There was an unmistakable feeling of deja vu that hit during the third period of Saturday’s 2-1 overtime Kraken loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Just two nights earlier, the Kraken entered the third with a one-goal lead against the Nashville Predators and went fully into a defensive shell, getting just one shot in the final 20 minutes. On Saturday, Seattle again entered the final frame with a one-goal lead and again promptly parked the bus in its own zone, conceding shots and zone time in exchange for keeping as much as possible to the outside.
It again took nearly 10 minutes for the Kraken to register a shot of their own in the third period against the Blue Jackets, but soon after they did that, Columbus leveled the score. As quickly as it arrived, the deja vu vanished.
Here’s what we’ve taken away from the Kraken getting their first loser point in the standings.
Takeaway #1: The formula is coming into focus
Seeing how Saturday’s third period played out was really interesting. The Kraken clearly intend to be a team that protects its leads late in games, rather than continuing to push and keep the opposition on its heels. They morph from a team with a relentlessly aggressive forecheck to a team with no forecheck whatsoever.
That approach will mean a lot of nail-biting finishes for fans this season, as it will often look like the Kraken are in hold-onto-your-butts mode. Seattle will appear under duress throughout third periods when they are leading.
Saturday showed that the Kraken aren’t really “under duress” in these situations, though, and that it’s actually by design for the flow of the game to go this way. The defensive bunker only didn’t work this time because the Kraken stretched out the ice a little more than they did on Thursday and allowed some odd-man rushes as a result.
Coach Dave Hakstol confirmed after the game that the one thing he didn’t like about the third period was that the group gave up too much off the rush.
What was most interesting about Saturday’s game was what happened after Eric Robinson broke through on Philipp Grubauer and found the equalizer. The Blue Jackets rode a wave of momentum for a couple minutes, but after that, Seattle re-engaged offensively and commanded zone time for much of the final eight minutes or so.
That’s proof positive that the Kraken have the ability to push back and create offensively when they want to, but if they have the lead in the third, there’s no real desire to go score more goals.
Takeaway #2: Philipp Grubauer… that’s it… that’s the takeaway
Seattle surprised us when they signed Grubauer, the biggest name on the free agent goalie market this offseason, to a six-year, $35.4 million contract. The goalcrease had previously appeared to be settled with Vitek Vanecek and Chris Driedger sharing the load after those two were selected in the Expansion Draft and Driedger was signed to a three-year, $10.5 million deal.
But man, what a luxury it is to have Grubauer back there. The Kraken can rely on him to back them up when they’re playing more aggressively and trying to gain the lead. When they get that lead, they can sit back and confidently expect him to make saves, as long as they keep shots to the outside. And even when the defensive structure breaks down, he’s still going to bail out his mates more often than not.
In all, Grubauer made 23 of 25 saves on Saturday. It doesn’t sound like that many, but when you consider the amount of zone time that Columbus got in the third and the quality of a couple of the chances earlier, he was stellar.
Signing last year’s Vezina Trophy finalist away from the Colorado Avalanche was an absolute coup by Ron Francis and his staff.
Takeaway #3: Brandon Tanev is on pace for 82 goals
We’ve talked a lot about the Kraken trying to protect their one-goal lead Saturday, but we haven’t discussed how they got that lead. Turbo Tanev potted two against the Predators on Thursday—one on the power play and one with an empty net—and followed that up with an absolute banger on Saturday.
Forward Oliver Bjorkstrand was back defending for the Blue Jackets and got tangled up trying to make a play on a bouncing puck. He went down, and suddenly the speedy Tanev was in alone with Elvis Merzlikins with all the time in the world.
Tanev showed pass to Riley Sheahan, but then turned, deked Merzlikins out of his jock, and went backhand shelf to put Seattle in front at 14:32 of the second. It was a goal scorer’s goal by a guy who is not known as a goal scorer.
So is Brandon Tanev a goal scorer? Will he continue this torrid pace?
