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Three Takeaways – Vince Dunn stars in 5-2 Kraken win at Islanders

Darren Brown

After snapping their three-game losing streak Tuesday in Carolina, the Seattle Kraken followed it up with another impressive performance on Long Island Thursday, defeating the Islanders 5-2 and earning the home team several choruses of boos throughout the night.

In his third game back from injury, Vince Dunn was the undisputed No. 1 star of the game, contributing a goal and two primary assists. His partner, Adam Larsson, also tallied three assists, while Shane Wright, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Tye Kartye each scored a goal. Joey Daccord also returned to form with 27 of 29 saves and came close to recording his second shutout of the season.

After jumping out to a 4-0 lead, the Kraken caused some late undue stress by allowing two goals in the third but ultimately secured a convincing top-to-bottom victory.

“I think you can see, the last six periods, we really focused on making sure that we’re skating the right way with the puck, not bringing it back all that often, and making life a little bit harder on goalies too,” Dunn said. “I think you see a lot of guys just getting to the net, being already at the net, so that creates a lot better odds to get goals.”

Here are Three Takeaways from a 5-2 Kraken win over the Islanders.

Takeaway #1: Vince Dunn is good

Dunn reminded us Thursday why the Kraken have historically been much better with him in the lineup than without him. Two shot-passes from the point—one on the power play and one at 5-on-5—created Seattle’s first two goals and helped put his team in the driver’s seat for the second game in a row.

“I think definitely the first one I have no shot angle,” Dunn said of his thought process on Kartye’s tip-in goal that made it 1-0 at 2:48 of the first period. “It’s kind of bobbling on me a little bit. And defenders are so good now in tying guys up that sometimes you’ve got to move away from the net to get sticks on pucks to deflect them in.”

Bjorkstrand was the beneficiary on the second one and scored the first of two power-play goals for the Kraken on the night (Wright had the other PPG).

“I think it’s smart for the defensemen to look for sticks,” Bjorkstrand said. “It’s not always easy shooting from the point and beating the goalie clean, so you need a screen or a direction sometimes. And [Dunn’s] obviously a really good player, so I try to present the stick, and it’s on him to at least try to get it in the area to try to hit it, so I can react to it.”

Dunn’s best offensive play of the game came immediately after what he called “the worst play I could have made,” when he tried to pass to Larsson at the point but handcuffed him. Dunn got it back, juked around Pierre Engvall, and sniped it past Ilya Sorokin from the top of the slot.

Notably, Dunn also said he thought he played much better in Seattle’s game against the Hurricanes.

“I thought I defended a lot better, made a lot better reads with the puck. So some nights it just goes your way a little better than others.”

I sure thought he played well on this night, and coach Dan Bylsma seems pretty happy to have the offensive defenseman back in the lineup.

“It’s just… You get to play with the puck a lot more,” Bylsma said. “That’s both offensively, coming out of the D zone, breaking out, he just has a ton of poise with the puck and usually makes a great and smart play with the puck. And when you can do that, it’s a game changer.”

Takeaway #2: Past healthy scratches working wonders

A curious phenomenon has happened over the last few weeks.

Two players that were struggling mightily for stretches of the season, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Shane Wright, were made healthy scratches by Bylsma, and the results have been undeniably positive. Bjorkstrand was out of the lineup for one game, Nov. 5, against the Colorado Avalanche, and Wright sat for three games between Nov. 17 and Nov. 23.

Since returning, both players have been on respective heaters. Bjorkstrand has 11 points in 13 games since his one-game absence, including his current seven-game point streak, and Wright has six points in six games.

I asked Bylsma why this can have a positive impact on players, and here’s what he said: “I don’t know. We used the term ‘reset’ with Wrighter when he sat out, and I think it just can bring a little more attention to focusing on your game and what you bring and how you bring it on a nightly basis.

“Oliver’s a really good player, and he has a lot of strong attributes that he brings to the table. And you see it happening on a night-to-night basis now. And you see that with Wrighter, the same thing. [He had] the time off, just took a chance to get refocused and re-energized.”

Both players again were impactful in this one, and the line of Bjorkstrand, Wright, and Eeli Tolvanen looked dangerous and creative throughout the night. Bjorkstrand joked that his linemates were “showing off” against the Islanders, making slick little passes to one another and (in Tolvanen’s case) even trying for a between-the-legs goal in the third.

“I wouldn’t say, watching a game, I necessarily learned anything, but sometimes you need a wake-up call, maybe,” Bjorkstrand said. “Obviously, before that, I’m trying to go out and play well. You don’t try to play not your best, but you don’t want to be scratched. And I feel like I’m able to help the team produce, so I want to be a part of that, and trying to do better. And I think I’ve been more consistent since.”

Here’s hoping the healthy scratch treatment has a similar effect on Andre Burakovsky whenever he returns to action…

Takeaway #3: Heckuva start to the road trip

Hockey is such a bizarre game. One day, you see a team lose its third in a row to bottom-feeder teams, and you think things can’t get worse and the season is over. Then that same team goes out and starts a difficult East Coast road trip with two straight impressive wins, and suddenly the belief that same team can compete for a playoff spot comes rushing right back.

Friday presents perhaps the hardest test of this trip against an outstanding New Jersey Devils team, on the second of back-to-backs, and surely with Philipp Grubauer in net for the first time since his worst performance ever as a Kraken.

Can Seattle do something in that game to reinforce that belief?

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One last note: Yanni Gourde, who helped create two goals by screening Sorokin Thursday, did not play the last 17 minutes of the game but remained on the bench. Bylsma called it precautionary after the game and said it would give Gourde the best chance to play Friday.

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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