Well, that was a lot more fun than any of the home Seattle Kraken games we’ve experienced in a while. The Kraken dominated the lowly Anaheim Ducks, finally snapping their second miserable eight-game skid of the season, and giving their fans reason to cheer at Climate Pledge Arena for the first time since Feb. 29.
Unsurprisingly, the mood in the dressing room after the game was better than it has felt in a long… long time.
“That’s what winning does, right?” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s only one way to get to that feeling, and you have to do the work. You’ve got to grind through. I mean, it’s been a long haul here over the last… seven to 10 days.”
Joey Daccord wasn’t worked too hard, but he stopped all 12 (yes, just 12) of the shots he faced and earned his third career shutout. Plus, he actually got some run support at the other end of the ice.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-0 Kraken win over the Ducks.
Takeaway #1: Something to cheer about
It’s been a tough campaign for Kraken fans, who came in with high hopes that Seattle could build off its trip to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. But 2023-24 got off to a rocky start, and despite some positive stretches here and there, things slowly went sideways before the group started nosediving into the abyss after they lost to Vegas on March 12.
Since then, the group’s effort—particularly at home—has been putrid. But the Kraken looked good on this night, coming out with jump, taking advantage of all the time and space a terrible Ducks team was giving them, and finding the back of the net four times behind John Gibson.
“We had great life,” Hakstol said. “We came out, we played very well right from the start of the game, scoring the first couple goals.”
Watching this team play at home has been tough lately. Yet the home fans have continued to show up and root on their squad, and this night was no different. This was a meaningless contest between two teams going nowhere on a Tuesday night in late March, and the home club was on a 0-6-2 skid. Still, when the Kraken took the ice before the game, you would have thought they were on the verge of winning the Pacific Division with the pop they got from the home crowd.
“We’re in Year 3, and we have one of the greatest fanbases in the National Hockey League,” Hakstol said. “So, these last couple nights before tonight have been difficult here at home.”
They have, indeed, Dave. They have, indeed. It was nice to see and hear CPA truly alive again on Tuesday.
Takeaway #2: Kraken get some offense
In the six previous games, the Kraken potted a whopping seven total goals, scoring just once in every game except the 6-2 loss to Buffalo, when… they scored two (in case that wasn’t clear from the 6-2 final).
On this night, Seattle tilted the ice consistently and outshot the ugly Ducklings by a 3-1 margin.
Leading the way offensively were Matty Beniers and Eeli Tolvanen, who showed some real chemistry on their recently assembled line with Oliver Bjorkstrand. Beniers set up Tolvanen in the slot to make it 1-0 at 7:50 of the first period, and Tolvanen returned the favor off a 3-on-1 rush at 15:55 to stretch the lead to 4-0.
“He’s just a really smart player,” Beniers said of Tolvanen. “So he does a really good job of reading the play and reading off me and Ollie and being in good spots. And you saw tonight, he makes that play back to me, and he’s got the brains for that.”
The duo also combined to create Bjorkstrand’s goal that made it 3-0, giving them each a goal and two assists on the night.
“He’s an unbelievable player,” Tolvanen gushed back at Beniers. “Every time he touches the puck, you have to get open… It’s not a coincidence he won the Calder last year.”
It has been a tough season statistically for Beniers, but it would be nice to see him heat up before the end of this season and head into 2024-25 on a high note.
Takeaway #3: The kids were… pretty good
After Seattle called up Ryan Winterton and Logan Morrison, we were curious to see how Hakstol would utilize them and who he would scratch from the lineup to make room. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Kailer Yamamoto both went out (unsurprising, since they each have spent plenty of time in the press box this season), but Tomas Tatar was also scratched for the first time since being acquired from Colorado.
In went Coachella Valley roommates Morrison and Winterton for their first and fourth NHL games respectively.
“It was a pretty special experience,” Morrison said. “Before [the game], I expected a lot, and it definitely exceeded that. The fans were unbelievable, it’s such a nice rink, and I had a great time.”
Morrison had three shots on goal in 14:21 of ice time, including 3:46 on the power play. He had a couple great looks with the manpower advantage and appeared poised with the puck, especially as the game went on.
“I thought maybe [I was going to get one],” Morrison said. “The one in the third where I came out and just hit the goalie’s glove there, I thought maybe, and then I heard the fans screaming. I don’t know if that was for me or just in general, but that was pretty cool… I had my looks, and I’m pretty happy with that.”
