Hockey is a chaotic sport, and perhaps that’s what makes it so entertaining to watch. Every time you go to the rink, you just never know what kind of a game you’re going to see. Thursday’s 7-4 Kraken defeat at the hands of the upstart Anaheim Ducks, though disappointing in terms of the result, truly had everything you could possibly want in a hockey game. It was high scoring, high flying, high intensity, and high drama.
The disheartening result is damaging for Seattle and huge for Anaheim, which has now vaulted into second place in the Pacific Division with its sixth win in as many games. The third straight Kraken loss simply means the challenge of getting back in the race is even tougher now.
For the Kraken, the intensity didn’t switch on until the second period, and they were back to chasing the game from the jump. To their credit, they never quit and continued to battle back, even as one-goal deficits turned into two-goal deficits. Every time that happened, they picked themselves up and got back to within striking distance of a tying goal, but that equalizer proved elusive.
Every inch Seattle took it gave right back to Anaheim.
Slow start proves costly for Kraken against Ducks
Of their several defensive breakdowns in the first period, only one was costly, as Grubauer stood tall to turn away the other 13 shots he faced.
That most glaring miscue came fewer than five minutes into the game. In transition, Carson Soucy—playing left defense—found himself just a few feet away from partner Vince Dunn on the right side of the ice. That meant Max Comtois was gliding in all alone on the weak side. From the dot, he wound and fired a shot that Grubauer stopped, but as the puck bounced around in front of the net, 18-year-old Mason McTavish found it and buried his second career NHL goal.
There was no pushback offensively, and Seattle got just four pucks on the usually impermeable John Gibson. As the Kraken went to the dressing room, it was clear they would need to bring a lot more heat to break through.
Said Jordan Eberle, “We’re finding ways to lose. Tonight was a little different. I thought we started really slow, they really took it to us and [Philipp Grubauer] really kept us in it. We were lucky to be down one after one there.”
A very strange, high-flying period of hockey
The Kraken did break through in the second, but so too did the Ducks in a bizarre period of hockey.
It started with Jeremy Lauzon laying a high hit on Isac Lundestrom, which the Ducks did not like. Comtois went right after Lauzon, and the two tussled, both landing themselves in the penalty box. Oddly, Lauzon got an extra minor penalty on the play for his initial hit, while Comtois—who started the brouhaha—only got the one for roughing. That dustup set the tone for the strange frame.
Troy Terry used Mark Giordano as a screen to score his 10th (!!!) goal and 17th point of the season, giving Anaheim its first two-goal lead at 3:10. Terry looked dangerous every time he touched the puck, which is no surprise with the incredible hot streak he’s been on to start the season. The 24-year-old is just oozing confidence right now, and he showed it Thursday.
Jaden Schwartz answered 35 seconds later when he took a pass from Jordan Eberle off the rush and rifled it off the crossbar and in to bring the Kraken back within one.
Just when you thought the Kraken were starting to cook, Josh Mahura, off an offensive zone face-off win, blasted it through traffic. It beat Grubauer on a shot he never saw, and just like that it was again a two-goal deficit for Seattle.
The earlier issue with Lauzon was apparently not settled in the eyes of the Ducks, as Josh Manson challenged him, and the two dropped the gloves and threw a bunch of right jabs and crosses at one another, before Lauzon ultimately took Manson down to the ice.
The fight appeared to re-energize the Kraken, as Jared McCann, playing his first game since a bout with COVID, went hard to the net and a Ryan Donato pass bounced off him and through Gibson. In case you’ve lost count, the score at that point was 3-2.
The second period scoring was not quite done, though, as Kevin Shattenkirk re-established Anaheim’s two-goal lead at 15:46 on the one goal of the night that Grubauer would have wanted back. From the right dot, Shattenkirk snapped a shot that just squeezed through Grubauer’s armpit, and as soon as he realized it had gotten through, he looked skyward in disgust.
That brought the game to 4-2 to close out the second, and surely this thing was over, right?
