They did it, they did it! They finally did it! The Seattle Kraken WON Monday for the first time since Dec. 14, snapping a doozy of a nine-game losing streak. It wasn’t easy for the Kraken to beat the Blackhawks. It took fortunate bounces and a complete 60-minute 65-minute effort, plus two dazzling shootout moves, solid goaltending, and the introduction of a team puppy to overcome an awe-inspiring performance by Marc-Andre Fleury.
Here are our three takeaways from a memorable 3-2 shootout win by the Seattle Kraken on Monday.
Takeaway #1: Philipp Grubauer wins an electrifying goalie duel
When the Blackhawks first visited Climate Pledge Arena on Nov. 17, Fleury was a big storyline coming in. But he wasn’t a storyline because he was playing well; no, at the time, Fleury was really struggling and had folks wondering if it was time for him to hang it up.
Entering Monday’s game, the future Hall of Famer was making headlines for the opposite reason, having been named the NHL’s No. 2 star of the week after stopping 88 of 92 combined shots over the course of three consecutive wins. He was also coming off of his 70th career shutout on Saturday, a 3-0 win over the high-flying Ducks.
So to say that Fleury entered Monday’s game playing well is an understatement. Even so, the Blackhawks goalie blew our minds with his play against the Kraken. We lost count of how many times we thought to ourselves, Oh, there’s a goal!, only to see Fleury come out of nowhere and snag it with his glove or get the toe of his skate on it.
The Kraken outshot the Blackhawks 37-27, took 73 percent of the high-danger shot attempts, and had a whopping 4.23 expected goals. Yet, Seattle only scored 50 percent of the goals, and regulation ended with the score tied 2-2. That’s because the 37-year-old Fleury played like a superstar in his prime Monday, making save after eye-popping save, and very nearly stealing the game for Chicago.
Comically, the only two times Fleury was beaten on the day (aside from the shootout) came with help from the Blackhawks defense. The first goal deflected off Riley Stillman. The second goal happened because Caleb Jones, sliding to break up a two-on-one with Ryan Donato and Alex Wennberg, crashed into Fleury and took him out of the net.
“He played unreal for them today,” Philipp Grubauer said of his counterpart. “The saves he made, that’s what you’re going to see from him all year, right? So, unbelievable goalie, made it tough for us to score, he made the saves at the right times for them, and it was a big battle I think.”
The “battle” Grubauer is referencing stems from his play at the other end, which successfully counteracted the efforts of Fleury. Stopping 25 shots of his own, Grubauer looked calm, cool, and collected Monday and did a good job of fighting through traffic to make saves.
It’s a great sign for Seattle that the duo of Grubauer and Chris Driedger has now played well enough to win in three straight games.
“It’s critical to have that type of performance,” Hakstol said. “Grubi looked calm and he looked comfortable tonight, as comfortable as he has throughout the year. And I think there’s no better example or showcase of that than the job that he did in the shootout against some pretty talented and pretty experienced shooters.”
The shooters Chicago trotted out were Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane—both of whom were stopped by Grubauer—while Donato and Joonas Donskoi scored at the other end to win it for Seattle.
Takeaway #2: Ryan Donato plays a starring role
We’ve become bigger and bigger believers in Donato as this season has gone on, and Monday was another memorable night in his impressive tenure with the Kraken. Donato was the screen in front of Fleury on Vince Dunn’s goal in the second period, which deflected off Stillman.
In the third, an errant Blackhawk shot rimmed around the boards to Donato in the Kraken end. He picked up the loose puck and sprinted through the neutral zone. At full speed, he made a nifty little juke to get around Jake McCabe and was off to the races, eventually scoring the tying goal at 2:02 of the third period.
To cap off his performance and earn the night’s No. 1 star, he pulled off this beauty in the shootout.
What we didn’t know until after the game was that Emily Cave, the wife of Donato’s fallen friend Colby Cave, was at the game Monday. She had gifted Donato one of Colby’s game-worn ties, and Donato wore it Monday.
