Seattle Kraken versus Washington Capitals 6 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington TV: ROOT Sports Radio: AM 950 KJR
We’ve had this one circled on the calendar for quite a while. That’s right, folks, it’s finally Vitek Vanecek night at Climate Pledge Arena! The legendary former Kraken netminder is in Seattle for the first time since being selected in the Expansion Draft and then traded back to his old team, the Washington Capitals, without ever playing a game. Will he get a video tribute? Will fans honor him with a standing ovation? One can only hope.
While Vanecek’s first visit is certainly momentous, so too is the arrival of Alex Ovechkin, now No. 4 on the all-time goals list, and Mount Vernon’s own T.J. Oshie, the most famous of Washington-born NHLers.
Kraken look to stop the bleeding against Capitals
In case you haven’t heard, the Kraken have been in quite the tailspin since losing to the lowly Arizona Coyotes on Nov. 6. They’ve dropped six in a row, with their latest loss—a 7-3 drubbing by the Colorado Avalanche on Friday—making it feel like a bottoming out is fast approaching, if it hasn’t already happened. The Kraken do need to hit rock bottom before they can turn this thing around, so let’s hope that Friday’s game was as bad as this thing gets.
Coach Dave Hakstol is always even keeled when addressing the media, and he remained that way Friday night and at morning skate on Sunday. But he also confirmed that the coaching staff was not happy with the group’s overall performance against Colorado.
“There was a stretch of five or six games when we came back to this building off of our first road trip where we had mixed results,” Hakstol said Sunday. “But to my thinking, everybody in our dressing room would have been very proud of the standard that we had set during those games, results aside… the way we played, how hard we played, connected, and battling hard through those games. The game the other night, that’s not one that we can say we were proud of the standard that we set through that 60 minutes, and that’s what it looked like on tape as well.”
Bad performances where players can look themselves in the mirror and say, I need to be better next game can spark improved efforts. With pretty much every Kraken player leaving something to be desired on Friday, perhaps a collective moment of reflection will have a positive impact Sunday.
Here’s the thing, though. Even if the Kraken play better than they did on Friday, it’s more likely to be a “step in the right direction” or a “trust the process” type of moral victory than it is to be an actual win. Seattle faces a rolling Washington Capitals team that is 11-2-5 and 6-0-1 in its last seven games. It’s another example of how the timing of this very poor stretch of play by Seattle has been so damaging and could continue to worsen, as the opponents just get tougher and tougher.
Kraken shuffling their lines against Capitals
Hakstol stuck with a pretty similar mix of lines for the last couple games, but after Friday’s terrible performance, it’s no surprise he’s gone back to the drawing board, completely shuffling things up at morning skate.
For the first time since Jordan Eberle recorded a hat trick against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 4, he will be split apart from Jaden Schwartz. Eberle will start on a line with Alex Wennberg and Marcus Johansson, while Schwartz will go with Yanni Gourde and Calle Jarnkrok.
Eberle has been one of the few bright spots for the Kraken during this losing streak and is now up to nine goals and five assists on the season after adding a power play marker on Friday. He has points in each of Seattle’s last seven games.
Washington Capitals
For as tough as this matchup is on paper for Seattle, one bit of silver lining is that the Caps are on the second of back-to-back games with travel after they beat the Sharks in San Jose on Saturday. That most recent victory was a 4-0 shutout for Ilya Samsonov, his second in as many games. Coaches in the NHL almost never play a goalie twice in two nights, but there is an occasional exception to that rule if a netminder is coming off a shutout.
Will Peter Laviolette go right back to Samsonov to try to extend his streak? Or will he give the nod to Vanecek against his “old team?” Washington did not hold a morning skate on Sunday, so we will find out soon who will be in net. UPDATE: It will be Vanecek in net.
The Capitals’ goaltender selection is the least of Seattle’s worries. More concerning, Alex Ovechkin is on some kind of heater to start this season. The 36-year-old superstar is showing no signs of slowing down and has 14 goals and 15 assists in 18 games. He added his 743rd and 744th career goals on Saturday.
If you’ve never seen Ovechkin play in person and are going to the game, keep an eye on him when he’s away from the puck. It’s fascinating to watch him drift around the ice in a style that would drive most coaches up a wall. He lulls teams to sleep, and then suddenly strikes when they’re least expecting it.
Beyond Ovechkin, this is a deep team that comes at you with waves of offense all the way down its roster.
