Seattle underwhelmed in its return from the All-Star break on Wednesday with a 5-2 home loss to a bad Arizona Coyotes team. On Friday, the Kraken will try to get things going back in the right direction against the Anaheim Ducks, a team that has already beaten them twice this season.
The Ducks are fourth in the Pacific Division with 55 points. They have not played a game since Jan. 31 when they lost 2-1 in overtime to the Red Wings, so perhaps Seattle can catch ’em before the rust comes off.
Lineup changes
Coach Dave Hakstol gets one of his top blueliners back in Jamie Oleksiak, so that should be a nice boost for Seattle defensively. The Big Rig missed nine games with a lower body injury… but… also with non-COVID illness for part of it? Maybe? His status was confusing because it switched from illness to injury. We asked Oleksiak about his maladies on Thursday, but he said he didn’t want to get into it. Regardless of the cause, fans should be happy he is back.
There’s also a chance we will see newly acquired Austin Czarnik for the first time, though Hakstol was non-committal on that front both Thursday and Friday. The Kraken claimed Czarnik off waivers from the New York Islanders earlier this week. The relatively small 29-year-old forward showed good speed in practice on Thursday and could fill the depth role that was previously being held by Karson Kuhlman before he got injured.
Czarnik has 136 career NHL games under his belt with 15 goals and 28 assists spanning six seasons. In 2021-22 he played 11 games with New York and posted five points, plus 20 games with the AHL Bridgeport where he posted 15 points. Czarnik had some great AHL seasons for the Providence Bruins, scoring as many as 69 points in 2017-18. That was coincidentally Jay Leach’s first season at the helm of the P-Bruins.
Chris Driedger will get the nod in net for the Kraken against the Ducks. He has strung together several nice games in a row, but with minimal offensive support from his mates in those games, he has not gotten a victory since Dec. 14.
We expect Driedger to debut his new Vaughn pads for this contest.
This is a bit of a crapshoot and is based on the lines from Thursday’s practice. Czarnik seemed to have a regular spot, so we *think* he draws in, while Joonas Donskoi and Mason Appleton were rotating. Donskoi did get scratched once this season, so he’s our guess for who comes out. However, Hakstol also indicated Friday morning that there were some injury issues that could cause more changes. UPDATE: Marcus Johansson is out, so Donskoi is in. Here’s the lineup.
First period highlights
This game got off to a roaring start. Just two minutes into his first game with the Kraken, Czarnik made a beautiful cross-ice pass to Ryan Donato, who blasted it home to make it 1-0.
That score was also short-lived, though, as Yanni Gourde found a pinching Vince Dunn with a perfect pass at the bottom of the left circle. Dunn fired it past John Gibson at 14:41, to give the Kraken back a lead.
Another look at Dunn’s score. Gourde’s pass makes it. We talk all the time about a cross slot pass challenges lateral movement from the goaltender…see it in spades here from Gibson #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/EKJzSrIGri
That was an eventful first period. The Ducks had the better of the chances, and registered 71 percent of the expected goals for, but hockey is a chaotic sport. So, the Kraken took a lead to the room.
We were exhausted from trying to keep up here, so we welcomed the intermission.
Second period highlights
The Ducks got two goal in the first 10 minutes of the second period. Derek Grant made a nice one-handed pass to Lundestrom, who put it past Driedger for his second of the game.
Then with Gourde in the penalty box, Rickard Rakell took a wristshot from the point that found its way through traffic and put the Ducks in the lead for the first time.
2-3
Nice puck movement and Rakell gives Anaheim their first lead of the game. Power play score after Gourde’s slashing call. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/f7efVh0jGF
Donato struck for the second time at 13:35. Gourde picked up a loose puck on the right halfwall after a fortuitous bounce off the ref. Gourde quickly found Donato in the top of the slot. With the puck on end, Donato did not hesitate and fired a knucklepuck off the post and in.
Full marks to Donato for two goals this game, but wow is Gourde creating opportunity for his teammates, too. His second primary helper here is an impressive bit of work. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/Zx2r80NaWg
It was ironic that Donato would use the knucklepuck against the Ducks, the team that created it in D2: The Mighty Ducks, but it was effective nonetheless.
