Photo Gallery – Kraken versus Canucks – January 1
All photos taken by Brian Liesse. Photos are property of Sound Of Hockey and cannot be reused.
Bad turnovers cost Kraken against Canucks in Seattle’s fifth straight loss
[Sigh.] Well, that was another discouraging loss for the Seattle Kraken, who have now dropped five in a row and eight of their last nine. While there were cool things happening off the ice at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday, what happened on the ice was ugly at times and ended in a 5-2 defeat. Here are our Three Takeaways from the second Kraken loss of the year to the Vancouver Canucks.
Takeaway #1: Tough turnovers cost Kraken against Canucks
Will Borgen had a fantastic game Thursday against the Flames, connecting on multiple stretch passes to generate offense and jumping up in the rush like a veteran offensive defenseman. On Saturday, Borgen was the last Kraken player to touch the puck before two of Vancouver’s goals.
The first Canucks goal, which came at 8:53 of the first period, was especially painful for Borgen and the Kraken. The young defenseman was trying to make a breakout pass to Calle Jarnkrok, but as he released the puck, Nils Hoglander hit him in the corner. The pass missed Jarnkrok by a country mile and instead went right onto the tape of skilled rookie Vasily Podkolzin, who fired it home.
The third goal against, which came early in the third period, was—to the credit of the Canucks—created by a good forechecking play by Juho Lammikko. But again, it was Borgen from whom he stripped the puck, and a second later Tyler Motte put it in the back of Seattle’s net.
Some blame could be placed on Philipp Grubauer’s handling of the puck here as well, as he may have handcuffed Borgen with a delayed four-foot pass. Even so, it looked like Borgen had enough time to make a play.
“We put two pucks directly on their tape in scoring areas,” coach Dave Hakstol said after the game. “That can’t happen. That’s the bottom line… I look at the first goal and the third goal. Those are pucks that are in our possession that ended up on their tape, really without a whole lot of pressure.”
Borgen redeemed himself by scoring his first NHL goal later in the frame on a nice shot from the point past a Ryan Donato screen.
The tough thing for Borgen and others like Haydn Fleury and to a lesser degree Carson Soucy is that there are eight defensemen on this team. When glaring mistakes happen, Hakstol’s decision on who to scratch for the following game becomes a bit easier.
Borgen wasn’t alone in making defensive gaffes on Saturday. Vancouver’s fourth goal was like something out of the Benny Hill Show. Mark Giordano and Jamie Oleksiak ran into each other behind the net. Giordano gave Oleksiak the old can opener trick, getting his stick tangled between Oleksiak’s legs. Oleksiak fell and ripped Giordano’s stick out of his hands, and sure enough, Vancouver came away with the puck, which Conor Garland eventually deposited in the Kraken goal.
Not great.
Takeaway #2: They did it again
For the third game in a row, the Kraken conceded a goal within a minute of scoring at the other end in the third period. In the previous two games, those goals against represented the tying goal for Philadelphia and the winning goal for Calgary.
On Saturday, Seattle was battling to get back in the game after Borgen scored to atone for his second booboo. But the Garland goal—the one caused by Giordano and Oleksiak comically running into each other—came just 46 seconds after Borgen’s tally.
Hakstol shrugged it off, saying he doesn’t think giving up quick response goals after scoring is a problem for this team and that they had addressed it after the previous two games. But Adam Larsson dug into it a bit more.
“Trust me, we’re trying not to get scored on,” Larsson said. “It’s a hard league. It’s something we really need to figure out. It’s been an issue for us, and we have talked about it. I think we should expect the push and… It’s frustrating, but at the same time, we have had some answer for those goals too, so it goes both ways.”
When we tweeted that quote last night, one of our followers, Kevin Alschuler, PhD, a sports psychologist, replied with a very interesting thread explaining what’s happening for Seattle and why the team is giving up these response goals. We found it interesting, so give that a read here!
Takeaway #3: Feel-good moments at Climate Pledge Arena
The feel-good story of 2022 so far stems from this tweet that went out from the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday morning, prior to their game against the Kraken.
Red Hamilton and Nadia Papovici reunited before this second meeting between these teams. Papovici was then honored on the Jumbotrons, and it was announced that together the Kraken and Canucks would be giving her $10,000 toward her med school tuition.