Washington is without Nicklas Backstrom, Anthony Mantha, and Lars Eller, but Oshie returned to the lineup Saturday, his first appearance since Oct. 27. UPDATE: Oshie is a late scratch due to a lower-body injury.
Saturday marked the first time that the Seattle Kraken have been completely run over by an opposing team on their home ice, as the Colorado Avalanche steamrolled their way to a 7-3 victory at Climate Pledge Arena. Despite having Nathan MacKinnon out since Nov. 6, the Avs have found their high-octane game and have now scored 24 goals in their last four contests. That’s six goals per game for those of you counting at home.
On the flip side of that coin, the Kraken have lost their way. No longer the aggressive forechecking squad that we saw at earlier stages of the season, Seattle is playing like it’s afraid to make mistakes. Kraken players seem well aware that every time they screw something up, the puck finds its way into the back of their net.
To sum Saturday up nicely, the Kraken made two mistakes in the first seven minutes, and they were down 2-0. Later in the opening period, Jaden Schwartz caught a stretch pass after a blocked Colorado shot and went in alone with all the time in the world. He beat Darcy Kuemper and… rang it hard off the post.
That was the way it went. That’s the way it has been going. Every mistake is a goal against, and every opportunity seems to just miss.
The latest loss extends Seattle’s streak to six games, and it has now dropped eight of its last nine dating back to the loss to the Rangers on Oct. 31.
Here’s what we’re taking away from this painful game.
Takeaway #1: That escalated quickly
Believe it or not, the Kraken played a better first period against the Avalanche than they did against Chicago or Minnesota in the two games prior. But Yanni Gourde tried to clear a rebound on an early penalty kill, and instead of getting it out of harm’s way, swept it across the front of the net and right onto the stick of Andre Burakovsky. That was at 4:04 of the opening frame, and already the Kraken were chasing, as they have done so many times this season. Then two minutes later, with Seattle on the man advantage, a bad pinch in the offensive zone sent Valeri Nichushkin in alone.
“The short-handed goal has a way of— that can take the wind out of your sails, for sure,” said coach Dave Hakstol.
Did it ever. By 5:33 of the second Cale Makar had scored his first of two goals, Burakovsky had scored his second of two, Chris Driedger was replaced by Philipp Grubauer, and the wheels were completely off the Kraken’s wagon.
When the horn sounded to end the second period, the Kraken had given up four goals in one frame and trailed 6-0.
As Mark Giordano said after the game, “It went from bad to really bad in a hurry.”
Takeaway #2: Have the Kraken hit rock bottom, or not yet?
We had a conversation with a fellow media member during the first intermission, when Seattle was down 2-0. It went a little something like this…
Us: “Losing streaks always have a rock-bottom point, and it doesn’t feel like the Kraken have gotten there yet. They haven’t had that game where they get spanked 6-0, you know?”
Fellow media member: “Well, it could be tonight.”
Fast forward 20 minutes of game play, and the Kraken were getting spanked 6-0. Now, the final score prediction wasn’t quite spot-on, but… you get the picture.
We are firm believers in Harvey Dent’s theory that the night is darkest just before the dawn. With more daunting opponents on the horizon, though, and with the Kraken playing downright bad hockey these days, it’s quite possible that we have not yet hit the darkest phase of this losing streak.
Heck, even on a night when Seattle never had a chance, positives could still be found in a third period in which the team found three goals. The players still sound relatively positive, and the resiliency and effort are still there. We hope we’re wrong, but it still feels like this streak is going to get worse before it gets better.
The night is darkest just before the dawn, and we do believe the dawn is coming. But how soon will it come?
Takeaway #3: Kraken fans don’t quit
Six minutes into the third, Jordan Eberle scored his ninth goal of the season, a power play rebound off a Vince Dunn shot, that extended his point streak to seven games.
The fans at Climate Pledge Arena erupted as if the Kraken had just scored the go-ahead goal, when in reality it was 7-1. When the Kraken scored the next two—Brandon Tanev added another power play goal at 8:30 and Colin Blackwell got his first as a Kraken at 15:12—you would have thought from listening to the crowd that Seattle was on the brink of leveling it.
We asked Giordano if the players noticed the fan reaction in the third. Here’s what he said:
“Absolutely. It was pretty cool to see our fans at the end of the game stay and cheer us off the ice. We’re obviously not happy with that effort in the second, but we made sure that we weren’t going to lose the third period there. We went in there with making a commitment to each other that we were going to play the right way, and it’s pretty cool that they stayed and cheered for us. It says a lot about the fans in this building for sure.”
