After an emotional roller coaster of a day, you’re surely thrilled to read about a fourth straight Seattle Kraken loss and the end of an abysmal road trip. In this one, the Kraken at least found the back of the net a few times, but the end result was the same: a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
Once again, the Kraken fell behind early, and were forced to chase the game against the Avalanche. They did get back to level at 1-1 and 2-2, thanks to goals by Jaden Schwartz and Jared McCann, but both times, the Avalanche responded and scored the next goal to regain the lead.
Admittedly, I have been quite distracted on this particular game night, but I’ll do my best here.
These are Three Takeaways from a 6-3 Kraken loss to the Avalanche.
Takeaway #1: What happened on that offside challenge?
A big turning point in this Kraken-Avalanche matchup came when Mikko Rantanen appeared to give Colorado a 4-2 lead at 9:11 of the second period with a one-time power-play ripper off a Cale Makar pass.
BUT WAIT!
The Kraken challenged for offside for the second game in a row, and a rewind showed that Artturi Lehkonen had entered the zone well before the puck crossed the blue line and landed on his stick. So, the officials announced that the play was, indeed, offside.
BUT WAIT!
Colorado coach Jared Bender called the official over, had a conversation, and suddenly the review continued. The additional review showed that Yanni Gourde’s shot had missed the net, rattled around the glass, and went all the way through the neutral zone to the waiting Lehkonen.
And so, the officials overturned the successful challenge AND THEN ruled that it was, in fact, a good goal, which ALSO meant that the Kraken got a penalty for the failed challenge.
You don’t see that every day. The #SeaKraken had successfully challenged for offside, but then Jared Bednar argued and played an UNO Reverse card. Because it was a Kraken shot that led to the offside, it’s NOT offside.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 6, 2024
Good goal AND SEA gets a penalty.
4-2 Avs. 🤷🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/ez0mxTWIAT
“The linesmen, I guess, looked at it again after… I don’t know… After they had called it offside,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “They looked at it again, and I think there’s an interpretation of the rule whether we intentionally played the puck back. But we were the last team to touch the puck before [it came] back, and that’s what they ruled.”
The rule reads, If a player legally carries, passes, or plays the puck back into his own defending zone while a player of the opposing team is in such defending zone, the offside shall be ignored and play permitted to continue.
Based on the writing of the rule, it doesn’t really matter if it was intentionally played backward. Based on that, they also got the right call in the end, but it was all kind of shady. Did Colorado challenge the challenge?
I’d also like to re-raise issue with the fact that the Kraken got the penalty for the failed challenge after EVEN THE NHL ITSELF was initially fooled into negating the goal. But I digress…
Takeaway #2: An interesting shakeup
Bylsma sent a strong message to his veteran core on Tuesday, benching Oliver Bjorkstrand—Seattle’s only All-Star last season—as a healthy scratch, along with Tye Kartye and Josh Mahura. The Kraken recalled Ryan Winterton earlier in the day, and Bylsma inserted him, along with John Hayden, into a game for the first time this season.
Bylsma indicated after morning skate that the decision to take Bjorkstrand out was a message for the whole group that everyone needs to be better. But it can’t feel good for Bjorkstrand, who has scored 43 goals since joining the Kraken before the 2022-23 season and had previously missed just one game for Seattle.
I concede that I haven’t been closely watching Bjorkstrand’s game lately, but he hasn’t struck me as the central problem for the Kraken. So, he probably wouldn’t have been the guy I would have benched, but it is nonetheless an interesting move by Bylsma and something the previous regime never did (that I can recall), taking a prominent player out of the lineup.
The shakeup also came with changes to the blue line, with Brandon Montour playing the left side for the first time next to Adam Larsson.
The big mixup didn’t work in this game, but doing something like sitting a veteran in the pressbox can have lasting implications, both positive and negative. I’ll be curious to see how things go for Bjorkstrand and other veterans moving forward.
Takeaway #3: What a terrible road trip
Following last Tuesday’s high-flying 8-2 Kraken win over the Canadiens, optimism about this team’s direction was easy to muster. But Seattle came back down from that high with a thud, dropping four straight over the rest of the trip in Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, and finally Colorado.
Now, I’ve said it a couple times that I worried after the 8-2 win that some bad habits may have crept in during that contest, because that tends to happen after a game when the goals come a little too easily. But did I think things would turn this badly? No, I certainly did not.
