That one was a little harder than the 5-0 score indicated for the Seattle Kraken, who were buoyed (no mascot-related pun intended) by an outstanding night from netminder Philipp Grubauer and rolled past the Arizona Coyotes.
Grubi stopped all 39 of Arizona’s offerings for his second shutout of the season, while Karel Vejmelka had a leaky night at the other end of the ice that featured two real stinkers. Seattle took advantage early, then jumped on Grubauer’s coattails to get through the second period before stepping on the gas pedal again in the third.
Shane Wright scored again, Justin Schultz had a goal and an assist, and Matty Beniers and Oliver Bjorkstrand each had two assists.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 5-0 Kraken win over the Coyotes.
Takeaway #1: Stellar Grubi
I’ve spoken about this on many occasions and in many forums, but there’s an interesting phenomenon that happens for goalies where—on some nights—the puck finds a way to stay out of the net. It hits you even when you don’t see, and when you miss it, it somehow finds a way to hit a post, hit a stick, deflect wide… name a way for the puck to stay out of the net, and that’s what happens on these nights.
This was one of those games for Grubauer. There was a handful of chances in his 18-save second period when Arizona looked primed to get themselves on the board, and yet the Kraken escaped the frame unscathed thanks to a mixture of huge saves and several lucky breaks.
“There were a couple situations in the second period where they hit the post, and then it went through like a skate or hit me in the glove, a couple of those situations,” Grubauer said. “But overall, it doesn’t really affect my play or my mindset. It’s just like, you’ve got to let it go and then focus on the next shot.”
Of course, the opposite can also happen for goalies. Some nights you feel like you’re sharp, in position, and ready to make a save, and yet the puck just finds a way through. That was probably how Vejmelka felt for Arizona on Tuesday. The way it went for Grubauer on Tuesday is how you want it to go, and it was enjoyable to watch.
“Grubi is the story of the second period, really,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We got off to a really good start. It’s what you want to do at home, get off to a one-goal lead going into a power play. You execute, that builds a two-goal lead, but as we scored the third goal in the second period, we stopped playing a little bit, and that’s where Grubi was really good.”
The total shot volume was high at 39, but the quality was also there for Arizona, which had a whopping 4.8 expected goals and a 73-percent share of the shot quality, according to Natural Stat Trick. Those are big-time numbers for Grubauer, who is having his best regular season with the Kraken.
Takeaway #2: Wright does it again
Shane Wright has put together an extremely impressive stint with the Kraken since being called up from Coachella Valley on March 31. With his goal Tuesday, he’s now tickled the twine four times and has one assist in his four games with the big club. The one he scored against the Coyotes wasn’t quite as pretty as the others, and it was certainly one that Vejmelka wanted back.
“I’ll take anything anyway I can get them,” Wright said. “I mean, they all count the same on the scoresheet, that’s what I’m going to say. But yeah, just kind of tried to get it on net there, and [got a] lucky bounce for sure. But we’ll take it.”
Aside from the goal, it was another solid night for Wright, who logged 15:51 of ice time and won 62.5 percent of his face-offs. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; Wright looks very different than he did on his previous times in the NHL.
“He’s a year advanced, right?” Hakstol said. “He’s just turned 20 years old. Everybody wants to spin the clock ahead and fast forward, it doesn’t work that way. So huge compliments to Shane and the way that he’s continued to elevate his game. He’s obviously done a lot of work there with his teammates and the coaching staff in Coachella, and his confidence and his overall play have taken a nice step.”
Despite his outstanding performances, we still expect Shane to be sent back to Coachella Valley within the next two games. If he plays nine or fewer NHL games this season, then his contract slides, and Seattle gets to keep him on his entry-level deal for an extra season. If he plays 10 games, he burns a year of his ELC, which makes no sense for the Kraken. Wright has played seven this season, so expect him to return to the Firebirds no later than Saturday night.
Takeaway #3: The Killer B’s
Our Twitter intern created this incredible piece of art after Oliver Bjorkstrand was acquired two offseasons ago, but it has hardly seen the light of day since.
