The first period was terrible. The second period was excellent. That pretty much sums up how this game played out for the Seattle Kraken, who ultimately came away with a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“I don’t think anybody on the bench was happy with the way the first period was going,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “Maybe it’s a reset after the period [when the] 20 minutes is up, but I just… the response from the group is great to see.”
The fourth line came through again, Joey Daccord had a season-high 38 saves, and Seattle had its third two-goal comeback win of the campaign after never doing that last season.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-2 Kraken win over the Blue Jackets.
Takeaway #1: A tough first period against the Blue Jackets
Give credit to the Blue Jackets for how the first period went. The Blue Jackets, who entered the game on a five-game losing streak and were looking to salvage at least one victory out of their winless five-game West Coast swing, came out flying. Remember, this is a team that had a winning record before its current skid began, so there is some talent on that side.
They tilted the ice in Seattle’s direction for almost the whole opening frame, firing 18 shots at Daccord. For a few fleeting moments, it started to feel like the Kraken were going to get to the dressing room unscathed, but in the blink of an eye, the game developed into an uphill battle.
Sean Kuraly broke the ice at 13:46 after Zach Aston-Reese’s shot hit him in the pants, and he poked it over the line. In classic Kraken fashion, the Blue Jackets struck again 22 seconds later, when Kuraly returned the favor to Aston-Reese by winning a race and throwing the puck blindly toward the crease, where Aston-Reese deflected it in.
The #SeaKraken gave up two goals in 22 seconds.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 13, 2024
The first was a bouncing puck that Sean Kuraly poked over the line, and the second was a Zach Aston-Reese tip off a great pass by Kuraly.
2-0 CBJ. pic.twitter.com/uQZh6iicGs
Here’s Bylsma’s explanation of the first goal: ”Coming out of D-zone coverage, we had a wall play that—from where our position was, the puck bounces over our stick, it gets taken back, and we’re executing off a skate, which leads to a turnover.”
Here’s Bylsma’s explanation of the second goal: “The second one is just a hard forecheck that we get beat on the rim around the wall. They sling it to the net, and they’re ready at the net, and we’re not.”
The “executing off a skate” comment on the first goal was in reference to a bad pass by Josh Mahura into the feet of Jordan Eberle that caused Eberle to cough up the puck. The “we get beat on the rim around the wall” comment was also in reference to Mahura losing the race for the puck and then getting bumped perfectly by Kuraly to give the CBJ forward just enough time to throw it into the middle.
It was a rough shift for Mahura and the Kraken. Bylsma called timeout after that to start settling things down, but the real reset happened at the end of the period.
Takeaway #2: An incredible second period
Even after the abysmal first period, I had a hunch that if Seattle could get one relatively early in the second and build some momentum, then the Blue Jackets would go away quietly. Yes, they were desperate, but teams on losing streaks like that often tend to be fragile and struggle to respond when a game shifts.
Whatever was discussed between periods in Seattle’s dressing room must have been pretty magical because the Kraken looked like a completely different team when they came out for the middle frame.
“[The messaging] was simple. It wasn’t good enough,” Brandon Tanev said. “It’s lazy, sloppy hockey, but I think at the end of the day, we had 40 minutes to figure it out, and I think we definitely did that.”
Seattle did figure it out to the tune of four unanswered goals in the second to gain control of the game. The fourth line with Tye Kartye, Yanni Gourde, and Tanev led the way yet again, with Kartye breaking the ice at 2:50 on a greasy net-front goal and Tanev scoring a beauty off a 2-on-1 rush with Gourde.
TURBO TIME! 🚨 For the THIRD time in two games!
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 13, 2024
Off a 2-on-1, he cuts to the middle and snipes.
2-2, and the #SeaKraken have erased another two-goal deficit. pic.twitter.com/pHTJ0fVTlr
“Yanni… drove and pushed everyone back and cleared some space for me,” Tanev said. “And then it was just making a play. [I was] fortunate to get a puck and put it in the right spot for it to go in.”