“[Colby] was a close friend of mine, and Emily’s here tonight,” Donato said. “I think he was here with me today too.”
Takeaway #3: This game had everything
Aside from a fairly tight-checking opening period, Monday’s game between the Blackhawks and the Kraken was thrilling. And it had… everything.
Great chances and great saves? Done. That’s an easy one. A fight? Yes. Will Borgen jumped to Jared McCann’s defense and pounded on Mike Hardman after he blasted McCann with a big (but clean) hit in the neutral zone. Overtime? Shootout? A late penalty shot?! Yes, yes, and YES!
The penalty shot came after McCann won a race in the neutral zone and poked the puck ahead, then sprinted in on a partial breakaway. Stillman made a clumsy dive and took McCann’s feet out. That call came with just 6:26 left in a tie game, but Fleury confidently shut McCann down. Interestingly, Stillman committed the infraction with 7:14 left, but Seattle kept the puck for almost a minute before Chicago finally touched it and the referee pointed at center ice. You don’t see such long delayed calls on penalty shots very often, so that was something.
And of course, who can forget the revelation of the team dog, Davy Jones?
INTRODUCING THE GOODEST OF BOYS & THE FIRST-EVER TEAM DOG OF THE #SEAKRAKEN – DAVY JONES! 🐾
In partnership with our friends at @CanidaePetFood, we’ll share Davy’s journey as the four-month old husky rescue trains to become a therapy dog. pic.twitter.com/N5qJ2ZxAq4
Donskoi was asked if the dog was good luck, since the Kraken finally won a game on the night he was introduced to the world. With a big smile, Donskoi said, “Absolutely. Every team needs a puppy, I think, and he’s pretty cute too, so I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
“Tough sledding” is a phrase often used by broadcasters to describe a game that is tight checking through the neutral zone. We aren’t entirely sure where it comes from in the real world, but in the hockey vernacular, if a game is “tough sledding,” we know there is little to no offense being generated at either end of the ice. Saturday’s game between the Kraken and the Kings was tough sledding.
It was especially tough sledding in the opening frame, when the two teams combined for a yawn-inducing 10 shots on goal. When the first horn sounded, we thought it might have been one of the more dull periods of hockey ever to be played at Climate Pledge Arena, ironic timing after the revelation of one of the coolest pre-game shows on the planet.
The next chapter of our pre-game show will send shivers down your spine.
For those attending tonight's game, make sure to be in your seats by 6:55pm – you won't want to miss what The Deep has in store. 🦑 pic.twitter.com/yo3mLfem2V
Of course, despite such minimal offensive output by either team in those first 20 minutes, the Kraken still managed to give up a goal in the first five minutes and were thus left chasing the Kings throughout the night.
Here are our three takeaways from Seattle’s ninth consecutive loss (ouch, it hurts to write those words).
Takeaway #1: Somebody score a goal, please
Let us tell you what is *not* part of the winning formula for the Seattle Kraken; scoring one goal per game. That’s what they’ve done in each of the last two, and it has happened in consecutive games where Chris Driedger has played well enough to win. We recognize Driedger had a questionable rebound that led to the first goal, and he called himself out in his post-game press conference for that one.
Still, two goals in a night is a very reasonable number of goals to allow. Somebody needed to put the puck in the net at the other end.
While this game felt similar to the previous game, the difference between this one and the one in St. Louis was that Seattle statistically had the better chances and possession against the Blues. On Saturday, that was not the case.
There just was not enough happening in the offensive end at five-on-five. Against the Kings, the Kraken attempted 41.67 percent of the high-danger shots at five-on-five and had just 38.18 percent of the expected goals for in that situation. Meanwhile, the Kraken only got 18 shots through to Cal Petersen in all situations, and that is rarely enough to win an NHL hockey game.
We asked Driedger if it’s frustrating to play in games like that, where he’s having a good performance, but the team isn’t scoring, and he unnecessarily fell on the sword.
