Seattle Kraken at Edmonton Oilers 6:30 p.m. Pacific time Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada TV: ROOT Sports Radio: KJR AM 950
Sunday’s game against the Rangers was always going to be a tough test for the Seattle Kraken, but things ratchet up another notch Monday against the Edmonton Oilers for a number of reasons. Not only do the Kraken take on one of the best offensive clubs in the NHL, which features two of the league’s best offensive players, but they’re doing it on the second night of a back-to-back set with travel. Winning on the road in this scenario is no easy task against any opponent, let alone against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Coach Dave Hakstol made the decision on Sunday to stick with starting netminder Philipp Grubauer for the first game of the set, rather than saving him for when the team would be tired and facing an even more dangerous offense. So Joey Daccord gets the nod tonight, and with Chris Driedger looking closer and closer to a return, this could be Daccord’s last start before he gets returned to AHL Charlotte.
Daccord’s first start came in a pinch the last time the Kraken were on the second of back-to-backs. After Driedger was surprisingly placed on injured reserve after coming on in relief in Philadelphia on Oct. 18, Daccord got the call-up and the nod against New Jersey on Oct. 19. He played well that night, especially under the chaotic circumstances. Daccord stopped 29 of 32 shots and made some very timely saves against the Devils, but the Kraken ultimately came up short.
Last-second lineup changes becoming the norm
Just before Sunday’s game, Kraken PR broke the news that Jared McCann and assistant coach Paul McFarland had been placed into COVID protocol. To deal with McCann’s absence, Max McCormick—recalled after Mason Appleton was officially placed on IR over the weekend—was slotted onto the fourth line and Ryan Donato was elevated.
That alteration seemed to have the lowest possible disruption to what the team had practiced with the day prior, as Jaden Schwartz, Alex Wennberg, and Joonas Donskoi stayed together, as did Brandon Tanev, Yanni Gourde, and Calle Jarnkrok.
On Monday morning, Hakstol was asked in his media availability if there would be any other changes coming to the lineup, and he said, “We’ve got some decisions to make at gametime and as we go through the afternoon.” Does he mean shuffling the lines again, or does he mean players coming in or out?
The team has shown a few times now that it prefers to hold on announcing significant changes to Seattle’s active roster until as close to gametime as possible. Examples are the clearing of four key players from COVID protocol prior to the Vegas game, Yanni Gourde returning from injury for the New Jersey game, and now McCann missing Sunday’s game against the Rangers.
Perhaps we’re reading into it too deeply, but we’re curious what those decisions are that Hakstol and his staff need to make, especially with a player and a coach in COVID protocol as of Sunday.
With that in mind, we aren’t even going to take a stab at the projected lineup for now, but we will add it after warmups, so feel free to circle back here at gametime.
Update: The only change to the lineup is Carson Soucy drawing back in for Haydn Fleury. Hakstol loves to keep us guessing.
Edmonton Oilers bring a potent offense
Hakstol was also asked Monday what makes McDavid so good. “Well, how much time do we have?” he quipped. “He’s a very special player. There’s not much that I can say that can bring to light anything new on Connor McDavid. He’s an absolutely dynamic player, and one of the things that stands out for me is his competitive nature. It seems every year that I’ve been able to see him there’s a new piece to his game, something new that he’s tried to round out and improve upon.”
Hakstol’s point is that McDavid—who has already proven that he is in a league of his own—continues to push to get even better, and it somehow continues to work. Last season, McDavid put up 105 points, an impressive total for an 82-game season. But last year was not an 82-game season, it was a 56-game season.
Though the current season is young, McDavid is on an even hotter pace so far with seven goals and nine assists (7-9=16) through just seven games played.
The Oilers also added a key piece in the offseason in Zach Hyman who has been impressive, scoring six goals in seven games. The former Maple Leaf is expected to skate on a potent top line with McDavid and Jesse Puljujarvi, while Draisaitl will go with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Spokane’s Kailer Yamamoto.
Where the Oilers have always been vulnerable is on the blue line and in net. The roster took a hit from this standpoint when Adam Larsson was selected and signed by the Kraken during the Expansion Draft, and there was plenty of interest from the Edmonton media about the defenseman’s return, showing that he was valued in that market.