I do love the way Gourde and Tanev worked off each other on that play. Tanev didn’t try to force a pass, and even with a strong back check from Mathieu Olivier, Gourde’s drive through the slot took all the attention away from Tanev and gave him plenty of space to cut to the slot and fire it home. This was Tanev’s third goal in two games, by the way, and the fourth line now has four of Seattle’s last nine goals since Kartye was scratched in Colorado, and the team subsequently traded for Daniel Sprong.
Eeli Tolvanen followed up Tanev’s goal with a power-play marker all of 10 seconds later, when Seattle executed a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play off the face-off that ended with Tolvanen tapping in a cross-crease pass from Eberle.
EELI GOALVANEN! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 13, 2024
Beautiful setup, right off the face-off of the power play. Eberle finds Tolvanen on the far post, and the #SeaKraken score their third in a row and take a 3-2 lead. pic.twitter.com/QLpcMiVfp1
“Our first power play, we stepped over the boards with the mindset we were going to score, and that got us into the lead,” Bylsma said.
Seattle’s second-period surge marked a massive turnaround, helping the Kraken take control over the Blue Jackets.
Takeaway #3: Another huge night for Joey Daccord
Daccord deserves some praise in this one as well, because without him, Seattle wouldn’t have had a chance after that opening frame. In total, Daccord faced 40 shots in the game and notched an impressive .950 save percentage and 2.0 goals saved above expected, according to Natural Stat Trick.
As the Kraken have struggled at times this season, Daccord has quietly put together a fairly stellar campaign so far. On a team that is 7-8-1 through 16 games, Daccord is 6-3-1 with a 2.71 goals-against average and .916 save percentage, good for sixth in the NHL among goalies that have played at least six games.
“It’s kind of been the script for us,” Bylsma said. “In the first period, when things were going a little bit haywire, he kept us in the match… kept it at two [goals], and gave us a chance to come back in the second.”
It’s becoming difficult to not view Daccord as the full-time starter for this team.
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.
Kraken now in a four-way tie for second longest win streak in the league at two… they trail only Winnipeg at seven.
Go Kraken!!!
Hard to comment on this game. Looked bad after one period but better after two. I guess that shows Disco Dan can pull levers but seems he has had to do that too often early in the season. Shouldn’t the veteran players be pushing themselves without needing coach inspirations?
What can one say, without Joey the team would be sunk. It is concerning that this performance was against a team lower in the standings. Hopefully they can motivate themselves against the Hawks, Ducks, and Sharks.
Agree with this regarding veteran players. I have wondered for awhile as to why they have so many veteran players, but seemingly no real leaders. They need a leader who’d commands enough respect to hold others accountable. Someone who will set the tone (e.g. become more physical) when games start to get out of hand. I’m thinking of a Jamie Benn/Anze Kopitar type player. The Kraken don’t have that right now. Maybe because he’s been there/done that Brandon Montour will eventually grow into that role.
Veteran leadership is part of it, but when you’re a professional athlete your work ethic is your own job. Jamie Benn may set the example for the stars and bring energy and key moments, but part of why that team has a recent reputation for playing hard is they’ve had a good crop of young players waiting in the wings for their opportunity. There is no better motivation than seeing another guy working hard to try and take your spot.
The Kraken had that in the 22-23 season when Sprong, Donato, and Geekie (to a lesser degree) were constantly competing to stay in the lineup. Last year the reserve forward was Bellemare, and nothing against him but no one viewed him as a threat as a veteran at the end of the line. What I find the most exciting about Sprong returning isn’t just his production, its that he’s a fringe player who is good enough to take another guys spot in the lineup, and he’s going to work for it. Players will take notice they need to prove that they deserve to stay in the lineup.
This is actually one of the hidden negative consequence of having almost zero cap space: nobody’s job on the NHL club is in jeopardy because the team literally can’t afford to have even one extra forward with a healthy lineup. That could theoretically lead to complacency. I don’t know if I fully buy it, these players are hyper competitive and it behooves them to do well regardless of the circumstances, but even a very slight decrease in effort or motivation could make a difference against teams that are going 100% all the time.
Note on that, last season the only line that was being changed was the 4th, H had no intention no matter how poorly the top lines played of scratching anyone. You have to have a coach that is willing to make tough decisions for the pressure to actually work.