The period ended with the score tied 3-3.
Third period highlights
It was a largely uneventful third period until the final two minutes. And just when you thought Jordan Eberle might never score another goal, he popped a beautiful Riley Sheahan pass over John Gibson to give Seattle a 4-3 lead with 1:43 left.
With the way Seattle played on its road trip prior to the All-Star break, we were hopeful it would pick up where it left off on Wednesday, bringing a relentless attack and suffocating defensive structure in front of outstanding goaltending. The Kraken looked rusty and at times sloppy against the Coyotes, though, and deserved the loss they were ultimately handed (although 5-2 was a bit harsh, being that Arizona got two empty-net goals).
Facing a bad team that was on the second of back-to-backs with a goalie playing his second game in two nights, the Kraken had a lot of advantages on Wednesday. But netminder Karel Vejmelka played well enough to win for the Coyotes, and the Kraken didn’t finish on enough of their scoring chances.
Here are our three takeaways from an uninspiring Seattle loss to Arizona.
Takeaway #1: Jordan Eberle will score again… one day
For four months, the biggest “can’t buy a goal” storyline was wholly owned by Joonas Donskoi, who took 44 games to finally find the back of the net. Seattle’s first All-Star, Jordan Eberle, has now taken over that narrative and is in the midst of a miserable scoring slump that dates all the way back to Dec. 6.
We’ve heard players say a number of times that they don’t worry too much about not scoring as long as they’re getting chances, and the chances have been plentiful for Eberle. During the second period on Wednesday, it looked like he was about to break through.
Marcus Johansson made a lovely pass off a two-on-one rush right onto Eberle’s tape at the top of the Arizona goalcrease. Eberle did everything right and even managed to elevate the puck, but Vejmelka went right to left and stole the sure goal away from the snakebitten scorer.
Eberle looked up to the rafters in disbelief after the highway robbery by Vejmelka, who also made a similar save on Yanni Gourde in the first period. In all, Vejmelka had 34 saves on the night, but the one on Eberle was most memorable.
Eberle did get a meaningless goal in the All-Star Game, and we thought maybe that goal plus the break would do him some good. But getting stonewalled like that in his first game back had to be tough on the psyche.
He is an awesome offensive player. He’ll score again soon, and then a lot more goals will come right after that.
Takeaway #2: None of the winning elements were there for Kraken against Coyotes
On a number of occasions, we’ve written and talked about the winning formula for Seattle being (1.) strong goaltending, (2.) air-tight defensive structure, and (3.) timely scoring.
All three of those were… sort of… there… on Wednesday, but none of the three was fully baked. For example, Philipp Grubauer played decently, and you can’t really fault him for Nick Schmaltz’s first goal, which came at 14:51 of the second period. Schmaltz snuck behind the Kraken defense while Seattle’s forwards were playing Hot Potato in the Arizona end. Alex Galchenyuk hit Schmaltz with a stretch pass that sent him on a partial breakaway. Schmaltz was in alone with Grubauer, so again, you can’t really fault Grubauer for giving up the goal, but he also sort of whiffed with his glove on what looked like a stoppable shot.
Defensively, there weren’t many odd-man rushes allowed, so the structure was ok, but there were some horrendous turnovers. Most notably, Adam Larsson tried to one-touch a breakout pass between his legs in the opening minutes. The pass got broken up and led to Phil Kessel toying with Grubauer and giving Arizona an early 1-0 lead.
“We ended up with a D on the wall that was trying to bump it out to our centerman that was already above the play,” coach Dave Hakstol said of the botched breakout. “In reality, on each of the three goals tonight, we just weren’t sharp.”
As for timely scoring, the Kraken did get a couple goals, but they were too little, too late, as Arizona did a better job of capitalizing on its chances from start to finish.
Takeaway #3: Oh, yeah! That guy!
Aside from Kessel (who played a really good game, by the way), Clayton Keller, and Jacob Chychrun, the Arizona Coyotes must lead the league in having players that make you say, “Oh, yeah! That guy!”