Not so fast. The third period was every bit as wild as the second. Oh, and before we go there, just to add one bizarre cherry on top of a bizarre period, Gibson got in the grill of Brandon Tanev behind the play and held onto his stick for a good ten seconds. The referees stood and waited for them to sort it out, even though Gibson was visibly preventing Tanev from skating away.
It was all very strange.
Eberle stays hot, but Kraken come up short
Eberle continued his hot streak 3:57 into the final frame. On a two-on-one rush, Alex Wennberg sauced a perfect pass onto Eberle’s tape. As Gibson sprawled to cover the yawning cage, a confident Eberle buried it, putting Seattle back in business. That’s the sixth goal in four games for Eberle and his eighth in Seattle’s last eight.
Six minutes later, Hampus Lindholm pinballed one through traffic, making it 5-3. NOW it was over, right? Still no.
Exactly one minute elapsed before McCann took a pass from Donato while streaking into the offensive zone. He made a hard and deft cut to the middle, and in one fell swoop let go a howitzer that pinged off the right post and in to cut the deficit to one yet again.
The Kraken continued to push, and the line of Eberle, Schwartz, and Wennberg just missed on several prime scoring chances in the closing minutes. But an ill-timed goalie pull, just as that line was changing, gave Sam Carrick an easy empty netter and put the nail in the coffin.
Just to rub a little salt in the wound, Terry added another empty netter for his 11th (!!!) of the season and brought the final score to 7-4.
Frustrating loss against a good team
This latest loss was frustrating for players and fans alike on a lot of levels. The start was not good, but Grubauer bailed the team out in the first period and gave Seattle a chance going into the second.
Then as the game went on, the Kraken would gain ground but give it right back like they were engaged in trench warfare. That simply can’t continue to happen. For all the resiliency that this team has demonstrated, it rarely seems to get over the hump when it’s trying to mount a comeback. Giving back goals after working so hard to score just kills Seattle’s momentum, and it’s the latest troubling trend for this group.
As the standings climb gets more and more daunting, nights like Thursday are a stark reminder that the Pacific Division is better than it has been in recent years. The Ducks used to be viewed as easy points, but not anymore. Their long-standing youth movement is finally bearing fruit. They have evolved into a talented, fast, and exciting hockey club, with more young, impactful players still on the way.
The Kraken truly can’t afford to take more time to figure out ways to win instead of ways to lose. The climb back into the playoff race is getting steeper by the day.
Seattle will face the Minnesota Wild Saturday in the second game of this six-game homestand.
Seattle Kraken versus Anaheim Ducks 7 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington TV: ROOT Sports Radio: AM 950 KJR
As the saying goes, you have to make hay when the sun is shining. Of course, this is November in Seattle, and the sun almost never shines this time of year, but as it pertains to the Kraken, they are in last place and are now entering an uber-important six-game homestand. Sunshine or not, it’s time to make some hay.
The sun does shine in Anaheim this time of year, and it has been particularly bright there in the early stages of this season. A young team, the Ducks are on fire and represent a herculean task for the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
Lineup questions
Coach Dave Hakstol was mostly coy in his morning press availability on Thursday (as he always is) about his lineup plans and indicated there will be a few “game-time decisions” for him and his staff. He did confirm that Jared McCann will play in his first game since entering COVID protocol two weeks ago.
McCann, who has seven points in eight games (3-4=7), is a key piece of the offensive attack for Seattle, and his absence was noticeable. He shared on Wednesday that he was hit hard by COVID, losing his senses of taste and smell, and lacked energy. Wednesday was also his first time back on the ice, so we shall see if he can perform to the best of his abilities Thursday.
In pre-season, McCann centered a dynamic line with Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz that dominated at times. The trio was broken up early in the regular season, though, as Hakstol tried to squeeze goals out of his snake bitten group.