Despite this, former NHL Seattle advisor and now Oilers coach Dave Tippett has his team playing well at both ends of the ice, and the result is an impressive 6-1-0 record.
The Kraken lost Sunday due to a couple of lapses in transition. They will need to really batten down the hatches in the neutral zone to avoid a track meet with this explosive Edmonton Oilers team.
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.
As Seattle netminder Philipp Grubauer said after Sunday’s 3-1 Kraken loss to the New York Rangers, sometimes you win games you’re supposed to lose, and sometimes you lose games you’re supposed to win. On Sunday, the Kraken should have won, but instead got Shesterkinned.
Ranger goalie Igor Shesterkin followed up a dazzling 31-save shutout of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday with another outstanding performance against the Kraken, stopping 31 of 32 this time and carrying his team to victory.
It’s a disappointing loss for the Kraken, no doubt, as they finish their first homestand with a 2-2-0 record, bringing them to 3-5-1 overall. This team is still learning and building, and coach Dave Hakstol was rightfully pleased with the effort. But not getting at least a point out of a game like this has to hurt.
A familiar game script
The Kraken started the first period against the Rangers in similar fashion to how they have started several other games this season… by conceding an early goal.
Chris Kreider—who has had a hot start to the season—streaked into the Kraken zone on a two-on-one with Mika Zibanejad. He looked off Zibanejad and snapped an absolute missile over Grubauer’s glove and right under the crossbar. It was one of those that hit the back bar and came out so quickly that not everyone in the arena was sure it had gone in. Indeed it had, and just like that, the Kraken trailed 1-0 3:38 into the first period on Kreider’s seventh of the season.
As we’ve also seen in prior games, Seattle began pushing back after allowing that goal, but Shesterkin stood tall to turn away several good chances, especially by Morgan Geekie and Jaden Schwartz.
Kreider had a bid for his second of the night and fourth in two games midway through the period when a pass hopped off of Vince Dunn’s stick at the offensive blue line. Kreider jumped on it and raced through the neutral zone, but Grubauer came up big and steered the shot away with his blocker to keep the Kraken within one.
Do the Kraken love second periods or what?
Once again, Seattle came out flying in the second and owned the puck for the bulk of the period. When the horn sounded, they had an 11-2 advantage in shots on goal during those 20 minutes of play.
Midway through the second, Shesterkin was continuing his dastardly ways and was especially unkind to Schwartz, who continues to look for his first goal as a Kraken. Shesterkin stole a sure goal from Schwartz by sliding from left to right in a full split. He lost his stick on that play, but with his team scrambling, he still managed to stop two shots by Mark Giordano and one by Ryan Donato to get a needed whistle.
Six minutes later, Jordan Eberle broke through. He took a simple drop pass from Schwartz at the right face-off dot. In one motion, he spun onto his backhand and lifted a shot over Shesterkin’s glove, clearly catching the netminder off guard with the deceptive shot.
Eberle’s second of the season knotted things at 1-1 at 13:46, and though Seattle continued to push, that score would remain through the end of the second period.
A disappointing finish
Compared to a completely dominant second for Seattle, the third was a bit more open for interpretation as to who had the better of the play.
With eight minutes left, Haydn Fleury forced a turnover at the Ranger blue line, and suddenly Brandon Tanev was in alone with Shesterkin. He deked and tried to tuck the puck around the outstretched pad of the Ranger netminder, but couldn’t get it to go. The Rangers countered, and off the rush, Artemi Panarin pulled up at the top of the left circle. He then found a trailing Adam Fox as he came over the blue line, and Fox made no mistake.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why Fox won the Norris Trophy last season and why Panarin continues to be one of the more dangerous forwards in the NHL.
With Grubauer pulled for an extra skater in the closing minutes, the Kraken did get one last good push to try to level the score a second time. A shot from the point got deflected by Yanni Gourde, and he found the rebound and with one hand on his stick poked it past Shesterkin. It just bounced off the base of the post, and again, the Rangers countered and Barclay Goodrow ended up with an empty-net goal at the other end to seal it.
Things don’t get easier on Monday
Hakstol has talked a lot about improving the team’s play in transition. Seeing New York score its goals off the rush Sunday was a bit surprising, especially after we had watched Seattle clog up the neutral zone to perfection at times on this homestand. Seattle’s coach gave credit to the Rangers after the game, though, saying that’s one of the things they do especially well, and his group knew that coming in.
