The Kraken took what should probably be considered a “good” standings point from the Detroit Red Wings on Monday after getting a tying goal from Jaden Schwartz at 7:25 of the third period to force overtime. But with their current circumstances, Seattle can no longer afford to leave anything table, and this is another game where it feels like the group did just that.
“The point is a real important point,” Hakstol said. “It’s disappointing to lose the point in overtime, but the point that we got is valuable.”
Seattle had the better of the chances on this night afternoon (we’re still confused about exiting Climate Pledge Arena to find daylight), and it had a golden opportunity on the power play with 1:44 left in regulation and then 16 seconds at 4-on-3 in overtime but couldn’t convert.
Remember when the Kraken had a two-goal lead against the St. Louis Blues at home on Jan. 26 and ended up losing 4-3 in overtime? This game had a different script, but it is similar in that the second point was right there for the taking and slipped away. By the way, the Blues are still the team Seattle needs to be targeting, and they lost 4-2 to Toronto on Monday. So, the Kraken gained a point on St. Louis, but again… that second point sure would have been swell.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-3 Kraken overtime loss to the Red Wings.
Takeaway #1: Back and forth, Kraken chasing
The Kraken flew out of the gate in this game, but Alex Lyon made some outstanding saves in the early going, robbing Eeli Tolvanen, Andre Burakovsky, and Jordan Eberle to keep the game scoreless. That is, of course, until Moritz Seider one-timed a Patrick Kane pass from the blue line that eluded Joey Daccord.
It was hard to tell if the puck changed angles off Tolvanen, who was partially screening Daccord. It almost looked like Joey was off his angle on the play, which is why we have a feeling it may have taken a deflection.
Either way, eye balls and analytics agree it wasn’t Daccord’s best game of the season. Pucks were bouncing off of him more than usual, and his .875 save percentage was his eighth lowest of the campaign. He was also on the minus side of the “goals saved above expected” stat at a -1.72, according to Natural Stat Trick.
That Seider goal set the tone for the game and put Detroit in the driver’s seat. From there, it was a chase for the Kraken all game long.
Fortunately for the Kraken, Yanni Gourde got Lyon to bite on a beautifully executed fake slap shot during a 6-on-5 delayed penalty situation, and Schwartz was gifted a yawning cage for the equalizer.
That’s when we started to envision the Kraken coming away with a victory, but as has been the case so many times this season, Seattle just couldn’t get that clutch goal late, even with a power play in the waning minutes.
Once the game got to overtime, and the Red Wings killed the remaining 16 seconds of Olli Maatta’s brutal cross-checking penalty, you just knew a game-winner was coming for Detroit. Sure enough, the Kraken defense had a moment of apparent disinterest, and Ben Chiarot one-timed a Dylan Larkin pass through Daccord’s wickets.
Takeaway #2: Jared McCann is cooking
It was a big day for Jared McCann, who had two goals and several solid looks at a potential hat trick in the third period. He extended his point streak to five games (4-2—6) and scored goals No. 23 and 24 on the season.
He’s been playing especially well since getting elevated back onto a line with Jordan Eberle and Matty Beniers, and you can tell he’s really feeling it right now. He wants the puck on his stick to fire off his wicked snap shot as often as possible.
On his power-play goal in the first period, McCann tried for a seam pass that missed Burakovsky on the far side. But Burakovsky recovered the puck off the boards and got it up to Vince Dunn. From there, there was nowhere else that puck was going other than back to McCann. Once he got it, he picked his spot and clanked it off the far post and in behind Lyon.
He followed that up by whacking a Jamie Oleksiak rebound through Lyon’s five hole in the second period to tie the game at 2-2.
McCann now leads the team in goals by a whopping 10 (Tolvanen is second on the team with 14). Assuming good health, McCann is a shoo-in to hit at least 30 goals again this season after potting 40 in 2022-23. Could he reach 35 or more?
Takeaway #3: Ding dong
You know who looked downright scary for the Red Wings in this game? Former Seattle Kraken winger Daniel Sprong, who surely got some extra joy out of scoring Detroit’s third goal of the game against his old club.
The goal came off a 2-on-1 rush with Christian Fischer, and we saw the blistering shot that helped him score 21 goals in 66 games as a fourth-liner for Seattle last season.
**Author’s note: That’s an egregiously bad caption by the Red Wings social media team. YOU SAY “DING DONG” OR YOU SAY NOTHING!
Anyway, Sprong wasn’t made available for comment after the game, but his coach, Derek Lalonde, has been gushing over him the past couple days.
Here’s what Lalonde said about Sprong on Sunday: “Great [fit], added depth, his scoring is a gamebreaker at times. I think it’s a credit to him. He’s averaging almost one and a half to two minutes more than where he was last year on a playoff team, and I think he’s earned that with him being a little more responsible away from the puck too.”
And here’s what Lalonde said Sunday after the game: “Great on the finish, and that’s what [Sprong] does… He doesn’t need much for offense, and he had some more looks in the third that could have iced the game.”
We’ve said it many times before, but Sprong was one of our favorite players to cover last season, so we’re perhaps a bit biased. But, we think it was a mistake for the Kraken to let him go. They sure could use his scoring right now…
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.