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Three Takeaways – Kraken shake off terrible 1st period, pull away for 6-2 win over Sabres

Darren Brown

Never a doubt! I never stopped believing in this Seattle Kraken team!

Well… I guess the first period Saturday made me question things a little. And the nine losses in the previous 11 games and the four-game losing streak coming into this one didn’t help.

In those opening 20 minutes Saturday, the Kraken looked like they’ve tended to look over the past month, laying a massive egg and accepting a two-goal deficit before waking up and scoring six unanswered goals for a 6-2 win over the Sabres.

“How we played in the second, how we played in the third is—yes, we got the result,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “But that’s how you have to play each and every night to try to have success.”

Kaapo Kakko scored twice, Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and a fight (!!), and Joey Daccord made 34 saves in his first start since Dec. 22.

It’s a small step in the right direction, but it’s nice to be writing about a victory for a change. Here are Three Takeaways from a 6-2 Kraken win over the Sabres.

Takeaway #1: An atrocious first period

You know how I said I never stopped believing in the Kraken? That may have been a fib. The team has looked shockingly bad lately, and the opening frame Saturday—in which they were outshot 15-3 before throwing a few at Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen late in the frame to close that gap—was about as bad as the Kraken have looked in an already horrendous stretch.

How they continue to come out with no energy when they recognize that they’re fighting for their lives is beyond me, but that is what has been happening. In this one, they had NOTHING going in a period that rivaled the second period of the last game against Columbus as one of the worst of the season.

By the time the horn sounded, Seattle was looking at yet another two-goal deficit thanks to a hard-luck deflection of a Sam Lafferty shot off Vince Dunn and an easy power-play tally by Jack Quinn.

“Dan obviously made it pretty clear [the first] wasn’t good enough, which I think everybody could agree with,” Bjorkstrand said. “So, we had to find another step in our game, and I think we responded well. And we’ve got to play hockey like that more often.”

The Kraken came out in the second period and looked far more engaged, riding goals from Ryker Evans and Andre Burakovsky to erase the miserable first period and set themselves up to pull away in the third.

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall between the first and second periods.

Takeaway #2: Strong individual performances

Several players stuck out in helping turn this game around. Andre Burakovsky scored a huge goal and had a few more good looks, including a nice burst of speed that led to a partial breakaway. Joey Daccord was rock solid with a .943 save percentage. Matty Beniers didn’t have a point but was plus-two and helped put the Sabres on their heels several times. Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and a fight (yes, a fight) against Dennis Gilbert that did seem to inject a little more life into the squad.

Bylsma specifically called out Burakovsky’s game. “I think Andre [made] a lot of strong plays. You see him skating up the ice, he’s a dangerous player, but a lot of good puck plays as well.”

And how can we forget Kaapo Kakko? The big winger has continued to impress since his pre-Christmas acquisition from the Rangers. In this game, he scored two consecutive goals, 1:40 apart in the third period. His first goal of the game was also Seattle’s second tally in 38 seconds and put the Kraken firmly in the driver’s seat for the first time in five contests.

Josh Mahura (who also had an awesome game with two assists) passed it to Kakko and then drove to the net. Kakko did the rest, rifling it over Luukkonen’s shoulder.

Kakko followed that up with a power-play goal at 3:46 of the third after a nice forecheck by Jared McCann and Shane Wright. Wright pried the puck loose to McCann, McCann found Kakko at the bottom of the slot for one of his two assists, and in a flash, the puck was once again in the back of the Sabres’ net.

Takeaway #3: Did shenanigans create the spark?

There were two moments of extracurricular activities in this game that one could point to as helping to turn the tide.

First, Oliver Bjorkstrand laid a big hit on gritty defenseman Dennis Gilbert. Gilbert went awkwardly into the boards and didn’t like it, popping up and giving Bjorkstrand no choice but to drop the gloves for the third time in his career. Bjorkstrand did well to keep Gilbert in close and protect himself from the far more experienced pugilist.

“A guy like Oliver Bjorkstrand getting in a fisticuffs, he did it obviously in response to the play there, but him being physical on the wall and then responding [is big],” Bylsma said. “But I think we tiptoed into the game a little bit, and I think when you see Oliver Bjorkstrand… do the physicality and get in the fight, it jumpstarts the team a little bit.”

“I just reacted,” Bjorkstrand said. “In the moment, I felt like it. It’s just kind of pretty simple. Not much to it.”

That incident happened at 17:42 of the first period, mere seconds after Seattle had fallen behind 2-0. The Kraken had a little flurry of shots to close out the period, then came out in the second and looked completely different.

The other moment of feistiness that seemed to lift Seattle’s effort level happened when Rasmus Dahlin tried to decapitate Brandon Tanev at 5:24 of the second period. Everyone on the ice jumped in immediately, showing the kind of physical response that has lacked at times from this team in its four-year history.

After that, the game did turn on its ear, with Ryker Evans getting Seattle on the board at 12:48 of the second and Andre Burakovsky leveling the score at 19:12. Did those two moments really turn the game?

The win is just a drop in the bucket in terms of getting the Kraken back in the race, but it’s good to have a positive feeling once in a while. They face a tough test in Detroit on Sunday.

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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