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Three Takeaways – Kraken overcome another two-goal deficit, defeat Blue Jackets 5-2

Darren Brown

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.

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.

“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.

“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.

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