As Seattle goes right back to work against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton on Monday, it will need to do a better job of cutting down those odd-man opportunities, or it could be a painful night.
By the way, at Hakstol’s media availability on Sunday night, we asked him what the Kraken need to do to beat Edmonton, which has a lot of starpower. At the end of a relatively long presser, Hakstol looked at us and said, “Well, first off, we need to wrap this up so we can get out of here.” That got a good chuckle in the room.
Point taken, Dave.
Jared McCann and Paul McFarland in COVID protocol
Kraken forward Jared McCann was a late scratch from Sunday’s game, as the team announced that he and assistant coach Paul McFarland had been placed in COVID protocol. Last time Seattle had players in protocol, they ended up being cleared in time for the season opener in Vegas, but Hakstol did not want to speculate on what might happen with McCann.
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.
There was an eerie sense of, “Oh, we’ve seen this one before,” in Thursday night’s game between the Minnesota Wild and the Seattle Kraken. It had hints of the Kraken home opener against the Canucks, when Seattle dominated the second period, but Vancouver somehow got the only goal on a stinker through Philipp Grubauer’s legs. Then an ill-timed penalty in the third allowed the Canucks to tie that game a second time, and it was downhill from there.
There were a few distinct differences on Thursday, though, that showed the Kraken are learning from their mistakes and allowed them to emerge victorious against a good Minnesota Wild club.
The Kraken again dominated the second period Thursday, and again Grubauer faced only a handful of shots during those 20 minutes. Seattle did find one goal this time, and when the big chance came for Minnesota to tie it, Grubauer made a game-breaking save. Then when the ill-timed penalty was again taken halfway through the third, the Kraken netminder again came up huge, making a sequence of mind-boggling saves and getting some puck luck along the way to keep Seattle in front.
It was an impressive 4-1 win by the Kraken, who improved to 3-4-1 and fourth place in the Pacific Division.
A sloppy start and a turning point
Things got off to a shaky start for the Kraken. Minnesota had them hemmed in for much of the first 10 minutes, and the Wild drew first blood. Budding superstar Kirill Kaprizov gloved a puck down behind the goal line, dropped it to himself, and found Ryan Hartman in the slot. Hartman banged it home to give his team a 1-0 lead at 6:27.
Just seconds later, the Wild appeared to score again when a puck caromed off the skate of Marcus Foligno and into the back of the net. The officials immediately called no goal on the ice, but then reviewed to see if there was a distinct kicking motion. Haunting visions of opening night in Vegas surely came racing back for Kraken fans, but this time video confirmed that it was kicked. The goal was negated and Seattle dodged a huge bullet.
“The kicked-in goal is a real turning point, but it’s only a turning point if you take advantage of it,” coach Dave Hakstol said after the game. And Seattle did take advantage of it.
After that, Seattle started to find its sea legs, connected on some passes through the neutral zone, and quickly turned the tides of the game.
Haydn Fleury—a healthy scratch for the home opener on Saturday—scored his first of the season. From the corner, Jaden Schwartz threw the puck through the crease, hoping to find a deflection. Instead, it slid all the way across the ice surface, bounced off the side boards, and came out to Fleury in the high slot. Fleury dusted it off and snapped it through traffic. The puck changed directions on the way to the net and eluded Cam Talbot, bringing the Kraken level at 1-1.
The first period closed with Marcus Foligno taking a four-minute double-minor for high sticking Joonas Donskoi. The Wild killed it off to start the second, but the power play, which gave heaps of zone time to the Kraken, set the tone for the period.
Seattle absolutely owned the puck during that 20 minutes, outshooting Minnesota 17-4.
Talbot was standing tall for the Wild, but Fleury broke through again at 7:33 for his second of the game. He took a sharp-angle shot that Talbot stopped with his shoulder, but the rebound dropped right onto Fleury’s stick, who was in full stride behind the net. Before Talbot could blink, Fleury had looped around and stuffed it into the open cage on the far side, giving the Kraken defenseman the first multi-goal game of his career.