Sure, but Bjorkstrand at even 80 or 90% is better than Hayden at 100%. It would help to have replacement players who are actually competition.
Can’t look at it that way, when a message needs to be sent you have to do it.
Damn right Darren! Joey! Joey! Joey!
But really, to me Joey looks way more composed, calm, and confident in the crease. He seemed to be flailing and losing his net way more often in the beginning of the season. Anyone else notice the same thing?
Mahura had a really rough first period, and the D as a whole had some serious lapses. Evans was bailed out by Montour on the breakaway, Oleksiak kept passing it into people’s skates, Borgen was way too soft on that second goal by CBJ. Montour continues to be rock solid. I can’t wait for Dunn to be back.
Burky had a noticeably positive game, so I have no idea what they’re going to do with D.D.D. Sprong. I love Kartye’s game lately, plus he needs NHL time to develop, and then Dunn will be back and *poof* there goes the cap space. Maybe waivers and send to CV in case of injury?
Since D10 – the day he took over for an injured Grubauer last season – Joey’s .922 is third in the league behind Stolarz and Hellebuyck and his goals saved above average rate and total are second only to Hellebuyck. That’s 46 appearance. GSAA is NST’s version of GSAx.
You left out the name of whom you were indicating for waivers and CV. Was it Mahura, Burky, Sprong, or Kartye?
That really is the $64 million question for Francis to answer over the next two weeks.
The obvious and easy answers are Sprong, Mahura, and Hayden going to CV when Dunn returns. No way Francis would have the cojones to send Burky down.
They are really fighting against that score first plan! I was happy to see Bylsma use that timeout!!
Yes the score first plan… a few weeks ago I was commenting on a possible reason that Daccord has such a better record than Grubauer playing in front of the same team. Yes Daccord is probably a better goalie as the stats show. My thoughts a few weeks ago was that that first goal that gives you huge odds to win Grubauer was letting in more frequently, it doesn’t appear that that’s the reason for the lop sided win loss record between the two of them they seem to be able to come back with Daccord in net. This is year 4 and Grubauer just doesn’t seem to be able to win in Seattle at any consistent level. It’s very puzzling, a curious case.
It’s very nice not having a goalie controversy as to who should be in net, overplaying Grubauer just because we’re over paying him etc… when Grubauer is injured it just seems simpler, no hard decisions just play hockey.
This was the first game this season where it was actually fun to watch Burky with the puck. Yes a few turnovers and stupid stuff but all in all a very good game for him. Wasn’t really reflected on the score sheets but he looked good. His game looked a little simpler, using open space rather then trying to beat three players etc… was passing early before he ran into trouble, likewise with the shot. Possibly the Sprong effect, he had to be on that was considered to bump out of the lineup maybe the competition is good? Maybe Francis could send that tape of that game to every GM with a trade request? 😂
I couldn’t pick who to drop out to get sprong into a game after last night, chandler probably looked the worst to me but he’s not getting scratched. Very interested to see who sits, as I said before it better not be anyone from the 4th line.
Giving up the first goal (or two) has been disappointing BUT Columbus started that game like a team possessed. Holy smokes…talk about speed and pressure! I haven’t seen anything like that in any NHL game I’ve watched this season. Everyone expected something like that from a desperate Columbus, but that was crazy.
Bylsma calls a timely and strategic timeout, Joey keeps them in it and The Kraken calmly come out and take back the game in the 2nd with four consecutive goals. There’s no other way to read this than good coaching and great veteran leadership.
Shane doesn’t get much attention but he is quietly building confidence. He really captained his line and looks like he’s entered a new phase in his development. Very fun to watch!
“Shane doesn’t get much attention but he is quietly building confidence. He really captained his line and looks like he’s entered a new phase in his development. Very fun to watch!”
Yes. I have been advocating for Shane all season, as I see him doing a lot of the small things but just not being able to finish. Think it is going to come for him, as he is laying a foundation of different skills that will make him a complete NHL player. Hope Sprong springs Shane’s scoring jones.