On Wednesday, several players that fit that category factored into the victory. Alex Galchenyuk had a goal and an assist, Loui Eriksson had an assist, Ryan Dzingel had an assist, and Anton Stralman had the eventual game winner.
That Stralman goal was a backbreaker, and it was yet another instance of Seattle quickly conceding goals immediately after scoring at the other end. Colin Blackwell got Seattle on the board just 16 seconds into the third period, but it only took 1:36 for the Coyotes to answer and regain their two-goal lead.
Dzingel shot from the point, and Haydn Fleury blocked it in the slot. The puck pinballed right onto the stick of Stralman, who made a move to his backhand. Grubauer couldn’t track Stralman through traffic, and by the time he figured out where the puck was, Stralman had already beaten him.
What did we think when Stralman scored? Oh yeah! That guy!
Hakstol had some more profound thoughts about the goal, however. “In reality, we gave one back. We gave one back right away,” he said. “It came off a failed breakout. We had a good clean breakout that the opportunity was there to make one more play and get up ice, and we didn’t do that. That led to the play in the defensive zone.”
Still, we remain hung up on how many players surprised us by being in Arizona’s lineup. More examples that did not have points but reminded us they were still around included Andrew Ladd, Antoine Roussel, and Shayne Gostisbehere.
Did you just say to yourself, “Oh yeah! Those guys!” after reading those names? If so, that is the correct response. Those guys beat the Kraken on Wednesday for the second time this season, and that stings.
The Kraken are FINALLY back at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday, as they welcome the Arizona Coyotes for the first time. It is not the first time these two squads have faced one another, as Seattle fell to these lowly Coyotes 5-4 on Nov. 6 in Glendale.
That was a miserable loss for Seattle. The boys got out to an early lead and chased netminder Karel Vejmelka from that game, but with Scott Wedgewood on in relief, fell behind in the third period. The Kraken got a late tying goal, then immediately gave up the winning goal to Lawson Crouse with just a few seconds left.
It was the first win of the season after 11 consecutive losses for the Coyotes, and it also kicked off a painful six-game losing streak for the Kraken.
Interestingly, that night, Vejmelka got his second start in two nights, an extreme rarity for NHL netminders. Well, would you believe if we told you that this same scenario is playing out again for this second matchup between these teams? It’s true! The Coyotes lost 5-1 last night in Vancouver, with Vejmelka in net. He is expected to get the nod again on Wednesday, though, despite his very recent usage.
Jamie Oleksiak and Carson Soucy getting close to returning
As recently as our walk into the arena (see video below), we thought it was unlikely that Jamie Oleksiak or Carson Soucy would return to action against the Coyotes, even though they participated in morning skate on Wednesday. Coach Dave Hakstol has been hinting that both have been getting closer, though.
Interestingly, Oleksiak has been removed from injured reserve, according to the NHL media site. Will he dress on Wednesday? UPDATE: Neither Oleksiak nor Soucy are present in warm-ups, so it looks like Will Borgen and Haydn Fleury will make up the third pairing.
Philipp Grubauer gets the nod for Seattle, as he looks to extend his stretch of very positive play that dates back to Jan. 10.
Projected lineup
The latest
House band “Enumclaw” raised some eyebrows they dropped a very clear f-bomb. “I don’t wanna be a f***in’ loser!” the lead singer screamed into the microphone. Same, Enumclaw. Same.
The Kraken also rolled out some cool new touches to the pre-game show.
The #SeaKraken now have a bell-ringing ceremony just before the opening face-off. Here’s Miracle on Ice hero Rob McClanahan ringing it for the first time. pic.twitter.com/PTYMbLdor6
As we’ve seen many times before, the Kraken conceded an early goal. Adam Larsson tried to make a little backward breakout pass off the halfwall, but Janis Moser got a piece of it and deflected it right to a wide-open Phil Kessel in the slot. Kessel deked around Grubauer and put it away at 4:07 of the first period.
The Kraken had the better of the possession in the opening frame and got some good looks on Vejmelka, including Mark Giordano and Vince Dunn shots that hit the post. Seattle failed to find the back of the net in the opening frame, though, and went to the room down 1-0.