With under 30 seconds left on the clock, Kirill Kaprizov stole the puck from Yanni Gourde at center ice. He raced in on a breakaway and deked to his forehand, but Philipp Grubauer shut the door for just his fourth save of the entire period. Had Kaprizov scored there, it would have unraveled a near-perfect period by Seattle.
Gourde took full responsibility after the game for the turnover, and heaped praise upon his netminder for bailing him out.
Bend but don’t break
The Wild threw everything at the Kraken in the third, as the comeback kids from Minnesota sought another victim of their late-game dramatics. The best opportunities came after Fleury interfered with Kevin Fiala at the 10:01 mark.
During that penalty kill, Grubauer showed why Seattle signed him to a six-year, $35.4 million free agent contract in the offseason, making a whole host of point-blank saves. He also got a bit lucky, when Joel Eriksson Ek had him dead to rights, but somehow pushed the puck through the crease, off the far post, and out the other side.
On the sequence of saves by Grubauer, Fleury said, “I was in the penalty box, so I was really thanking him for that. That was huge. I think that’s why he makes the big bucks.”
Two empty-net goals, one by Brandon Tanev and one that Mark Giordano remarkably banked off the boards from the defensive zone, sealed it for the Kraken.
Three Takeaways
Kraken are progressing
It’s still early in the season, but this was a big-time victory against a good club that has played well in the early stages. Hakstol seems pleased with the progress the team is making, and rightfully so. It’s fascinating to watch the Kraken learn from their mistakes from night to night, and comparing the Canucks game on Saturday with the Wild game on Thursday is a great way to see that happening in almost real time.
The odd-man rushes that plagued the team early on have been mostly curtailed, and when things have broken down—like they did at the end of the second on Thursday—Grubauer has been a saving grace the last couple games.
Meanwhile, the score-by-committee approach seems to be working suddenly. It’s been well documented that Seattle does not have a star scorer that will put up 30 or 40 goals, so it has to get production from its lower lines and its defense. Well, Tanev leads the team in goals and added to his total against the Wild, and Fleury scored two on Thursday. So… it’s working.
Can’t help rooting for Fleury
It’s hard not to root for Fleury. At the home opener, where teams traditionally announce the entire roster, he had to come to the bench in street clothes and give a wave to the fans, despite being a healthy scratch that night. He got back in on Tuesday against Montreal and played well, earning himself another game Thursday. Against the Wild, he took full advantage of his opportunity and earned first star honors for his two huge goals, including the eventual game winner.
The Kraken are proving to be a second-period team, and they showed it against the Wild in what Grubauer called one of the best periods he’s ever seen. They don’t always get off to hot starts, but they’ve tilted the ice in the second frame on multiple occasions now.
Explains Fleury, “Hak really stresses valuing the puck in the second period, trapping the other team in their zone with the long change. Our forwards did a really good job of that in the second. They really wore their D out down low in the offensive zone, and we were able to have a couple of quick-up plays where they weren’t able to change. And then their forwards and their D are out there for two minutes.”
It’s good to know that there’s a shift in the game script coming when Seattle is slow out of the gates, but the starts are the next problem that needs fixing. That will continue to be an emphasis for Hakstol and his staff moving forward.
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 fans were treated to an offensive outburst by Seattle for the first time on Tuesday, as it crushed a reeling Montreal Canadiens team 5-1 to improve to 2-4-1 on the season. It was the first win at Climate Pledge Arena for the franchise and an all-around solid effort by the Kraken from start to finish.
The result was important for a lot of reasons. The team simply needs to start racking up standings points if it aims to be competitive this season, so from that standpoint it was a step in the right direction. But the associated confidence boost of a convincing win may have lasting benefits as well, as it got a couple guys onto the scoresheet that had perhaps been gripping their sticks a little too tightly.
Before the game, Seattle held a ceremony to unveil a banner honoring the Seattle Metropolitans, who defeated the Canadiens in 1917 to become the first American-based team to win the Stanley Cup. It was a brief and thoughtfully produced celebration that featured family members of Frank Foyston, one of the stars of that Metropolitans team, as well as Kraken general manager Ron Francis and minority owner Jerry Bruckheimer.
As soon as the tactful celebration ended, the current version of Seattle’s professional hockey team got right to work.
