Site icon Sound Of Hockey

Three Takeaways – Adam Larsson and Shane Wright lead Kraken to dominant win over Blackhawks

Darren Brown

The Seattle Kraken got off to a slow start on Tuesday and spotted the Chicago Blackhawks a two-goal lead. But as we’ve seen many times this season, they woke up, tilted the ice in the second period. This time, their poor opponent had no answer once things got rolling downhill, and Seattle glided through to an easy 6-2 win.

Lots of players had impressive performances statistically, with three points for Adam Larsson and two each for Shane Wright, Andre Burakovsky, and Matty Beniers, plus goals from Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle.

Here are Three Takeaways from a convincing 6-2 Kraken win over the Blackhawks.

Takeaway #1: Big night for the Big Cat

Though not known for his offensive prowess, Adam Larsson occasionally contributes a couple of points here and there. On this night, he came through in a big way with a critical goal at a key juncture in the game and later added two primary assists—one on Matty Beniers’ goal that made it 4-2 at 12:53 of the second period and the other on Shane Wright’s second goal of the night to make it 6-2 at 6:55 of the third.

It was the second three-point game of the season for the Big Cat, following a three-assist night in a 5-2 win at the New York Islanders on Dec. 5.

Larsson’s goal was the turning point in this game. Seattle had just fallen behind 2-0 at 17:13 of the first when Tyler Bertuzzi tipped Alex Vlasic’s wrist shot past Joey Daccord. But Larsson struck right back just 31 seconds later, showing good offensive instincts by recognizing a soft spot in the right circle and sneaking down from the blue line just as Jaden Schwartz successfully forechecked and jarred the puck loose to Beniers at the goal line.

Beniers laid a perfect pass in Larsson’s wheelhouse, and the defenseman ripped it home.

The goal seemed to settle things down for the Kraken, who didn’t look particularly sharp for much of the first period. They went on to score four goals in the second period and cruised to an easy victory.

Takeaway #2: Wright as rain

Shane Wright also had a big night for Seattle, scoring goals No. 16 and 17 on the season. Remember, he’s been in a bit of a weird spot since Jani Nyman got recalled, playing the majority of his shifts on what Dan Bylsma refuses to call the team’s fourth line (but… it is).

Even so, Wright got plenty of ice time in this one with 16:54 TOI and still managed to score one of his tallies while out with that line of Mikey Eyssimont, Wright, and John Hayden. Eyssimont made some fantastic plays to create that goal—first throwing a reverse hit, then cutting to the slot and getting two point-blank looks at Spencer Knight before Wright tapped in Eyssimont’s second rebound.

Wright’s second goal came off a pretty give-and-go with Larsson, and that one happened with Jared McCann and Andre Burakovsky as his temporary linemates.

It put him into a three-way tie for the team’s goal-scoring lead, behind Eeli Tolvanen (21) and Jaden Schwartz (19) but level with McCann and Beniers, who both also potted their 17th goals in this game.

I still don’t think it’s ideal to have Wright playing most of his shifts in that spot with Eyssimont and Tye Kartye or Hayden, but I know it’s temporary. Coaches are hesitant to change lineups that are working, and although I don’t think Bylsma expected to be rolling with Wright on that line for as long as he has, the team has looked very good since Jani Nyman arrived.

So, until the Kraken have a stumble, I expect Wright to continue playing a similar role. Hey, he’s making the most of it.

Takeaway #3: Taking care of business

Seeing the Kraken play the way they have since the NHL Trade Deadline is both encouraging and disappointing at the same time. It’s disappointing because there were so many games like this earlier in the year when it felt like Seattle just had to “take care of business” against lesser teams in what felt like must-win games, yet they’d come out and lay an egg (think about that dreadful stretch around Thanksgiving when they went 1-3 in two home-and-home series against the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks).

That said, it remains way more fun to watch the team win games and start to believe in itself—a mindset that can serve as a foundation for a more successful season in 2025-26. This version of the Kraken that we’ve been seeing lately is now 4-1-1 in six games since the deadline, has won its league-leading ninth game after trailing by two or more goals, and—although it was facing a horrendous defensive team—looked dominant in the second and third periods on Tuesday.

Yes, it would have been nice to see the team reach this level earlier in the season, but it is still enjoyable to see it, even now.

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.

Read more from Darren
Exit mobile version