On what he hopes the team has learned from the trip, Bylsma said: “I hope we get a clear understanding of how we have to play and how we have to compete on an every-night basis to have success. I mean, each game is probably a little bit different lesson, but that should be the overall riding theme. And it’s the time of year to learn the lesson now, not wait for later in the year to try to learn the lesson.”
Indeed, at this stage in the season, Seattle can right the ship and will at some point, but points matter now just as much as they do in March. The Kraken need to find their game quickly, and their don’t seem to be any easy answers.
The players showed their frustrations at the end of this game, which harkened back images of some rather low moments in past seasons. Schwartz got hit with a Larsson shot that stung him and took it out on the Voodoo Ranger IPA ad in front of the Kraken bench.
Jaden Schwartz gets stung by an Adam Larsson shot and breaks his stick over the boards.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 6, 2024
We also learn from this clip that Edzo is not a craft beer guy. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/DZ8Uq50Zs4
Yanni Gourde got kicked out and said this (presumably) to the official…
I’m no lip reader, but I think Yanni Gourde is saying “puck too.” #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/60cy6OrxHp
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 6, 2024
And then Montour took a run at Joel Kiviranta and caught him high.
Yikes. Questionable hit by Brandon Montour on Joel Kiviranta.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 6, 2024
Nikolai Kovalenko puts a bow on the game on the power play, and the #SeaKraken lose their fourth straight game 6-3. pic.twitter.com/XIzO1nwViU
Hopefully, there will be no supplemental discipline after that one.
Thankfully, this pitiful road trip is finally over. Now it’s up to Bylsma and the Kraken to turn all this frustration into positive change.
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 is time to create the Ron Francis exit countdown clock. Shall we start the timer at 90 days or give him the full regular season?
They look soooooo lost out there. Constantly chasing and half a beat behind the play. And what the hell is going on with our D letting players get behind them so often??? Then there’s the puck watching. The list goes on and on. It’s going to be a long season….
Which will last longer? My neighbor’s already shriveling Halloween Jack-O-Lantern, Ron Francis or the Kraken coaching staff?
The coaching staff won’t and should not be responsible at this point. The next GM might want a change but RF has to go. I don’t care if you’re a RF supporter or not we simply can’t be this bad with our backs to the cap and so many long contracts.
Grubauer is 1 and 5, Daccord is 4, 3 and 1. It’s time to stop this nonsense and officially play Grubauer as the backup. No way the game split should be this close between the two. I asked a few days ago but it was ignored, anyway we can get a breakdown on the “early goal” and how it relates to the two goalies? When you give up the first goal your odds shrink to below 30% of winning, it seems to me that there is a huge difference between the two goalies and the early goal. SOH can you dig into this?
Sure, Daccord is better and should be the starter, but evidence also increasingly shows you need to play your backup more than just on back-to-backs, or you exhaust the starter.
More to the point, the entire team is getting crushed. They have not outshot an opponent in 8 games. They are getting 30 to 40 percent of shot quality most games. They NEVER played THIS badly under Hakstol. Even on long losing streaks you could blame bounces for a few of them. Not now. This team just looks flat out terrible right now.
Other observations:
-Eberle is playing hurt, I am certain of it.
-Shane Wright is broken right now. Totally ineffective, hemorrhaging goals against. He might need to be demoted to rebuild his confidence. The NHL team has no real chance anyway, they need to keep Wright on track for the future.
-as usual when the team is getting killed, McCann looks to be the only one skating hard and making things happen. What a rock that guy is. Truly a hero.
-Beniers is the same guy as last year. Enters the zone with the puck, not enough skill to evade the D, gets pushed, falls, puck goes back the other way. That might just be who he is. Oy.
The mood will be dour at CPA on Friday. Good thing I’m taking one of my kids (and not Boist). The kids are always excited about being there regardless. Ah the innocence of youth.
Definitely, I’m not trying to blame goaltending we’ve been playing horribly just was hoping to get some stats on this side of things.
I really didn’t understand the scratches last night, how did Burky avoid the knife? Puzzling choices.
Burky is not the player that management thinks he. He’s not compatible with anyone on the ice and mainly skates around with the puck, looses it, then falls down. His hockey IQ is low and getting hurt is mainly what he has accomplished on this team. I see no team value here.