“My job is to get wins and let in less goals than the other guy,” he said. “I haven’t been able to do that the last two matches here, so I definitely thought my game could have been better. I wasn’t happy with the first one. I think you can never be satisfied, especially in a time like now. We need to get to work and get out of this.”
Poor Driedger. Somebody get this man some goals.
Takeaway #2: The Kraken power play has actually gotten pretty dangerous
While there doesn’t seem to be much happening for this team offensively at five-on-five, the Kraken have gotten surprisingly dangerous on the power play. There was a period between the losses against the Arizona Coyotes and Vegas Golden Knights earlier this season—two consecutive defeats that sent Seattle into its first long tailspin—when the Kraken were last in the league with the manpower advantage.
As of the writing of this story, the Kraken have climbed the power play rankings all the way to 17th in the NHL, with a success rate of 19.2 percent on the year. They’ve actually been one of the best teams in this regard over the last month or so.
Seattle scored another power-play goal in the second period on Saturday. Mark Giordano wristed a shot from the point that Calle Jarnkrok deflected. Petersen made a nice save, but Marcus Johansson was there and cleaned up the rebound.
The run of success got us wondering what some of the differences are between now and the beginning of the season when the Kraken weren’t even sniffing power-play goals.
A sign of a successful power play is when you see passes connecting through the seam, meaning those cross-ice passes that sneak between the killing team’s forwards and defense. Those types of passes don’t always work, and they don’t always lead to goals. But when they are connecting, you know the team on the power play is getting the opposing penalty kill to move around, creating openings. We’ve seen these passes a lot more frequently for the Kraken lately.
On the other hand, when a power play stinks, every pass is on the perimeter. We only saw passes around the perimeter at the beginning of the season.
Another piece is that the Kraken seem to have perfected a set play that gives them a reliable scoring look down low. The play starts on the half wall, usually with Jared McCann. He passes low to Johansson, who parks himself next to the net. Johansson one-touches it to Jarnkrok in the slot, who fires away. This is exactly how Seattle scored its power-play goal in Dallas on Wednesday.
Another look at game speed of Jarnkrok’s power goal score that evened the score.
We’ve noticed them trying this play often of late.
“We talk about different plays every game, about what’s there, what’s available,” Johansson said. “We try to build our power play, and it’s been pretty good. We had a chance in the end [Saturday] to tie the game up, and we didn’t. We needed to be a little bit better there, but we need to keep working on it.”
Having that option down low creates space in other areas of the zone. Opposing teams will learn that Seattle has this play in the bag and have to respect it. So, even when it doesn’t connect, the penalty killers will collapse down, which opens up… WHAT?! The seam pass.
Oh, and by the way, Seattle just missed a second power-play goal Saturday when McCann rocketed a one-timer off the post from the half wall.
Thank you for coming to our TED Talk. Now if only the Kraken could get this success to transfer over to five-on-five.
Takeaway #3: The new Kraken pre-game show is ridonkulous
We got an email on Friday night indicating that some special new bells and whistles would be unveiled for Saturday’s game and that a practice run would take place before morning skate. We were welcome to watch, but we were sworn to secrecy about what those new bells and whistles actually were.
Aside from the mind-boggling show itself, one thing that was cool about that dry run before morning skate is that all the Kraken players came to the bench to watch it. When it was done, they all applauded, and it dawned on us that this was probably the first time they had ever seen any of the pre-game festivities. At that point on a game night, the players are in the tunnel waiting to step onto the ice, so they don’t really get to just stand around and enjoy the atmosphere.
The show did not disappoint.
The mysterious tentacle that had been conspicuously hanging in the rafters for several weeks was finally deployed, and new projections on the curtains over the windows to Tightwad Terrace displayed the eye of the elusive Kraken.
Awesome stuff. Congrats to friends of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Jonny Greco and Lamont Buford, as well as the many other talented folks who worked on the show, for getting it off the ground.