Well, this pace certainly not. There’s a reason he plays on the third- and fourth-lines. His game is to fly around the ice, create havoc, and wear out opposing defensemen with his physicality, not score silky smooth goals like we saw on Saturday.
There is a world, though, in which Tanev contributes consistently. The Kraken, which lack obvious starpower of the scoring variety, need to be a score-by-committee type of team. They need help from their depth players, and Turbo is showing that he can be one of those guys that chips in.
Interestingly, Tanev had two golden opportunities as well in the opening game at Vegas, including a breakaway that just got poked off his stick by Robin Lehner, so his goal total could be even higher than it is now.
As he keeps getting matched up against more offensively minded lines, Tanev will continue to create chances with his lightning-fast speed.
Will he keep converting on those chances?
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 at Columbus Blue Jackets 4 p.m. Pacific time Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio TV: ROOT Sports Radio: 950 AM KJR
The Seattle Kraken are in Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets after a historic first 4-3 win in Nashville two days ago. The biggest news out of morning skate for Seattle is that Vince Dunn, who helped turn the tide of Thursday’s game with a big hit that led to a fight, has been ruled out and is day-to-day with an injury, according to coach Dave Hakstol. In his media availability, Hakstol was non-committal on whether the injury happened in Dunn’s fight with Yakov Trenin, but he did confirm it happened in that game.
Dunn’s exclusion is a big loss, as the shifty offensive defenseman has proven to be an impactful player for the Kraken. The good news for Seattle, though, is that it has plenty of depth on the blue line and other bona fide NHLers waiting to slot in. Haydn Fleury was scratched Thursday in favor of Carson Soucy, so both Fleury and Soucy will play Saturday, while Dunn recovers from his injury.
Philipp Grubauer will start his third game in a row and with good reason, as he was outstanding on Thursday, facing an onslaught of shots from the Predators, who were pushing hard in the third period to find an equalizer.
Alex Wennberg returns to Columbus where he spent the first six seasons of his NHL career. He did visit the Blue Jackets as a member of the Florida Panthers four times last season, but with no fans in the stands due to Covid restrictions. He knows the Blue Jackets and new coach Bard Larsen well. “They’re a skilled team right now,” Wennberg said Saturday morning. “They have a bunch of new assets that’s going to be really good for them, but it’s the same every night. You’re playing a team that has a lot of skill, a lot of good players, but you just have to play your game and focus on that.”
Columbus Blue Jackets
The Blue Jackets are 1-0-0 after beating a bad Arizona Coyotes team 8-2 in Columbus’ home opener Thursday. That game was an emotional one for the Blue Jackets, who memorialized Matiss Kivlenieks, the Columbus goaltender who passed away in a tragic fireworks accident during a 4th of July party over the summer.
Kivlenieks’ good friend and fellow Latvian, Elvis Merzlikins, looked excellent Thursday and stopped 36 of 38 shots, including a ten-beller on Lawson Crouse. Merzlikins appears poised for a huge season as the No. 1 for the Blue Jackets and will get the nod this evening.
Max Domi was outstanding Thursday as well, notching a goal and two assists, after returning sooner than expected from a shoulder injury. Remember, Domi was exposed to the Kraken in the Expansion Draft in July, but Seattle passed on the 26-year-old center.
As always, don’t sleep on Patrik Laine, who has as good a shot as just about anybody in the league.
Thursday was a night to remember for Seattle Kraken fans, as their beloved new team got the first victory in franchise history against the Nashville Predators in their hostile barn. It was a tale of two games, as Seattle had the better of the play through two periods and absolutely deserved the 3-2 lead that it took to the dressing room prior to the third. But when the third started, a switch had flipped.
Gone was the aggressive Seattle forecheck and present was a team completely in its proverbial turtle shell, just doing everything it could to minimize the danger of the shots Nashville was getting, as the Predators pushed to level the score.
As the old adage goes, a win is a win, and this particular win is huge for many reasons. Here are our three takeaways from the first victory in the history of the Seattle Kraken.
