Never a doubt! The Seattle Kraken rode a four-goal second period and cruised to an easy win and barely held on when the Philadelphia Flyers rallied back and threatened to overcome a three-goal deficit in the third period. But when things started to go sideways, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored a timely insurance goal at 14:52 of the third period to make it 6-4 and put things back on the rails.
āItās a 60-minute game. Itās always about the next play,ā Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. āThings are going to happen, and bumps are going to happen, and youāve just got to keep focused on the next play.ā
Seattle did that, and although there were some hairy moments coming down the stretch, the Kraken deserved the win and ultimately got it, 6-4, over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Here are our Three Takeaways.
Takeaway #1: Second-period team?
The Kraken went off in the second period Thursday, scoring four unanswered goals to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead in just 20 minutes. Jared McCann got things started with a power-play goal, his third goal of the season and first PPG, ripping it through Ivan Fedotovās gigantic wickets from his office at the top of the left circle.
ā[Fedotov] is a monster,ā McCann said. āYou donāt see much mesh with that guy in net, so I feel like sometimes youāve just got to get it off as quickly as you can, and I was able to find one tonight.ā
Then Eeli Tolvanen cleaned up an Andre Burakovsky rebound, Jordan Eberle scored an easy tap-in off a nice feed from McCann, and Shane Wright got his first of the season, scoring just eight seconds after Eberle.
ā[Eberleās] been chirping me a lot, because apparently I donāt pass to him enough,ā McCann joked. āBut, yeah, he likes to drive the net, so I just tried to pull up there and find him.ā
This is a pattern so far this season. The Kraken have had slow starts, and I think itās fair to call the first period a āslow startā again on Thursday. The Kraken got outshot 11-9, had just 33 percent of the shot quality, and also didn’t get particularly great goaltending to bail them out in that opening frame. (I didn’t like either goal against from Grubauer in the first period, but like in the Dallas game, he ended up making some huge saves later on… He did end the night with -1.42 goals saved above expected, though.)
But the Kraken do also tend to tilt the ice in their favor in the second period, as weāve seen in each of their wins (and one could argue they turned things around against Dallas, although they didnāt get that much going offensively that night).
āI donāt think any of us liked how the first had gone,ā Bylsma said. āYeah, they scored at the end of the period to go up 2-1, but I thought that was a huge kind of wake-up call to get us back in the game.
āThat was probably our best second period of the year so far, playing fast, playing north, a great couple plays on the quick upā¦ A lot of speed, a lot of energy back the other way, and when you do that, it allows players to play with skill.ā
Takeaway #2: Lots of goal scorers (again)
For the second game in a row, the Kraken netted multiple goals from different players, continuing their well-rounded offense, and again, I was reminded of how the team won games two seasons ago. In Nashville on Tuesday, seven different players scored, and Thursday against Philadelphia, six different players tickled the twine.
Itās up and down the lineup, too, with veteran scorers like McCann, Eberle, and Bjorkstrand leading the way, but the secondary and tertiary scorers like Eeli Tolvanen, Shane Wright, and Montour also chipped in on this night.
āI think when you have everybody going like we did tonight, the last couple nights here have been good, and weāve just got to be consistent with it,ā McCann said. āWe know weāre not going to score six, seven goals every game, but I think we could do a little better job at just focusing on keeping the puck in the other end.ā
By the way, Ryker Evans only found the scoresheet with one assist, but it’s worth noting that he was plus-5 on the night.
Takeaway #3: Winning in different ways
The Kraken now have three wins on the season, which they didnāt accomplish until Oct. 30 last season, in what was their 10th game of the campaign (so, it took them half as many games to earn their third victory this season).
Each of the three has been very different, with the first being a come-from-behind shootout win in Minnesota, the second being a fairly convincing top-to-bottom win over Nashville, and this one being a classic, run of the mill, fall behind but then jump out to a big lead but then almost fumble it away win.
But the point is that the team is showing in the early stages of the season that it can win regardless of how the game is playing out.
āItās critical,ā Bylsma said. āBuilding a good team, a winning team, youāve got to win games in different ways. Theyāre not always going to go to script, theyāre not always going to go positive the whole way along. Youāve got to dig in, youāve got to paddle, youāve got to compete the whole 60 minutes to get a win.
āAnd sometimes, that means youāre coming back in a game, sometimes that means youāve got to learn to play with a lead and play with a 5-2 lead going into the third period.ā
This is another encouraging sign for this club, because if you think back to last season, there were so many times when the Kraken would get down in a game, and it just felt like there was no chance theyād come back. Or, theyād get a lead and give up a couple painful goals, and all of a sudden you knew they were going to fritter it away.
The more they experience these ups and downs and still come away with two points, the more comfortable they will be in these different scenarios as the season wears on.
āI think itās one of those things where youāve just got to keep battling no matter what the score is,ā Brandon Montour said. āA good thing that we had in the past in Florida, especially, was it didnāt matter what the score was, we finished right to the end. And you bring that mentality wherever you are. I like how the guys have come together here.ā
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.