Jordan Eberle—who admitted a few days ago that he was feeling pressure to start scoring—got the proverbial monkey off his back just 1:02 into the game. On a three-on-two rush, Eberle took a pass from Jared McCann at the top of the left circle, glided across the slot, and snapped a perfect shot over the glove of Canadiens netminder Jake Allen.
Jordan Eberle with the perfectly placed Shot of the Night. 🎯
That was Eberle’s first of the year, and you could see from the way he played all night that the pressure had been eased. He played most of the game with Jaden Schwartz and Alex Wennberg, a line that was coincidentally buzzing throughout. Eberle in particular looked as confident as he did during the preseason and could have easily scored a couple more.
After the early eruption, things calmed down for a bit, before Mike Hoffman found a bouncing puck in front of Philipp Grubauer and swatted it in for his second goal of the season, leveling the score at 1-1. On the play, Schwartz also caught Hoffman with a high stick. The play was reviewed, and it was eventually ruled that because the penalty happened after the shot, Schwartz would also serve the two-minute minor, despite the goal, and as reader Jim Long points out, since it was originally ruled a double-minor, one of the two penalties was negated by the goal, but Schwartz still had to serve two minutes. You don’t see that every day.
Fortunately for Seattle, it was able to kill off the penalty.
Soon after that penalty ended, Jamie Oleksiak joined the rush and streaked down the right side. Brandon Tanev had gone hard to the front of the net and parked himself right on top of the crease. Oleksiak centered a pass with pace that Tanev redirected over Allen’s glove, bringing the score to 2-1 at 15:08.
Kraken run away in the second, but Appleton gets injured
The second brought lots of good for Seattle on the scoreboard, but it came at a cost.
Jeremy Lauzon forced a turnover in the defensive zone, and in a blink, Jaden Schwartz had gotten the puck up to the offensive blue line, where Yanni Gourde was waiting. Gourde carried the puck into the offensive zone, faked a slapshot, then waited out Allen and calmly tucked the puck around him and into a yawning cage for a beautiful goal.
Less than two minutes later, Gourde got himself on the scoresheet again when he took a pass from Mark Giordano and quickly found Tanev, who had gotten in behind Montreal’s defense. Tanev slipped the puck through Allen’s legs for his second of the night and whopping fifth of the season. The home faithful—which seems to really be taking a shine to Tanev—showed its appreciation, as Climate Pledge Arena got very loud.
Brandon Tanev on how he feeds off of the crowd, which seems to be taking to him quite nicely. pic.twitter.com/JCG1he6ojf
That’s when the not-so-fun stuff started for the Kraken. First, McCann got rocked by a big hit in the corner behind Allen. He wasn’t able to brace for the impact, and went slowly to the bench where he hunched over for a bit, trying to grit it out. Eventually he stood up and went down the tunnel, disappearing for the remainder of the second period. The Kraken appear to have dodged a bullet there, however, as McCann did return in the third and looked ok.
Within minutes of McCann going down the tunnel, Mason Appleton got dragged down by Sami Niku as Appleton was carrying the puck into the offensive zone. As the two players were both going down to the ice, Niku fell hard on Appleton’s foot, twisting his leg in a direction it’s not supposed to go. Appleton yelled and was writhing on the ice for a bit, before being helped off by teammates with no weight on his right leg.
Coach Dave Hakstol did not have an update in his media availability following the game, but it didn’t look good when it happened.
Kraken close out their first home win in convincing fashion
Five minutes into the third period, Ryan Donato—who had been a healthy scratch for Seattle’s home opener on Saturday—put the game fully out of reach. On a good individual play, Donato intercepted an Alexander Romanov pass at Seattle’s blue line and was off to the races. In alone with Allen, he deked to his backhand and with a deft touch lifted it over the sprawling netminder’s left pad, a beautiful move from a guy known for his shootout prowess.
Goalie Philipp Grubauer made several nice saves in the game but was relatively well protected. “From my standpoint, the guys made it really easy,” he said after the game. In all, he stopped 23 of 24 shots, with his best save of the night coming early in the game, when he slid across in a full split and robbed Brendan Gallagher with the toe of his right skate. Tuesday was a good confidence builder for Grubauer, who didn’t have his best outing on Saturday.
