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Three Takeaways – Sluggish play costs Kraken in 3-2 loss to Blues

Darren Brown

Shane Wright 030426

The Kraken seem to have a way of rising to the occasion when they know they’re up against a tough opponent—and easing off when playing against squads below them in the standings. After a high-intensity, nearly perfect defensive effort to earn a 2-1 win over the high-flying Carolina Hurricanes on Monday, the Kraken let a long stretch of uninspired play sink them against the fire-selling St. Louis Blues on Wednesday.

“I don’t think it was anything they were doing,” coach Lane Lambert said when asked about his team’s struggle to hold momentum. “We just didn’t continue with our pressure. There’s no excuse for it. I don’t have an answer for you.”

After jumping out of the gates, the Kraken eased off the gas long enough to cost themselves two critical points.

Here are Three Takeaways from a killer 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

Takeaway 1: A hot start, and then a lull

For the first few minutes of the game, it looked like the Kraken might run up the score on the Blues. They immediately tilted the ice, fired five shots on Joel Hofer before St. Louis generated anything at the other end, and even scored an easy-looking goal when Jaden Schwartz cleaned up a juicy rebound off an Adam Larsson point shot just 31 seconds into the contest.

But after that, the momentum swung toward St. Louis. The Blues had the better of the play from about the five-minute mark of the first period through the midpoint of the second.

During that stretch, Logan Mailloux tied the game 1-1 at 6:50 of the first after a defensive breakdown (I couldn’t help notice Chandler Stephenson puck watching at the top of the crease) allowed him to wrap the puck around into an open net. St. Louis then took a 2-1 lead at 7:40 of the second on a well-executed rush finished by recent Kraken killer Dylan Holloway.

Schwartz downplayed the notion that Seattle went quiet for nearly half the game.

“It was a pretty back-and-forth game. It was right there. It’s a one-goal game, so a save here, a bounce there.”

He’s not wrong—the Kraken were a bounce away from tying it. But easing off the pressure for that extended stretch ultimately did them in.

Takeaway 2: A nice pushback

To their credit, the Kraken mounted a strong pushback, particularly after falling behind by two goals in the third period.

Seattle generated sustained offensive-zone time and, on many nights, would have found the equalizer—especially during a 6-on-4 advantage in the final two minutes when they created several quality chances.

“We had good O-zone time,” Schwartz said. “We obviously could be around the net a little bit more, there’s rebounds, and their goalie played well. So we could have maybe had more traffic, but we had a good push… We had chances.”

Ultimately, though, only Dunn was able to solve Hofer, who came up with a handful of large stops down the stretch.

Takeaway 3: Robert Thomas had a nice game

The Blues appear to be firmly in sell mode with Friday’s trade deadline fast approaching. One name frequently mentioned as potentially available is Robert Thomas, and I paid close attention to him in this game to see how he might look in deep sea blue.

To be clear, I have no indication that the Kraken are actively pursuing Thomas or that he’d have interest in coming to Seattle, but he’s one of the more intriguing forwards rumored to be available.

Based on Wednesday’s showing, I can confirm that I wouldn’t mind seeing him in a Kraken sweater. The 26-year-old, 6-foot, 207-pound center had a strong game, recording an assist on Mailloux’s early goal and scoring what turned out to be the game-winner. On that play, Thomas found a soft spot in the slot, took a feed from Brayden Schenn, and ripped a shot against the grain that beat Philipp Grubauer.

I’ve always assumed Seattle would be more inclined to pursue a scoring winger than another center. But if a theoretical deal for Thomas involved Shane Wright heading the other way, the roster construction could make sense: Thomas and Matty Beniers as the top two centers, Chandler Stephenson as the 3C, and some combination of Freddy Gaudreau and Ben Meyers filling the 4C role.

I’m convinced that acquiring Thomas would represent a significant upgrade to the roster. I’m just not anywhere close to convinced the Kraken will actually land him.

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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