Unsolicited, Hakstol also referenced the fans when asked about positives in the third.
“It’s good to see the power play go and execute. The biggest part of that is it gave our fans an opportunity to enjoy the third period. That’s pretty special when they’re still into it as much as they were in the third period. I think our players can be proud of showing that effort in a difficult spot.”
For as much negativity as we tend to see on social media (and we see a lot of it these days), the building was rocking just as much Saturday as it has been every game this season. These fans love their boys, and they showed on Saturday that they’re here to ride this out through thick and thin.
Seattle Kraken versus Colorado Avalanche 7 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington Watch: ESPN+, Hulu (streaming only) Radio: AM 950 KJR
There was a feeling coming into Seattle’s last game against Chicago that it was high time for the Kraken to break out of a compounding losing streak. Beyond that game, a sequence of tough opponents awaited, so a win seemed imperative for creating some good feelings going into this extra challenging stretch. But against the Blackhawks, Seattle lost its fifth straight and seventh in eight games, making us wonder if perhaps the streak was far from over. Things only get harder from here starting with the Colorado Avalanche, who will visit Seattle for the first time on Friday.
Chris Driedger has been given the nod in net for the Kraken, marking his first home start for the team. With his injury earlier in the season and coach Dave Hakstol’s heavy usage of Philipp Grubauer, Driedger has only made two total appearances. His lone start came in Vegas on Nov. 9, a 4-2 loss to the Golden Knights.
While Driedger is way overdue for getting more consistent starts, having his third appearance come against Grubauer’s former team is a tad surprising. Coach Dave Hakstol downplayed the significance, calling it “a good time to get [Driedger] back in net,” and said Grubauer will certainly get a chance against the Avs at some point.
Kraken chasing too many games
A contributing factor to this streak has been the way the Kraken have been starting games. All throughout this season—and especially recently—we’ve seen Seattle chasing games after allowing the first goal. Against the Blackhawks and Wild, they played tight defensive hockey in the opening frame, but produced almost nothing offensively and ultimately conceded the first goal each night.
In those games, the Kraken did eventually start pushing back, but not until they had fallen behind 3-0 in each, and they did not score any goals until late in the third period in either. That just can’t happen if the Kraken want to start winning games.
The players have indicated they are fully aware that starts need to be better, so keep an eye on this Friday to see if there’s more of an offensive push in the early going against the Avalanche.
Colorado Avalanche
The Kraken avoid all-world center Nathan MacKinnon, who has been out with a lower-body injury since Nov. 6. That said, plenty of starpower remains available for coach Jared Bednar with the likes of Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar.
Another player who has had a surprising impact for Colorado is Nazem Kadri, who has 17 points in 13 games. He’s on a seven-game point streak and has notched three points in each of his last two games. In all, 13 of his 17 points have come during this streak, so he’s another guy for Seattle to keep a close eye on.
As a whole, the Avs did not have the dominant start to the season that many expected, but they’ve since righted the ship and have gone 5-1-1 in their last seven, including winning their last three straight. In those three games, they’ve scored 17 goals.
Darcy Kuemper gets the start for Colorado in net. He has been good in his first season backstopping the Avs and is 7-4-0 with a .916 save percentage and 2.56 goals against average.
Projected lineup
Yanni Gourde missed morning skate, but Hakstol called it a maintenance day, so he should be good to go. Aside from Driedger, the only other lineup change is Carson Soucy swapping back in for Haydn Fleury, who had a tough game against Chicago.
If you weren’t paying attention to what uniforms the opposition was wearing, you may have thought that Wednesday’s 4-2 Kraken loss to the Blackhawks was actually a replay of the team’s 4-2 loss to Minnesota on Saturday. It was practically a carbon copy, but this time Seattle held off on allowing the empty-net goal against until it had at least brought itself back to within one. That made things a lot more interesting in the end, but the Kraken still came up short.
The latest loss, Seattle’s fifth in a row and seventh in their last eight, again started slow. Chances were few at either end before Chicago scored late in the frame off a rush. Then the Kraken tilted the ice in the second, but somehow, as has become fairly common, gave up the only goal. In the third, they pushed back after falling behind 3-0 but couldn’t overcome the deep deficit against an outstanding Marc-Andre Fleury.
Does any of that sound familiar?