Hakstol was pleased with the win and with the effort, but with a few more odd-man rushes against on Tuesday than on Saturday, he indicated there was still room for Seattle to improve. Still, it’s a great win for a Kraken team that badly needed it.
Seattle welcomes the Minnesota Wild to Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.
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.
Seattle Kraken versus Montreal Canadiens 7 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington TV: ROOT Sports Radio: KJR AM 950
While there will still be heaps of pomp on Tuesday night, along with plenty of circumstance, the big “milestone” games have now passed for the fledgling Seattle Kraken. Over and done are opening night—on which Seattle lost in Vegas—and also home opening night, on which the Kraken also lost to the Canucks.
Now that all that stuff is in the rearview, it’s time for Seattle to find its game and start finding some wins. The team showed well on Saturday and deserved a better outcome, but victories never come easy in the NHL.
The Kraken played with a different structure through the neutral zone than we had seen in previous games, and the result was practically no odd-man rushes against, something coach Dave Hakstol badly wanted to eliminate. So that’s a good sign, as is the team tilting the ice for the majority of the second period and just missing on several quality chances during the course of the night.
And when Seattle briefly had a lead in the third period, it did not sit back and wait for Vancouver to come down and start pressuring. Instead, it controlled a lot of the period in the offensive zone, but an ill-timed penalty by Carson Soucy and a pass out of Vince Dunn’s reach ultimately doomed the Kraken.
Mark Giordano said after that game that the next step for the Kraken is figuring out how to close out games, and they may have an opportunity to do so on Tuesday with a struggling Montreal Canadiens team in town.
Lineup shuffle?
In his media availability following morning skate on Tuesday, Dave Hakstol indicated there will be a couple of “tweaks” to the lineup, but would not say what those tweaks actually are.
We love guessing at these types of things, so we’re going to go out on a limb and predict that Haydn Fleury draws back in for Carson Soucy while Ryan Donato gets in for… drumroll… Morgan Geekie.
Geekie has played a pretty significant role so far, but the reason we *think* he might come out is that he did not have a regular spot during line rushes at practice on Monday. He’s also coming off a game in which Hakstol gave him fewer than two minutes of ice time in the third period. Meanwhile, Mason Appleton and Nathan Bastian—the only other forwards we could see being removed from the lineup—were part of an impactful line with Riley Sheahan that nearly scored several times on Saturday.
Geekie was spotted having a long conversation on the ice with Hakstol on Monday, which could mean anything, but our hunch says it’s related.
Again, this is just a guess as the skate was very optional on Tuesday morning, and Hakstol was intentionally coy about his personnel.
UPDATE: Alright, we took a swing and missed. Morgan Geekie is in. Nathan Bastian is out, along with Carson Soucy, while Ryan Donato and Haydn Fleury return to the lineup.
Montreal Canadiens
Some folks are making a big deal out of the fact that the Seattle Metropolitans played against the Canadiens over 100 years ago. We’re going to avoid that narrative here, because—well, frankly, we don’t remember those games at all, and we highly doubt the players do either. We recognize that it’s kind of neat and that the Metropolitans beat the Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup, but we shall focus on the task at hand.
The task at hand is a Montreal team that is coming off of a shocking trip to the Stanley Cup Final, but has gotten off to a terrible start to the 2021-22 season. The Habs finally got their first win of the season on Thursday, a 6-1 win at home over the Detroit Red Wings.
Montreal is without its all-world goaltender and former Tri-City American Carey Price, who entered the NHL/NHLPA’s player assistance program two weeks ago. Shouldering the load in net has been Jake Allen, a historically streaky goalie who can be lights out at times and leaky at others. So far, he has been pretty good, despite the terrible record, playing behind a team that hadn’t been scoring before Thursday.
Prior to that offensive outburst, the bleu, blanc, et rouge had just four goals combined in five games. That’s not going to win you many games, regardless of who you have protecting your net.
Do watch out for guys like Tyler Toffoli, who had 44 points for the Habs last season, and super-skilled youngsters Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.
As the Kraken were taking their second regulation road loss in as many nights Tuesday, this one a 4-2 loss at the hands of the New Jersey Devils, their home arena opened its doors to the public for the first time, welcoming concertgoers for an evening with the Foo Fighters and Death Cab for Cutie.
