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Three Takeaways – Not enough from perplexing Kraken in 3-0 loss to Senators

Darren Brown

The Seattle Kraken continued their perplexing ways Tuesday with an uninspiring 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators to close out a four-game homestand at 1-2-1. What I can’t explain about this team is how the players collectively seemed to have found—and then very quickly forgotten—their identity as a group that is stout defensively and opportunistic offensively.

On their recent 3-1-0 East Coast road trip and in two strong home performances against Florida and Boston, Seattle did a lot of good things at the defensive end of the ice and got mostly solid goaltending from both Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord. They also generated those crucial timely opportunistic looks offensively—enough to earn points on most nights.

In the last two games, however, the Kraken just… haven’t looked the same. The middle of the defensive zone seems more accessible now, and at the other end, they’ve struggled to create anything on the inside against the Lightning and Senators.

Plus, once Ottawa got a squeaker of a goal in the second period on Tuesday, the team looked more deflated than it has in a while, and the pushback was—as coach Dan Bylsma said—“Not enough.”

Here are Three Takeaways from an uninspiring 3-0 Kraken loss to the Senators.

Takeaway #1: Not enough of… anything

The Kraken were on their toes to start the game and fired 15 shots at a dominant Linus Ullmark in the first 20 minutes, but they got beaten at their own game. Much like how Seattle didn’t allow much inside from Boston in a 5-1 win on Thursday, it was the Kraken who were held almost entirely to the perimeter against Ottawa.

“We threw pucks [to the net], we had the shot on our mind, I think you saw that,” Bylsma said. “But I think Ullmark saw all of them. He’s a big goalie, he’s playing well. I think we probably had to get a little more dirty than we gave him.”

When pucks started going in Seattle’s net, the Kraken gave in in a way that we haven’t seen very often, fading quietly into the night. A group that has—at times—shown resiliency this season failed to produce anything for large swaths of the game. They didn’t get a single puck through to Ullmark for about 15 minutes—from five minutes left in the second period until 10 minutes left in the third.

It just… wasn’t good enough.

Takeaway #2: Not Joey’s night

In the post-game presser, I made the rookie mistake of giving my own analysis of Joey Daccord’s game in my question to Bylsma about the goalie’s performance.

Here’s what I said: “How do you assess Joey’s game today? From playing the puck to… he has some sharp saves early on, maybe a couple [goals] that were a little uncharacteristic for him. What did you think of his game tonight?”

Here’s what Bylsma said: “I think you just described it.”

I deserved that response.

Daccord wasn’t tested often in the first period, but he did have some tricky saves through traffic and redirected pucks that made me think he was very much on his game. He even created one of Seattle’s best offensive chances of the night, sending a perfect 120-foot aerial pass to the far blue line and onto Tye Kartye’s tape for a breakaway. Of course, Ullmark shut that down, but the signs were good early on that Daccord was dialed in.

But in the second period, things went sideways for him. Shane Pinto scored with an unscreened shot that went through Joey’s five-hole, and Noah Gregor followed that up with another unscreened wrist shot that went over Daccord’s shoulder to make it 2-0.

Even Tim Stützle’s breakaway goal at 4:18 of the third (it’s a breakaway goal, so it’s hard to fault the goalie for that) hit Daccord’s stick and oddly popped up and over him. Aside from the goals, Joey had a few misplays with the puck that we haven’t seen in several weeks and generally didn’t look like himself from the second period on.

With Daccord having something of an off night, he sure could have used some goal support at the other end. But Ullmark wasn’t letting anything in on this night.

Takeaway #3: Give Ottawa credit

It’s easy to watch a game like this and just think Seattle looks downright bad, and at times, I think that was fair to say. But the Senators really played a good road game. They weathered the early pressure from Seattle by protecting the dangerous areas, got more excellent goaltending from Ullmark (who is now 7-0-1 in his last eight games), and took advantage of their chances.

The Senators are becoming a pretty good team. They happen to be hot right now and are playing excellent hockey.

Meanwhile, the Kraken have gone cold and are now playing bad hockey… again… which is still perplexing.

Bonus Takeaway: Other odds and ends

Just a few bullet points to close out this Three Takeaways:

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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