Takeaway #1: Alex Barre-Boulet can play
We really didn’t know what Seattle was getting from Alex Barre-Boulet, claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday. The smallish 24-year-old forward came to Seattle with just 15 games of NHL experience under his belt, but we couldn’t help wondering if the fewness of opportunities was simply a product of the unmatched depth of the Lightning organization.
After all, Barre-Boulet put up huge numbers in the AHL, notching 136 points in 144 games with the Syracuse Crunch over parts of three seasons. AHL success doesn’t always translate to NHL success, though, so we were reserving judgment.
What we saw from ABB on Thursday indicated that the Kraken may have stolen away a very talented young forward. He was fast and aggressive, fitting nicely with Seattle’s systems in the offensive zone, and he quickly seemed to find chemistry with Alex Wennberg and Joonas Donskoi on the second line.
Barre-Boulet also showed off his creativity when he found Wennberg standing wide open on the backdoor for an easy tap-in at 9:54 of the second period.
He ended up with just 9:05 of ice time, but coach Dave Hakstol noted after the game that the team was defending in the third, and he realized that Barre-Boulet probably didn’t have a full grasp of Seattle’s defensive systems yet. So Nathan Bastian got a lot of the time with Donskoi and Wennberg in the final 20 minutes.
The relatively low usage was not a slight on the way Barre-Boulet played. In fact, Hakstol called his game “rock solid” and noted that he had a big impact on the outcome.
Takeaway #2: A change in style and a change in personnel
Through preseason and in these first couple games, the Kraken have quickly developed an identity as a team that is aggressive on the forecheck. They showed this Tuesday in Vegas, and they showed it through the first two periods Thursday in Nashville. That style makes for exciting hockey, but also leaves Seattle susceptible to quick strikes and counters, which the Golden Knights definitely took advantage of in the opening game.
We were curious, though, what would happen when Seattle went into the third period with a lead. Taking chances to create offense in the earlier stages of a game is one thing, but coaches generally don’t like firewagon hockey, especially when their team is ahead late.
What we saw from Seattle in the third period Thursday indicated that there is a different gameplan that will be executed when the Kraken are in position to win.
Lines were shuffled for a more defensive posture (we previously mentioned Bastian replacing Barre-Boulet), and Jamie Oleksiak and Adam Larsson got big minutes. The team collapsed around Philipp Grubauer to keep shots to the outside as much as possible and were hellbent on not overcommitting to take themselves out of position.
Despite the puck hardly leaving Seattle’s zone during the entire third period—and the Kraken not even registering a SINGLE SHOT before Brandon Tanev’s empty-net goal—there weren’t that many prime scoring chances for the Predators. Those shots that did get through were stopped by Grubauer, who looked especially dialed in late.
“At times there’s things we want to do better and a little differently in that period,” Hakstol said after the game. “But at the same time, one thing we didn’t do is we didn’t give up a whole lot. We spent too much time in our own zone. We didn’t have the puck as much as we would like, but sometimes the stress of the moment plays into things.
“There was none of that chaos on our bench. It was very calm, guys were talking, doing the right things, and at the end of the day, we kept things to the outside and got the job done.”
Takeaway #3: Fighting can still impact the outcome of a game
No, we are not referencing this Kraken fan and this Predators fan duking it out in the stands for what we believe to be the first fan fight in franchise history.
On the contrary, we are talking about the pugilism that happened on the ice when Vince Dunn threw a big hit on Colton Sissons deep in the Kraken zone with about five minutes left in the first period.
The hit was squeaky clean, but Yakov Trenin for some reason didn’t like it and challenged Dunn. Comically, Jeremy Lauzon tried to jump in and handle the business on Dunn’s behalf. But Dunn—who also showed in preseason that he can handle himself in these situations—didn’t hesitate. In a flash, his gloves were off and fists were flying. Trenin threw more punches, but headed straight to the dressing room for repairs after, as Dunn skated with gusto straight to the penalty box.
Adding a dash of salt to Trenin’s wounds, he got an extra two minutes for going after Dunn.
From the box, Dunn watched as Seattle took control of the game late in the period and scored the first two power-play goals of the season.