Five more takeaways:
1. Shane Wright has more points in one period than Matty Beniers has the entire season. With Stephenson taking the heavy load, what is up with MB?
2. Staying with that comparison, they both took 19 shifts, but MBās TOI was 18:21 while SWās TOI was 12:32. What is the interpretation of that?
3. Ryker Evans +5.
4. Did anyone see Dunnās injury, the TV guys were mystified?
5. Another PG stinker. When is Disco Dan going to stop the rotation?
I will add a bit more to the Evans +5. I think the biggest difference this year is the dynamism of the D. Now we have offense on each pairing. Last year when Dunn was down, it evaporated but now, when he is out, Montour and Evans can bring it. I really think that is the biggest reason for the change in goals scored.
Chuck Holmes, the biggest X factor and what I believe a lot of writers and analysts missed is just how bad H was last season. Just coaching alone and having a coach the players want to play for is the biggest difference this season. Secondly is your point and itās a good one.
Encouraging start for the club. It’s great see finally see them crashing the net and not over passing. Grubi’s emerging as kind of a pricey relief pitcher to pace Joey for a possible playoff run. And Grubi can’t afford to coast if he wants to stay in the league. He’s got to keep working to improve his below average stats compared to the winning goalies. Nice guy it seems but his numbers don’t stack up that well anymore compared to playoff goalies.
Half way to ten games.
Very fun game to attend, our guys can put the puck in the net this season (so far at least).
Matty will be fine, reason to be concernedā¦ yes but he will be fine.
Absolutely loving Evans, so glad we didnāt listen to the preseason finger pointersā¦.
Ok I want to dig into this goals expected thing. If your goalie gives up a horrible rebound and another few chances develop could they count as expected goals? YES!!! if your goalie doesnāt read the play well and is out of position would that also increase the expected goals? YES!!!
That was an absolutely terrible game by Grubauer I was so nervous every time the puck entered our zone. Yes Darren he made some good saves but oh my his miss reads and absolute garbage play for almost the entire game was mind boggling. We are very lucky that the Flyers were just as bad as Gru last night.
What happened to Dunn, didnāt see him on the bench for awhile then he was back, did he finish the game?
If this goalie swap every game continues we see Daccord in Saturday and Gru back in Tuesdayā¦. Sorry blue line ticket holders. š
Once they got going they played such a great game offensively. It was so fun to watch. However, PG giving up those 2 soft goals was frightening and in the past it would have been typical that the Flyers scored a tying goal and we’d lose in OT. The odd thing, to me, is that PG seemed to play really well with what goings on in front of the net. Stopping most of those shots that we all would have said, how can he save that? But he gave up clear shots from the just past the blue line.
Another thing I thought was really noticeable, once the team got really clicking, PG looked like the weak link. I’m sure we don’t have to second guess Disco Dan like we did with ‘ole DH. I like that feeling.
Great article, thank you.
Great to be back in the arena for the first time this season (not counting preseason as no one ever should).
The good:
-Great to see some goals! Darren you are absolutely right, the Kraken seemed to respond in a totally different way when things started to go badly.
-I love Brandon Montour. I am now completely in the “worry about year 7 in year 7” camp with him.
-Feels huge to get Shane Wright on the scoresheet.
-Watching the game in person really confirmed what Darren has been saying about the power play — unlike last year, I so often did not know where the next pass was going, which makes it so much more exciting — and of course, more effective.
-At 5 on 5, they were using some very noticeable tactics to get the puck up ice faster than they did last year. They were very quick to get the puck to the person with momentum going “north,” with a lot less holding and backtracking for slow set-ups.
The bad:
-Sheesh, is Dunn OK? “banged up” already?
-Holy cow, Grubauer. Darren said he struggled early but then made big saves later. Yeah he had a couple good stops, but Grubauer gave up 2 more ugly goals in the 3rd. Any chance we could get Colorado to take Grubauer in exchange for Georgiev, who could then be a pure backup to Joey at a smaller cap hit? Hey Grubauer was so good for the Avs! Once he dons that uniform again he will surely be so again! I know, I’m dreaming. Gru is the anchor to which this sea monster’s tentacles are tied until 2027. Hopefully Joey continues to play well and can drive Grubauer into pure backup territory.
-Unlike the PP, the Kraken PK looks really weak early. I know they have not actually surrendered too many PPGs, but they have been very fortunate. A lot of standing around, a lot of chaos once the opposing team inevitably gets the puck in close to the goal.
-Still thoroughly unimpressed with Stephenson. They call him “speedy” but that seems to be purely from reputation from earlier in his career. He got routinely out-skated, as he has in every other game. His fancy stats were by far the worst of any center on the team, as I think they have been for every game this season. They call him a “two-way player” but he seems constantly outworked and disinterested in the D zone. Forget year 7 — Stephenson is not even worth his cap hit right now. Ugh.