Seattle Kraken versus Los Angeles Kings 7 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington TV: ROOT Sports Radio: AM 950 KJR
There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. We figure if we go full Dorothy mode and say that enough times, the Seattle Kraken will start believing it, and we will manifest a losing-streak-snapping victory against the Los Angeles Kings.
Yes, it’s been eight straight losses for the Kraken, though to their credit, they really did put forth good efforts in two of their three games on this recent road trip and perhaps even deserved better outcomes in Colorado and St. Louis. What’s tough is that this team has to be close to perfect for 60 minutes to get a result, and their letdowns have been just robust enough that better teams are able to break through when the game is on the line.
This is another tough matchup against a surprisingly good team that has won three in a row. Can the Kraken play a full 60 to snap out of their miserable streak and beat the third-place Kings?
Chris Driedger back in net for Kraken against Kings
Coach Dave Hakstol officially anointed Philipp Grubauer as the team’s No. 1 goalie several weeks ago in a press conference, though we already knew this to be true based on the team’s deployment of its goaltenders. We still expect Hakstol to default to Grubauer moving forward, but it sure is interesting to see Chris Driedger demanding more time.
By playing the way he played in St. Louis on Thursday and in several of his starts over the last couple months, Driedger really is leaving Hakstol no choice but to use him more. Sure enough, Driedger will be the starter for the Kraken Saturday against the Kings.
“[Driedger’s] performance is one part of it,” Hakstol said of the decision to use him again. “A little bit of the thought process is around the team we’re playing as well. Then, you know, it’s a real busy stretch here, so we will need both guys … This can give him [Driedger] an opportunity tonight to build some momentum for his game and for our team.”
Hakstol followed that up with, “Grubi, you know, he’s our guy. I’ve said that he’s our No. 1 guy. But Chris has carried a load in this league before.”
So, Hakstol essentially doubled down on his position with regard to which goalie is the top dog, but also left the door open to additional starts for Driedger if he continues to play well.
Driedger stopped 25 of 27 shots Thursday, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. He made some unbelievable saves that he frankly had no business making, and if the team deserved a better outcome, Driedger certainly deserved better than an ‘L’ on his record.
Some cool stuff coming for pre-game
If you’re attending the game, we would recommend getting to your seat a few minutes early. We are sworn to secrecy on what will happen before the game, but we did see it this morning, and it’s worth your time.
The next chapter of our pre-game show will send shivers down your spine.
For those attending tonight's game, make sure to be in your seats by 6:55pm – you won't want to miss what The Deep has in store. 🦑 pic.twitter.com/yo3mLfem2V
Aside from the top line of Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, and Marcus Johansson, the forward lines were all shaken up at morning skate.
This includes a partial splitting of the Yanni Gourde/Colin Blackwell/Calle Jarnkrok line, despite that trio showing well in its games together. Hakstol wouldn’t say too much on the thought process, but Gourde has been quiet of late.
We have a theory that he was sneakily elevating the games of Blackwell and Jarnkrok—hence the line looking good as a whole—but because of that, he was becoming a bit less noticeable individually. He sticks with Jarnkrok, but now he will be flanked by Joonas Donskoi instead of Blackwell, while Blackwell will skate with Ryan Donato and Alex Wennberg.
Alex True is taking Max McCormick’s spot on the fourth line with Riley Sheahan and Mason Appleton. Remember, McCormick took a penalty 200 feet from the Kraken net on Thursday, and Pavel Buchnevich scored the game-winning goal for the Blues on the ensuing power play. With that in mind, we were not surprised to see McCormick skating with the healthy scratches on Saturday morning.
On the back end, we do like the balance of having at least one of the more shutdown-focused guys (Mark Giordano, Jamie Oleksiak, or Adam Larsson) on each of the three pairs, rather than pairing them together, like what we’ve seen with Giordano and Oleksiak.