Grubauer did make a couple solid saves on Clayton Keller and Jacob Chychrun to keep his team within one goal.
Second period highlights
Halfway through the second, Vejmelka made a ten-bell save on Jordan Eberle, who looked like he was about to score his first goal since Dec. 6. On a two-on-one with Marcus Johansson, Johansson put a perfect pass area pass on Eberle’s stick at the top of the crease. Vejmelka sprawled from right to left and somehow got his blocker on it. Eberle looked skyward as he skated to the bench.
The Coyotes then stretched their lead to 2-0 when a broken play in Arizona’s end allowed Nick Schmaltz to sneak behind the Kraken defense. Alex Galchenyuk found a loose puck and hit Schmaltz at the far blue line. Schmaltz went in on a partial breakaway and beat Grubauer at 14:51.
That was how the second period would end. While Seattle was outshooting Arizona through 40 minutes, the Coyotes had more shot quality with 2.04 expected goals for to the Kraken’s 1.39.
Third period highlights
The Kraken got on the board just 16 seconds into the third period. Colin Blackwell fought through a slash as he crossed over the blue line and fired a harmless-looking shot from the top of the right circle. It was perfectly placed, though, and hit off the inside of the far post to bring Seattle within one… for a moment.
As is tradition for Seattle, the Kraken gave that goal back fewer than two minutes later. Haydn Fleury blocked a Ryan Dzingel shot from the point. The puck caromed right onto the stick of Anton Stralman, who made a move and backhanded it past Grubauer. The goal made it 3-1 and reminded us that the Coyotes lead the league in guys that make you go, Oh yeah! That guy!
After a long road trip and an All-Star break, the Seattle Kraken welcome the Arizona Coyotes to Climate Pledge Arena Wednesday. This won’t go down as a marquee matchup on the NHL schedule, as it features the two clubs holding down the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
Seattle has 15 wins, and the Coyotes have 11, and while Arizona may seem like an automatic two points, you should ask the team that lost to them first this season – which of course is the Kraken.
A lot of time has passed since that game, and as Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said after morning skate, the Kraken are focused on their game.
But what about the Coyotes?
Yes, they are all in for the tank, er, rebuild this season and of course have arena drama. However, the NHL is tough, and any team can win on any night so Seattle cannot overlook these scrappy Coyotes.
Coyotes to watch
Arizona is led by All-Star forward Clayton Keller, who in 46 games, has 17 goals with 21 assists and 38 points. On the back end the Coyotes are getting a strong season out of Shayne Gostisbehere, who has 28 points on eight goals and 21 assists.
Phil Kessel is still in Arizona and can always be dangerous, although he’s had a modest year compared to his past performances.
Overall, the Coyotes are last in the NHL in goal scoring, averaging 2.15 goals per game. By comparison, Seattle is averaging 2.61 which is 25th in the league. If you’re a bettor, you might want to consider the under in this one, but always remember to bet with your head and not above it.
Who’s stopping the puck?
Philipp Grubauer will be back in net for the Kraken, and he’ll face Karel Vejmelka who played Tuesday night and gets a rare back-to-back start. Vejmelka made 24 saves Tuesday in Vancouver during a 5-1 Canucks win.
Seattle will need to test him early and often Wednesday night.
Northwest connections
The Coyotes have two off-ice connections with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League. Arizona goalie coach Corey Schwab played for the Thunderbirds from 1988 through 1991 prior to a long pro career that included stops with the New Jersey Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Arizona head video coach Hunter Cherni served in a similar hockey operations role with the Thunderbirds. If you’re a fan of ironic coincidences, when Cherni left Seattle to work for the Providence Bruins in 2015, he was replaced at the Thunderbirds with current Kraken video assistant Brady Morgan. After a season with the Thunderbirds, Morgan moved to work for the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate in Tucson.
Coyotes odds and ends
It goes without saying that scoring first is always a key to winning in the NHL, but that might be heightened Wednesday night. Arizona is 5-23-2 when their opponent scores first, while the Kraken are 8-20-3.