Toward the end of McCann’s absence, Alex Wennberg got slotted between Eberle and Schwartz, at which point Eberle got hot and scored five goals in three games. Interestingly, McCann was back in that spot at practice Wednesday and spoke as if he expects to play with Schwartz and Eberle.
What remains unclear is whether Yanni Gourde will be available Thursday. It is believed he was injured when he blocked a shot with his knee in the first period against Vegas on Tuesday. He did return after that and scored a goal but missed most of the third. He did not participate in practice Wednesday but was on the ice at Thursday’s optional morning skate. UPDATE: Looks like Gourde is in, as is Ryan Donato.
Goalie talk
The goaltending has gotten a lot of attention from the fledgling Kraken fanbase of late. Chris Driedger made his first start Tuesday in a 4-2 loss to the Golden Knights after Philipp Grubauer had a tough night in Arizona on Saturday. Neither netminder has particularly impressive stats, but we believe there’s improvement on the horizon for both.
Hakstol stressed Thursday that he doesn’t really care about their save percentages, but he does care about getting timely saves, which can have such a huge impact on the momentum of a game. At key points—like right after a Kraken goal, for example, or in the opening or closing minutes of a period—does Grubauer come up with the big save? Seattle hasn’t gotten that recently, so that will be something to look for as Grubauer returns to the crease against Anaheim.
Anaheim Ducks
These aren’t the same Ducks that had become so pleasant to play against in recent seasons. The youth movement that was put in motion several years ago—centered around players like Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, Maxime Comtois, Sam Steel, and others—is starting to pay off, as Anaheim has gotten off to a great start to its season and sits in third place in the Pacific at 7-4-3.
Of course, the man who started that movement, general manager Bob Murray, has just resigned with allegations swirling about his treatment of those inside the organization and an investigation into his conduct underway. Murray’s fingerprints will remain on this roster for years to come, and while what he did behind the scenes is very much in question, the on-ice product appears to be dramatically improving.
Driving that improvement has been the emergence of Terry, who has been unstoppable in his 13 games played this season. The 24-year-old right winger is third in the league in goals with nine and has added seven assists. He scored the game-winning goal for the second straight game Tuesday in Vancouver, which led the Ducks to their fifth consecutive win.
There’s also been a feeling over the past few years that the rebuild in Anaheim has been wasting an exceptional talent in netminder John Gibson, who is now 28 years old. If this team does prove to be the real deal as the season wears on, Gibson will be a huge piece of the success. Gibson gets the nod Thursday. A shoo-in for Team USA in the upcoming Olympics, he is again proving tough to beat with a 2.34 goals against average and .927 save percentage.
Projected lineup
We’re basing this on lines from practice on Wednesday and guessing that Gourde will not play. Of course, this could change dramatically if he does go. UPDATE: With Gourde apparently… Gourde to go, the lines looked very different than they have before in warmups. This is reflected in the projection below.
Seattle Kraken at Vegas Golden Knights 7 p.m. Pacific time T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada Watch: ESPN+, Hulu (Streaming only) Radio: AM 950 KJR
Back to where it all began, the Seattle Kraken are in Vegas on Tuesday to take on the Golden Knights for the second time in their existence and the first time since opening their inaugural season on the Strip. Circumstances are a bit different this time around, as we know a lot more about both teams, but this is still a tough building and a tough opponent, and it is again an important game for Seattle.
The Kraken are coming off a painful loss to the worst team in the league, the previously winless Arizona Coyotes, on Saturday. It was a game in which Seattle scored two goals and chased the opposing netminder in the very first minute of the game. In the second and third periods the Kraken allowed three unanswered goals to give Arizona a lead, then fought back to find the tying goal with 1:18 left. But just seconds later, a bad Adam Larsson turnover in the corner led to the game-winning goal by Lawson Crouse.
It was a night that Seattle fans hope to forget, but it will live on in infamy as the night those same fans completely lost it on Twitter for the first time (seriously, our mentions were… something).