-WHAT HAPPENED TO “RED ALERT”? Hopefully they are just still staffing up but they plan to come back soon? I will be so sad if they are truly gone, that was one of my family’s favorite off-ice aspects of the game experience over the past 2 seasons.
P.S. re: Red Alert, it does not sound good: https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleKraken/comments/1g11rrp/red_alert/
I already wrote to my season ticket rep to complain. I encourage everyone else to do the same!
š Foist I hear you but thatās the least of my concerns, nice to see $9.99 16oz Bale Breakerā¦ Iāll call it a wash.
For sure it was great to have decent $10 back on the upper concourse. But I’m greedy, I want both.
It’s only five games… but Stephenson leads all forwards in ice time and is second in both PP and PK. I think he’s getting a lot of tough matchups and he’s on the ice in all situations.
I think it’s a little early to bury him just yet…
I was only looking at Stephenson’s 5v5 stats when I said they are the worst on the team. Yes, surely it is early, and I don’t mean to completely bury him, but the problem is this is who he was last year too. At his age, will his elite speed come back after a years-long decline? I sure hope so but I don’t like those odds.
I’ve been listening to the podcast… and I had to laugh.
Curtis is on there – five games in – trying to pin Stephenson’s OVERALL xG on him as a commentary on his performance. This is also consistent, according to him, with the eye test.
First, he’s second among forwards on the PK behind Tanev… and guess what?!?… his expected goals on the PK are terrible… in fact, they’re zero. WTF!
Second, he’s No.1 among forwards in total minutes – by a decent percentage. To me I’d say that makes him your No.1 center. If you’re an NHL team and your $6.25m NUMBER ONE center isn’t getting absolutely caved in by some of the best lines in the world… I don’t care what xGF is overall… as long as he’s allowing the rest of the teamās chances to actually mean something. (i.e. not getting crushed)
I don’t need him to go to the net and I don’t need him completely shut down the best players in the world. He just needs to be something close to even…
In five games he’s -1 at 5v5 with an xGA differential of -0.8. He’s not crushing it… but he’s not getting caved in either.
I would further add that Bjorkstrand and Schwartz have been playing very well alongside Stephenson, and with Stephenson’s line taking many of the most difficult draws, Beniers and Wright have been allowed to cut loose and have a bit of fun. In that way he is filling the old Wennberg role but with more of a play-driving, puck-moving mindset that, I think, has sparked his linemates. It is nice to see a top line that is a significant threat to score even if it does come at the expense of missing Alex Wennberg’s excellent defensive skills. And it makes the other lines more likely to score as well with the momentum that it generates, at least from what we have seen so far. I think I get why the Vegas fans like Stephenson so much even as the analytics guys trashed him. What he does–taking the tough shifts and working the puck up-ice effectively–opens things up for the rest of the team. After all, it’s easy to avoid giving up goals when the puck is in the offensive zone.
Although, how much of that ice-tilting effect is Stephenson and how much of it is having three excellent defensive pairings, none of which is a liability and all of which can drive offense, in a league where many teams would feel fortunate to have two such pairings I cannot say. How Edmonton, for example, must look upon Seattle’s blue line with envy!
Yes he was bad, there were a few things that stood out for me regarding the fans not the on ice performance.
1. Mostly gone are the Gruuuuuuu chants after every routine save, he got some gruuuuās but really only a few and at times they were deserved.
2. Sitting next to a guy in a Grubauer jersey who was complaining about Grubauer the whole night questioning why Daccord wasnāt in netā¦.
3. After the game walking behind a couple of fans talking about Grubauer. The guy on the left turns and says to his friend ādo you know what the problem is, heās just a bad goalieā. I laughed my *** off. š
This city is so ready for him to be gone, we have to find a way to get rid off him now to save cap space and not be moving players like Tanev who actually contribute to a win. Package him with Sale, package him with the šŖ, I donāt care what it takes just move on.
Itās nice to be complaining about Gru though after a win, means our team played well enough to bail him out.
Had a good laugh reading your post. I first thought that icon “package him with __” was a bag of pucks but then I thought is was a tent then I was not sure. What is it?
PG is so bad, has been for four straight seasons. Despite his defenders, I think Francis got hoodwinked by PG’s agent. All we can hope this that (1) Joey plays 2/3 of the games; (2) Kokko develops very quickly; and (3) Francis admits his mistake and does a buyout after this season. I loved the suggestion of exchanging him for Georgiev but doubt Sakic buys in.
the bag of pucks was a tent – a circus tent.
Yes a Fircus Circus in fact šŖ š¤” š
“In fact, no team in hockey has scored more five-on-five goals than Seattle has in the early going this season. Thereās some percentage-driven noise in this, and we wonāt expect the Kraken to finish the year as an elite offensive team necessarily. But Seattleās offensive approach looks more thoughtful, tighter and far more dynamic through Dan Bylsmaās first five games. ā Thomas Drance”
There are a few things that annoy me about Drance… but he is one of the few commentators outside of Seattle who seems – to me – to actually understands the Kraken on a consistent basis. I feel like this tidbit from the Athletic this morning was worth passing on.