“The Seattle Kraken won 2-1 against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday” … is what I would be writing if we could erase the first six minutes of the game (and also pretend Leon Draisaitl’s empty-net goal didn’t happen, though it wouldn’t have in this revisionist version of events).
Alas, we at Sound Of Hockey cannot rewrite portions of a hockey game. As such, the real result was a 4-2 Kraken loss.
“It’s taxing on you mentally [to frequently be down in games],” coach Dan Bylsma said. “The games go different ways, you get bounces, you don’t get bounces… In this game, a minute into the game, you’re down one and down two in the first period. It’s mentally challenging for the guys to continually mount a comeback in games.”
Here are Three Takeaways after a 4-2 Seattle Kraken loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Takeaway #1: What an abysmal start
Seattle opened this game with one of its worst six-minute stretches of hockey this season. It was puzzling to see the Kraken come out so flat because there’s simply no explanation for how they could lack energy in a game like this, even though we’ve seen that countless times over the past three and a half seasons.
Desperate for points, facing one of the best teams in the NHL—featuring two of the world’s top players—and playing in front of a packed house at home on a Saturday night, they should have been fired up. Instead, they came out flat, completely mismanaging the puck. They handed out turnovers like candy, missed checks, and Philipp Grubauer was left to fend for himself against three Grade A rush chances, two of which found the back of the net.
“Not good enough,” Bylsma said. “Early on, a little too much standing around, watching their good players, and not putting enough bodies on guys.”
“I mean, we’ve got to get better starts,” Jaden Schwartz said after scoring in the third period to bring the Kraken within one. “It’s tough coming back all the time in this league. It’s good to be able to do it, and we put ourselves in position to tie it up again. But we’ve just got to—especially with them playing last night—be sharper off the start, be on our toes, be aggressive, instead of kind of watching them and being on our heels.”
Schwartz nailed it with that phrase, “watching them.” It really felt like the Kraken were spectators, allowing the Oilers’ many offensive weapons to dictate the game.
On the first goal 57 seconds in, the Kraken had numbers with Matty Beniers, Vince Dunn, and Adam Larsson all back. Beniers tied up Viktor Arvidsson, but Larsson gave Leon Draisaitl too much room, and Dunn missed a check on Podkolzin on the wall, leaving him wide open to score and extend Draisaitl’s point streak to 14 games.
Yikes. 1-0 Oilers 57 seconds into the game.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 5, 2025
Podkolzin gets the goal, and Leon Draisaitl has points in 14 straight games. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/bxdbKSbQ5j
Four minutes later, Jeff Skinner doubled the lead on another coverage lapse by the top pair. Tye Kartye missed his check on Derek Ryan at the red line and hit linemate Ben Meyers instead, giving Ryan space to carry the puck into the Kraken zone. Again, Larsson gave Kasperi Kapanen too much room, and Dunn reacted too slowly to Skinner streaking through the middle. Skinner then went 1-on-1 with Grubauer and buried it.
God-awful start for the #SeaKraken, who are completely hanging their goalie out to dry.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 5, 2025
Skinner makes it 2-0. pic.twitter.com/Yz20Pa4Xxc
Boom. 2-0. Another massive uphill climb.
This team never quits, and I genuinely thought a tying goal was coming in the third period. But the Kraken need to figure out how to play with leads rather than constantly chasing games.
Takeaway #2: Philipp Grubauer gave them a chance
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about goaltending in Three Takeaways, but Grubauer deserves a mention for his performance Saturday.
The Kraken skaters gave him little support in the opening minutes, and the deficit could have been worse if he hadn’t made a huge save on Connor McDavid’s breakaway. Despite the tough start, Grubauer made 28 saves on 31 shots in a game where Seattle was outshot nearly 2-to-1.
“He kept us in the game, for sure,” Bylsma said. “The McDavid breakaway save, and he was strong in other avenues. There was traffic in front, and he made some strong saves in there. He gave us a chance to come back in this game, for sure.”
He also did a full split to rob Draisaitl on a 2-on-1 in the third period.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Oilers had 81 percent of the shot quality in this game. They should have scored more than they did, but Grubauer gave the Kraken a fighting chance.
Takeaway #3: Adam Larsson injured
The night started poorly for the Dunn/Larsson pairing and only worsened, as Adam Larsson left at the end of the second period with an upper-body injury. His last shift ended with 3:32 remaining in the frame.
On replay, his final shift looked fine, though he did get his stick caught under Connor Brown’s arm at the very end of the shift (see tweet below). Could that have tweaked his arm or shoulder?
Wonder if this little pull on Connor Brown with his stick hurt Larsson’s arm or shoulder.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) January 5, 2025
This was the last thing Larsson did, and he hasn’t had a shift since. #SeaKraken https://t.co/95XwZ45oCu pic.twitter.com/zn3o8hEpuf
After that little pull on the stick by Brown, Larsson exited the frame. Watching live, I didn’t notice him leave the bench immediately, but I did catch that the Kraken were short a player by the end of the second.
Bylsma said after the game, “We’ll have to see how it reacts at this point in time.”
