There were several positive storylines in this Seattle Kraken 4-2 win over the San Jose Sharks.
- Shane Wright returned from Coachella Valley and scored his second NHL goal.
- Vince Dunn returned to the lineup after a 12-game injury hiatus.
- Jordan Eberle registered his 700th career point.
- Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his 20th goal of the season, hitting the milestone for the third year in a row.
- Yanni Gourde returned to the game after taking a Dunn slap shot to the nether regions.
The list goes on and on.
Seattle came out flying in this one and had a chance to put the game out of reach by the end of the first period. The Kraken let the lowly Sharks hang around and get back in it in the second period, but they did batten down the hatches when things started to get hairy and allowed just six shots on goal in the third.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken win over the Sharks.
Takeaway #1: Tolvanen/Beniers/Bjorkstrand line is cooking
The trio of Eeli Tolvanen, Matty Beniers, and Oliver Bjorkstrand has been working quite well together since Beniers replaced Yanni Gourde as the pivot on that line. They struck twice in the first 11:26 of this game, and each temporarily had two points on the scoresheet before the official scorers took away the second assist from Beniers on Bjorkstrand’s goal.
Beniers got Seattle on the board very early, ripping it home after Bjorkstrand and Tolvanen did the hard work on the forecheck.
Beniers helped return the favor to Bjorkstrand 11 minutes later, pushing the lead to 2-0.
It’s one of those where Beniers deserved the point after he kept the play alive and jarred the puck loose to Tolvanen, but officially, it came off a San Jose stick. So, Beniers will have to wait on career point No. 100.
While Seattle’s offense has generally struggled to find consistency, this line has looked very good together on most nights since it was assembled a couple weeks ago. All three players have been contributing, and Beniers has looked more effective in the offensive zone than he has for a lot of this season.
By the way, that’s a pretty goal by Bjorkstrand, who found about three inches worth of space over Mackenzie Blackwood’s shoulder for his 20th tally of the season.
Takeaway #2: Nice night for “the future”
Logan Morrison didn’t play in this one, but all the other “kids” on the Seattle Kraken were noticeable at different moments in the game. Of course, the headliner here is Wright, who played his first NHL game since Nov. 13 and scored his second NHL goal on a beautiful setup with Jordan Eberle, who also registered his 700th point on the play.
Vince Dunn (more on him in a bit) started this play in the defensive zone with a breakout pass to Wright. Wright then passed to Jaden Schwartz in the neutral zone and smartly followed his own pass to support his linemate. Wright made a good second pass to Eberle, and then went hard to the net and made himself available.
Having seen Wright in person in Coachella Valley last week, we thought he looked different than he did in Seattle’s training camp and in his earlier stint this season. He has a little pop in his skating stride now that wasn’t there before, and he’s getting the puck off his stick in a flash, as we saw Monday. He’s clearly getting stronger and more confident, and the (almost) full season in the AHL is doing him good.
“I definitely felt comfortable out there, for sure,” Wright said. “I definitely felt like I belong there, and obviously, playing with [Jaden Schwartz] and Ebs, it’s pretty easy playing with two guys like that. But, yeah, I felt really good today, and obviously happy with the result as well.”
As for the other youngsters, Beniers (as we mentioned) had the early goal, and Tye Kartye also scored what would have been his second goal in three games, but that was negated when a coach’s challenge uncovered that Brandon Tanev was several feet offside on the zone entry.
Finally, how about this little sequence from Ryan Winterton? He wins a board battle and advances the puck out of the zone, then recovers a loose puck and springs Jared McCann for a breakaway.
One thing we’ve heard about Winterton is that the organization likes the way he plays against the wall (we talked to Winterton about that on our recent Sound Of Hockey Podcast interview with him). This was a fine example of why that’s important.
Indeed, it was a good night for the kids.
Takeaway #3: Vince Dunn is back
We do not think it’s a coincidence that this Seattle Kraken season went down the toilet after Vince Dunn took a cheap shot from Martin Pospisil on March 4 and was forced out of the lineup for 12 games.
Seattle’s top defenseman finally returned Monday, and while he looked rusty at times and made some turnovers, he also gave us glimpses of what the Kraken have been missing.
We loved the below shift from Dunn toward the end of the second period. In the clip, he’ll bounce in and out of the frame, but every time he touches the puck, it helps create offense. That starts with Dunn’s first little transition play at Seattle’s blue line and ends with his forecheck below the goal line.
Dunn being back in the lineup is a sight for very sore eyes.
Bonus Takeaway: Poor Yanni
We’ve all experienced some level of getting hit “in the mid-section,” and none of us want to experience it again. We felt this, Yanni.
It was good to see Gourde return to the game after this one.
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.
Shane was a pleasure to watch tonight as he played like he did belong on a top 6 lineand he made some line mates look good in doing so. He is only 20. Go Firebirds. Good job by the the fish stick wielding team as well. We won’t get a scorer in this draft because there are only 5or 6 and they won’t make it out of the top ten. It Never hurts to have 6’7″ defensemen or close to it either.
This felt like a better example of what to expect from Wright compared to last year, and earlier this year. Playing on one of the top two lines with guys with experience/talent that he wasn’t getting on the 4th line in his previous games. It will be interesting to see how he looks against the Kings tomorrow as that’s definitely a tougher matchup for him.
Wright was awesome. Always in front of the net, how about that!
The team’s play in the defensive zone is completely different when Vince Dunn is in the lineup and Ryker Evans can partner with Brian Dumolin. Some of that is that the Sharks are awful in the offensive zone. It is difficult to say how much, but the defensemen–all of them–look like different players when Dunn is in the game.
Compare Wright’s goal to Gretzky’s 801st.