Of course, the concert has no bearing on the Kraken, but seeing the building completed and fully operational is a sight for sore eyes, especially as Seattle’s road-weary hockey team comes home for the first time since training camp. Heck, even in training camp they technically didn’t get to play a home game since the arena was not yet ready, so knowing that the finishing touches have been put on Climate Pledge Arena at this point is a relief for many.
Seattle finished its five-game, season-opening road trip with an underwhelming 1-3-1 record, certainly not what fans might have hoped to see from the new team to begin its inaugural season. But when you consider the circumstances of playing five in eight days across three timezones in a bunch of historically tough buildings, with minimal practice, injuries piling up, and Covid protocol chaos… well, it could have been much worse, frankly.
The Kraken get to come home now, get a few days of recovery and practice, and go back to work with a nice four-game homestand to restore some balance. There are no excuses, but this was undoubtedly a tough way for Seattle to start its first season.
Here are our three takeaways from the most recent loss to the Devils.
Takeaway #1: Slow starts and loose defense do not victories make
In four of Seattle’s five games so far, the opposing team has gotten on the board first. In Vegas, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, the opposition got at least two relatively early goals, making the Kraken chase the game from the jump.
Sometimes you can come back from deficits—Seattle actually did temporarily negate a three-goal lead by Vegas and would have tied the game in New Jersey if not for Alex Wennberg’s goal being challenged and ruled offside—but you simply can’t rely on resiliency every night.
Making things worse, the Kraken, which are built around defense and goaltending, have been a bit loose on the defensive side of the puck. Coach Dave Hakstol has talked quite a bit about giving up too much off the rush, and that was again the case on Tuesday, as Dawson Mercer got his first career goal off a two-on-one just five minutes into the game.
Hopefully for Seattle fans, the end of a brutal road trip that has had twists and turns from the onset will mean a fresher team in a few days.
On Monday and Tuesday, Seattle ran into teams that had only played one game each and had done so in their own respective barns. Nonetheless, the Kraken need to be better in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Takeaway #2: This Yanni Gourde guy is pretty good
We knew it. We just knew it. We hadn’t heard any kind of updates about Yanni Gourde in several days, so we didn’t say anything publicly, but we just had this hunch that Gourde would be in the lineup Tuesday. Sure enough, mere hours before the game, Seattle Kraken PR tweeted that Gourde would be a full participant against the Devils.
And he was good.
“[He had] great energy tonight,” Hakstol said after the game. “He brought a real boost to our lineup, he brings life on the bench, he brings the exact same thing on the ice. So, you know, he was a productive guy out there. He made some plays, he created a lot of o-zone time and did a good job with two linemates that he’s never played with before.”
Gourde was slotted on the top line between Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle. He assisted on Jared McCann’s power play goal and won 56.5 percent of his faceoffs, and he was noticeable just about every time he was on the ice.
While we had a hunch that Gourde and defenseman Vince Dunn might return, we did not expect the last-second goalie shuffle that resulted in Joey Daccord getting the start Tuesday. Chris Driedger, who came on in relief in Philadelphia Monday, got injured, and we really don’t know how or when it happened.
The way this played out for Driedger is similar to Marcus Johansson’s sudden placement on injured reserve after the Vegas game. There was no indication of an injury during the game in Philadelphia, but Tuesday rolls around, and boom! Driedger is on IR, meaning he’ll miss at least a week.
All that said, Daccord played really well on Tuesday. He stopped 29 of 32 shots and made some huge and timely saves for the Kraken.
In the grand scheme of things, a five-game trip is so small. It’s important, no question. But it’s so small.
The bigger picture begins to come into focus on Saturday when Climate Pledge Arena officially welcomes the Seattle Kraken onto home ice for the first time, a moment we’ve all been eagerly awaiting for so long.
And what a magical and thrilling night that will be.
“I think it’s going to be a fantastic night,” Hakstol said Tuesday. “Just the energy and the positivity that has surrounded everything over the last— especially the buildup over the last few months, but really longer than that.
“You know, I haven’t really talked to any of our players about it, but I know that they’re going to be looking forward to it. Coming off of a nine- or ten-day road trip, guys will look forward to getting home, having a day with their families, a day to regroup, and then it’s going to be a great event to look forward to.”
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.