Dave Hakstol acknowledged that it was a difficult game for the team, but hopes they can learn from it. “You gotta grow as a team out of some of the tough experiences,” he said Monday. “And that was a tough experience the other night. It was disappointing for all of us, but it gives you the opportunity also to learn something about yourselves and to be able to grow together.”
Tuesday, the Kraken look to right the ship against a banged up Vegas team.
Out goes Donato, in comes Johansson
Adding injury to insult on Saturday, Ryan Donato went head-first into the endboards on a very awkward play in the first period. He was slow to get up, but did eventually rise and looked ok in the immediate aftermath. He soon went down the tunnel, though, and did not return. Donato did not practice on Monday, but was back wearing a red non-contact jersey at morning skate on Tuesday.
Hakstol confirmed in his press availability after morning skate that Marcus Johansson will return against Vegas, so he will slot into Donato’s spot. Though the Kraken kept saying Johansson was still day to day, it’s not a huge surprise that he’s ready to go. He had been practicing in full, and nobody had been recalled from the AHL to replace Donato in the lineup.
Ironically, Johansson’s only game came at T-Mobile Arena on opening night, after which he somewhat mysteriously popped up on injured reserve and hasn’t played since. He had a big role in preseason and registered 16:13 of ice time with one shot on goal in that first game.
Chris Driedger starting Tuesday
On the previously discussed topic of our Twitter mentions, we hear your goaltending concerns loud and clear. You’re right that Philipp Grubauer has not been at his best so far and statistically has fallen toward the bottom of the league, but there is always context to consider with goalies.
First, Grubauer has been getting very heavily used. Some of that is the decision of the coach—after all, he did give the first five starts of the season to Grubauer—but some of that is simply terrible timing for Driedger to get injured. We all expected more of a 1A/1B platoon scenario, but that just hasn’t worked out. That can still come to fruition, though, and Driedger can start commanding more time with a quality start in Vegas.
Second, goaltending is a mentally taxing position that ebbs and flows during the course of an 82-game season, so give Grubauer time. He will get hot at some point, and you’ll go back to worshipping him as quickly as you might have stopped.
All that said, those that are clamoring for a Driedger start get their wish on Tuesday, as Hakstol confirmed he will go against Vegas. We did not anticipate that it would take until the twelfth game of the season before seeing him officially get the nod from the beginning of a game, but it’s better late than never.
Last season in Florida, Driedger was 14-6-3 with a 2.07 goals against average and .927 save percentage.
Vegas Golden Knights
Vegas currently has the following players listed on injured reserve: Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Nolan Patrick, Zach Whitecloud, and… Jack Eichel. William Karlsson is also out with a broken foot, though he for some reason is not officially listed on IR, and Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs were traded in the Eichel deal.
That’s a lot of quality, regular players missing for the Golden Knights, who have been dressing guys like Michael Amadio and Jonas Rondbjerg to fill in. Paul Cotter is also expected to make his NHL debut Tuesday.
The Golden Knights beat Seattle on opening night, then lost four straight before rebounding—despite the injuries stacking up—for five wins in their last seven games. They did lose 5-2 in Detroit on Sunday, but have climbed back to .500 after a horrible start.
It’s an opportunistic team that showed how quickly it can strike the last time these teams played each other. That night, Seattle was playing an aggressive style that left things pretty wide open through the neutral zone. But the Kraken have adjusted their approach dramatically since then, so perhaps the goals won’t come quite as easily for the Golden Knights this time around.
Oh, and speaking of Eichel, holy cats, the Golden Knights traded for Eichel!
The disc replacement surgery that caused his rift with Buffalo has been scheduled for Nov. 12, then if all goes according to plan, the recovery should be about three months. So we won’t actually see him until at least February. When the superstar center does return, the Golden Knights are going to have to make some very tough calls to get themselves under the salary cap… but then they’ll have Eichel.