For his physical contribution, captain Mark Giordano named Dunn the player of the game in the dressing room after the win.
The debate about fighting will rage on as long as it exists in hockey, but Thursday night, it had a big role in turning the tides for the Kraken.
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.
It’s cliché to say a team ‘hung on to win,’ but there’s no other way to describe the Seattle Kraken’s victory against the Nashville Predators. It would be the first win in Seattle’s franchise history.
Seattle was in control over the first two periods.
The Kraken owned the puck, building a 3-2 lead, and looked like they were going to sail their way to a win. Things took a turn in favor of the Predators over the final 20 minutes, however, as Nashville controlled everything and outshot the Kraken 13-1. Philipp Grubauer stood tall for Seattle and made great save after great save to turn away the tying bid. The goalie ended the night making 27 saves.
Brandon Tanev would score an empty net goal – for Seattle’s only shot in the period – to preserve a 4-3 victory as Seattle is in the ‘W’ column for the first time.
“I know the guys were really excited to be able to get the first win,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “When it sinks in it’s the first win in franchise history, it’s a big deal for everybody.
Over the first two periods, Seattle held a 25-17 shots on goal advantage, a 5-on-5 shot attempt lead of 31-17, and 58 percent of the scoring chances. In the third period, Nashville held a 21-2 shot attempt lead and produced 11 scoring chances to Seattle’s one.
Grubauer simply was a monster in net and the difference during the third period. He stopped 10 of those scoring chances, only allowing a six-on-five goal to Mikael Granlund with 40 seconds left which added more drama to an already tense finish.
The Kraken weren’t generating offense but defensively collapsed in front of Grubauer and weathered the storm.
“Players on the bench managed it very well,” Hakstol said. “When you’ve got a captain like [Mark] Giordano, he’s calm as can be. We spent too much time in our own zone, we didn’t have the puck as much as we like. Sometimes the stress of the moment plays into things. There was no chaos on our bench. Guys were talking and doing the right things.”
Grubauer’s third period heroics allowed Seattle to get the puck down ice with 1:21 left in the game. Jared McCann raced it down in the corner and quickly sent it to Tanev in front for what ultimately would clinch the win.
It wasn’t easy but it was as memorable as a franchise’s first win can be.
“It’s huge, it’s something we’ll always remember,” McCann said. “We’ve got the [game] puck right now and we’ll do something nice with it.”
Everyone is scoring
For the second straight game, the Kraken got scoring up and down the lineup. Yes, the McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle line was good and McCann scored a power-play goal in the first period to tie the game at one.
But it would be Tanev who scored next when he crashed the net on another power play. He found a rebound in the slot and buried it for his first of the game and the season. The goal gave Seattle its first lead in franchise history.
In the second period, Nashville’s Roman Josi scored on a five-on-three power play to even the game up at 2-2. The Kraken would take the lead later in the period when newcomer Alex Barre-Boulet slid a perfect pass to Alex Wennberg who was all alone at the side of the Nashville net. Wennberg easily scored his first of the season to go along with an assist on the night.
Seattle will be a stronger offensive team if it can get scoring up and down the lineup, and for the second game, it got two or more goals from players not on the top line.
Welcome to the Kraken, Barre-Boulet
The Kraken picked up Barre-Boulet off of waivers Monday afternoon from the Tampa Bay Lightning.
At 24 years old, Barre-Boulet had appeared in 15 NHL games prior to Tuesday. He’s posted 34- and 27-goal campaigns in the AHL and has some skill. He arrived to the Kraken with barely enough time to learn some names and faces, but you wouldn’t have known by his play.
He was on a line with Wennberg and Joonas Donskoi, and they came up with the go-ahead goal.
“He made a key play in the game,” Hakstol said. “That was a hell of a play to find Wennberg on the back door. I thought he was rock solid.”
By the numbers
Seattle was a perfect 2-for-2 on the power-play Tuesday which is remarkable considering how little time they’ve had together as a group. So far, they’ve kept the formula simple. Get traffic and get pucks to the net.
