The Seattle Kraken are playing like they don’t want general manager Ron Francis to throw in the towel at the March 8 trade deadline. With points in four straight games (3-0-1), they’ve kept themselves in the playoff hunt and earned another “signature” win Thursday, their second victory in that category during this stretch of improved play (we consider the 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Feb. 15 to be the other one). This one came against the usually high-flying Vancouver Canucks in 5-2 fashion at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.
“That was a solid performance all the way through,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We got good contributions from everybody. Our play with the puck drives a lot of our success tonight as far as moving the puck, taking care of it, making good, hard plays, and getting through the neutral zone. We played fast, and that’s the way we looked tonight for most of the night.”
Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle led the way with seven points between them, and Philipp Grubauer improved to 2-0-0 since his return from injured reserve on Jan. 23 (yes, he has only played two games in a month since being activated).
Here are our Three Takeaways from an impressive 5-2 Kraken win over the Canucks.
Takeaway #1: Jared McCann is cooking
McCann has quietly been on a heater for the last 15 games, in which he’s racked up 22 points (11-10—21), and Thursday marked his first career four-point game. He exudes confidence right now, and as the game went on against Vancouver, you could sense more and more that he was really feeling it.
“I’ve never been a guy to focus on points,” McCann said. “Sometimes, they come, sometimes they don’t. [I just] try to control what I can control, and that’s just my effort.”
Well, his effort has been outstanding ever since he got temporarily “demoted” to a de-facto fourth line for a couple games, and since returning to the top line with Matty Beniers and Eberle, he has been almost unstoppable.
“I think from Day 1, I’m just trying to get him out of his own head,” Eberle said. “He’s very skilled, he has one of the best shots I’ve ever seen. If you can get him to play with some confidence like he is now, he’s a dangerous, dangerous player.”
McCann’s power-play goal got the second period off on the right track for Seattle. The Kraken had temporarily lost the puck in the corner, but Alex Wennberg, Andre Burakovsky, and Jaden Schwartz swarmed Ian Cole and forced him to cough it up. In a desperate attempt to escape the pressure, Cole handed it to the wrong guy in the wrong spot.
McCann was standing all alone in the slot and had time to spin, pick his spot, and wire a perfect shot off the post and in.
That marker put Seattle in the driver’s seat for the first time in the game, and although Vancouver got a lucky goal that pinballed off Justin Schultz and Sam Lafferty and floated over Grubauer, the Kraken deserved everything they got in this contest. So too did McCann, who also set up Vince Dunn and Eberle for goals of their own.
Takeaway #2: Gourde line was humming
After wins, we usually dedicate our Takeaways to players that scored goals or made big saves, but on this night, we were impressed by the Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde, and Eeli Tolvanen line. The trio came up empty on the scoresheet, but every time they were on the ice, they wreaked havoc on Vancouver’s defenders.
“They did what they do,” Hakstol said. ”They go out, they play hard, they take on any different matchup that you want. I mean honestly, they’re coming off of a game [Monday against Detroit] where they weren’t at their best. So we knew tonight that they would have a great effort.”
Most notably, there was a stretch that started with 4:10 left in the first period in which the Canucks could not get out of their zone for about 1:45 of game time. It started with the McCann/Beniers/Eberle line, but they swapped out for a fresh Gourde line, and then Vancouver was stuck.
Every time a Canucks player touched the puck, they were immediately met by one of those three forwards and forced to turn it over. They were buzzing, cycling the puck, and getting shots and tips through to Thatcher Demko. Bjorkstrand even hit the crossbar during the sequence.
So, it did’t result in a goal, but the shift got the ice tilted in Seattle’s favor and set the tone for the rest of the game.
“They’ve grown over time, right?” Hakstol said. “We put them together… I think it was right around Christmastime last year when Tolvy came into the lineup. That line has pretty much stayed together throughout. We’ve moved around a little bit, but they continue to grow with chemistry. And that’s important, and the bigger factor with those guys is their competitiveness, and like I said, when you come off of a night that maybe isn’t your best— those guys are competitive guys, and you saw their contributions tonight and the way they played.”
Takeaway #3: No ground gained
It does feel like the Kraken have gotten themselves onto a pretty good roll over the last four games, in which they’ve knocked off the Islanders, Bruins, and Canucks, and lost in overtime to the Red Wings. And yet, at 59 points in the standings, they remain three behind the Blues for the last wild card spot, while the Predators are now level in points with St. Louis at 62.
Nashville won its third game in a row, 4-1, over the Los Angeles Kings Thursday, and St. Louis took down the Isles 4-0.
Meanwhile, Calgary won 3-2 in overtime over Boston, keeping the Flames level with Seattle, and Minnesota—the Kraken’s next opponent—was idle and will play Friday in Edmonton.
This is exactly why it’s so hard to gain ground at this time of year. Three points sounds like nothing, but when you have multiple teams that are playing for their playoff lives, it turns into a dogfight that’s less about “Which team can win the most?” and more about “Which team can lose the least?”
Seattle is doing its part right now, but it will need to keep rolling for much longer to get back into the playoff picture. The rest of this regular season could be very stressful.
Bonus Takeaway: Canucks weren’t happy
Not to take anything away from the Kraken’s performance, but it’s probably worth noting the Canucks were not happy with the way they played in this game. They’ve had a rough stretch of games lately, and the loss was their fourth in a row, their longest skid of the season.
“I don’t have much to say,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “Not much compete from the guys, and that’s on me. I’ve got to take the blame for that. I didn’t get the guys to compete hard enough, so I’ll take the heat on this one. A lot of no-shows tonight.”
That’s a hilarious quote, by the way. It’s like Tocchet is saying, Hey, everybody, please blame me for the players not showing up to play. It’s my fault. They stunk. But blame me. But they stunk.
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.