How cool is that?!
There were other cool game-ops things that happened Saturday as well, as Rod Masters—the organist from Slap Shot—made his triumphant debut for the Kraken. He played both national anthems before the game, then during the game was allowed to play Lady of Spain in its entirety. This time, Reg Dunlop did not rudely rip up his sheet music and scream at him to never play it again.
The Kraken also welcomed 98-year-old Eunice to her first game at Climate Pledge Arena. She shared with Strawberry, the arena host, that her 99th birthday is coming up in two weeks. So with Masters leading the way, the crowd in attendance sang Happy Birthday to Eunice.
Kraken find another “new way to lose” against the Flames – Three Takeaways
Our heads are still spinning after the Kraken went from tied 3-3 with under four minutes left in the game to losing 6-4 to the Calgary Flames on Thursday. It was a downright bizarre finish, as Seattle found—in the words of Mark Giordano—another “new way to lose.”
The losses are piling up again for the Kraken. That’s four straight and seven of their last eight, and the team’s grip on last place in the Pacific Division is getting stronger by the day.
Here are our three takeaways from an exciting but ultimately disheartening Kraken loss to the Flames.
Takeaway #1: Another goal allowed seconds after scoring?!
We literally JUST talked about this. The Kraken allowed the tying goal to the Flyers on Wednesday 15 seconds after taking the lead. On Thursday, late in the third period, Jared McCann deflected a Giordano shot past Jacob Markstrom to tie the game 30 seconds after Andrew Mangiapane had put the Flames ahead on the power play. The building erupted as Seattle made it 4-4.
But as quickly as energy was injected into Climate Pledge Arena, it was then sucked right back out. This time it took just 13 seconds after Seattle scored for it to allow a crucial goal, and this time it would prove to be the game winner as Matthew Tkachuk beat Chris Driedger on a goal that he was not happy to give up.
“We failed to make a play on a puck,” coach Dave Hakstol said after the game. “We failed to make a hard play on a puck, and we didn’t get a save on an inside chance against so that’s what it is.”
Both Adam Larsson and Jeremy Lauzon had chances to get the puck out of harm’s way on the game winner, but it was bouncing around and neither player got good enough wood on it to clear it.
Regardless of how the goal went in, it’s absolutely bonkers that this happened for the second night in a row. You simply cannot immediately give up goals after scoring—especially in the third period—and expect to win. That almost always spells doom.
Takeaway #2: We may have jinxed Chris Driedger
“I just need to be better,” Driedger said after the game. “Those last two goals can’t go in.”
To be fair to Driedger, the first of the two he’s referencing was a rebound off a hard shot on a late power play, so it’s hard to blame him for that one. But he could have and perhaps should have had the game winner.
Do you think we jinxed him with this tweet?
As we started to field questions on Twitter about whether or not he should be getting the lion’s share of the starts over Philipp Grubauer, the wheels came off for Driedger and the Kraken as the Flames somehow scored two plus an empty netter to skate away with a late win.
If you take away the fifth pivotal goal, he really did play well. But coach Hakstol twice used the phrase “we didn’t get a save” in explaining what happened on the Tkachuk goal, and that tells us he’s not overly enamored by the play of Driedger either.
Takeaway #3: Mark Giordano likes playing against his old team
Because we enjoy a little positivity around these parts from time to time, we’re going to throw in a couple of happier nuggets to close this thing out. First off, Mark Giordano seems to really enjoy playing against his old team. Back when the Kraken visited the Saddledome in preseason, Giordano opened the scoring.
On Thursday, he did the same thing, then added two assists on the night, setting up the Calle Jarnkrok goal nine seconds into the second period and wristing the shot that McCann deflected home to briefly tie the score in the third.
Asked if he got any joy out of the offensive outburst, Gio said, “To be honest, it would have been a lot better night if we would have picked up two points.”
[Sigh.]
Yes, the team lost, and yes it came in devastating fashion, but Giordano had his best offensive game of the season, so we thought it was worth calling that out.
Bonus Takeaway: Are stretch passes a thing now?
