thursday, so no ground was gained on those clubs, and the Kraken remained four points back. But the Predators and Flames, who also were ahead of the Kraken entering play on Thursday, each lost (Nashville was embarrassed 9-2 at home by Dallas, and Calgary lost 6-3 at home to lowly San Jose). What that means is that the Kraken jumped over Calgary and are now tied with Nashville.
An NHL season is such a roller coaster. Two games ago, we were ready to throw in the towel and call it a season. Now, we’re starting to believe again that this team can make the playoffs.
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.
Joey apparently wanted to remind us that he’s claimed the #1 roll. Very nice work from Daccord. I’ll say it again, I don’t think Joey is playing above his head I think he’s the real deal.
How did Burakovsky win the hat last night??? He was mostly invisible all night and turned the puck over so many times, very odd decision. Apparently because he blocked his first shot of the year 😂. In the video clip it was Gru giving him the hat, is it the last player to have the hat that picks who gets it next? I could see Gru not wanting to give it to Daccord but how about Matty?
Speaking of Matty he looked great, was getting into dirty areas and winning pucks. He didn’t look afraid and resembled the Matty of last season very nice to see. Daccord won us the game but Matty was doing his part.
According to the Instagram Grubi said it was for his first blocked shot of the season. Burakovsky’s speech after that was worth a chuckle.
Exactly my point, is your first blocked shot of the season at game 54 something to be proud of? Yes I know he missed a lot of games and it was really just a joke to give it to him but….. there were players deserving of the Hat. How about Mattys best game of the year?
At one point they explained that it’s not supposed to be a “player of the game” hat, but rather a guy that makes a big play in a big moment, or something like that. Sometimes they just give it to the best player, but not always. And yes, it’s whoever had it last.
It’s just something fun for the locker room and team morale. I wouldn’t take the hat too seriously. It’s not meant to be scandalous 😂. Pretty sure none of the players feelings get hurt if they don’t get the hat.
STL and NSH playing each other Saturday. You can bet that game is going to overtime.
Thanks Darren, I understand the Hat a little more now.
I watched the game and thought “Man, what a rollercoaster season”. Then came here and read the exactly same thing 🙂
Listen to offers….
Win games….
Decision time comes at the end of this homestead.
Joey! Joey! Joey!
My takeaways:
1. Kraken scored all 5 goals in that game.
2. It feels great to have good goaltending! Makes you wonder if we should have at least rotated Driedger into more games Season 1 instead of stubbornly playing Gru game after game. Hindsight is 20/20.
2. Schwartz-Wennberg-Burky line poses a real threat opposing teams have to somehow respond to. Hak will probably tinker with that next game.
3. Starting to notice Dumoulin does a great job disrupting the momentum of our offensive zone entries by holding pucks much longer than he should.
4. We shouldn’t be selling at the deadline, unless it’s trading Oleksiak and Dumoulin to acquire someone like Chychrun…maybe for those two and maybe if we throw in a 1st and a 3rd? Or we can try to unload them to someone like Detroit for some of their awesome prospects they will never have spots for. I would consider throwing in Schultz, too, but then we might have to bring up Ottovainen, and CV probably needs him for their run.