Seattle Kraken at Arizona Coyotes 7 p.m. Pacific time Gila River Arena, Glendale, Arizona TV: ROOT Sports Radio: 950 AM KJR
There are winnable games, and then there are games against the Arizona Coyotes, who still have a zero in the ‘W’ column after 10 games. At 0-9-1, it’s easy to look past a matchup like this, but the Kraken will need to bear down and make certain they come away with two points in the standings Saturday.
Philipp Grubauer is getting the nod in goal once again. We dig into this decision a bit more below.
Power play remedy?
Morgan Geekie was shifted to the left halfwall on the power play in Thursday’s 5-2 Kraken win over the Buffalo Sabres. Seattle still didn’t score on the man advantage that night and are now 30th in the league in this category, clicking at a miserable 8.33 percent. But Geekie’s first-period goal came just seconds after a Sabres penalty had ended, when Seattle was still clearly in power play mode.
The reason it’s notable that Geekie was on the left side is that he was already opened up and ready to fire when an Alex Wennberg pass through the seam found him in the left circle. Previously, when he was on the right side, he had to circle around the puck before he could shoot. We like this setup a lot more, as it puts one of the Kraken’s biggest cannons in a position to get the puck away with less time for the goalie to come across.
Keep a close eye on Seattle’s power play Saturday to see if it can finally break through and start improving on those dismal numbers.
By the way, Geekie brought the house down after practice on Friday. You must watch this if you haven’t already.
During preseason, we saw Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz, and Jared McCann (the J’s) form impressive chemistry. As the team struggled to score in the early parts of the season, coach Dave Hakstol started mixing things up to try to find a new formula, then McCann went into Covid protocol.
On Thursday, Schwartz and Eberle were put back together halfway through the game, with Wennberg in the middle. Collectively, the group took off offensively, as Eberle potted the first hat trick in team history and Schwartz added an empty netter and assisted on two of Eberle’s goals.
It goes without saying that the trio will be back together on Saturday.
What’s the deal with Seattle’s goalie usage?
Hakstol confirmed that Grubauer will start again on Saturday for Seattle, which will bring him to 10 starts in 12 games for the team. There is some context to consider here, because Chris Driedger was out with a knee injury from Oct. 18 until earlier this week, and they’re being careful with him. Nonetheless, Hakstol has really been deploying Grubauer as a true No. 1 netminder, rather than rotating him with Driedger or—in Driedger’s absence—Daccord.
We did not expect this to be the case entering the season, especially with a guy like Driedger on the roster. After all, he stole the net away from Sergei Bobrovsky for good chunks of last season with Florida, and Bobrovsky makes $10 million a year.
We asked Hakstol this week if we might see more of a shift toward a platoon as the season progresses. “That’s not a prediction that I want to make as we go forward,” he said. “Too many things change in the short term from injuries to performance to the different segments of the schedule.
“The rhythm that we’ve had Phil in has been comfortable. We’ve had good practice time over the last two weeks here. We’ve had a pretty good rhythm in terms of rest and days off, and the games for—whether it’s Chris or in the case of the last couple weeks Joey to step in and play—will be very important. In terms of the numbers of [starts], I don’t have a prediction for you on that right now.”
So, that doesn’t sound like a shift toward more consistent rotation is coming any time soon.
It’s not how we expected things to shake out, but leaning on one guy is still very normal in the NHL. A look at netminder usage around the league confirms this.
Only the New Jersey Devils are excluded from the above graphic because none of their goalies have started more than 50 percent of their games.
Arizona Coyotes
After the Coyotes missed last season’s playoffs for the seventh time in eight tries, Rick Tocchet was replaced in the offseason by Andre Tourigny. Tourigny, a former NHL assistant coach, head coach of the Ottawa 67’s, and head coach of Team Canada at the World Junior Championship, certainly did not foresee the first 10 games of his tenure going this badly.
It’s also not a huge surprise, though. Arizona demonstrated that it was ready for an even deeper tank mode than before when it traded Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland to Vancouver for the No. 9 overall pick in this past draft, plus Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, and Antoine Roussel.
