Three Takeaways – Kraken get shut out for second day in a row, 2-0 to Bruins

One day after a rough start and an ugly loss in Ottawa, the Seattle Kraken once again appeared unprepared and stumbled to a 2-0 loss to the Boston Bruins. For the second straight day, the Kraken failed to register a goal, yet somehow again remained (sort of) in the game until the end despite clearly not having their best.

But both games have been painful to watch, as the Kraken have struggled to generate offense for long stretches.

“The first 20 minutes or so, [we were] just mentally stuck and not finding a play, not making a play,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “And those turnovers resulted in a lot of momentum for Boston in the first period.”

With their third consecutive loss, the Kraken are now officially on a losing streak for the first time this season. Here are Three Takeaways from another brutal-to-watch 2-0 Kraken loss to the Bruins.

Takeaway #1: Can we blame daylight savings?

I wondered if the slow start of the Kraken might have simply been because they forgot to set their clocks back after the end of this year’s daylight saving period. Maybe they thought the game started an hour later than it did? But this couldn’t have been the case, because in theory, with the clocks going back an hour, Seattle should have technically started earlier if the team was confused about what time it was. Right?

Ultimately, I don’t think we can blame the poor first period on this yearly disruption, when we begin being plunged into darkness at 4:00 p.m. We might be able to blame some of it on the back-to-back games with travel, but at the end of the (already very dark) day, Seattle just stunk in that first period.

It was easily the worst first period the team has played this season, and aside from a few opening frames in which opposing teams filled the net, this was one of the worst periods ever from the Kraken.

How bad was it? Seattle didn’t register a single shot on goal until the 17:01 mark of the first period. 17 MINUTES WITH NO SHOTS?!

Bylsma said the Kraken lacked the confidence to “make a play, to execute, in the start of the game.”

Indeed, the Kraken were penned in their zone for much of the period, compounded by the fact that they kept taking penalties, three times in the opening period and five times total during the game. While the Kraken were managing a measly three shots total in the opening 20 minutes, the Bruins pumped 15 toward Joey Daccord, who played very well in this game.

Boston scored twice, once at 3:23 when Justin Brazeau got a piece of a Nikita Zadorov shot that would have been off the net, and again at 9:57 when the Kraken penalty kill overcommitted to David Pastrnak in the middle of the ice and left Charlie Coyle wide open on the far side. Coyle had all day to wait out and dangle around Daccord to make it 2-0.

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Oops! #SeaKraken forget about Charlie Coyle, who has all day to dangle around Daccord and make it 2-0 Bruins. PPG.

Seattle has 0 shots on goal 10 minutes into the game. pic.twitter.com/m1ufBjhVKO

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 3, 2024

The Bruins scored a third time in the period, which would have made it 3-0 on a Pavel Zacha deflection, but a challenge for offside showed that Zacha did enter the zone before the puck, negating the marker. That should have been a turning point, but the second period brought more of the same, with the Kraken again getting outshot 15-7 in the middle stanza.

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PHEW! 😅

Pavel Zacha scores to make it 3-0, but the #SeaKraken successfully challenge for offside.

Huge break. Kraken need to wake up now after a HORRIBLE start. pic.twitter.com/BRPnQqqAX4

— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 3, 2024

Takeaway #2: The Kraken can’t score right now

It’s nice to run up the score against an opponent, like the Kraken did against the Montreal Canadiens with an 8-2 drubbing on Tuesday. But a concern that comes along with those kinds of wins is that bad habits can creep in because the offense is coming a little too easily. Remember, the Kraken were outshot in that game too and had lower shot quality than the Habs.

Since that game, Seattle’s offense has been nearly nonexistent. It’s like they’re expecting things to still come easily, like they did in that game against Montreal, and that simply has not been the case against Toronto, Ottawa, or Boston—three opponents in which the Kraken have scored ZERO goals at 5-on-5. ONE total goal across three games isn’t going to bring success, no matter how well your goalies are playing.

This lack of offense is a major concern. I’m not even thinking about the panic button yet, but seeing all Seattle players go cold at the same time brings echoes of last season and even the inaugural season. And two shutouts in a row is unprecedented.

One thing to encourage some semblance of hope: while the Kraken deserved to lose this game with 100 percent certainty, they also got a bit unlucky, with multiple posts hit and a few timely saves from Jeremy Swayman to keep Seattle from really ever putting Boston on the ropes. Also, Seattle did tilt the ice for most of the third period and ended up with a semi-respectable 23 shots on goal, so there’s that.

Takeaway #3: Both goalies have been good

Aside from the late push, there is one positive Takeaway from this weekend. While the rest of the team has struggled, both goalies have been solid in these last two games, and both deserved better results against the Senators and Bruins than what they got.

Grubauer allowed a goal that I didn’t think should have counted and one that got double deflected. Daccord allowed the tip-in goal and the power-play goal on which he was completely hung out to dry. Both goalies posted save percentages above .900, and both had positive GSAx numbers, with .41 goals saved above expected for Grubi and 2.49 for Joey.

“Throughout the whole game, but especially in the first period, the opportunities we gave them from turnovers were really good chances for their really good players,” Bylsma said. “A mini-breakaway for [David] Pastrnak, Joey came up big there. But their power play is a real dangerous power play as well, and they had five opportunities tonight.”

Here’s hoping the Kraken can find a way to start giving their netminders run support again, and here’s hoping that this positive goaltending trend will outlast this stretch of dismal stretch of nonexistent offense.