Although they were making up the fourth line, it was a fun way for Hakstol to deploy the two newcomers, grouping them into a trio with fellow rookie and former Firebird Tye Kartye. Again, it was against a very bad Ducks team, but we thought the “kids” line looked solid.
“They’re doing it under the bright lights here, and I’m sure there’s some excitement, some nerves, all of that,” Hakstol said. “I didn’t really see a ton of it. If there was some, which I’m sure there was, they worked through it really quick.”
Bonus Takeaway: My other ride is the Zamboni
Huge shoutout to the Kraken Game Ops department for letting me ride the Zamboni to deliver an intermission “Zamboni and Talk.” Also, congrats to Doug, who was also making his NHL debut driving the resurfacer. He called it “surreal.”
That was an absolute blast.
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.
So good to see Joey get another shutout!
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All four goals on shots from the house with lateral development… nice.
Go Kraken!!!
Can I say that, from the stands, you looked like a total dork riding the zamboni in your suit talking into your phone? But maybe I’m just saying that cuz I’m jealous.
Damn, Foist. Shots FIRED.
These kids alone give me good reason to watch the rest of the games. I thought LoMo in particular was poised and noticeable, but Winterton also had some nice plays. Kartye worked his butt off and made things happen for his linemates. This is what I’ve been craving all year, a reason to hope for the future. The big caveat is they were playing an AHL-caliber team, but if Bellemare gets another minute of playing time over Morrison (unless it’s to save him burning a year on his ELC), I’ll be pissed.
Id say this was one of the easiest goalie games all year, but the Canadiens apparently only had 1.16 xGF as opposed to the Ducks’ 1.65. This game was a win so I’ll try to stay positive and just say that Joey should be getting the vast majority of the starts for the rest of the season.
It’ll be something to see how they do against a Stars team – that actually has a lot to play for right now – in a dreaded Saturday home game this weekend.
ELC years aren’t a factor here. Only 18 and 19 year olds are eligible to have their contracts slide. Because Winterton is 20 and Morrison is 21, this year counts as the first year of their ELC regardless of how many NHL games they play. The same was true of Ryker last year; he’s currently on the second year of his ELC even though he played 0 NHL games last year.
When I realized it was you on the Zamboni, I exclaimed to my husband, “It’s one of the hockey guys!” Hahaha! I wish we had a Zamboni like the one in Tampa Bay that holds several people. The single rider seems lonely and nervous usually. Great to have a win!
A muti rider Zamboni sounds amazing!
I am happy with their 8th in draft position right now. They are about one win away from being 11th. I just hope they develop young players, no serious injuries, and don’t drop further in draft position.
This year is cooked and there seems to be a drop off in talent right around pick 8 or 9.
Totally agree… they’re still 8th on Tankathon and in the NHL standings, but on the Athletic and MoneyPuck respectively they jumped up to 10th and 11th projected after last night’s win. Before the game, both still had them coming 8th.
As much as I loved seeing Joey get the shutout, I don’t think Hakstol is the “long-term” answer for this team and a late surge may just “mask over” what is a major problem – the coaching.
Just as important, there is a bunch of outstanding defensemen at the top of this draft. As poor as our scoring has been, there is no legitimate top-pair prospect in the pipeline. Those guys are very hard to come by and getting one of them in the system should be a huge priority. They’ll all likely be gone before eleventh.
Missing out on all those D-men just to go on a meaningless late run that further delays Hakstol’s inevitable demise until after another miserable start next season… that doesn’t sound great to me.
🤣🤣 you think coaching is the issue: you really are delusional. I can’t even… I’ve seen you comment a ton on here and it’s all drivel not based in reality. The most vocal are usually the most ignorant. You fit that to a T.
@McNubb…
Yet another random reply in the wrong thread.
Please… just stop. It’d be nice if you actually had something to add instead of just taking shots at other people’s opinions.
You say you’ve seen a “ton of my ignorant drivel”… have you actually posted a thought of your own?
As far as I can tell you’re good for nothing but petty chirps…
Seriously… add something… otherwise you’re a joke.
…and Yes… I think coaching is the issue. I don’t think it’s only that. But as I’ve posted before in my drivel… I don’t think the recurrent overtime failures reflect good coaching, I think the “don’t worry about it” message after the Shark’s shutout isn’t good coaching, and I think their offensive “system” this season has been seriously lacking.
To me, it’s pretty easy to see how this guy may not be inspiring much effort or performance from these players.
Other than just vaguely blaming the players… tell me what you think… and do it without just saying, “that’s dumb”.