There was a brief stretch of this season—following the Kraken’s first six-game losing streak—when Seattle showed that it was capable of winning games. On the nights they were victorious, they played complete 60-minute contests for one another. They did seemingly everything right with every individual contributing, selling out to block shots, and paying close attention to detail to prevent giving up prime scoring chances. On Monday against the Avalanche and on Wednesday against the Stars, the Kraken showed flashes but did not bring sufficient effort for the full 60 minutes to come away with ‘W’s.
On Monday, the Kraken looked good in the first and second periods, but fell apart in the third. On Wednesday, the opposite happened, and a slow jump out of the gate was enough to send the Kraken to their seventh consecutive loss, a streak that dates all the way back to Dec. 14.
Here are our three takeaways from a 5-2 Kraken loss to the Stars.
Takeaway #1: Slow starts are still dooming
After the way the Kraken played in Colorado on Monday, we were hopeful that they would build off that performance against the Stars. After all, they very well could have beaten a much better Avalanche team that night, so there were some positive vibes coming from the players after the game, despite the sixth consecutive loss.
Instead, the Kraken came out flat as a pancake on Wednesday against a Stars group that was absolutely flying from the jump. When the dust settled on the first period, Seattle trailed 3-1, buoyed slightly by a nice power-play goal by Calle Jarnkrok, set up by Jared McCann and Marcus Johansson.
“I don’t think anyone was happy about that first period,” Jarnkrok said. “I don’t think anyone had to say anything about that. Everybody knew, and we came out in the second period as a new team.”
The Kraken did look like a different team in the second period, and would have been a stone’s throw from tying it after the frame if not for a late breakdown that ended in Joe Pavelski’s second easy tap-in goal of the night.
Said coach Dave Hakstol, “I had no issue at all with our effort and compete in the second and third period, but we didn’t match them in the first.”
We’ve certainly seen this kind of start before from the Kraken, but after they played so well on Monday, we were hopeful they could skate with a Dallas Stars team known for getting off to hot starts in their own building.
It didn’t happen on Wednesday, and the pushback was too little, too late.
Takeaway #2: We tried to warn them about the Dallas top line
We pointed out in our preview of Wednesday’s game that the Dallas top line of Roope Hintz, Jason Robertson, and Pavelski has been having a great season, combining for 83 points. 20 minutes into the game Wednesday, that trio each had a goal. So, apparently the Kraken didn’t listen.
Kidding aside, in the end, Pavelski skated away with five points (3-2=5), Robertson had two (1-1=2), and Hintz had three (1-2=3).
It’s an interesting shift to see who is leading this team now. For years, the Stars were paced offensively by Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, who were often on a top line together. They’ve now slid into more of a second-line role, while Robertson, 22, and Hintz, 25, have emerged as offensive powers playing with an ageless wonder in Pavelski.
Perhaps it’s because Dallas is currently outside of the playoff picture, but we don’t hear much about this club. It is a good team that should get back in the hunt.
Takeaway #3: Jared McCann is awesome
We remember a press scrum with Brandon Tanev at the Expansion Draft. Turbo talked about McCann and how excited he was to play with his old Pittsburgh teammate again, knowing what a great player and person he was.
Well, Tanev wasn’t messing around. McCann has proven to be perhaps the best pick from the Expansion Draft in terms of the value he has brought to the team versus what was expected of him. His goal on Wednesday was his 15th as a Kraken, already setting a new career high for a season, and Seattle has 47 games left to play.
McCann’s latest tally came off a beautiful saucer pass right through the crease by Jordan Eberle. McCann found a quiet spot on the ice, sneaking down the right side, and Eberle—who continues to show his exceptional playmaking ability—found McCann, who buried it.
In addition to his goal, McCann also assisted on Jarnkrok’s power-play marker and tried to return the favor to Eberle in the third period when he put a perfect pass on his linemate’s tape in the slot. Eberle deked to his left, but Jake Oettinger sprawled and made his best save of the night.
McCann leads the Kraken in goals and is just one point behind Eberle for the scoring lead. He is one of those players that has truly flourished with a more significant role with an expansion franchise and should see a nice raise on his $2.94 million contract, which is expiring after this season.