Seriously, the Coyotes have been terrible. They rank last in the NHL in goals for with 14 and are in a league of their own there, seven goals behind the next-worst club in Dallas. Clayton Keller leads the team in goals with a whopping three, while Phil Kessel, Arizona’s other top scorer, has just one on the season.
Defensively, they aren’t much better, ranking second-to-last in goals allowed with 44. That’s three better than the 32nd-ranked team, Chicago, who fired coach Jeremy Colliton on Saturday.
A bad offense plus a bad defense do not make a winning team.
The one concern for the Kraken against the Coyotes is that they have had a hard time finishing on their many, MANY chances this season, and Karel Vejmelka—the starting goalie for Arizona—has been better than his 0-7-1 record would indicate.
Believe it or not, Vejmelka has so far turned in a very respectable .920 save percentage and 2.60 goals against average. He has only given up more than three goals one time this season, and that came against the first-place Edmonton Oilers on a two-goal night for Connor McDavid. The most crooked numbers, which have skewed Arizona’s team stats, have come on nights when Carter Hutton or Ivan Prosvetov have started.
Making things tougher for the lowly Coyotes is that they are on the second of back-to-backs after losing 3-1 Friday in Anaheim.
Projected lineup
Marcus Johansson, Colin Blackwell, and Mason Appleton remain on injured reserve, though Johansson and Blackwell both skated with the team at practice for the first time on Friday.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. The Kraken were the better team Thursday but had a hard time finishing on their many chances. Sounds familiar right? The difference between this contest and others, though, was that Seattle did not come out and immediately concede a goal in the opening minutes. The team was not chasing the game early, as it did in Edmonton on Monday and against the Rangers on Sunday.
On Thursday, it almost always felt like the Kraken were going to come out with a win, but as players squeezed their sticks into sawdust and fumbled away breakaway after breakaway, doubt certainly crept in for some.
One guy who is officially no longer gripping his stick too tightly after Thursday’s game is Jordan Eberle, who was held goal-less through the team’s first six games of the season. He scored once against Montreal, once against New York, and Thursday he erupted, posting the first hat trick in the history of the Seattle Kraken franchise.
“Definitely, when you’re scoring, you feel good, and the net looks a little bigger,” Eberle said after the game. “There’s a lot of different ways to score… The biggest thing is getting one or two looks a game and when you’re finishing them and you have the confidence to do it, that’s big.”
His performance in leading the Kraken to a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres should give Eberle plenty of confidence moving forward.
Off on the right footthis time
The Kraken clearly made a point of not falling behind early in this one. After seeing the opposition score early in so many first periods this season, Seattle came out flying on Thursday and controlled the possession for the bulk of the opening frame. But as has become the norm, the Kraken were having a hard time breaking through on netminder Dustin Tokarski early.
13 minutes into the game, Jamie Oleksiak got tied up along the wall in the defensive end with John Hayden. It’s hard to say if Hayden knew who he was challenging, but he started swinging and left Oleksiak with no choice but to drop the gloves. In a blink Hayden had consumed half a dozen knuckle sandwiches from the Big Rig. Adding insult to injury, Hayden got an extra two minutes for roughing and put the Kraken on the power play.
That extra Hayden penalty proved costly for Buffalo. Seconds after the penalty ended, Alex Wennberg threaded a pass through the seam and found Morgan Geekie in the left circle. Geekie wasted no time and blasted it past Tokarski.
The second period left Seattle fans groaning at times. Fortunately, Eberle made them believe again before the end of the frame because otherwise there may have been a mutiny on the S.S. Climate Pledge.
With the Kraken continuing to dominate possession, they somehow let Tage Thompson walk the puck from his own end all the way through the neutral zone and into their end. On what amounted to a one-on-four rush, the 6-foot-7 Thompson lumbered in untouched and eventually let a shot go that—with the help of a Haydn Fleury screen—beat Grubauer.
