The vibes are great! This team is unstoppable! The Kraken may never lose again!
Forget about all the negative things I said on Saturday after the Seattle Kraken lost their third in a row and second in two days to the Sharks, because they bounced back Tuesday with a convincing 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in their barn.
“I think it takes a 60-minute effort to beat a Carolina team, something we haven’t done in this building [since] a long time ago,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but just the battle and the compete all game long… Giving that team 16 shots in a game, five in the first, two in the second, that’s not something that happens very often.”
Here are Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s impressive win over the Hurricanes.
Takeaway #1: A rare early strike
As John Barr pointed out in Monday Musings, Seattle has been the worst team in the NHL this season at giving up the first goal, falling behind a staggering 68 percent of the time. But against the Hurricanes, Seattle came out firing and immediately got on the board on its first possession.
With speed through the neutral zone, Yanni Gourde made a simple pass to Jaden Schwartz as he crossed over the blue line. Schwartz executed a subtle yet brilliant one-touch pass to himself between defenders Jalen Chatfield and Dmitry Orlov, then used his speed to split through the two players. He chipped it past Pyotr Kochetkov, and just like that, the Kraken had liftoff.
#SEAKRAKEN WITH AN EARLY STRIKE! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 4, 2024
Schwartz splits the D and scores 19 SECONDS into the game.
1-0 pic.twitter.com/LeRPTyTWmf
“It was massive, I think,” said Bylsma. “We’ve talked a lot, we’re not happy with how we were playing, and we wanted to make it right. We wanted to make a difference, and when you step over the boards and you get a great play by one of your leaders to get off on a good note in the game, it was massive for the group.”
The Kraken gave up tying goals later in the first period and again in the third, but playing with the lead for a change was refreshing. Aside from fleeting moments when it appeared Seattle had fallen behind (more on that in Takeaway #2), the Kraken controlled the game throughout. The tone was set by Schwartz’s goal just 19 seconds in.
Takeaway #2: Goalie interference goes Seattle’s way
The hockey gods taketh away; the hockey gods giveth back. One game after the Kraken were denied a late Matty Beniers goal (which likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome of their 4-2 loss to the Sharks), they caught a break with a favorable goalie interference call against the Hurricanes.
Martin Necas had scored a power-play goal at 5:43 of the third to tie the game 2-2. A few minutes later, Jack Drury appeared to give the Hurricanes their first lead of the night with a goal from a bad angle.
To the naked eye, something seemed off, as Joey Daccord was way late moving to the correct post. Replay confirmed contact between Daccord and Eric Robinson, clearly impeding the goalie’s ability to make the save. Bylsma challenged and won, overturning the goal.
Phew! 😅
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 4, 2024
Canes scored, but #SeaKraken successfully challenged for goalie interference.
Still 2-2. pic.twitter.com/N0h75g0aZR
Initially, I worried the contact might have occurred just outside the crease, which could have led the Situation Room to uphold the goal. Fortunately, they made the right call, keeping the score tied and setting the stage for late-game heroics from the Kraken.
This was a pivotal moment, and Seattle seized the opportunity (more on that in Takeaway #3).
Takeaway #3: Is Schwartz/Beniers/Gourde a Thing?
One intriguing storyline entering the game was Bylsma’s decision to shake up his lines, even making Andre Burakovsky a healthy scratch for the first time since his arrival in Seattle in 2022.
The newly assembled trio of Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers, and Yanni Gourde turned heads, especially with Gourde moving from center to wing. But the experiment worked spectacularly, as the line dominated, controlling 96 percent of the shot quality during their 12:40 on ice together, per Natural Stat Trick.
Their most significant contribution came 46 seconds after the overturned Drury goal. On what looked like a broken zone entry, Beniers and Schwartz kept the play alive. Beniers poked the puck to Schwartz, who shoveled a pass toward the front of the net. Although Orlov deflected it, the puck landed perfectly for Gourde, who buried it at the far post.
GOURDE GOAL! 🚨
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) December 4, 2024
Jaden Schwartz (who is having a GREAT game), doesn’t connect on the pass, but it drops right in the paint for Yanni.
3-2 #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/iEBdmqQ8SO
It’s fascinating how line combinations can click unexpectedly. When I first saw this group, I didn’t think it made any sense. Now, I think Bylsma should stick with them forever and ever (or at least until Seattle’s next ugly three-game losing streak).
Bonus Takeaway: Impressive defense
Seattle’s defensive effort deserves recognition. Against a Carolina team known for high shot volume, the Kraken limited the Hurricanes to just 19 shots on goal. Bylsma noted 16 in his press conference, but the official count was 19—still an impressively low total.
Remarkably, the Hurricanes managed only two shots in the second period. With Seattle’s starting goalie having a few off nights recently, it’s encouraging to see the skaters step up and play suffocating defense in front of him. Even though Daccord again was not at his sharpest, the Kraken’s strong defensive performance made it a non-issue.
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.
Very impressive overall game against a really good team especially in their own building.
I like Joey, but every time he goes behind the net to tend to a loose puck seems to be a near disaster as he tries to make a big play to get it out of the way. Other than that I like him as the Kraken number one goalie there just is no other choice.