One thing we noticed the Kraken doing more frequently than usual on Thursday was making long stretch passes from deep in the defensive zone up through the neutral zone. Will Borgen connected on two, one of which sprung McCann for a breakaway in the second period. The other led to a great passing play that Jarnkrok just missed on late in the game.
Early in the third, Carson Soucy also connected on a long pass from behind the Kraken goal line with Jarnkrok at the far blue line. Jarnkrok went through the seam to Colin Blackwell, who then dished to Yanni Gourde at the netmouth for an easy tap in.
We asked Hakstol about this after the game to see if this is something Seattle is actively trying to do more.
“We want to have one guy pushing for space at all times,” he said. “A lot of times it’s not going to be available. We were able to generate a breakaway with it tonight, as it was available through the middle with the McCann chance in the second period. But you know we always want to have at least one guy pushing for space and at certain times two. Even if that’s just a possession play to get us out of the zone and through the neutral zone.”
So, it’s not necessarily something that was new to Seattle’s game, but it worked more than usual on Thursday. We’re curious if we start to see more offense generated from plays like this moving forward.
Hey, Happy New Year, gang! Thanks for following along in 2021. It’s been quite the ride so far.
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.
Kraken lose in OT to Flyers, go right back to work against Flames
Frankly, it was a strange night at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday. It was great to be back in the building after a long hiatus, but with the Philadelphia Flyers playing a lifeless first two periods against the Kraken, and Seattle only capitalizing with one power-play goal through 40 minutes, the crowd was uncharacteristically quiet.
Things picked up in the third after a disallowed goal for Seattle, but the Kraken were too kind in allowing Philadelphia to remain in a game that they mostly dominated. According to Natural Stat Trick, Seattle had a 10-2 advantage in high-danger shot attempts on the night and 68.29 percent of the expected goals. On nights like that… you should win.
Let’s take a look at the latest loss by the Kraken, this one of the disappointing 3-2 overtime variety at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Takeaway #1: Jeremy Lauzon scored… then he didn’t… then he did!
Jeremy Lauzon has now put the puck in the back of the net three times this season, yet he only has credit for one goal after officially scoring his first of the season on Wednesday night. Two other times, including once against the Flyers, he has had goals disallowed because of goalie interference.
With the score tied 1-1 at 5:57 of the third period, Lauzon let a shot go from the point that beat Martin Jones. The second it went in, we knew the Flyers would challenge for goalie interference, as there was certainly contact between Jaden Schwartz and Jones, and the Philadelphia netminder immediately protested.
After watching it a few times on his tablet, Flyers coach Mike Yeo indeed summoned the referee to his bench to indicate that he was challenging the Kraken goal. Replay showed that Schwartz made contact with Jones’ blocker a fraction of a second before the puck arrived, which was just enough reason to disallow the goal.
“It happened to me twice this year,” Lauzon said after the game. “It’s a little bit frustrating,”
Just 10 minutes later, Lauzon found the net again, and this time there was no question it would stick.
Adam Larsson, who had 22:38 of ice time despite just being cleared from COVID protocol on Wednesday morning, made a nice play to drive into the slot and draw defenders to him. He then dished to Lauzon who had snuck down to the top of the left circle. Lauzon ripped a snapshot right inside the near post to beat Jones again.
Said Lauzon, “I was happy the second one counted, but it’s hard to be happy when you lose a game.”
Takeaway #2: Giving up goals right after scoring really kills the vibe
Remember that miserable Kraken loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Nov. 6? In that one, Seattle held two-goal leads on two different occasions, but let the Coyotes score three straight and fell behind in the third period. Mark Giordano tied the score with just 1:18 left, but 13 seconds later, the Kraken turned it over and the Coyotes scored the game winner.
Remember that? Didn’t that suck?
Well, the Kraken pulled something similar against the Flyers. After Lauzon gave Seattle a lead with just 5:28 left in the game, it took James van Riemsdyk all of 15 seconds to level the score when he rifled the equalizer over Philipp Grubauer’s shoulder for his second of the night.
“We made a mistake,” coach Dave Hakstol said about the tying goal. “Our right defenseman should have been back to his post there. That allows the sword at the net front be much easier, but in reality that’s the only scoring chance we gave up all period.”