Max McCormick then took an ill-advised offensive zone penalty at 16:10 when he boarded Will Butcher, causing the Buffalo defenseman to hit his face on the glass. The Sabres took advantage. With Zemgus Girgensons screening Grubauer, Kyle Okposo scored from the right hash, giving Buffalo a 2-1 lead and temporarily sucking the air out of Climate Pledge Arena.
That was when Eberle put the team on his back. Just 26 seconds passed between Okposo giving Buffalo its only lead and Jaden Schwartz digging out a puck in the corner and putting it right on the tape of Eberle in front. Eberle buried it just under the bar, and Seattle was back in business.
Schwartz and Rasmus Dahlin—who had a tough night that featured two embarrassing self-inflicted nosedives—got into a shoving contest at the horn, meaning the third period would open four-on-four.
A sigh of relief for Kraken fans
With the extra space afforded by the four-on-four and Butcher inexplicably swimming in the slot, Eberle had plenty of room to work. Wennberg was at the blue line and slipped the puck to him at the top of the left circle. Eberle danced around Okposo, got in close with Tokarski, and lifted it over his right pad for his second of the night.
Another look at Eberle’s second of the night…he had all the space in the world to set up for the finish off the backhand. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/8sp0RtSZ6e
Eberle struck once more six minutes later when he took a Schwartz pass in the neutral zone, rushed in, and snuck one through the pads of Tokarski, a goal the Sabres goalie probably wanted to have back.
Down came the hats, as Eberle celebrated the first hat trick in franchise history with his mates.
Takeaway #1: The Kraken could use some more finish
If you were to look at the score alone, you’d probably think that was a solid offensive night by the Kraken. In a way, you would be right with that assessment. The team put up five goals, and Eberle blew open the floodgates with a hat trick. But in a game that should have been out of reach midway through the second, Seattle found itself trailing 2-1, albeit for a very brief period.
We counted five breakaways for the Kraken, on which they converted zero times. They dominated every possession metric from start to finish, and yet the game was close enough in the end that Buffalo pulled its goalie to try to level the score. Frankly, Seattle should have put up at least eight against the Sabres on Thursday, but the team’s lack of finish continues to be a bit concerning.
The good news is that there was an eventual breakthrough, which hopefully relieves some of the pressure to start scoring goals. The guys that the Kraken need to be their offensive leaders—the Eberles and Schwartzes of the world—are starting to produce. Seattle also now heads to the desert to face an atrocious Arizona Coyotes team that has given up 42 goals in 10 games.
Here’s hoping the desert dogs can help Kraken players build up some more offensive confidence.
Takeaway #2: Morgan Geekie belongs on the left side on power plays
We’ve never been fans of having your biggest cannons on their strong side for the power play. As a right shot, putting Geekie on the left halfwall allows him to open up and be ready to blast away when pucks are fed to him. Previously, he had been on the right, where he had to catch the pass and circle around it before he could let it go.
Though it wasn’t technically a power-play goal, Geekie’s goal came just seconds after a Buffalo penalty had ended in the first period. It was created by the power play, no question, and having Geekie on the left feels like a key that could unlock something for this struggling special teams group.
“There’s a couple different looks,” Hakstol said. “With wanting to simplify a few things, you know, you put guys on their one-timer sides, and you’re looking to get the puck to the inside. Buffalo came a little harder with their kill tonight than maybe they usually do, but he was able to get off a couple of good shots from that spot. That second one found its way into the back of the net… It was nice to see it go directly in, but if it doesn’t that should give us a good opportunity at a rebound.”
Speaking of the power play, we’ve also always thought it’s a good sign to see passes through the seam rather than around the perimeter. Those passes are harder to complete, but when they get through, they’re also harder to track and give the goalie a lot less time to get across. Again, it wasn’t technically a power-play goal, but Geekie’s goal came off a seam pass by Wennberg.
Seeing a goal set up this way and scored by one of Seattle’s big shooters is a great sign for the struggling power play, which is now officially 3 for 36 on the season.