The Kraken can’t afford to lose Larsson, their ironman and top-pair defenseman, for an extended period. Here’s hoping his injury responds well over the next couple of days.
Worth noting, Yanni Gourde was also a late scratch from this game with an injury.
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.
It looked like Grubauer pulled something during the second period. He was pretty slow to get up after a lot of his saves in the second half of the game and seemed to be a bit tentative when skating. Definitely something to keep an eye on…
Sit Burakovsky. Nevermind everyone’s issues with Stephenson. Burakovsky continues to look terrible. Soft on the puck, can’t clear a zone.
Burakovsky’s injury issues gave him an excuse for low production the last two years, but he’s played in almost every game this year. It’s time for him to kick it up three or four notches. And he’s not the only one.
Here’s something to think about: Burakovsky and Stephenson TOGETHER have five fewer goals than …. Macklin Celebrini of the Sharks. Add in Matty Beniers (7 goals) and that trio — eating up $18.3 million in payroll space –has exactly as many as the Sharks’ Tyler Toffoli. Neither Macklin nor Toffoli are playing with a group of all-stars. There’s no good reason for the Kraken’s offense to be as weak as it is.
It’s time to see what’s down at the farm. I don’t understand hockey salary caps, so forgive me. Burakovsky has to go. There are probably a couple of guys in Coachella that could provide more effort with less giveaways. Why not give them some NHL time? It’s not like it would keep us out of the playoffs. I love Tanev, but when does he get traded? Does Oliver Bjorkstrand have trade value? Is the only way to get rid of Burakovsky to package him with one of the aforementioned players and eat some $? Sponger is sitting there gathering dust. Let him go play somewhere. My point is the Kraken have to make room for future talent to cut their teeth.
Great stuff as usual Darren.
Sigh. Not starting on time seems to be a chronic issue with this club no matter who’s coaching and then throw in (yet another) goal in the 1st minute and now you’re really in trouble. Now, the Oilers are a top team so a loss to them shouldn’t be surprising but when we basically give away the game so early it’s easy to yell “fire sale!” We all know that some guys are going to get shipped out but it’s mostly dependent on waiting out other teams at this point in the season. The biggest disappointment for me is that this team seems no closer to being consistently good than last year’s team was. If we’re still having this conversation at this point next year does Francis keep his job?
This team might be worse than last year’s team which is pretty scary when you realize how much money we spent and for how that spent money will prevent them from adding pieces if their young players start showing promise. Last year it felt like they were better than their record, this year they have won a handful of games that they should have lost and have generally been uncompetitive in their actual losses.
When your high bar is being a fringe playoff team, the combination of Grubauer being garbage out of the gate and the Dunn/Eberle injuries were too much to overcome.
I don’t understand how everyone knows you have to play physically against EDM, and then you come out and play beer league for the first six minutes and go down 2-0 before you figure it out. Is this a coaching issue? It’s sure starting to seem like it.
Burakovsky needs a new home for his benefit and mainly the Krakens. He just doesn’t jive with anyone. You can tell the other players are tired of it too. Too many bad and unpredictable moves. Scorers on his line can’t produce because they never know what he’s going to do, except for turning the puck over and falling down. He really does try hard but it just doesn’t seem to be working.
You can’t expect to come flying out of the gate when you start Stephenson and Burakovsky. Stephenson did score, yes, but the kraken were still outscored with him on the ice overall and he had an xGF% of 12% for the game. Twelve!! And guess who led all forwards in ice time? Yup, Francis’s most recent and most collossal UFA failure! Yet again! I would bench him for Ben Meyers at this point.
Of course, now Gourde is on IR, so we’re stuck with both Stephenson and Meyers both at this point.
It’s sad how since the Eberle injury, Stephenson and Burakovsky have dragged McCann down with them. McCann had a few really uncharactaristic boneheaded plays yesterday.
Beniers had another good game though. More of that Matty!
Daccord also on IR. They called up 2 defensemen, which means someone else (Larsson?) is also hurt. It’s gonna get even uglier
Since the 1st of December McCann has had 20% more shot attempts than any other forward but has just three goals and is 11th in shooting percentage.
Stephenson – for example – also has just three goals… on a third as many attempts. I think what’s dragging McCann down is that for more than a month he hasn’t been able to convert.
I also wonder if McCann isn’t playing hurt. Didn’t he miss a game or almost miss one around that time?
Overall, for all the Stephenson-Burakovsky struggles, it looked to me in person like, more than the kraken starting slow, the Oilers were just really good to start, because they’re just a way better and faster team with elite skill players, and then sat back a bit with a 3-0 lead.
This was supposed to be a reply to Daryl. I’m bad at this.