Morgan Geekie led the Kraken with four shots on goal in just over 19 minutes of ice time. His line, with Tanev and Ryan Donato, didn’t produce goals, but despite the one-sided third period ended the night with 64 percent of five-on-five shot attempts while they were on the ice.
McCann added an assist Thursday and has scored in both games Seattle has played.
The Kraken continue their road trip with a matchup Saturday with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Seattle Kraken at Nashville Predators 5 p.m. Pacific time Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee TV: ROOT Sports Radio: 950 AM KJR
Thursday night’s game shall live on in the minds of Kraken fans everywhere as the first glimpse they got of Alex Barre-Boulet… maybe. Those fans are also hoping for a more favorable outcome in Game 2 than they saw in Game 1, when the Kraken battled back from 3-0 down to level the score with the Vegas Golden Knights, only to concede a questionable game-winning goal just seconds later.
Barre-Boulet, claimed on waivers earlier in the week from the Tampa Bay Lightning, is slotting in for Marcus Johansson who is out indefinitely with a lower body injury. Apparently the Johansson injury happened in the Vegas game, but it’s hard to say when it happened as he played the whole game. It’s also a tough blow for Seattle, because the second line with Johansson, Alex Wennberg, and Joonas Donskoi really did look good Tuesday.
What the Kraken have in 24-year-old Barre-Boulet remains to be seen, but the undrafted forward has three goals in 15 career NHL games and has posted outstanding numbers in the AHL.
Nashville Predators
Tonight is the first game for the Nashville Predators, so you know the atmosphere at Bridgestone Arena will be pretty intense, much like Seattle saw in Vegas. There wasn’t a ton of turnover in Nashville’s roster over the offseason, but the Preds did trade away Viktor Arvidsson and Pekka Rinne retired.
Pregame video
Projected lineup
Since coach Dave Hakstol indicated in his availability today that Barre-Boulet would “take [Johansson’s] spot,” we are assuming that means his spot on the line with Wennberg and Donskoi. The top line was excellent in Vegas, and Morgan Geekie and Ryan Donato both scored, so we don’t envision the other lines getting shuffled. Here’s what we’re projecting.
UPDATE: Carson Soucy is replacing Haydn Fleury in the lineup. Fleury had a couple glaring mistakesagainstVegas, but we also expect the blue line to be a bit fluid for a while, at least until Seattle really knows what it has.
There are no moral victories in the NHL, but… One could argue that there were some moral victories for the Seattle Kraken in their first-ever game Tuesday, a 4-3 loss at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights.
We at Sound Of Hockey came into the game cautiously optimistic, especially when we learned that Marcus Johansson, Jamie Oleksiak, Jared McCann, and Joonas Donskoi had remarkably cleared Covid protocol and arrived in Vegas in time for the game. But the cynical side of SOH was also bracing for a crushing defeat, because frankly, Vegas is good. Seattle could end up being good as well based on the small sample of exhibition hockey we had seen, but a successful preseason does not a regular season make.
So, like we said, we were bracing.
We braced even harder when the Kraken found themselves down 2-0 just 6:36 into the first period and then down 3-0 before the midway point in the second. To Seattle’s credit, it battled back, and in the end lost by one very questionable goal.
“I saw what I saw,” said coach Dave Hakstol of Chandler Stephenson’s game-winning goal, and what he saw was a distinct kicking motion propelling the puck past Philipp Grubauer.
Losing on a goal that probably shouldn’t have counted after the Kraken battled back from being down three is a real… kick… in… the… tentacles.
Takeaway #1: Better starts needed for Seattle
We saw this a couple times in the preseason as well, where the Kraken come out making sloppy plays with the puck and quickly find themselves in a deficit. That is exactly what happened on Tuesday, after an immediate 30-second buzz from McCann’s line that led to a power play.
Once that game-opening penalty ended, the Kraken were getting decent zone time and some pucks through to Robin Lehner, but it was Vegas that got higher quality chances in the first 20 minutes and went to the dressing room with a two-goal cushion.
