The Kraken lost again Monday, 4-3 in overtime, to the Calgary Flames, who remain undefeated in their meaningless preseason games. The story of this one was Seattle’s lack of punch on the power play, which had been showing signs of promise. Thankfully, Shane Wright finally broke through with the man-advantage on the Kraken’s sixth (!!!) power play of the night, which led to a fake loser point in the fake standings.
Andre Burakovsky returned from a minor injury, and Vince Dunn got his first game action of the preseason.
Here are our Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Flames.
Takeaway #1: Power play finally adjusts
It was frustrating to see the Kraken get power play after power play in the second period, including what should have been an extended 5-on-3 (though that was mostly negated by Wright flinging Rasmus Andersson’s stick up into the rafters of the Saddledome) and continually fail to convert.
It was even more frustrating to see 19-year-old forward prospect Samuel Honzek burn around Dunn like he was a cone and then dangle past Joey Daccord’s poke check, tucking in a shorthanded goal to make it 3-2 Flames.
While there was still plenty of player movement with the man advantage, the passing wasn’t very crisp for most of the opportunities. It seemed like the Kraken were trying to force passes through seams that weren’t there, resulting in turnovers and easy clears for Calgary.
After John Hayden drew a holding-the-stick penalty on Blake Coleman with seven seconds left in the second period, Seattle clearly addressed what was happening on the power play during intermission.
When they emerged from the dressing room, they funneled more pucks toward Flames goalie Dan Vladar and stopped forcing passes through the middle. After Vladar got bumped and lost his stick (he argued for goalie interference), Wright finally got a handle on a Burakovsky rebound and fired it in for his first goal of the preseason.
While we’ve been singing the praises of Seattle’s new and improved power play during this preseason, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. It was good to see an in-game adjustment, though.
Takeaway #2: Mixed results for Dunn, Burakovsky
The team has been markedly cautious with Dunn, who missed 23 games with injury in 2023-24, including the last seven games of the season. Before Monday, he had been a full participant in everything but had not yet skated in a preseason game.
He had some good moments where he looked fast and dynamic and nearly scored a buzzer-beater at the end of the second period, ringing a slap shot loudly off the post. He also had the second assist on Wright’s power-play goal and looked confident as the quarterback during the sequence that led to the tally.
But Dunn also had some not-so-good moments, getting torched by Honzek on his shorthanded goal and looking confused when he got caught in a partial 2-on-1 rush between Andrei Kuzmenko and Nazem Kadri in overtime. That one ended up in the back of Seattle’s net and ended the game.
Dunn led all Kraken players with 23:32 of ice time. He finished the night minus-two with one assist and one shot on goal.
Burakovsky, meanwhile, was Seattle’s best player when he last dressed for a game on Sept. 24 against the Canucks. But since then, he took multiple “maintenance” days and even donned a red non-contact jersey for a practice, raising more questions about his always tenuous health. So, it was good to see him back in the lineup, which indicates that he is fully healthy (the team wouldn’t rush him back from anything during preseason).
He didn’t look as dominant to me in this game as he did against Vancouver, but he still had an impact with the primary assist on Wright’s goal and started the play that led to Eeli Tolvanen’s marker off a beautiful Chandler Stephenson pass three minutes into the game.
Takeaway #3: A nice night for Wright
I liked Shane Wright’s game Monday. He’s looked confident and ready for full-time NHL duties throughout the preseason, but he seemed even more settled against Calgary, especially later in the game. Aside from his goal, he made several sneaky little passes that created opportunities for teammates, and he led all Kraken players with four shots on goal.
Seattle is banking on Wright to be a key contributor as a rookie this season, and this game gave me more confidence that he’s ready for that kind of role.
Bonus Takeaway: That was a sick pass by Stephenson
I don’t have much to say here, other than when passes like this work, they look really awesome. This one worked. And it looked awesome.
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.
It’s so bizarre to me the author called out Gru last game and didn’t call out Joey. Joey looked awful on 3 out of the 4 goals against. Agree on Dunn looking like he’s playing his first preseason game.
The author sucks.
The author is a gentleman and a scholar. Just super weird. Joey and Dunn looking awful were my two takeaways on the negative side. Just really odd you called out Gru on a game where he was largely fine and not Joey in a game where he largely wasn’t.
Weird how the guy getting paid 6 mil a year to be the number 1 goalie faces more scrutiny.
Weird how he still outplayed Joey like you’d expect him to. It’s ok to admit you have a Gru hate boner Chas. If you honestly think Joey wasn’t a problem last night, it’s best not to comment lol
@lolwhut. I thought Joey struggled last night even beyond the goals he should stopped.
Super weird how Gru was back up and Joey played like poo, but they still didn’t put Gru in for clean up.
agreed
Darren,
I don’t think you can blame that one on the author. Letting that Joey “Takeaway” get by him was totally on the readers. If they were doing what they’re supposed to be doing and overreacting to every little thing, I’m sure all Three Takeaways would have been about the goaltending.
Go Kraken!!!
Any thoughts on how Ottavainen played, as I think this was his second game in a row?
