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Three Takeaways – Nikke Kokko wins in first NHL start, 4-1 Kraken versus Flames

Darren Brown

Niklas Kokko / Jessica Campbell

Ok, that’s enough winning for now, Seattle Kraken.

After cementing themselves as a non-playoff team with an epic post-Olympic collapse, the Kraken were within striking distance of a top-three spot in the NHL Draft Lottery. But then they rattled off two straight wins and climbed out of the bottom five. From a draft-positioning perspective, Seattle really needed to lose to the Calgary Flames on Saturday to give itself a shot at the top three, but alas, the team put together a decent performance against a terrible team and came away with a solid victory.

HOW DARE THEY?!

The stars had oddly aligned for a stinker of an outing, with all three of the Kraken’s regular goalies unavailable—both Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord have gotten injured in the last few games, and Matt Murray is currently away for personal reasons. So in came the AHL tandem of Nikke Kokko and Victor Ostman, and Kokko was tabbed to make his first start in the NHL.

“I thought we defended well,” coach Lane Lambert said. “With Nikke [coming in and making his first NHL start], I thought our guys did a really good job and made a concerted effort to give him as much help as possible. And when we needed him, he made some good saves for us.”

Hey, the Kokko angle is a fun story, and winning vibes are always nice, even if we should be rooting for losses at this point.

Here are Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken win over the Flames.

Takeaway 1: Kokko plays well, goes for a goal

Kokko looked really solid in his first full NHL game; he was calm and confident throughout and really never in scramble mode. Part of that was strong defense in front of him and an inept opponent that appears to have mastered the “tank” game.

But Kokko did get tested a number of times and came up with 26 saves on the evening.

“I feel great,” Kokko said. “I was little bit nervous before game but when I… came to rink and started doing my routine and warm ups, then I enjoyed.”

Kokko has a hilariously cocky persona, and although his English is still a work in progress, his sense of humor shines through when you talk to him.


He raised eyebrows when he very clearly took a shot at the open net in the closing minutes, when Seattle led 3-1. The shot got knocked down and very nearly ended up as a goal against. When I asked if he was trying to score, he said, “Maybe,” and got a big laugh from the assembled media.

But he also told Piper Shaw in front of the whole arena that he had, in fact, tried to score and that, “I try to score before Joey [Daccord].”

Could you imagine if he had hit that in his first game?! Joey would have been devastated.

“He was awesome,” Freddy Gaudreau said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a goalie that almost scored in his first game, but that would have been awesome. But he played an unbelievable game. He gave us confidence just by his energy. He was solid, he was poised, so it was awesome to see that.”

“I think I have only one good try [at a goalie goal so far this season],” Kokko said. “It was good [the Flames] don’t score that.”

Takeaway 2: Strong second period

After a really quiet first period, the Kraken scored three goals in the second, finally winning the “race to three” that Lane Lambert has talked about recently. It’s the second game in a row that they’ve scored three or more goals after failing to reach that number in the six games prior. Lo and behold, they’ve won both of these games.

“Sometimes you get a lead, you get comfortable,” Matty Beniers said. “I think it’s important to keep pushing. You can really kill teams’ momentum, you can kill their will early on in games when you get that third goal.”

The three in this one came courtesy of Gaudreau, Chandler Stephenson, and Beniers, who hit the 20-goal milestone for the third time in his career.

Beniers’ goal was a beauty, and it likely sealed the outcome of the game. With the clock ticking down in the second, he said he heard Stephenson yelling from the bench that there were five seconds left. From the right circle, he let a shot rip that snuck under the bar and gave Seattle a 3-1 lead heading to the locker room.

From there, Kokko shut down the limited pushback from Calgary, and the Kraken rolled to a victory.

Takeaway 3: Nice chemistry from Kakko, Gaudreau, and McCann

There’s been a ton of line juggling down the stretch, while Lambert has tried to find combinations that could produce some offense. In this one, he put Gaudreau between Kaapo Kakko and Jared McCann, and I thought the line looked dangerous every time it was out there. Gaudreau, in fact, ended up with two great looks on one shift in the first period.

He also connected with Kakko for his sixth goal of the season, less than a minute after the Flames had taken a 1-0 lead.

“Sometimes, you just play with players, and it feels like you think what they’re thinking,” Gaudreau said of his linemates. “And I felt that way [tonight].”

I’d like to see them stick with that trio for a bit, even if just to find out if it can work again next season.

Ok, let’s get back to losing 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.

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