By the way, we received a Twitter question asking if we think he’ll re-sign with Seattle. McCann will be a restricted free agent after this season, so as long as the Kraken extend him a qualifying offer, they retain his rights. So, yes, we expect him to re-sign with the Kraken.
It took less than a minute in Dallas on Wednesday to realize it wasn’t going to be the Seattle Kraken’s night. The Dallas Stars scored early, built a first period lead, and held on to win 5-2, sending the Kraken to a season worst seventh straight loss.
Joe Pavelski had a big night for Dallas (18-13-2) by scoring two tap-in goals to go with three assists, Jake Oettinger kicked out 23 Kraken bids, and the stars improved to 14-3-1 at American Airlines Center.
Seattle (10-21-4) got another strong night from Jared McCann who scored his career best 15th goal of the year and added an assist for his second straight multi-point game. Philipp Grubauer got the start and made 20 saves but didn’t get a ton of help from the guys in front of him.
“Enough’s enough here,” McCann said. “Everybody’s getting pretty frustrated. We know, in order for us to win, we have to play a full 60 minutes and it hasn’t been the case lately.”
Trailing 3-1 in the second period, McCann gave the Kraken some life when he buried a shot after Jordan Eberle made a nice cross-crease pass to him. After a lackluster first period, the Kraken continued to push after cutting the lead, but an ill-advised pass along the boards was intercepted, and the Stars found Pavelski for a tap-in goal at 18:37 of the second to make it 4-2.
“It sucks to lose,” Calle Jarnkrok, who scored a goal Wednesday, said. “You play this game to win games and winning games is fun. We’re pissed off tonight but we have a new chance tomorrow to win a hockey game and hopefully we can get two points tomorrow.”
Bad first period put Kraken behind the eight-ball
“Number one, this team starts really good in their building,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We didn’t match that in the first… It’s tough to come back from behind in this league.”
The good Dallas start came in the first minute when Jason Robertson’s shot at 50 seconds was deflected by Roope Hintz and Kraken defender Mark Giordano into the net to make it 1-0 early. Hintz was credited with the goal, but Robertson extended a point streak to 12 straight games with the assist.
Seattle got a push back and tied the game at 1-1 at 8:25 with a power-play goal by Jarnkrok.
The period was all Dallas after that, however.
Pavelski knocked a rebound off the end boards into a wide open net to make it 2-1 at 11:00. On the play, Grubauer was screened by Jamie Oleksiak and Hintz. He never saw the original shot and was not able to react to get over on Pavelski.
At 13:01, Pavelski got it to Robertson in close and he would score with a backhand on a 5-on-3 power play to make it 3-1.
“There’s always momentum shifts in hockey games,” Hakstol said. “There’s going to be back and forth. They won the first period and that’s on us. We know this team comes out hard in the first and they beat us in the first period.”
How bad was the first for the Kraken? Dallas took 60% of five-on-five shot attempts and created six even-strength scoring chances to none for Seattle.
The Kraken found their legs in the second period. McCann’s second goal in as many games cut the lead to 3-2 at 5:38.
Seattle got looks but couldn’t find the equalizer and then were done in by a mistake. Ryan Donato’s blind, backhand pass around the net and up the boards was picked off by Esa Lindell, which set up Pavelski’s second to make it 4-2.
Jani Hakanpaa scored on the empty net at 18:18 to erase any doubt and make it 5-2.
“Our second and third periods were, effort wise, real good,” Hakstol said. “We turned the game, made a mistake at the end of the second to give the two-goal lead back. I have no issue at all with our effort and compete in the second and third periods, but we didn’t match them in the first.”
Grubauer’s night not as bad as the numbers look
When you look at his stat sheet, you see that Grubauer allowed four goals for the second straight game. But, those numbers are misleading when you look at how the goals were scored.
The first two Dallas goals came after the Kraken were guilty of icing the puck and setting up face-offs in the Seattle end. The first goal deflected off two players, including one of his own, and in. The second goal he was screened, partially by one of his own players, and was unable to see the shot.