Everyone seems to forget how awesome Burky was for that first half-season-plus that he was on the team, until he got hurt immediately after the all star break. He was leading the team in scoring and flashed game-breaking skill like no one else on the team. Until that injury, the number one reason offered by pundits for the Kraken’s turnaround between Season 1 and Season 2 (other than maybe the spike in shooting percentage) was the Burky signing. But since that February 2023 injury, we’ve just never seen that original Burky again. I think management is still holding out hope that he’ll get back to that level with some regular playing time at full health, but seems unlikely that guy is coming back. Or maybe he’s still NOT at full health.
Just to reiterate, the Kraken are on a 6 game stretch of <40% xGF%, with THREE being <30% (!!):
26.85%
38.69% (Granted this was a blowout win against the Canadiens, but Daccord also bailed them out from it being a lot closer)
32.39%
36.47%
27.99%
28.36%
I know there are problems with xGF stats, but when it’s this egregiously horrible AND it matches the eye test, it seems totally legitimate. They are literally playing like the tanking Blackhawks from 2 years ago, that’s how bad they’ve been. RF is on the hot seat, but I can’t imagine they would fire him mid-season.
A quick review shows Shane has a +/- of 0 which is far from hemorrhaging goals against, there are 5 other forwards who have been much worse in this area, including Stephenson who is -6! Shane has looked solid at times and a little lost at others but definitely not the main problem, and certainly not enough of a problem to warrant demotion.
Stephenson and Burky seem to be the bigger culprits given what what the expectations are for them, and my guess is it’s primarily sloppy puck handling that’s the cause. Those would have probably been my choice for healthy scratching if I really wanted to send a message, but I guess Bjorky was the problem?
I don’t have time to look back but I meant just on this road trip. His +/- was well into the positives a couple weeks ago. I think he was plus 6 or so at one point?
Wright was +4 five games into the season.
After that he was net -1 before last night bringing him to +3.
Last night he was -3. Three against, zero for.
One of the three was an empty net… McKinnon was on the ice for all three.
I was really surprised Burky was in the line up last night. I have though he’s been the weakest link all season. He just passes the puck around to avoid getting hit and he won’t skate into the corners. But he must have some relationship with Disco Dan because there he is. Bjorkstrand has 3 goals – 2 assists and is a +1. Burakovsky has some assists but is a -6. I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that they’d sit Bjorkstrand to send a message. Things seem upside down.
With Grubauer, it’s always been the response goals. There were another 2 last night. Alison Lukan did an analysis on year 1 or early in year 2 that showed this, but I haven’t seen one since. Would love to get an update on that.
It’s been the response goal and the first goal I believe. Hard to win playing behind. Part of this is a team problem and part a goaltending issue, I’m just curious if this is the reason Daccord gets more points.
Grubauer
Games played: 6
Allowed first goal (either team): 5 games
Average time of first opposing goal allowed: 13:28
Average time of first Kraken goal scored: 30:36
First goal opposing allowed in first 5 minutes: 2 games
First goal opposing allowed after 20 minutes: 1 game
Daccord
Games played: 8
Allowed first goal (either team): 4 games
Average time of first opposing goal allowed: 13:58
Average time of first Kraken goal scored: 29:34
First opposing goal allowed in first 5 minutes: 2 games
First opposing goal allowed after 20 minutes: 1 games
Stats cover this season through the 11/5 Colorado game. Shutouts are counted as 60:00 for the first goal average times. Numbers are a little worse for Grubauer (although in some cases they were better before the most recent game) but I don’t think the difference is as stark as you’re painting it.
Well it looks like it is. If Grubauer is allowing the first goal of the game 5 out of the 6 games he played that basically fall within his win loss record. Flip side of that if Daccord is allowing the first goal 4 out of 8 games played that also somewhat aligns with his win loss record. If you take the average chance of winning at over 70% if you score first that’s pretty much the story is it not?
Teams play a different game when they are ahead, don’t necessarily take every shot and maybe look for the better chances. More focus on defense making it tougher for you to score.
Whoops, messed up a formula and that should be 5 instances of Daccord giving up the first goal. Other numbers should still be correct.
I will point out that the Kraken have given up the first goal in three of their five wins (once for Grubauer, twice for Daccord).