Another slow first period leaves Kraken chasing game
Off the rush, Patrick Kane carried the puck down the right wall. He stalled to allow the play to develop, then put a perfect pass through the seam to Alex DeBrincat on the opposite wall. DeBrincat appeared poised to one-time a shot on Philipp Grubauer, but instead he found a streaking Seth Jones right on the doorstep. Jones had Grubauer dead to rights and buried the puck in the open net.
It was a beautiful passing play—the kind that only a player of Kane’s ilk can start—that put the Blackhawks ahead 1-0 at 15:03.
Also similar to the first period for the Kraken on Saturday, there was not much of an attack against Fleury in the opening 20 on Wednesday. He faced just three shots and was only tested once.
Kraken still love second periods, but againcan’t connect
The second period also had similarities to past home performances by the Kraken, as they dominated possession with the long change. But as we have seen on several occasions before, they failed to capitalize on their copious opportunities.
Instead, DeBrincat scored the only goal at 2:01. He took a pass at the Chicago blue line from Kirby Dach, who was behind the goal line. DeBrincat raced through the neutral zone and outskated the much larger Jamie Oleksiak to create a partial breakaway for himself. DeBrincat got a shot away and beat Grubauer on the glove side.
Calle Jarnkrok and Jeremy Lauzon had the best chances of the period for Seattle. Jarnkrok had a puck bounce his way at the doorstep, and with the net open, couldn’t put it in before Connor Murphy somehow pinned it against the post and then kicked it out of harm’s way. Lauzon took a shot from the point through traffic that beat Fleury, but it struck iron.
Another late push comes up short
Early in the third, Brandon Tanev took a hard fall when Jake McCabe took his feet out from under him in the Kraken zone. Fans didn’t like the non-call, and adding insult to (near) injury, Vince Dunn got called for roughing just a couple minutes later.
On the penalty kill, Yanni Gourde made an outstanding play to win a puck in the neutral zone. He then created a short-handed chance, got whacked by Jones and challenged to a fight by DeBrincat. The two dropped the gloves and each landed a few good shots. All the while, Gourde had a huge smile, even when he was getting punched in the face.
After the game, he deadpanned, “Yeah, I like that stuff. It’s part of the game… Good for him, he gets a Gordie Howe hat trick.”
The third period also meant more possession for the Kraken, who ended the night with a 33-19 advantage in shots on goal and 61% of the attempted shots at five-on-five. Still, the Kraken couldn’t get it to go for most of the period against a version of Fleury that looked an awful lot like the version that won the Vezina Trophy in 2020-21.
Fleury said he really enjoys playing in buildings where he gets booed and fans give him the middle finger. That’s not the first time that opposing players have referenced finding motivation from Kraken fans flipping them the bird, so perhaps the Seattle faithful should consider classing it up a bit. But we digress, and we hope you realize we are just kidding here.
It was Kane who struck next, taking advantage of a pretty bad defensive breakdown by Seattle. Philipp Kurashev skated the puck into the face-off circle to Grubauer’s right. He was covered by Adam Larsson, but Dunn, who was playing his strong side for the first time this season, oddly also chased Kurashev, as did a backchecking Jaden Schwartz. With three players all going after the puck carrier, Kane was left all alone on the weak side.
That’s the wrong guy to leave by himself. Kane had plenty of time to pick his spot on Grubauer and put it off the cross bar and in.
The Kane goal came at 5:36, and the rest of the way, it was all Seattle. But as was the case against the Wild, the Kraken pushback was too little, too late.
Jared McCann, who expressed his general frustration with the way things have been going after the contest, was the player who finally got one behind Fleury. With Seattle on a power play following a Dach slashing penalty, Schwartz slid a puck across the goalmouth. Fleury was down against the post to his left, and McCann found the puck bouncing around and snapped it into a mostly open cage.
Saturday, Grubauer was summoned to the bench for an extra skater with 5:22 left, and Minnesota scored seconds later. On Wednesday, Hakstol held off on calling him until there was 3:39 on the clock, and this time the timing strategy almost paid off. Gourde scored on a rocket one-timer off a pass from Dunn to bring Seattle within one, but then with the Kraken pushing for the equalizer, McCabe flipped a puck from his own zone about 170 feet that found its way in. That sealed a 4-2 victory for Chicago, the Blackhawks’ fourth consecutive win since head coach Jeremy Colliton was fired on Nov. 6.
Things only get tougher from here
When you’re on a losing streak like the Kraken are on, the last thing you want to see is a murderer’s row of upcoming opponents. But that’s what Seattle gets next, as they take on Colorado, Washington, Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Florida.