That’s because Bjorkstrand has almost never skated with Beniers and Andre Burakovsky. The B’s might buzz together for at least another game or two, because they did look good together in this contest.
Burakovsky’s goal, which made it 2-0 just 2:14 into the game, came on a power play but was assisted by Beniers. Beniers and Bjorkstrand helped set up Schultz’s goal off a 2-on-1 rush, and Bjorkstrand added another assist on Will Borgen’s late-game leaker through Vejmelka.
Of course, we would like to see injured Jared McCann return to the lineup ASAP, but the idea of the “Killer B’s” line is fun for now.
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.
We look great vs bad teams lately, this isn’t helping us in the standings but nice to get a win for the fans at the game.
I wasn’t at the game last night, watched it on Root. It was all Gru talk all night long, I feel like every second word was Grubauer. They commented several times about how great our goaltending is and how lucky we are to have the tandem we have moving forward. I feel like they are being told what to say of have the brains of goldfish 😂 I mean really we all know how well Gru can play when he’s on his game but he’s more than not on his game. Are we really lucky to have inconsistent goaltending moving forward? I feel like there is a lot of hopes and prayers that Gru is going to turn the corner and find consistency in net but until he has I don’t consider ourselves “lucky” to have the goaltending we have moving forward. Daccord has been fairly consistent and his stats show it but not Grubauer.
In the same vein, I wonder what’s behind playing Grubauer over Daccord every night lately. Could it be just to hopefully get him back on track for next season? Is Hakstol favoring Grubauer for some other inexplicable reason? Is it a lowkey tanking move? Daccord has been one of the best goalies in the NHL, period, so not playing him over Grubauer after 3 seasons of .890 goaltending requires some reasoning gymnastics.
A few reasons I can think of:
1. Unannounced injury to Daccord
2. Load management
3. Showcase for summertime trade
4. Build confidence for next year
5. Minimizing Daccord’s starts for the rest of this year so he doesn’t get injured as he’ll probably be our #1 goalie next season
6. Because Joey leads the league right now in GAA for for goalies who have started over 40 games and they need some stat to crow about at season’s end.
Nino you are exactly right. Why they keep pumping Gru up is nonsense. Yes at times he plays very good but most of the time he is a disaster. No way in hell is he worth his contract, he plays like a guy who should be making $2MM at the most. I really like Foresland, JT and Olzy but they have to stop towing the company line and tell it like it is.
Agree but it is “toeing the company line”, not “towing.” Although that would be interesting to watch.
I guess at this point in the season you have to start looking for positives for next year. Certainly Shane Wright’s brief stint with the team is a reason for optimism, as is the much improved play of Andre Burakovsky, who is starting to look like the player he was when he debuted with the Kraken last year. Beniers has also looked sharper in the last month or so. Lastly, Morrison and Winterton serve as a reminder that the farm system is developing talent that will be here at some point to help. Some interesting decisions await in the offseason, particularly with some of the role players and presumably the coaching staff. Looking forward to 24-25.
Dang, folks are down on a dude who just posted a 39-save shutout, is making saves at a rate just over .900, and is posting a sub-3.0 goals allowed average. Yeah, he had a sub-par year one and year two, but this year he has played well. Maybe he is overpaid given his contract, but that is not his fault.
OMG, just have to reply to “Not his fault.” Grubauer has been generally terrible for three years. He is grossly overpaid for his consistently bad performance. Why do you think the Avs and the Capitals did not hang on to him? But the one thing about PG that has always bothered me is that I have never once heard him place the responsibility on his own shoulders for his poor performance. This seems just the opposite of Joey, which is why he is popular with fans. The Kraken need to consider either a trade this summer (while retaining Driedger) or even a buyout. The latter would save them $11 million over 3 years, which they could certainly use to for better offensive players.
I think the buyout comes after next season. They go Joey No.1 and Gru No.2 next season and then when they resign Joey they buyout Grubauer and see what they have or what’s available for a backup.