Sometimes an easy win does not breed ongoing success. After the Seattle Kraken rolled to an 8-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, I couldn’t help but wonder how they would handle the elite offensive prowess of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.
Lo and behold, Seattle struggled to stop the four-headed monster in Toronto’s forward corps and followed up their drubbing of the Habs with an uninspiring result against the Buds.
It’s worth noting that the Kraken were missing not one, but both of their top-end offensive defensemen in this game, with Vince Dunn already out long term and Brandon Montour stepping aside to welcome his second child into the world. Even so, Seattle struggled to get anything going offensively in this game, and the end result reflected that.
Here are Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs.
Takeaway #1: Goals to end the period
At practice on Oct. 23, one day after the Kraken lost 3-2 to the Colorado Avalanche, coach Dan Bylsma said he doesn’t worry too much about when goals are scored in a period. Instead, he indicated he doesn’t think there’s much of a difference between goals scored in the first minute or last minute of a period, and that it’s “all part of the 60 minutes.”
However, I’ve always believed that giving up a goal in the last couple minutes of a period can be devastating for a team’s momentum. Having been in a dressing room when my team just gave up an important goal, I’ve seen firsthand the toll it takes on morale. Seattle did it twice that night against Colorado, and they gave up a crusher on Thursday against the Maple Leafs as well.
In this one, Toronto was the better team in the opening frame, but Joey Daccord stood tall for the first 19 minutes, turning aside the first 13 shots he faced. When your netminder does that, and you get to the intermission tied 0-0, you go out for the second period knowing it’s anyone’s game and that you’ve weathered the storm. But when you allow a late goal, it drains your momentum and can easily carry over to the next period.
With nine seconds left in the first on Thursday, the Kraken iced the puck. Chandler Stephenson appeared to win the ensuing draw backward, but Auston Matthews brilliantly jumped around him and snagged it before it could reach another Kraken player. From here, Seattle had a major breakdown in coverage and left Mitch Marner all alone on the far side. Matthews found Marner, who one-touched it to Matthew Knies at the top of the crease, and the result was an easy goal to make it 1-0.
🤦♂️ Tough time to give up a goal. #SeaKraken https://t.co/UKF6g8IW40 pic.twitter.com/WkD2PAWikE
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) October 31, 2024
Seattle never recovered.
Takeaway #2: Watch out for the star players
Toronto’s best players were its best players on Thursday, with each member of the “Core Four”—Matthews, Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares—making a mark on the scoresheet. Matthews and Marner helped set up the Knies goal, and Nylander scored two easy-looking goals after great setups, one through a seam by Morgan Rielly, and one all-world pass by Tavares.
The Tavares setup was especially impressive. After getting knocked down in the slot, Tavares somehow knew that Nylander had found a soft spot next to Daccord. His blind pass from a knee went right through Jordan Eberle’s skates and onto Nylander’s stick for his second easy tally of the period.
#SeaKraken #LeafsForever https://t.co/HiHkCwEvIN pic.twitter.com/tyQrAipdav
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) November 1, 2024
Of course, this is what good goal scorers do: finding quiet areas on the ice and managing to elude defenses. But when top-end scorers are on the ice, the Kraken defenders must stay glued to the William Nylanders of the world, ready to take their sticks away at a moment’s notice.
That didn’t happen on this night, and the elite offensive skill of the Maple Leafs made the Kraken look disorganized at times. Matthews capped the game off by scoring an empty-netter without even registering a shot on goal, impressively banking it off the sideboards in the neutral zone and into the open cage.
Each of Tavares, Matthews, and Nylander ended the night with two points.
Takeaway #3: A poor night for the power play
The Kraken went 0-for-3 on the power play against the Maple Leafs, which isn’t terrible as long as they’re producing at 5-on-5. However, they weren’t effective at 5-on-5 either. One game after they scored at will against Montreal, they struggled to get enough traffic in front of Joseph Woll to challenge him.
When that happens, Seattle needs its power play to capitalize on its chances. In this game, the power play was ineffective, especially with time ticking down in the second period. At that point, the Kraken were already down 3-0, but a goal there could have put the Maple Leafs on their heels to start the third period, giving Seattle a shot at a comeback.
Instead, Seattle struggled to gain the offensive zone. When they did get the puck into Toronto’s end, they coughed it up almost immediately, and Toronto would get an easy clear.
“Just 30 seconds left on this uneventful power play,” play-by-play announcer John Forslund said, as the time wound down. That pretty much summed it up.
Unsurprisingly, the Kraken registered zero shots on that power play and went into the second intermission with their heads down.
Now, the Kraken face a back-to-back with travel in Ottawa and Boston over the weekend. Here’s hoping the offensive punch we saw Tuesday in Montreal will return against the Senators.
A flat uninspiring effort. Really no excuse.
