For the second night in a row, the Kraken looked sluggish out of the gate and found themselves in a 2-0 hole, this time against the Dallas Stars. They did battle back to tilt the ice more in their favor for good portions of the second and third periods, but they couldn’t any of their 25 shots past Dallas backup goalie Casey DeSmith.
The slow start, combined with a disjointed 13-second stretch, gave the Stars all the scoring they needed to slide past Seattle.
“We make two critical errors, really,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “The game is full of mistakes, but we make two critical errors, and they end up in the back of our net and got us fighting back for half the game.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s 2-0 loss to the Stars.
Takeaway #1: 13 ugly seconds
In Seattle’s season-opening loss to the St. Louis Blues last Tuesday, the Kraken were the better team for most of the game. But a two-minute lapse in the second period was enough to give the Blues three goals and an eventual 3-2 victory. A goal against happens—handle it right, and it’s no big deal. But if you let it compound into two or three goals, it becomes a much bigger problem.
This game was a little different from the one last Tuesday. In that game, the three goals came sandwiched between good stretches of Kraken play. But in this one, the two first-period goals from Sam Steel and Wyatt Johnston came during a horrendous opening frame where Seattle was outshot 13-6 and didn’t look ready to face one of the best teams in the NHL. It felt like the dam was bound to break—it was just a matter of time before Dallas broke through.
The first goal came when Will Borgen and Josh Mahura—temporarily paired together with Vince Dunn out of the lineup—got crossed up in coverage. Mahura ended up on the right side, and Borgen found himself shading that way too. He realized the left side was open and started shifting back, but he couldn’t recover in time to take Sam Steel’s stick away at the far post. He tried to deflect the puck, but short king and former Kraken forward Colin Blackwell somehow threaded the needle between Mahura, Borgen, and Philipp Grubauer, and Steel got an easy tap-in.
Just 13 seconds later, the Stars struck again. Off the center-ice face-off, Jamie Benn carried the puck over the blue line, dropped it to Johnston, and drifted toward the net, tying up both Ryker Evans and Adam Larsson in the process. Chandler Stephenson was taking away the cross-slot pass, and Jaden Schwartz was a step too slow in tracking back on Johnston. The result was Johnston having all the time and space he needed to rip a shot off the far post and past Grubauer. More on that in Takeaway #2.
Takeaway #2: Grubauer took heat, but he had a good game
It doesn’t take much for the Grubauer haterz to come out. I understand he’s had ups and downs with the Kraken, and yes, in the context of the game, making a stop on Johnston would have been preferred, especially since it was an unscreened shot from the right dot.
Playing devil’s advocate (and from a goalie’s perspective), Johnston was moving fast, had all the time in the world to pick his spot, and fired a perfect shot. The more concerning issue was the defensive breakdown immediately after the team had just given up a goal. The coverage was, frankly, nonexistent.
If Grubauer “wanted that shot back,” as the saying goes, then he did a great job recovering and keeping Seattle in the game. With the Kraken pressing to create offense in the third, he came up huge with consecutive breakaway saves on Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment.
In total, Grubauer stopped 22 of 24 shots for a .917 save percentage and 0.77 goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck. Meanwhile, his team couldn’t muster any offense at the other end. Despite the Johnston goal, I would call this a positive outing for the netminder.
“I thought Grubi played really well,” Bylsma said. “A couple of times in the first period, there were barrages around the net, and he stood strong. And in the third period, he made those two big breakaway saves that kept us in the game and gave us a chance.”
I’m curious to hear what the comment section thinks about Grubauer’s performance. What say you, folks? Any haterz?
Takeaway #3: Really liking the fourth line
With the promotion of Shane Wright to full-time NHL center and the acquisition of Chandler Stephenson, it seemed throughout the summer that Yanni Gourde was destined for a fourth-line center role. Indeed, he seems to be settling in nicely between Tye Kartye and Brandon Tanev.
Two seasons ago, when the Kraken racked up 100 points and came within one goal of the Western Conference Finals (falling to these same Dallas Stars in seven games), a huge part of their success was the fourth line pushing the pace every night. When the top three lines struggled to generate offense, the fourth line consistently stepped up and gave the team a spark.
In the last two games, I’ve seen signs that something similar could happen this season. Kartye scored a crucial goal Saturday to get the Kraken level with the Wild, and while the fourth line didn’t score against Dallas, one could argue it helped turn the tide in the second period. When they were on the ice, the trio dominated possession, registering 70 percent of attempted shots and 76 percent of the shot quality, according to Natural Stat Trick.
There’s been plenty of talk about Tanev being a trade target because of his relatively high salary for a fourth-liner and the team’s cap situation. But mayyyyyyyybe Seattle should hang on to him, at least until they start stringing together some wins.
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.
This may be a recurring theme, on offense but NO offence. Dallas is my team to beat this year. Wright had a lot of jump but others left their jump in the locker room at the start. Too much waiting for things to happen instead of making things happen in my opinion.
Grubi is shaky and unreliable but I thought he stood tall in the Stars game. He got little help both from the offense or defense. It’s too easy to dump on a keeper whose team gets blanked. I snoozed off during portions of this sleeper.
As the resident Grubauer hater, I agree with your take Darren. Yeah, it would’ve been nice if he had stopped that second goal, but he did make some huge saves later on that kept the team in the game, and that’s what distinguishes this pretty good performance from a standard Grubauer one.
The problem, obviously, was the offense. It’s tough playing a back-to-back this early in the season against a great team, but the Stars had also played the previous night so that excuse doesn’t really fly (though the Kraken are not likely a “great team”). It just seems like they’re not in game shape yet with the intermittent low effort and energy play. It could also be they’re still learning a new coach’s system with a few new players, resulting in the many defensive miscues we’ve seen in the first few games. The jury is still out, but the start has been slow, to the surprise of absolutely nobody who has followed this team for the past 3 seasons.
