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.