Takeaway #3: Eberle throws a mean fish
After rightfully being named the first star of the game, Eberle was handed the traditional salmon stuffed animal to throw into the crowd. Rather than softly tossing it over the glass, he twisted that thing around and whipped it a good ten rows deep into the lower bowl. We asked him about the throw after the game.
He explained, “I live downtown, so I go to Pike with my little girl quite a bit to get groceries, and I see them throwing the fish, so I wanted to make them proud.”
Seattle Kraken versus Buffalo Sabres 7 p.m. Pacific time TV: ROOT Sports Radio: 950 AM KJR
Typically when we prepare these game previews, we’re very focused on what has been happening with the Seattle Kraken. Other than Chris Driedger returning from injured reserve and Joey Daccord being assigned to Charlotte, there hasn’t been all that much happening the last few days, though, so move along, nothing to see here.
And obviously there’s nothing happening on the other side with the Buffalo Sab— [record scratch, author listens to breaking news in earpiece]… They did what?! Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve just received word that something major has happened with the Buffalo Sabres after all! It turns out they’ve traded their former captain and former No. 2 overall pick, Jack Eichel, to the Vegas Golden Knights for a package that includes Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, and draft picks.
Wowza!
Seattle Kraken
The Kraken are expected to come back with a very similar lineup on Thursday to what we saw in Edmonton on Monday, but Haydn Fleury is slotting back in for Carson Soucy on the blue line, and Philipp Grubauer will get the start.
The Fleury/Soucy rotation has been an interesting one. Really neither deserves to be scratched, and both have been contributing offensively lately—Fleury had two goals against Minnesota, and Soucy had one against the Oilers—but this is what happens when you have this many NHL defensemen on your roster. Simply put, somebody has to sit.
And let’s not forget about Will Borgen, who has yet to even dress for a game and will be scratched again Thursday against his former team.
On Wednesday after practice, coach Dave Hakstol indicated that this won’t change any time soon for Borgen, adding that the seven players that have played for Seattle at this point won their spots out of training camp.
Also at practice on Wednesday, the Kraken spent a few minutes working on their power play. Seattle has struggled in this area, clicking just three times in 32 attempts, good for 30th in the NHL, though it has gotten good looks and plenty of zone time.
“We need to get one to go for us,” Hakstol said of the power play. “You’d like to have a little bit of puck luck somewhere along the way. Until that starts happening and falling our way, we got to get a little hungry around the blue paint. We got to get a little hungry on seconds and really working to find one.”
Jack Eichel no longer a Sabre
The fact that Eichel was on the trade block was the worst-kept secret in hockey after he had publicly requested a trade, was stripped of his captaincy, and was closing in on filing a grievance against the team for not allowing him to get the disc replacement surgery that he desires. So while it wasn’t shocking to hear that he had been traded, it still felt like one of those things that might never really happen, especially after it dragged out all summer long.
But traded he was to the Vegas Golden Knights in the wee hours of Thursday morning.
Since Eichel was out with the long-term neck injury anyway, Tuch is still working his way back, and Krebs is heading to the AHL, there really is no impact on Buffalo’s lineup for tonight. The effect down the line will be dramatic from a Seattle perspective, however, as it now will have to face Eichel and an already loaded Golden Knights team up to four times per season.
As for the current Sabres, the hockey world was surprised to see them get off to a hot start, winning their first three games to begin Don Granato’s tenure as their full-time head coach. Since those three games, they lost two, won two, and lost two more, with those most recent defeats coming at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings and a COVID-riddled San Jose Sharks squad.
This is a winnable game for the Kraken, but Buffalo also cannot be taken for granted, as they have already caught several opponents off guard this season.
Leading scorer Victor Olofsson is out tonight for the Sabres, which should make things a bit easier defensively on the Kraken. Dustin Tokarski gets the start in net. He has been good in three appearances, posting a 1-1-1 record with a 1.92 goals against average and .936 save percentage.
