“Just when I thought I was out… They pull me… BACK IN!” Ok, but seriously, we don’t know what to make of this Seattle Kraken team right now. After sweeping the season series against the Boston Bruins by fighting tooth and nail for a 4-3 shootout victory, the Kraken are back to five points from a playoff spot. That’s still a huge mountain to climb, though, and the NHL trade deadline is looming ever closer.
The players aren’t doing a great job of giving clarity to their general manager on what he should do in advance of that March 8 deadline. They handily knocked off the high-flying Canucks, followed that up by laying an egg against the Wild, and then rebounded for a thrilling come-from-behind win over another of the best teams in the league, the Boston Bruins, on Monday.
“Our level never really changed throughout the game,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We competed very hard, the confidence level was good… [We got] timely saves, timely plays, collectively and individually. That gets it done for a big two points.”
We’ll pause our What should this team do at the deadline? questions here, and instead just talk about what happened Monday. Here are our Three Takeaways from a thrilling 4-3 Kraken shootout win over the Bruins.
Takeaway #1: A big night for Grubi
If this team stays in the playoff race beyond the deadline, it will be interesting to see how Hakstol’s goalie usage evolves. There have been interesting twists and turns in this saga throughout the season, with Daccord rising to near-star levels during Grubauer’s injury absence, then Grubauer returning and not getting many opportunities to play with Joey having seized the net.
Now, Daccord has had a couple of his less-stellar outings of the season in a row, and Grubauer has been playing like he wants the crease back.
“[Grubauer was] solid all the way through,” Hakstol said. “Really solid, some big saves at the right times, three for three in the shootout. I mean, there’s not much more we can ask for from Grubi tonight.”
32 shots against isn’t a massive volume, and his .31 goals saved above expected isn’t all that dazzling of a number. But Grubauer came up with some gigantic stops at critical junctures in the game, and he also shut down both of Boston’s Charlies (Coyle and McAvoy) and sealed the win by kicking away David Pastrnak’s second cheeky chip shot of the game.
Pastrnak scored the game’s first goal with almost the exact same move he made in the shootout, pulling the puck behind him and then sending a soft wrist shot meant to deceive the netminder.
“He came in way slower than in the game,” Grubauer said of the shootout attempt. “So [he had] a little bit more time to make a move in the shootout. But this guy has so many tricks in the bag. You don’t expect him to do the same thing twice.”
Grubauer’s biggest saves came A.) with the game tied 2-2 in the third period, when he slid to his left and robbed the face-licking Brad Marchand twice (seen below), and B.) when he confidently waffleboarded away a Jake DeBrusk breakaway opportunity.
Hakstol tends to lean heavily on one goalie at a time. Early in the season, it was Grubauer. Then Grubauer went out, and Daccord took the net and helped save the season. Now Grubi seems to be heating up.
What happens next?
Takeaway #2: Burakovsky has to score soon
On a night when Oliver Bjorkstrand and Andre Burakovsky swapped places in the lineup (with Bjorkstrand making a rare departure from his usual line with Eeli Tolvanen and Yanni Gourde), Bjorkstrand broke a nine-game goalless drought, and Burakovsky notched his third assist in four games.
Bjorkstrand’s goal came at a huge moment and looked for a fleeting few minutes like it would be the game-winner.
“It’s nice,” Bjorkstrand said. “I think I’ve been struggling a little bit, so sometimes it’s just getting that goal, and it kind of gives you a boost. I felt like I was able to create some chances today and build momentum off that, and good things happened.”
Bjorkstrand’s goal didn’t hold up as the winner because Coyle deflected a Pastrnak shot in with 2:52 left, comically tricking Boston fans into throwing their hats on the ice. But Seattle recovered from that letdown quickly and looked awesome through much of an exciting OT period.
Meanwhile, Burakovsky has perhaps been Seattle’s second-best forward (behind Jared McCann) since the All-Star break/bye week, and yet he still remains mired with ONE GOAL in 27 games on the season.
The good news is that he’s started to chip in with assists, and we believe the floodgates are going to open soon. He’s getting so many looks, one is bound to go in sooner or later.
“About 10 minutes ago, we just said we’re going to bring a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in, I think, maybe for practice on Tuesday,” Hakstol joked, referencing a mix-up between Pedro Cerrano and Jake Taylor in the movie Major League.
For folks like Sound Of Hockey’s John Barr, who hates funny things, the bit in the movie is this: power hitter Cerrano can’t hit a curveball, so he requests a live chicken to sacrifice to the god Jobu, who he believes can help him break his slump. But Taylor misunderstands the request and gets him a bucket of Colonel Sanders’ finest instead. Needless to say, the KFC offering does not break Cerrano’s slump.
With the way Burakovsky has been struggling to score, Seattle may want to jump right to the live chicken.
“He’s just got to keep doing the things that he’s doing right,” Hakstol said, more seriously. “The puck’s not going in, he’s hitting posts, he’s hitting bodies at net front. The big thing for him is continue possessing the puck, attack the net, get inside a little bit more, and keep shooting the puck. And good things will happen for him.”
Personally, I would recommend that Burakovsky simply says, “F*** you, Jobu! I do it myself.” That’s what ultimately worked for Cerrano in the fictional film about a totally different sport, so surely it would work for Burakovsky.
Takeaway #3: A successful goalie interference challenge!
I haven’t kept stats on this (I feel like Alison has?), but anecdotally, it sure feels like the Kraken lose goalie interference challenges wayyyyyyy more than they win them. After former Kraken Morgan Geekie appeared to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead (in what could have made for an incredible storyline if it had stood and gone as the winning goal), Hakstol asked the officials to take another look at the play.
On a partial breakaway, Geekie deked and shot, slammed into Grubauer, then pushed the puck over the line as he was falling to the ice.
Grubauer was surprised after the game when we told him it was his former teammate, Geekie, who had run into him.
“Was that Geeks?” Grubauer inquired. “I mean, you never know these days what the call is going to be, if it’s called interference or not. I didn’t even see or notice that he touched the puck a second time. I think that was a great call by Toronto. It could have been a turning point of the game here.”
By the way, it was something of a rough night for Geekie, who took a tripping penalty, had a goal negated, was a minus-one, and got hit in the face with a shot from Kevin Shattenkirk.
He did get a nice tribute video from the Kraken, though, so perhaps that was a consolation prize. We always liked that guy.
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.