There just isn’t a significant difference between the goalies in terms of how long they manage to hold the other team scoreless, on average. In order for a goalie to not give up the first goal, the skaters actually have to score. I’m just not willing to give Daccord extra credit for Montreal’s defense being a trash fire.
Team does not look good right now. Disagree about Beniers, he looks good, one of the few players creating zone entries, and his line with Eberle and McCann has been the most effective and consistent scoring wise. Unfortunately none of the other lines have done much.
This roster was always going to be a bubble team on making the playoffs.
Was excited that Bylsma was hired along with his staff but the issues are not just the roster as Kraken are getting outplayed almost every game; team is now easily scouted and easy for opposing team to disrupt on ice the system Kraken run. We will definetly see what kind of coach Bylsma is; as team needs to make significant adjustments on how they play, from the penalty kill which is horribly passive, to the offensive system. If he keeps harping that team needs to be better without making strategic changes on the style they play, then this is on him. Because right now his system is NOT working.
Wright is still very young, good skater, works hard but does not look even close to a player who was once considered a #1 overall pick. He will get better and it will take time but concern is that all he ever will be is a solid two way middle six center.
Not sure about the Bjorkstrand sitting as now he is made the scapegoat. He has not been great like majority of roster but not the problem either. Makes me wonder if he will want out and upcoming trade will include him. Very unlikely any trade with Bjorkstrand will return a player even close to as good as him.
The only thing I could think of that might have to do with Bjorkstrand getting the scratch was something Olczyk was talking about before the game. Not only are guys not getting to the front of the net, they’re skating right past the crease and then parking themselves behind the net or off towards the corners. Just anecdotally, I don’t feel like I ever see Bjorkstrand near the front of the net unless he’s carrying the puck. Maybe that’s the message he’s trying to send, maybe not, but it sure seems to me like guys were getting in there early in the season and not so much anymore.
I tend to not put as much blame on the GM in these situations but I think RF’s cap management going in to this season has really hamstrung the team in not allowing a lot of flexibility. It’s only because of Dunn being injured we can get these call ups.
– Wright looked really bad last night. Completely overwhelmed by McKinnon. Before the Boston game I think he had 17 giveaways, 14 in the o-zone.
– Fleury is still looking good in his limited looks. I’d take him ahead of Mahura any day. and that hip check on the boards was a fun one to see.
– Interesting that Fleury, Winterton, and Hayden led the team in hits last night.
– Last night was the first game all season where I noticed Burakovsky as a positive on the ice.
I’m still looking for one of the 5M contracts to be moved sooner than later even if it is with retention.
This an aging team of veterans that were not good enough 3 years ago and some were waived players. No team in the league would be paying these players such high salaries. Now is the time to trade, releasee and bench under-performing players and start using some of those younger players and lowering our cap situation so we bring in some bigger players with scoring skills. The time for smaller players ended before Covid ended and Francis philosophy and that was why he was fired before
He was fired before because he couldn’t handle parting ways with his mistakes, and that’s why he will be fired again. As a GM you need to know when to just move on, he doesn’t.
I have no problem if they decide to trade some of the veterens with higher salaries and bring in some youth, BUT everyone should understand that means tanking the season and vying for a high draft lottery pick next year. You do not win many games in the NHL with a young inexperienced roster; its called rebuild mode with many non playoff years ahead.
If there is a good high scoring player on another team, that team is either NOT trading him OR if a player of that caliber available, many teams will be trying to trade for. Typically any quality player is likely from a bottom feeder team at the trade deadline and that player is NOT going to want to be traded to a Non playoff team. So this idea of some major trade to bring in major scoring increase is NOT realistic. You maybe can get a marginally good player that pans out, but nothing that would significantly move the needle. (Think Tolvanen a couple years ago, though that was a Waiver claim).
If Kraken decide to do a full rebuild, in the rare event a Star/Elite player in his prime is available, they will NOT sign with a rebuilding team that has no chance of making the playoffs much less winning the cup.
In my opinion is to move/trade players only if it does not significantly degrade team, take a chance at signing a star player in the VERY RARE occurance one become available, even if that means giving up some promising players, and HOPE some of there prospects in the next few years develop in to solid to star NHL players. If you blow up the experienced core of the team right now, its back to zero and a minimum of 6 years and likely longer before any chance of making the playoffs.