The right defenseman in this case was Jamie Oleksiak, who was also playing his first game since entering COVID protocol. If you watch the replay, he circles behind the net to the wrong side, then makes contact with his partner, Giordano, who gets crossed up about which guy to cover. It’s a miscommunication that happens in the blink of an eye, but that’s all it takes to lose track of a goal scorer in the NHL.
And yes, that’s the same JvR that the Flyers made available to the Kraken in the Expansion Draft, but we won’t go there.
There have been other instances this season when the Kraken have allowed goals in the seconds that followed a tally of their own. It’s one of those cardinal sins—along with goals against in the opening or closing minute of a period—that can have devastating consequences on the outcome of the game.
Takeaway #3: Kraken OT struggles continue against Flyers
The Kraken have now been to overtime four times this season, and they have come away with nothing more than a loser point on all four occasions. Three-on-three is a little bit of a crapshoot, and that’s what makes it so fun to watch. But there’s also a certain skillset needed for winning in overtime, and finishing ability is certainly key in that skillset.
It’s also not something that gets practiced extensively. Practice time is precious, and there are usually patterns or issues that coaches see in games that they want to clean up, so that is what they focus on in their typically short on-ice sessions.
“We haven’t had a lot of time there,” Hakstol said. “You know, tonight we gave up a breakaway. So there’s nothing hidden there. You can’t allow people to get in behind you. … Again, it’d be a good time for a timely save on that one, but ultimately we gave up a breakaway in overtime.”
To Philadelphia’s credit, it was a beautiful stretch pass through the neutral zone by Kevin Hayes to spring Ivan Provorov, who had gotten behind Marcus Johansson. Provorov then made a ridiculous move to fake Grubauer out of his jock.
Kraken back to work Thursday against Calgary Flames
The Kraken now go right back to work for their second of back-to-back games on Thursday, as the Calgary Flames come to town. The Flames got off to a… hot… start to the season, but things got derailed when essentially their entire organization got COVID a few weeks ago. Remarkably, they have not played a game since Dec. 11, and had lost four in row before getting shut down.
Even so, they remain in a playoff spot with a 15-7-6 record, a testament to how well they—and their goalie Jacob Markstrom—were playing in the early stages of the season.
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.
Kraken lose to Oilers, also lose Oleksiak to COVID protocol, Tanev to injury
There’s always a little mental dance being done in warm-ups, as we watch carefully to try to determine if any Kraken players are missing. Absences typically reveal themselves during line rushes, which come about five minutes into the pre-game skate. When those line rushes start, we take inventory. Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson, check. Morgan Geekie, Ryan Donato, and Joonas Donskoi, got it. Haydn Fleury with Mark Giordano, ok. Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz… WAIT A MINUTE! Giordano and Fleury?! Where’s Jamie Oleksiak? That pretty much sums up what went through our minds as the Kraken prepared to take on the Oilers Saturday.
What a strange week this has been. As Giordano said, it felt like the beginning of the pandemic all over again, as news was breaking almost by the minute that more players, coaches, and staff had been added to COVID protocol, and more teams were being shut down. Even up until game time on Saturday, we still weren’t entirely convinced that the Kraken and Oilers would play.
But play they did, even as Edmonton dressed fewer than the usual 20 players. With five guys in COVID protocol and more injured, the Oilers were out of cap space to fill their roster, so they played with 19.
Seconds after we noticed Oleksiak’s absence, Kraken public relations confirmed that he was in COVID protocol. After seeing how things have transpired around the league with such rapid transmission throughout teams, the news felt heavier than the previous times Seattle has made such announcements this season. With two games already postponed—Sunday’s game against the Maple Leafs and Thursday’s game in Calgary—the Oleksiak revelation felt especially ominous.
You probably aren’t here for a bunch of COVID talk, though, because you’re certainly getting plenty of it elsewhere, so let’s get to our Three Takeaways from a 5-3 Kraken loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Takeaway #1: Turbo Tanev injured
Adding injury to viral infections (is that the saying?) William Lagesson of the Oilers hit Kraken fan favorite, Brandon Tanev, hard into the boards behind the Edmonton net late in the third period. It was a good, clean hip check and looked innocuous. As the play went the other way, though, Tanev didn’t get up.