Arizona’s power play is ranked 32nd in the NHL and its penalty kill is 31st. Will Wednesday night be the elixir that the Kraken’s sick power play needs?
He did it! Philipp Grubauer accomplished what once seemed even more impossible than Joonas Donskoi scoring a goal for the Kraken by shutting out the New York Islanders on Wednesday for the first clean sheet in franchise history. And so, the Kraken proved on this four-game road trip that there is a first time for literally everything.
It was a tight-checking affair between two defense-first hockey teams, so Grubauer was not tested all that much. Still, considering how the early parts of this season went for the German Gentleman, it was nice for him and for Kraken fans that he continued his strong play and held the Islanders scoreless.
It was such a big deal that he got the shutout, even ESPN’s SportsCenter congratulated him via Twitter.
Congrats, Grubi! Now here's a photo of Chris Driedger to help you celebrate. https://t.co/GBtSLKZJ8K
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-0 Kraken win over the Islanders.
Takeaway #1: A result for Grubauer, but an impressive defensive effort in front of him
It was awesome to see Grubauer get the first shutout out of the way, but really this win belonged to the defense in front of him. The Kraken had excellent structure throughout and only allowed 1.51 expected goals, while generating 3.1 themselves. There were very few odd-man rushes against, and only 19 shots actually got through to Grubauer.
“Great, great game from everybody,” Grubauer said. “I don’t think they had too many great chances. When you compare this game to other games we’ve played, [there were] breakaways, two-on-one’s. Today was the least scoring chances we’ve given up in a long, long time. So without the guys in front of me, there’s no chance you can [get the shutout].”
Grubauer has been really good since a lengthy COVID-related break in early January and deserved this reward. In his last seven starts he is 5-2-0 with a .922 save percentage and 2.14 goals against average.
Takeaway #2: Vince Dunn has entered the chat
Jared McCann’s goal streak was snapped Tuesday in Boston, after he scored in three consecutive games before that 3-2 loss. In that defeat, he had a golden opportunity to tie the score in the closing minutes and extend his streak, but he shanked a shot from an angle with a wide-open net.
On Wednesday, he got a look from an even sharper angle after Jordan Eberle performed some sorcery behind the net and got Semyon Varlamov looking the wrong way. McCann banked it off Varlamov for his fourth goal in five games.
That eventual game winner was McCann’s 19th goal of the season, tying his career high for an entire campaign with a whopping 36 games left to play. How many can he score as he prepares to negotiate for a contract extension?
Vince Dunn stole the show from McCann on Wednesday, though, burying an absolute beauty of a backhander. The shot was nice, but it was the little dipsy-doodle backhand toe drag around Anders Lee that got John Forslund to shout, “That’s hockey, baby!”
What a goal by Dunn, who is so shifty on the back end. We’re excited for his future with the Kraken.
Takeaway #3: The road trip was better than Seattle’s record indicated
We’ve thought for a long time that the Kraken are a better team than their record shows. This road trip was a great example of that. They played really good hockey on this east coast swing with consistent efforts all the way through. They beat an outstanding Pittsburgh team, were tied in the last minute with the Rangers, gave up a fluky power-play goal and went 0-for-6 themselves against Boston, and were the better team for most of the night against the Islanders.
In all, that’s a 2-2-0 record after going 3-3-0 on the homestand prior to this trip. So, it’s not the most inspiring outcome, but the boys really did play well and probably deserved better in terms of standings points than what they actually brought home.
“At this time of year, these are the kinds of games that everybody’s going to be involved in,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “You know, really, we had four in a row on this road trip. We knew that was the kind of road trip it was going to be. For the guys, it’s a good reward.”
“It started after that little COVID break we had,” Grubauer added. “We had time to work on some stuff systematically. We worked on a lot of things, which—game, day off, game, day off—you don’t usually have time to work on. So I think since that game it’s been really consistent.”
A win to close out this stretch does feel nice, and now Seattle slides into the All-Star break feeling good about the way it’s playing.
The Kraken get another week off to clear their heads and hopefully hit the ground running when they return to Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday.
