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Three Takeaways – Grubauer, Bjorkstrand, Wright shine in 5-1 Kraken win over Bruins

Darren Brown

Have the Seattle Kraken turned a corner? It’s starting to feel like the Seattle Kraken have turned a corner, highlighted by a convincing and impressive 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena. They’re now over .500 at 15-14-2, and after going 4-1-1 in their last six, those three miserable losses to Anaheim and San Jose a couple weeks ago don’t take up quite as much of the fanbase’s memory space.

On Thursday, the Kraken capitalized on six minutes of early power-play time, putting themselves in the driver’s seat right from the jump. They again defended well and relied on their goaltender to stop a high volume of shots with relatively little danger, and Philipp Grubauer responded with what coach Dan Bylsma called, “Probably his best outing of the year.”

“It was a really solid, really good game from Grubi, and we finally got him some run support to make that pay off,” Bylsma said.

Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice, Jaden Schwartz scored a beautiful goal from a terrible angle, Vince Dunn hit a home run, and Jared McCann hopefully got off the schneid with an empty-netter.

Here are Three Takeaways from the Seattle Kraken’s 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins at Climate Pledge Arena.

Takeaway #1: The power play is clicking

There was a lot of noise earlier in the season about how dreadful Seattle’s power play was, and it was fair criticism; we saw it drop to 29th in the NHL at one point. But since Vince Dunn returned, the Kraken seem to be finding their way with the manpower advantage and have climbed up to 23rd in the league and above an 18 percent success rate. (Coincidentally, the Bruins now have the worst power play in the league at just 12.6 percent for the season.)

“I think [the power play] is connecting well out there,” Bjorkstrand said. “Guys are on the same page, I think we’re moving it around. We’re not really too set in our positions, so we feel like we have a little freedom, and we’re able to read off each other.” 

Seattle got plenty of opportunity at 5-on-4 in the early stages of this game, because David Pastrnak clipped Jamie Oleksiak with a high stick 200 feet from his net (coaches love those) and drew blood for a four-minute minor.

The Kraken wasted almost no time, converting eight seconds into the advantage, when Bjorkstrand tipped a Matty Beniers shot while falling to the ice.

“The power play is not all about scoring goals,” Bylsma said. “The power play is about gaining momentum and doing positive things, and the fact that we were able to strike and get a goal, and how we got the goal was important for our team.”

Seattle could have added two more goals in those first few minutes—once during a net-front scramble in which Andre Burakovsky hit the back of Nikita Zadorov’s skate with a shot that looked to be headed in, and another when Bjorkstrand hit the post on a yawning cage—before Schwartz finally roofed a magical backhander with his feet below the goal line. Schwartz’s tally came just after the power play expired, but it was certainly part of the carryover of the advantage.

Takeaway #2: Grubauer was dialed in

It’s been a tough season so far for Philipp Grubauer, no doubt. As a veteran, former Vezina Trophy finalist, and carrier of a big $5.9 million AAV contract, you can bet he hasn’t been thrilled to be pushed into a backup role behind Joey Daccord.

But the fact of the matter is that before these last two outings against the Rangers and Bruins, Grubauer was 1-8-0 on the season with the worst individual stats of his career. He has desperately needed some things to start going his way, and Thursday’s performance should be a big confidence booster for him.

I thought Grubauer looked equally locked in against the Devils last week in New Jersey, but even in that one, he allowed a goal from a sharp angle in the first period and had the weird misplay in the third that Dunn then handed over to Timo Meier for an easy tap-in. In this one, there were no such flubs or misplays, and Grubauer came away with 33 saves, a .971 save percentage, and his third win of the season.

“Great game for [Grubauer],” Bjorkstrand said. “He obviously kept us in it. I mean, he played really well all game, so you build momentum off that when you have times in the game where they’re pushing hard. We relied heavy on him tonight, and he did really well.”

Grubauer credited the team in front of him, who—like in the Florida game on Tuesday—excelled in boxing out the Bruins and cutting off passing lanes.

“I think they only had like two or three chances there in the slot,” Grubauer said. “We played tight, kept them to the outside, and they had a high volume of shots, but I don’t think they had that many high-quality shots.” 

Even so, Grubauer faced plenty of pucks that we’ve seen beat him at different times throughout his Seattle tenure, so for him to stand tall throughout a full contest was encouraging.

Worth noting, the lone goal Grubauer allowed was on a Brad Marchand penalty shot after Brandon Montour dove on the puck like it was a grenade to save a goal.

“I just turned around and saw Monty Superman dive behind the goal line,” Grubauer said. “He saved my ass, and then, yeah, I didn’t make the stop on the Marchand [penalty shot]. Really nice move from him.”

Takeaway #3: Shane Wright is flying high

It is wild to think that the Shane Wright we saw a month ago is the same player we’re seeing today. After two more assists on Thursday to bring him to 11 points in 10 games since his “reset” in Healthy Scratch Land™️, Wright is not playing like a wide-eyed 20-year-old. He’s playing like a core veteran that is being relied upon to help his NHL team win.

“It’s just going out and playing and showing your speed and skill,” Bylsma said. “Not worrying about all the eyes on you, not worrying about too much in your brain, just going out and playing. I think since he’s come back, there’s still chances to improve in the game he’s showing, but he’s playing with speed, he’s playing with skill, he’s playing with aggression, he’s on the forecheck, he’s winning pucks, he’s skating with speed in the neutral zone.

“I’m not going to say this too loud, but I think we’re seeing the improving version of Shane Wright.”

While Bylsma said that last part in a hushed tone, Wright said loudly and proudly after the game that he is playing with way more confidence than he was earlier in the season.

“Obviously, it’s pretty high right now, and I’m just trying to get better every day,” Wright said. “I’m just trying to really learn as much as I can and just do whatever I can to help the team win, really. And, yeah, just try to grow every day, and really enjoy it as well and have fun.”

Wright added that it means a lot to him as a young player to not just be surviving in the NHL, but thriving.

“Being able to be put out there and play meaningful minutes, play a lot of minutes, and be able to contribute offensively is always something that feels good, for sure.”

Bonus Takeaway: Touching tributes to Mr. Bonderman

As you likely already know, David Bonderman, the founding owner of the Kraken, passed away on Wednesday. Seattle donned patches on the jerseys and helmets Thursday that said “Bondo” in front of the red eye portion of Seattle’s logo that Bonderman came up with himself.

Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke gave the following tribute during the game:

And Philipp Grubauer said this: “I’m going to dedicate that win to Mr. Bonderman because without him, I don’t think we’d be here… Sam [Holloway], the whole Bonderman family, what they’ve done for the city and for us is incredible.”

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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