Our initial hope was that it was a bad Charley horse, and he would shake it off. But he stayed down on all fours until the training staff came and looked after him. He was then helped to the bench and down the tunnel putting minimal or no weight on his right leg.
Coach Dave Hakstol did not have an update after the game, but from our vantage point, it didn’t look good. Here’s hoping for a Turbo-speed recovery.
Takeaway #2: The structure was there, but the possession was not
This was a different type of loss for Seattle from what we’ve seen in previous defeats. The team didn’t make too many glaring mistakes, it got good goaltending from Chris Driedger, and it had opportunistic scoring. Goals by Donato, Jared McCann, and Carson Soucy came despite Seattle not throwing that many pucks at Stuart Skinner, who looked shaky early on but made some huge saves as the game progressed.
The problem on Saturday was simply puck possession, which isn’t a typical difficulty of the Kraken. Edmonton took a hair over 70 percent of the five-on-five shot attempts in the game, which indicates an enormous share of the possession time. Unsurprisingly, the Oilers more than doubled the shots on goal of the Kraken, registering 41 to Seattle’s 17.
Those numbers would also paint the picture of an utterly dominant performance by the Oilers, but it really didn’t feel like that. The Kraken did have pretty good structure, limited odd-man rushes, and kept most shots to the outside, but when you allow that many shots to get to your goalie, some of them are eventually going to find the back of the net.
The best example of what can happen when teams throw a bunch of shots at your net came on Warren Foegele’s controversial game-winning goal.
Evan Bouchard shot from well out, as was the case so many times on Saturday. Driedger made the save, but the rebound popped up in the air. Giordano leveled Foegele, but he did so right into his goalie and also propelled the puck into the net. It was waived off for goalie interference, but an Edmonton challenge was successful and brought the game to 4-3.
The Kraken don’t really make a mistake on this play. The shot comes from the perimeter, and Giordano is clearing the bodies out from the front of the net, exactly like he’s supposed to do. But again, if enough pucks get through, eventually a team gets a bounce, and it goes in.
Takeaway #3: Ryan Donato keeps producing
We thought we should close this one out with a slice of positivity because there’s just too much doom and gloom in the world right now. So let’s talk about Donato scoring goals in three consecutive games and playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with a young fan during warm-ups.
We wondered aloud in our preview for Saturday’s game if Donato’s move to the third line was a direct result of him scoring goals in two games in a row. Donato and Donskoi (Donnie and Donnie) moved back to a trio centered by Geekie. Geekie is more offensively dangerous than Alex True, who had been centering that all-former-Shark line, so we thought it might be a sign that Hakstol was trying to give Donato a chance to build on his offensive success.
“Yeah, you know, Donnie scored again tonight,” Hakstol said. “He also had a real good chance in the third period. We put that group back together because of the familiarity that they’ve had and some of the production that they’ve had together.”
Ok, so maybe that’s not quite the “we were rewarding Donato” answer we were looking for there, but Hakstol is at least saying that he hoped the trio would show some of the production that they’ve shown in the past. Regardless of the reasoning, Donato cashed in early in the first period, when Geekie dropped him a pass and he pulled the trigger from distance, slipping it through the wickets on Skinner.
It really is great to see Donato scoring goals and playing with confidence. He has worked hard, been a healthy scratch at times, and done everything asked of him in third- and fourth-line roles. “It just starts going in and you just got to continue to do the same work that you’re doing,” he said Saturday about the confidence he’s showing. “I mean, if you kind of take your foot off the gas, I think those opportunities and those chances don’t really come your way.”
He does need to work on his Rock, Paper, Scissors game, though.
Said Donato, “When you can do something like that, I mean, it’s so simple and easy, and it can make a kid’s day. I’m all for it.”
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.
Kraken game against Maple Leafs postponed, Oilers game still on
Seattle Kraken versus Edmonton Oilers
7 p.m. Pacific Time
Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington
TV: ROOT Sports, CBC, SportsNet
Radio: AM 950 KJR
The Kraken are set to play the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday… we think.