Dallas’ third goal was on a 5-on-3 power play and the fourth came after a bad pass by Donato that caught the Kraken defense out of position.
There’s no question that Grubauer has struggled this season, but it’s on nights like Wednesday where it’s evident that not all the goals are completely his fault.
Tentacle Tales
+ Shots were even at 25 apiece Wednesday.
+ The Kraken were without center Morgan Geekie who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Max McCormick stepped into the lineup.
+ Joe Pavelski became the first NHL player age 37 or older to record at least five points in a game since Teemu Selanne (40 years, 268 days) on March 28, 2011 (3-2=5).
+ Seattle has little time to lick its wounds and will be back in action Thursday against the St. Louis Blues.
Seattle Kraken at Dallas Stars 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time American Airlines Arena Dallas, Texas TV: ROOT Sports Radio: AM 950 KJR
We’ve heard Kraken players say that no opposing teams have overwhelmed them this season, and if ever there were a team that could—in theory—overwhelm the Kraken, it would have been the Colorado Avalanche in their building on Monday. That didn’t happen, as Seattle looked good in the opening two periods, but eventually caved in the third and dropped their sixth consecutive game. And while players and coaches have also been careful to avoid using “silver lining” language of late, that does feel like a game from which this team can build. Let’s see if the Kraken can snap out of their losing streak Wednesday as they take on the Dallas Stars.
Morgan Geekie injured
The news out of morning skate in Dallas was that Morgan Geekie will be replaced in the lineup by Max McCormick, who was recalled Wednesday morning from the taxi squad. Coach Dave Hakstol said Geekie is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
With Jaden Schwartz out, Geekie had gotten some time on the top line with Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle, but was replaced by Marcus Johansson during the unanticipated layoff last week. Geekie is the third forward out of the regular Kraken lineup due to injury, joining Brandon Tanev (out for the season with an ACL injury) and Schwartz (out four to six weeks with a hand injury).
One thing we’ve seen from injury reporting with this Kraken team is that players are sometimes ruled to be day to day, but then end up on injured reserve and miss significant time. Let’s hope Geekie’s issue really is a minor one and that he will return sooner rather than later.
The injuries are certainly testing the depth of the Kraken (no pun intended). As an expansion team that splits its AHL franchise with the Florida Panthers, there simply aren’t as many bodies that Seattle can plug in to replace injured or sick players compared to other teams.
Thankfully, there are no players in COVID protocol for the Kraken… at least for now.
Philipp Grubauer getting the nod again for Kraken against Stars
There’s always some debate to be had on how to deploy goalies for back-to-back games. Hakstol will stick to the more traditional route of playing his No. 1 goalie in the first game Wednesday and turning to Chris Driedger on Thursday in St. Louis.
Grubauer really did play well against the Avalanche on Monday and made a couple ten-bell saves down the stretch that held the lead for the Kraken for a while. Eventually he got hung out to dry, and the Avs capitalized with a debatable goal off a skate and a two-on-one snipe by Nazem Kadri.
Dallas Stars
It’s been an up-and-down season so far for the Dallas Stars, who are currently five points out of the last wild card spot in the Western Conference. They had six consecutive games get postponed before returning with wins against Florida and Pittsburgh on Thursday and Saturday. They then lost to the Blues on Sunday, and that game also costed coach Rick Bowness $25,000 for smashing a stick and yelling some obscenities.
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin—the typical drivers of the offensive bus for Dallas—have not had particularly monstrous starts with 17 and 13 points respectively. Watch out for the top line of Joe Pavelski, Roope Hintz, and Jason Robertson, though, as all three of those players have had impressive campaigns. Combined, the trio has 83 points on the season.
The Stars have gotten good goaltending from starter Braden Holtby, but he is currently in COVID protocol, so Jake Oettinger will get the crease for the Stars against the Kraken. The 23-year-old Oettinger has also been good, posting an 8-2-0 record with a 2.22 goals against average and .923 save percentage.