We try to avoid making excuses, but Seattle did have a frenzied 36 hours leading up to Tuesday’s contest and was playing the first game in franchise history in one of the most hostile buildings in the NHL on opening night.
So if ever we were to make an excuse for a slow start, this might be the opportunity to do so. There was a lot happening off the ice for Seattle before this one.
Captain Mark Giordano said before the game that the team wasn’t looking for excuses, though, so let’s stick with that line of thinking. No excuses. Seattle needs better first periods moving forward.
Takeaway #2: Morgan Geekie can shoot the puck, allegedly celebrate
A wise man once said, “You can’t out-pizza the hut.” That wise man was Morgan Geekie in a press conference while he was still with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Geekie’s theory looked to be holding true 12 minutes into the third period Tuesday when he took a pass in the neutral zone and skated up the right side. He looked for a teammate to pass to, but learned he was all alone on what would surely turn out to be a nothing play, right?
Recognizing he was all alone with nowhere to go, the 23-year-old center loaded up and fired his heat-seeking missile of a snapshot from the top of the right circle. Vegas netminder Robin Lehner looked caught off guard by how quickly the puck got to him. It beat him cleanly over the glove, hit under the crossbar and went straight down to level the score at 3-3.
We didn’t see the celebration (we were tweeting in all caps), and ESPN did not capture it on the broadcast. SinBin.Vegas did see it, and said it was akin to the stick twirl and sword sheathing that Geekie did when he scored against Vancouver in Seattle’s first preseason game.
The Vegas bench noticed the celebration and apparently didn’t love it. With renewed vigor, the Golden Knights retook the lead 35 seconds later.
Hakstol responded Wednesday.
Dave Hakstol on how Vegas reacted to Geekie’s goal celebration: “I know Morgan really well and that’s not his personality… I looked at it on tape just to try to confirm or see it, and there's really nothing there. There’s certainly no intention, there never would be.”
So in a way, it turns out you can out-pizza the hut after all.
Takeaway #3: Control what you can and give nothing back
The “give nothing back” portion of this takeaway title is superfluous, but there was a very Pirates of the Caribbean flavor to a lot of the Vegas game presentation Tuesday, and we wanted this one to sound as plunderous as possible.
The “control what you can” chunk refers to the fact that the Kraken may have gotten hosed (depending on your bias) by NHL officiating for the first time in franchise history, a true milestone in the journey.
One thing newer hockey fans will learn as we go is that the sport is inherently chaotic. Some nights the puck will bounce your way, and some nights it will not. Similarly, calls will sometimes go your way, but usually they will not.
All you can do is work to be the better team every night, and when you do that, you will win more often than you lose, chaos be damned. Seattle showed tenacity by climbing out of a 3-0 crater, but Vegas had the better of the chances in a sloppy first period for the Kraken and dominated the beginning of the second.
Even with that tenacity, every bounce and every call had to go Seattle’s way in the second half of the game for the Kraken to come out on top. That surprisingly almost happened, but chaos ultimately reigned supreme.
Control more of the game and limit the impact of the chaos, because the chaos will be be ever-present.
Bonus Takeaway: What a night
I’m switching to first-person mode here, because I need to tell you about my own experience from Tuesday’s game.
I will never forget it.
I will never forget being on the plaza outside T-Mobile Arena before the game, surrounded by hundreds of partying Kraken fans, as Seattle’s players and coaches slowly trickled by en route to the arena. Seeing them react with surprise and appreciation as the revelers called out their names and urged them on was special to witness.
Inside the building, 18,000 jaws hit the floor when a three-dimensional Kraken rose out of the ice and was eventually burned back to the depths by a heroic knight in a show that locals called the best production ever by a franchise known for its over-the-top theatrics.
The gameplay was riveting. The atmosphere was intense. The night was unforgettable. Now imagine if Seattle would have completed the comeback.
That’s Game 1 out of 82 (and hopefully way more). Welcome to the NHL, folks.
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.