Francis, your now going by Norm? This is exactly the mindset that at best will keep the kraken fighting for a playoff berth for the next ten years. Explain exactly how you intend to sign all these up and coming players when you overpay mediocre players to play for you on extended contracts. There is a history here that isn’t looking good. I do like Montour but other than that it’s just throwing money away and handcuffing the team. If RF was good at evaluating talent his path could work but he isn’t and it won’t work. I’m not suggesting that we intentionally tank but you have to watch your dollar and you can’t be willing to jeopardize your future just to sell more tickets.
So Norm is Francis? Daryl must also be Francis, as he agrees with everything Norm says. Wish Francis spent his time fixing the team’s issues instead of trolling on hockey boards.
Do you understand what the word “trolling” means?
A non-denial denial. So Norm = Daryl = Ron Francis. How funny that a highly-paid and hopefully very busy hockey executive spends his time trolling hockey boards looking for fan input. C’mon Ron, fess up.
I’m not sure this accurately reflects what the cap situation will look like in coming years.
The cap increase is predicted to go up about 4.5 mil per year for the next 3 years. Gourde, Tanev, Eberle, Tolvanen, Schwartz, Grubauer, and Burky will all be either off the books or on expiring contracts before you need to pay Shane, Kartye looks like a 1.5-2 AAV guy, and the only person in our farm system who looks like a sure thing at the NHL level is Catton.
In other words, this years crunch notwithstanding, the Kraken will have plenty to work with in the future. Fans clamored for the team to spend money in free agency to make the team
better (at least on paper), they did, and now everyone is upset that they spent money in free agency this year.
I admittedly don’t like the term of the Stephenson contract, but I also think it’s far from the albatross most people are making it out to be. If you want to see an albatross of a contract go look at Huberdeau.
Sincerely
Ron Francis
I think the element the people seem to forget when they talk about cap increases is that it increases for everyone. You put yourself behind the 8 ball now and your still working with a hand tied behind your back even after the cap increases.
I completely forgot Oleksiak, Bjorkstrand, and Dunn will also be up by the time we need to pay Shane (our earliest potentially-expensive contract). That’s 46 million plus to work with after accounting for Joey’s contract kicking in. Plenty to sign our young guys, far from handcuffing ourselves.
Thank you Norm for a realistic and well thought out estimation of the teams options.
I apologize Moist if my comments have hurt your feelings. I didn’t intend to “troll” anyone and if I did, I apologize for that as well. As I understand it, trolling is a sort of online harassment where a person – typically anonymously – comments with the intent to upset or provoke others. If I have done that I should not have. It was only my intent to engage in a well thought out conversation about the Kraken. If I have upset or provoked you, that was not my intention and you deserve better.
I had the impression moist was joking? 🙃
There was something I was curious about after looking at the scoring numbers so I went over the shift charts… Stephenson was almost never on the ice with McKinnon. Never as in less than a minute in the first two periods other than PK vs PP. That might explain why Stephenson was +2 with an assist while Wright was -3 for the game with No.29 on the ice for all three against.
In the 3rd they matched up a bit (Stephenson and McKinnon) with the Avs up 4-2. Other than that they were pretty much never on the ice at the same time. Considering they each led their teams in forward ice time and center 5v5 ice time, I was curious how.
After rewatching the game today it was pretty obvious Bednar was deliberately deploying McKinnon/Rantanen to avoid Stephenson. I’m not saying they were afraid of Stephenson, I’m saying they knew their best scoring chances were against the other three lines. Time and time again, with last change McKinnon would either be in or out seemingly dependent on what line Seattle iced, and until late in the third with a two goal lead, that line was any line but the Stephenson line.
Early in the first, when Colorado scored their first goal, Bednar threw McKinnon out on the ice with a one-for-one for the Avs in the O-zone obviously knowing the Wright line was hemmed in and could be outmatched… and sure enough, boom!
All game long Bednar used match-ups and last change to put McKinnon and Rantanen in the best possible situations… and it seems pretty obvious he considered that to be against any of the other three lines.
I’m not saying Stephenson is anything like a true No.1, but imagine what a team like Colorado – even though they’re decimated by injuries – would have done last night if they didn’t have to game plan at all.