The COVID situation around the NHL has predictably gotten worse. In response, the league and the NHLPA released a set of enhanced protocols on Saturday morning, which call for daily testing (except on off days), more masking and social distancing, and stricter rules for players and staff while they are traveling. So far, there has been no indication that a league-wide pause is coming, but it remains a possibility, as more and more players are entering COVID protocol and more teams are being temporarily shut down.
One team that has had its games suspended is the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were supposed to be Seattle’s opponent on Sunday. That game has been officially postponed with no makeup date announced so far.
As of the writing of this story, we’re still expecting the Kraken to play the Oilers on Saturday, but even that has felt tenuous. The team sent an email shortly after 1PM confirming that the game would go on.
Jesse Puljujarvi went into protocol on Saturday, bringing the Oilers to five players on the COVID list, plus head coach Dave Tippett. They delayed their flight out of Edmonton on Friday while they awaited test results. They then came to Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday morning, got tested again for COVID, and left without holding a morning skate.
Keep your expectations managed, just in case, but signs are still pointing toward a contest happening on Saturday. So, with that in mind, it’s Kraken game day!
Chris Driedger gaining trust?
The Kraken did hold morning skate on Saturday, but it was optional. In all, 10 skaters were on the ice, along with netminders Chris Driedger and Philipp Grubauer, who left Wednesday’s 4-1 loss to Anaheim early due to a minor injury. He returned to practice in full on Friday and apparently avoided missing any time, saying the malady was, “Nothing crazy, just kind of an awkward hit.”
Grubauer gave up another tough goal against the Ducks, one night after Driedger played great in a 3-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks. That’s three wins in three starts for Driedger, who looks like he is moving beyond some early-season hiccups. Grubauer, meanwhile, has shown flashes of what we believe he will be for this team long-term, but there’s no question there have been some questionable goals along the way.
Coach Dave Hakstol had continued to stick with Grubauer for the lion’s share of starts, but we’re wondering if this is starting to shift as Driedger is commanding more time. Remember, Driedger got two starts in a row in Florida and Buffalo, and now gets the only start of the weekend with the postponement of Sunday’s game.
Ryan Donato’s role increasing
Since Saturday’s morning skate was optional, we’re predicting the Kraken lines and defensive pairs based on what we saw Friday at practice (see our projection below). During that session, the Triple-J line of Jaden Schwartz, Jared McCann, and Jordan Eberle remained intact, as did the Marcus Johansson, Alex Wennberg, Mason Appleton line. Ryan Donato looks like he has moved up from the all-former-Shark fourth line that he had been skating on and has ascended to the third line with Morgan Geekie and Joonas Donskoi.
We try not to read too much into these types of things because line shuffling happens all the time on every NHL team. But we’ve always wondered what it is about Donato’s game that leads him to healthy scratches and fourth-line minutes, as has been the case on his previous teams as well. Donato’s biggest strength is his shot, so he needs to be using it and scoring goals to earn more significant roles. He scored in each of his last two games, and lo and behold, he’s now on a more offensive-minded trio with Geekie and Donskoi.
Last time Kraken played Oilers was unforgettable
There was a decent amount of hype locally before the last contest between these two teams, back on Dec. 3. It was the first visit for Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the Oilers, and they were fighting for first place at the time. A thrilling 4-3 Kraken win that night launched a miserable skid for the Oilers. Edmonton lost six games in a row and dropped all the way to fourth place in the Pacific Division before stopping the bleeding with a 5-2 home win over the Blue Jackets on Thursday.
In that Dec. 3 game, both Draisaitl and McDavid scored and were together on the ice for practically the entire third period, as the Oilers tried desperately to level the score. Even so, Seattle did a good job of minimizing the damage caused by the dynamic duo that night by working together as a five-man unit to take away space from the two superstars.
Interestingly, McDavid hasn’t scored a goal since that last visit to Seattle. Draisaitl scored twice against Boston on Dec. 9, but has also been held goalless otherwise.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Puljujarvi, Duncan Keith, Ryan McLeod, and Devin Shore are all in COVID protocol for the Oilers. Zach Hyman is day to day with an injury, and Mike Smith and Kris Russell are on IR.
Stuart Skinner is expected to start in net. He looked quite shaky in the last matchup between these two teams, so let’s see if Seattle can get to him early.
Projected lineup