Good point. Probably should have pointed him out too, because he did look good. That goal he scored was pretty.
There is a good article today at NHL.com by Geoff Baker (the guy seems to have several hats) praising both Ottavainen and Melanson. Given that Baker now works for the Kraken, I assume they are good with his message.
We’ll see how much it pays off on the score sheet when the games count, but just seeing the creativity that additions like Wright and Stephenson play with give me hope it’ll at least be much more interesting. They’re trying to find ways to score. Even when Wright sent a stick up to the rafters, I appreciate that he was trying to create a shooting lane for his teammate, he just didn’t get away with it that time. If he’s going to make mistakes (and he will) I’d prefer them to be for him trying things like this
I definitely like what they’ve been doing in front of the net and there does seem to be a lot more creativity this preseason.
One thing I did see last night that seemed like a carryover from last year was what happened in overtime. After losing the opening faceoff, the Kraken gain the puck on a nice weak-pass pickoff by Burakovski. Stephenson goes straight for the net. Even though he doesn’t have a breakaway, he does a nice job getting around the defender for a clean run at the goalie. This would be a sweet play in regulation, but in overtime it’s just a turnover… and possession is much more valuable in overtime. Going to the net impeded, against two defenders, with no help below the dots? And sure enough… on the ensuing possession the Flames play it across the seam and tap it in from the backside… just like you’re supposed to. We thought they’d fixed this a long time ago, but last season they went right back to it and never bothered to do anything about it.
With more than 20% of NHL games going to overtime, the extra points they are throwing away with poor decisions at 3-on-3 could be the difference between making the playoffs or being in the lottery… again.
On the other side of that point, I would say that a winner wants the puck on his stick when the game is on the line. It is nice to see a Kraken skater have some self-confidence in the offensive zone. He wasn’t too far off getting the shot in either. Man, can you imagine the story in the news today if that had worked? I remember Richard Sherman saying back in the LOB days, “never be afraid to be great.”
I totally agree with that and even considered mentioning it in my post, but – as you may be aware – I go on too much.
I like the aggressiveness and Matty Beniers scoring seven seconds into overtime is, to me, the second biggest overtime goal in the Kraken’s brief history – that was electric. But that aside, to me it’s not so much about that specific play as it is about what seems to be a fundamental shortcoming in the way they play overtime. It showed up a lot last season and the results seemed to reflect that.
A winner wants the puck on his stick. We didn’t win overtime last night… again.
To tag on to John’s Monday Musings article, Melanson looks like his closer than further away to being on the big team. Easy to watch on the forecheck, adds some grit. Even if he doesn’t make the team this year he looks like he’s going to have a long career playing bottom six minutes. He’s doing things that Tanev doesn’t seem to do anymore, like drive the net without the puck and stop. I think he also realizes he’s a better player without the puck on his stick. It will be fun to watch him develop.
This wasn’t a great game for Daccord I definitely agree, did he still give his team a chance to win? Yes but still not a great game. I’m not as worried when Daccord has a bad game as I am with Gru though, something about the cap hit and three year history….. I can tell you one thing we better hope that Daccord is for real and carries on his play from last season or we might be in a lot of trouble.
We didn’t start out well and Dan made some adjustments in the second period that swung the game to some degree. This for me was very nice to see as one of the things I hated about H was that he stuck to his game plan regardless if it was working or not. The willingness to make needed changes on the fly is very important in a coaching staff.
Maura looked horrible I’m not sure if he’s been cut yet but if he hasn’t he should be quickly. Burakovski looked very difficult to play with last night, very much in his own headspace. I have always wanted Flurey to succeed and kinda have felt like he hasn’t been given the chance but after this preseason I think he’s done as a kraken, probably sent to the valley then not signed next season.
I was very impressed with Wright, Ottavainen, Hayden, and Winterton. I feel we can definitely afford to send Yanni away for a pick or two and be just fine. I would really like to see Ottavainen get the final preseason game, could he be an option this season? Maybe too soon but maybe not he’s picking up the NHL game speed quickly.
Not a terribly fun game to watch. The Kraken lineup just didn’t have much cohesion or chemistry. Obviously they are still wanting the CV players to get a chance to play some sort-of-NHL minutes before being sent down, which is fine.
I keep waiting (and hoping) for Burakovsky to find some kind of consistency. Being one of the more fragile players in the NHL hasn’t helped. I think he was smartly just trying not to get hurt on Monday. It would really be nice to see if he can find some chemistry on a line this season and finally become a contributor.
I’d like to see that happen but question its feasibility. Although he has a great ability and pure raw talent he just seems to be missing a little between the ears. So many people are high on him but I feel that they ignore all the stupid stuff he does. The play that he made last game cutting into chandler’s lane on a 2 on 1 basically completely removing the threat of a pass was mind boggling stupid. I’d expect mid level beer league players to know better than that. I find myself sooooo many times wondering what the hell is he thinking, then you just come to terms with the fact he’s not thinking.
Very difficult player to play with, as I mentioned before. If chandler can figure him out props to him. He’s almost the kind of player that you just need to follow into the zone, if he does something good great you try to get open otherwise you try to cover his mistakes.