Sadly for the Seattle Kraken, their win in Anaheim on Friday marked the last time they will play the Ducks this season. Seattle went 4-0-0 against Anaheim and put a cherry on top of that sundae with a 3-1 victory that featured two goals and three points for top prospect, Shane Wright.
After some sloppy play to start the game, Wright’s deflection of an Oliver Bjorkstrand shot at 16:08 of the first period got Seattle on track, and it was all uphill from there. Wright went on to add a second marker and an assist, factoring on all three of Seattle’s goals, while Philipp Grubauer was solid with 16 saves on 17 shots.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-1 Kraken win over the Ducks.
Takeaway #1: Shane Wright Night
We’ve talked quite a bit over the past week about how different Wright has looked, both at the AHL level and now at the NHL level, compared with how he looked in training camp and in his first call-up this season. His skating stride looks more powerful than before, he’s battling to get to the front of the net, and he’s more willing to hold onto the puck (though there are still moments where he’s throwing it away too quickly).
Friday was a big night for the 20-year-old center, who got two goals and briefly thought he may have had his first NHL hat trick. Replay revealed, though, that his pass to the top of the crease in the second period deflected off Matty Beniers’ skate and through Lukas Dostal, so Wright would settle for two goals and an assist. Ho hum.
“He was a confident player tonight,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “I thought he was a confident player with the puck, and he definitely did a good job on the defensive side as well.”
Wright is showing good chemistry with his veteran linemates, Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz.
“Each and every game, we’re always talking,” Wright said. “We’re always kind of growing that chemistry and talking on the bench after shifts, what we see out there, what we think we can do better. And yeah, each game that chemistry is going to grow. And hopefully we can keep rolling here.”
They showed that chemistry on Wright’s second goal Friday when Schwartz set up the youngster with a quick pass, and Wright one-timed it home.
Here, we see one of the attributes of Wright’s game that makes him such a touted prospect. His ability to get the puck off his stick in a flash is what made him a prolific scorer at the junior level and should give hope that he can be a consistent scorer in the NHL.
And the points on this night were nice, but there were also several plays Wright made that didn’t show up in the boxscore that supported Hakstol’s “confident player” statement.
Exhibit A, check out this pass Wright made to Eberle:
Exhibit B, watch this sliding block Wright made on William Lagesson with six minutes left in the game:
Takeaway #2: How about Cale Fleury?
It brought joy to our hearts to see Cale Fleury finally get some game action on Friday, and he performed well in his first NHL contest of the season.
Fleury has had a very strange tenure in the Kraken organization, spending almost two full seasons as a healthy scratch before finally getting passed through waivers to go to Coachella Valley at the start of this season.
He’s shifted from the perpetual healthy scratch to being the guy Seattle calls as insurance, in case one (or more) of its regulars can’t go, which has resulted in him being recalled from Coachella Valley… well… we actually don’t know how many times, but it has been a lot of times, only to be either healthy scratched again or sent right back before a game was even played.
Heck, on NHL Trade Deadline day, Fleury was recalled in case Seattle moved a defenseman, flew to Seattle in time to participate in morning skate, and was sent back down to the Firebirds before the Kraken played the Winnipeg Jets that night.
Finally, with Vince Dunn out Friday (that’s very concerning, being that he only returned from a 12-game hiatus two games ago) and Adam Larsson away for personal reasons, Fleury got a chance to play.
“Cale Fleury’s game tonight may not get a lot of mention, but I thought Cale was really efficient,” Hakstol said, unprompted. “I thought he moved the puck well, I thought he was really confident on the offensive blue line, so he went in and did a good job.”
We noticed Fleury making a lot of positive plays in his 13:30 of ice time, and he even made a couple punishing hits, including one on Isac Lundestrom in the third, making the Ducks forward pay the price for driving to the blue paint.
Fleury’s game was a reminder that he is a totally capable defenseman when called upon at the NHL level. Good on him for showing that.
Takeaway #3: Matty hits 100 points
It hasn’t been an easy season for reigning Calder Trophy winner, Matty Beniers, who has had some painfully slow stretches. Giving hope that he can return to his productive self next season, the 21-year-old center has come alive in the last few weeks and has four goals in his last six games.
After Wright banked a pass in off his skate on the power play Friday, Beniers hit the 100-point milestone for his career.
“He’s working through it, right?” Hakstol said. “I mean, we’ve seen the ups and downs of Year 2, and he continues to work. I think tonight’s goal is indicative… of that evolution he’s had net front, and one goes in off his skate. So offensively, that’s really important. It’s a continual learning process with and without the puck in this league, and Matty’s a guy that continues to learn and listen to the guys around him and continues to get better.”
While Beniers has had long times of quiet this season, there’s still no doubting his skill and hockey IQ. If he can add some size to his frame this summer (he’ll have a full offseason to train, which he didn’t have last year) and get off to a good start to next season, we think he can take a big step toward becoming a feared young centerman in the league.
“There’s a lot of games, and you can’t really worry too much about what happens in each game,” Beniers said. “You’ve just got to grow and try to build off it and build momentum, get better every day. I think those lessons apply to every year of hockey, but especially in the NHL when you’re playing that many games. It’s a lot about mindset, a lot about physicality and taking care of yourself.”
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.
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