I also just belatedly listened to the Festivus episode of the podcast, right after posting a Stephenson rant last night, and it made me laugh. I can’t help but feel like John Barr hates me now, which makes me sad, because I am an admirer of his going way back to the early NHL to Seattle days. But come on man, when you have the biggest UFA signing, playing the most minutes, signed to a 7 year deal, and he’s immediately ineffective and slow and looking disinterested and constantly turning the puck over on day one, it is hard to NOT talk about that. He says Stephenson is not going anywhere — says who? Just dump him if necessary. Sunk costs and whatnot. He is not helping. Or try moving him to wing and reducing his minutes, that might help preserve/restore some of his speed and energy. I am not smart enough to figure out the best way to salvage cap space, but there has got to be a way. Curtis??
I will say I totally agree with John’s other point on the same podcast, that the common belief every team needs to either be a Stanley Cup contender or needs to be actively tanking for lottery odds is stupid and wrong. I’m not opposed to UFA signings merely because they aren’t likely to make the team a top Cup contender. I think Francis and ownership should be improving the team with signings… where it’s actually improving the team. I’m even willing to defend all, or at least most, of Francis’s UFA signings. Grubauer was the only other one that had me annoyed at the time it happened (only because I don’t trust goalies beyond the uber-elite, which Grubauer never was), and that contract sure has gone bad, but it at least COULD HAVE gone a lot better based on his track record. Burakovsky was the team’s best forward for over half a season before he got hurt. Had that cascade of injuries not happened, we’d be seeing that one in a very different light, I think. Schwartz has been solid and gets in the dirty areas. Wennberg was a good possession center with pretty slick skating and hands, who did what he does and costs what that costs. Montour has been excellent — his contract might turn into a problem in year 3 or 4, but who really cares, as John said. Many thought the Schultz signing was bad and he was rejuvenated in Seattle and especially good in their playoff year. And so on.
The uniquely baffling and infuriating thing about the Stephenson signing was that it was immediately, nationally panned as probably the worst signing of the offseason. He was already steeply declining last year, and he’s already actively hurting the team on day 1. So while I’m not a believer in tanking, and I do not care about ownership’s money, it really compounds the problem when cap space forces you to give the biggest minutes to your worst center. Maybe the Gourde injury makes him second-worst, but frankly I have more hope for improvement from Meyers than I do from Stephenson at this point.
Free Curtis!
Another TLDR… sorry.
Just my thoughts, but the Stephenson talk is getting as tiresome as the Grubauer talk.
If we must… I would start at the beginning with something Elliotte Friedman said right after the signing… ‘Stephenson was brought in to eat minutes and give cover to the young guys down the middle – Beniers and Wright’ (paraphrase). Friedman is not a play analyst or an analytics guy – he’s an insider – so to me that take is coming from someone else – either the player or the organization. Regardless, I think it’s important to recognize his role and what he was brought in for. He was not brought in to be a “legit No.1” NHL center. As much as one may hate the contract, $6.25 does not get you a “top” center. He was not brought in to “shoot the puck” either. He was brought in to eat minutes, win faceoffs, distribute the puck and strengthen the special teams.
When the guys discussed the deal on SOH John and Darren both asked what was the alternative? Curtis – I believe suggested someone like PLD (no longer in the league) or Blake Lizzote who is playing under 12 minutes a night in Pittsburg. With Stephenson at 20 minutes a night, where are you going to put those extra eight to ten minutes? Yanni is already at 15. Beniers is pushing up against 18. In his first full season, Wright is just above 13… so you could give a little to Matty and heap a load on Wright. That doesn’t sound like a great idea for two guys they’re still trying to develop.
He’s clearly an upgrade on faceoffs. Enough said on that.
As much as folks complain about him not shooting enough or losing the expected goals battle, I think it’s safe to say he “distributes” the puck rather than shooting and this is nowhere more clear than on the power play.
For the season he is 8th on the team in PPG/60 but is No.1 in points and assists. His 6.49 assists per 60 are almost twice as many as Tolvanen, who is second with 3.27. He has a point in 81.25% of the PP goals scored while he’s on the ice. Next is Wright with 63.64%. To me it seems he’s a big part of why the power play has been 11th in G/60 since December 1st and 6th in shooting percentage. Hardly stagnant.
Turnovers: Wright, Tanev, Eberle, Beniers, Bjorkstrand and McCann all have more giveaways per 60 than Stephenson.
As for everyone hating the deal as soon as it was signed, I would say that was most vocally the analytics folks, but I don’t deny it. I would add, however, he was also the consensus No.2 center available going into free agency. It seems the obvious problems with the signing were mostly about the term and the dollars rather than the player. I’ve said it before, I believe fans and the media trail the market and the handwringing over the future is overblown. A good example of trailing being Curtis’s “a year too long, a million too much” take on Joey’s extension. I don’t think that has aged too well considering Blackwood just signed for $5.25×5.
It seems to me folks are very much looking to validate their takes rather than evaluating the player and his role – me included. I think what John and Darren were getting at on the Festivus episode is… it’s getting tiresome. I can throw up a bunch of numbers that say he’s doing just what they asked, and Curtis can throw up a bunch saying he’s ruining the team… and neither one really matters.
So… like with Grubauer… I’m moving on.
Go Kraken!!!
OK, for John, I will lay off the Stephenson talk for a while. At least until the end of the season, and then I will try to keep it focused on constructive solutions…