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Three Takeaways – Kraken give home fans an exciting 6-3 win over Canucks

Darren Brown

It has been a tough season for Seattle Kraken fans, no doubt, and they have endured some difficult nights at Climate Pledge Arena. But those in attendance Saturday were rewarded for sticking with their team, as Seattle showed emotion and resilience, feeding off the impressive energy in the building for a 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks.

Eeli Tolvanen scored twice, Brandon Montour had a goal and an assist, and Shane Wright and Vince Dunn each recorded two assists, while Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Matty Beniers added a tip-in goal apiece.

“Just the bounce back from the game in St. Louis… I think they didn’t need to hear from me about the game in St. Louis and the compete level,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “A good bounce-back message for the guys as well, just getting to the net front, going to the inside, fighting and battling to get there.”

Here are Three Takeaways from a fun-to-watch 6-3 Kraken win over the Canucks.

Takeaway #1: Burakovsky was great

On the long list of frustrations Kraken fans have felt this season, Andre Burakovsky’s inconsistent play has surely been noted at times. But the winger had one of his best performances of the campaign Saturday, standing out in a very good way.

He only ended up with one banger of a goal, but he led all players with six shots on goal and seemed to be skating with more confidence than we’ve seen from him during some stretches of this season.

“I thought [Burakovsky] was flying tonight,” Wright said. “I thought he was really moving well, skating well, and when he’s possessing the puck like that, he’s cutting back and using his skills, that’s when he’s at his best.”

Burakovsky opened the scoring at 5:47 of the first period after Wright strung together several good plays in a row—first winning a race to a loose puck in the neutral zone, then burning around Pius Suter to create a 2-on-1. He followed that up with a perfectly sauced backhand pass over Filip Hronek’s stick, laying it right in Burakovsky’s wheelhouse.

For his part, Burakovsky did exactly what he was supposed to do on the play, staying wide enough to create space for the pass and opening himself up to rip it past Kevin Lankinen. The goal set the tone for an all-around impressive night for the winger.

He also started the play that led to Oliver Bjorkstrand’s tip-in goal, which tied the game 2-2 at 4:11 of the second period. On that goal, it was just good, hard forechecking from Burakovsky that allowed Wright to pick up a loose puck and find Montour at the point.

“Offensively, starting with the goal in the first, Shane Wright making the great pass to him and scoring the goal,” Seattle coach Dan Bylsma said. “He didn’t factor in on the Bjorky goal, but he was a factor on the Bjorky goal, winning the puck in the offensive zone and hanging onto it… He was dangerous, he was good with the puck, he was on the puck in the offensive zone and noticeable tonight.”

Takeaway #2: Lots of tip-in goals

The Kraken scored three times in the second period to put themselves in the driver’s seat heading into the final frame, and oddly enough, all three goals in that middle period were scored in similar fashion.

Bjorkstrand tipped Montour’s shot, Beniers tipped Dunn’s shot, and Tolvanen tipped Ryker Evans’ shot—all three going past Lankinen’s glove.

“That’s one thing that we try to harp on is getting forwards to the net,” Montour said. “Obviously, it’s tough when goalies can’t see it or we get good tips, and we had a few goals like that.”

The redirections in this game highlighted the importance of creating traffic in front of NHL netminders, who—almost every time—will stop the shots they can see. Add a deflection and a change of direction a few feet in front of the goalie, and your chances of sneaking the puck by increase.

“In an effort to try to score more goals, that’s where you’ve got to go,” Bylsma said. “You’ve got to go to the inside, and also that takes intent, it takes courage to go there.”

My personal favorite of the three was the Beniers goal, because Matty won the face-off clean back to Dunn, then beelined straight for the slot, where he somehow got a piece of a Dunn rocket slap shot before a huge celebration.

Takeaway #3: A glimpse of a good team

At this stage of the season, it’s almost frustrating to see the Kraken play a game like this—battling for every puck, getting contributions from everyone, and not letting goals against sink them. It’s frustrating because it makes you wonder why they haven’t been able to string together more efforts like it this season.

I asked Bylsma about the unpredictability of the team after the game, and here’s what he said: “I just think that’s the challenge for this team. It’s a challenge for our team being consistent every night, and I’m not going to— I’m going to pat them on the back for the compete and the effort tonight.”

Still, it really is fun to see them play like that, even though we’re in “meaningless games” territory—at least from Seattle’s perspective. Here’s hoping for several more of those down the stretch, because that was one of the more enjoyable nights at CPA in quite a while.

Bonus Takeaway: Joey went for a goalie goal

With Lankinen pulled for an extra skater with more than three minutes left, and Seattle enjoying a two-goal cushion, you knew Joey Daccord had a shot at the empty net on his mind. Indeed, Nils Höglander gave him a golden opportunity by tossing a soft floater into his catch glove, which Joey quickly settled onto the ice and prepped to fire.

Daccord got the shot up in the air and appeared to have it on line, but he may not have gotten great wood on it. Tyler Myers easily gloved it, thwarting what would have been an unforgettable moment for Daccord and Kraken fans.

I also asked Bylsma what it will take to get Joey “off the schneid,” and the coach said, “He’s got to learn to shoot it harder. It was a muffin he shot. We’ve more guided him to not always looking for the opportunity to shoot it and try to get the goal, but today was a good opportunity to do it. After the game, I said, ‘You’ve got to work on your shot, because that was a muffin.’”

Incredible stuff from Bylsma, who remains one of the funniest personalities in the sport.

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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