Joey’s aggressive and skillful puck handling has enormous benefits in terms of getting the puck going the other way. It is clearly worth the occasional, inevitable turnover. Grubauer (and other more pedestrian puckhandlers) turns the puck over far more routinely by just weakly poking the puck up the boards, but no one complains because it looks more normal.
He had issues a few times last night, though, that really had nothing to do with his aggressive puck handling. He seemed weirdly slow getting over to his right, and NOT after playing the puck behind the net. I really hope he is not hurt…
Shane Wright once again made a play that led to a goal (Tolvanen’s) but got the 3rd assist. He should have double the number of points he has with 3rd assists and plays leading to goals where he stops the other team going forward but may not touch the puck. Snakebitten in that regards.
He also mishandled a puck that led to the Canes’ first goal (or maybe the pass wasn’t great/puck on edge, hard to tell). Either way, I’ve been very happy with his game since he was scratched.
Finally Burakovsky is a healthy scratch, long time coming. We looked good without him, I’d like to see him sit a few more games just to make sure the message is clear.
Found it interesting that Daccord had around a .5 goals saved above expected. I guess the quality of shots was high?
Great team defense including our goalie, elite puck handling by your goalie takes away the forecheck opportunity. Vs teams like the Canes that’s huge and a big reason why they were held to very few shots. We should not be complaining about the occasional mistake overall it’s a huge benefit. Knowing that your goalie can control the dump in allows the defense to put more pressure on the entry to force the dump in, they don’t have to worry about being in position to get to the end boards first. Huge advantage in overall team defense.
I have watched that play several times and because Dunn was being pressured, his pass to Wright was hot and slightly ahead of him. I wonder who took responsibility for that on the bench just afterwards.
The other thing about Wright is that he set up Tolvanen several times when he should have/could have scored. Eventually those go in.
I noticed Wright had a -1 in the game and thought that was odd because he definitely contributed to that goal. On review he traps the zone and then heads to the bench to get a fresh player out (as he should), misses out on the credit for an excellent play.
I think he had just stepped off the ice, as he made a beeline to the bench after his play. But the bench sent him back onto the ice for the celebration, as you can see him there in the highlights.
One of the many reasons +\- is not a good stat.
Well how many times does that type of thing happen. + – gets you a pretty good idea of how the player is doing but you need to consider what roll and matchups are. When you look at Burky for example it’s a telling story.
There are too many confounding variables, namely all the players you are on the ice with on both teams. Maybe it can be a useful measure to give you a vague sense of offense/defense over a very large sample size (multiple seasons) but even then, it would illustrate more about the quality of the team and defensive assignments/structure than the actual quality of the individual player.
Yes I agree definitely has to be taken in context. I’ll continue to pick on Burky as an example as to how it is still a valid tool when you know the roll of the player and yes a -1 can be a very good + – on a bad team.
If you take a look at our – leaders you see players that are not expected to be putting the puck in the not but used more in a checking role. When you look at our leaders it’s mostly who you’d expect, guys that drove offense. Burky should be on this side of the plate but he’s not and actually one of our worst players in regards to + -, he shouldn’t be in that position so in his case it’s a very valid stat to show how poorly he’s played.
“Maybe it can be a useful measure to give you a vague sense of offense/defense over a very large sample size” totally agree with this.
I agree. If one player is +10 and another is -10, that seems to say something. At least I think so. But I can also see the point as you get down to smaller numbers, it’s hard to know. I’ve heard some players really take their +/- seriously. I always look at it, and then I look at what their regular linemates have.
Yes I do in “Beer league”, I want to finish a game having more goals scored when I’m on the ice then against and I track it. It’s the competitive nature within us, I can completely understand how well tracked + – would drive a player crazy if they are on the wrong end of it.
Great article Darren! Your excitement is palpable. What a huge relief for them to have (at least this one) a solid effort. More please!!
That was definitely the Kraken we want to see. Even if we lose a game like that, it doesn’t hurt as badly, because you know they were playing their best game for 60 minutes. The third period looked like a playoff game, and I thought Carolina was playing hard but had no solutions.
Larsson looked like a different player that game than he has all season. That was easily his best performance. Hopefully he can keep this up.
Just for fun, and because it says it all, the Kraken had ZERO players selected for the 4 Nations Face-Off. The Caps did also, but that is only because Russia is not in and for some odd reason, John Carlson was not picked.
Just goes to show what many here have been saying repeatedly. This roster lacks top talent. BTW, that other expansion team has 7 players!!
I may be a total homer but I’d definitely take the USA team over the Canada team. I think Canada has the edge in top line talent but other than that, I’d take the other USA forward lines, D, and goalies easily.
Vince Dunn could’ve made it for Canada, and so could’ve McCann. It’s a pretty unimpressive group tbh, especially compared to previous Canada teams.
Larsson was selected as a reserve for Team Sweden. Daccord also probably would have been on Canada’s roster if he had a Canadian passport (he still could if he gets a Canadian passport before the tournament and one of the other goalies drops out).