Yet another former Kraken signs in Switzerland.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – the guy Curtis wanted instead of Stephenson – signs in Switzerland joining Justin Schultz.
Is Kailer Yamamoto next?
No Dunn and no Montour make Homer go crazy.
DON’T MIND IF I DO!
Am I really the first real comment 5 posts in!!!!
On the first goal the thing that stood out to me is why did we ice the puck with something like 20 seconds to go. I don’t know who did it but at the time I was livid about how stupid of a play that was. Eat the puck, soft chip it, find an outlet, just don’t ice the puck in a late situation that a set play can and will be made. Brain dead hockey, it honestly didn’t even look like he was in trouble he just didn’t want that puck and sent it down the ice for literally no reason. Someone please who and why?
That goal was the kiled and we never recovered.
The second goal against we had our two best defenders covering the same man in front of the net literally almost touching shoulders. That play could be run a hundred times and Evens and Larson wouldn’t make the same mistake but they did.
I’d like to point out that Enzo would have hated all of the leafs goals… way too much passing and not enough shooting from random positions. This is the modern NHL, to beat good goalies you have to pass cross crease. Toronto did that and Joey had literally about 0% chance on all of the goals. Very good movement and (are you listening Enzo?) very good passing instead of putting random pucks on net as you “get bodies in front”.
Finally on money pucks advanced stats. This is the third game that the eye test has no relevance to how well the goaltender played. So far two underplaying kraken goalies and one overrating them. Will it come out in the wash by the end of the season? It seems that a computer can’t know the quality of shots and if would truly be more accurate to have shots ratted by humans.
First of all, congratulations to the Montour family! Second of all, I kind of abandoned expectations for this game once news broke about Montour not being in the lineup. Without him and Dunn, generating offense, especially on the power play, was going to be tough, and the lack of offense in this game was fittingly frightful. Hopefully Montour returns soon or the Kraken can make some adjustments on the fly for their next couple of games.
Lastly, stick taps to Tolvanen for his Wicked goal! Happy Halloween everyone!
Just some of my random thoughts on the game.
1) Fleury didn’t look that out of place on the blue line. A couple of really nice first passes to start the breakout.
2) Burakovsky doesn’t even look like he’s in the same book as the rest of the team. He looked really lost last night. There was a comment that the team is trying to get him going but at this point I’m not sure having him on the ice is going to get him going.
3) I’m pretty neutral on the Stephenson signing. Could take it or leave it but overall I’ve been pretty satisfied with what he’s done for the team and on the ice. With that said, he also looked like he was on a different page a couple of times last night leading to give aways of the puck.
Canadian announcers called the first goal ametuer hour. I agree but on all 3 goals
Agree. Lots of standing around passively. That goal above in the 2nd period, you can see Tolvanen and Stephenson just kind of standing there while Nylander is wide open. One of them (probably Tolvanen) needs to cover him on that play. It happened again on Nylander’s second goal, everyone kind of standing around while Tavares spun around and passed to a wide open Nylander. The offense isn’t good, they’re not going to get 5 goals from their D line probably for the rest of the year, but I expect better from their team D, even without Montour/Dunn.
OOOF! At times it looked like they were playing ‘hot potato’ with the puck. Sooo many passes! They need to find another path for Burakovsky. Whatever’s going on with him needs to be addressed away from the games.
From the Athletic power rankings today:
18. Seattle Kraken, 5-5-1
Last week: 22
Sean’s ranking: 18
Dom’s ranking: 18
Spooky Thought: They’re committing to the bit with Chandler Stephenson.
The Kraken paid big money for Stephenson this summer, which was scary enough. Perhaps even scarier? They seem to truly believe he is the team’s most important forward. Stephenson is playing 20 minutes per night, over two more than the next Kraken forward as he’s seeing time on the top line, power play unit and penalty kill unit. Seattle is treating him like he is the team’s unquestioned best forward, and we’re just not buying that. Not with half his points being secondary assists and not while he’s getting absolutely roasted at five-on-five with 33 percent of the expected goals.
The Gentille/Luszczyszyn weekly rankings are a joke… literally… that article is a declared “joke” every week. Gentille has made it clear on multiple podcasts he does not watch and has zero interest in the Kraken… or the Pacific for that matter.
On Luszczyszyn though… the take on here is clearly his and is almost certainly the product of nothing more than a superficial data draw. I think even the most ardent analytics folks will tell you it’s a tool to inform the larger context. I believe the entirely of the context here is xG and TOI. Why I think he might be drawing the wrong conclusions is spelled out in a lengthy “article” I posted in a response on the previous Three Takeaways.
Keep bringing it Foist.
Go Kraken!!!
Thought I would throw out my Shane Wright update. Once again, he is on the ice for the only goal the Kraken scored. Of course, he received no points for it. Bylsma must understand what he is doing right, as he was thrown out there when they went with the extra man needing to score.