Stars also had back/back games but they got to be at home which is a big bonus.
I’m glad we stole one against Minnesota, because we were looking at the very real possibility of starting out 0-4.
All three games have featured one greasy goal given up, but the bigger issue is no offense. Loving what Montour brings, but Stephenson has been a ghost, and Beniers and Burakovsky haven’t been any better.
Gonna be a long year at this rate.
I was saying to my wife during the game, “maybe we should hang onto Tanev”. While he isn’t much of a threat to score, he’s been super tenacious defensively and the fourth line is definitely showing up when they’re on the ice.
Since you asked… I’m done talking about Grubauer. I think speculating about a buyout and such is an open conversation, but what he does on the ice… I’m just not interested in that discussion any longer. I’m fine just taking whatever he gives us.
Go Kraken!!!
The thing about being a Grubi hater is this. He gives up at least one backbreaking goal a game. Always at the wrong time and always one that should be stopped. Starting goalies have to stop all the shots they should stop and add to that some they shouldn’t stop. The problem with PG is that he lets in a least one per game that he should stop and that usually has proven to be a killer. Takes the life out of a team.
I noticed even the Times is speculating that the Daccord contract means the possible end of Grubi.
Have to say I have noticed Shane W consistently doing good things and believe the points will start coming for him soon enough. But the expensive guys, Stephenson and Beniers, not so much.
Oh and by the way, I was one of a few if not the only one who believed we should be giving Catton his 9 games to see if he could stir the pot, as he clearly is the most talented pure offensive player in the organization. With the absence of offense, that is still looking like it would have been the right move.
Yes that goal was not a great goal and came at a horrible time if the kraken were to get back in the game but that was a good Grubauer performance overall.
Darren I think the part you might be missing is this… I’ve never met anyone who has ever said he can’t play good games, we all know that he can. To come out and point fingers like that after one good game is absolutely ridiculous. You obviously know better than that and also I’m sure understand that we signed Daccord to a 5 year deal because the kraken are getting cold on Grubauer because he doesn’t play like last game very often. He can play incredibly well in fact and that’s why he’s so frustrating. Everyone wants a better more consistentGrubauer than we’ve gotten that’s really all, if he has a good season this year fantastic. You’re a better writer than that I’d say take a higher road.
To the game, the kraken were never in this one and I’m not sure we can compete with the top teams in the league. Makes the off season look puzzling, is our goal just make the playoffs every season or to actually build a contending team? New coach lots of things that still need to be tweaked so maybe I’m just overthinking things a little?
Regarding Tanev… we should absolutely hang onto him. He’s a fan favorite (that matters) and brings energy that we need to the game. You don’t need every player contributing to the offense (although he has this season). Very good 4th line player and important player on the PK bI would say that he is a little overpaid but the same thing could be said about half the team. I’d be looking a little higher up the roster with my cap saving options or in net. That being said if I were Francis I’d be talking to both Tanev and the “pepper pot” about a team friendly extension and make a trade if an early extension cant be reached.
The Kraken scored a total of two goals in their first three games last season… I’m gonna take the 300%+ increase and not worry about the offense just yet.
Shane Wright’s give and go with Kartye last night was pretty damn smooth. Been a while since we see that crisp passing in a 3’x3′ area. He’s not on the board yet but I still think he hits 20 goals this year.
Watching Dallas made me pretty jealous of their defensive structure and breakout schemes as well as their wheeling to get the weak side forward running to the red line as soon as the strong side d pinches in the zone. Yeah they have a better overall talent level but at the same time it’s a pretty easy thing to do.
I wonder if the Avs is on Grubauer’s no trade list? They are really hurting for goalies – makes me wonder if they’d pay to get him back!?
Couldn’t get on the score sheet, but I thought the team responded well after after a terrible first period. First back to back of the year, and coming off of a late OT win across the country doesn’t make for the easiest lead into a game against the Stars.
We’re still only 3 games in to the season with a new coach, I think its best to hold off on snap judgements about the season until we’ve seen them with more time to get up to speed and find some consistency in a new system. Just for a little perspective, Edmonton is 0-3, Vancouver is 0-0-2, and Calgary is 3-0….. I feel like its safe to say it’s too early to start overly reading into things.
Agree… It is just to early. Edmonton is off to a slow start again like last season, but we know how they eventually ended up. If we can get a single point against Nashville then this will be a very successful early season road trip. Kraken will then head home for a 5 game home stretch.
Go Kraken!!
Being real, this was a scripted loss. There is a big difference between a back-to-back where you play a game, go home and rest a night, and then play another game the next night, and a back-to-back where you fly to Minnesota, play a hockey game, get on a red eye, fly to Dallas, barely have time to check in at the hotel to get a few hours of sleep, check out, get bussed across Dallas, and play another hockey game before flying to Nashville to get a proper night at a hotel. Oh, and the first game was a grueling overtime game against one of the biggest teams in hockey. I dislike the existence of all back-to-backs, but away game back-to-backs are insane. Scheduling should not have that big an impact on the outcome of games.
As for the game itself, it is no surprise that the Kraken could not get on the board with Vince Dunn out and the rest of their roster running on fumes. The offense took a period to get going. Or maybe it just took the Stars a period to slow down to their pace. Either way, the ice balanced out, and the Kraken got their opportunities. It wasn’t terrible play in the offensive zone, but neither was it at all energetic. Who can blame them? What’s there to take away from this one? Nothing, as far as I can tell. It was just slop as dictated by scheduling. Dallas was tired. Seattle was gassed. It was just plain bad hockey. Hopefully the guys have had a good night at their Nashville hotel.