There is a line in The Dark Knight, where the Joker, played by Heath Ledger, holds up a gloved hand and in a very staccato rhythm, says, “And here… we… go.” Ledger delivers the memorable line just as chaos is about to strike Gotham City. That cinematic moment is the perfect representation of how Wednesday’s Seattle Kraken morning skate felt at Climate Pledge Arena, as the team prepared to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
After weeks of discussion about who could be traded out of Seattle prior to the March 21 NHL Trade Deadline, the Kraken took a page out of the Joker’s book and threw some gasoline on the speculation fire and will hold captain Mark Giordano out of the lineup for their game against the Lightning.
Is a Giordano trade imminent?
It’s no surprise that the 38-year-old former Norris Trophy winner could eventually be traded. With his expiring contract, Giordano is the Kraken player that has been most heavily cycled through the NHL rumor mill all season. Still, it felt like a real bombshell had gone off when coach Dave Hakstol confirmed Giordano would not play on a night when he was also set to be honored for recently playing in his 1,000th career game. We have since confirmed that the ceremony will go on as planned.
Historically, these kinds of moves to hold veteran players out of the lineup tend to happen only when a trade is imminent. So, one can only surmise from this decision that a deal to move Giordano is either in place or very close to being done. It is our belief here at Sound Of Hockey that Giordano has played his last game as a member of the Kraken, but we shall see if that comes to fruition.
An interesting morning
It’s funny to look back at Wednesday’s on-ice practice session and think about how a couple things played out. First, we thought it was interesting that Giordano was skating on a defensive pair with the oft-scratched Will Borgen, but we didn’t think much of it. We also thought it was a funny little moment when former Lightning Yanni Gourde tried to get Giordano to lead the team stretch at the end of the skate. But we again shrugged it off, especially since the Kraken are set to honor Giordano with a ceremony commemorating his 1,000th game on Wednesday night.
Ryan Donato was asked about Giordano, and he called the captain, “The epitome of what you want to be as a 1,000-game player.” Donato also said the trade deadline is unsurprisingly on players’ minds right now. “I think it’s a pretty sensitive subject, right? Like some guys are in certain positions. And you got to understand it’s a business and there’s a lot of different aspects of it. Guys have families here, there’s different things that are emotionally attached to it… It is hard not to think about it.”
On how to keep the players focused on the task at hand, Hakstol said, “There’s no easy way, I mean that’s real stuff. You’re dealing with real life. For Gio, it’s a real important night for him and his family, the celebration that we’re going to have before the game. From the standpoint of the reality of the business side of the game, there’s that conflict there. Those are real-life items.”
In retrospect, there was probably a little more to the on-ice moment between Gourde and Giordano than we realized. Depending on what happens in the next 24 hours or so, that could have been the last time Giordano skated with his Kraken teammates.
Jaden Schwartz not at morning skate
Jaden Schwartz did not participate in morning skate. SOH’s own Andy Eide asked Hakstol why he wasn’t there, and Hakstol simply said, “He wasn’t out there this morning.” So, as of the writing of this story, it is unclear if Schwartz’s absence means anything of significance.
Our guess is that it does not mean much. Joonas Donskoi, who is still officially listed on injured reserve, was a full participant in morning skate and took regular line rushes with Calle Jarnkrok and Jordan Eberle. However, Hakstol confirmed that Donskoi is still unavailable for the Kraken against the Lightning, so it would make sense that he was just serving as a placeholder on the top trio for Schwartz.
The non-explanation from Hakstol was a bit odd, but we caution you against reading too much into Schwartz’s absence.
The return of Jaden Schwartz and leading scorer Jared McCann to the lineup Saturday didn’t make a difference, and the Seattle Kraken offense was stymied by the Washington Capitals during a 5-2 loss at Capital One Arena.
Washington scored twice on the power play while the Kraken were 0-for-3 and that’s what separated the two clubs.
“I thought 5-on-5, we did a lot of good things,” Schwartz said. “I think we controlled the play for the most part. Special teams? I think they might have been 2-for-2 or 2-for-3 on the power play and we were 0-for-3. So, that’s pretty much the difference in the game.”
Alex Ovechkin scored the dagger on the power play, 47 seconds into the third period when he found the net from his familiar spot in the left face-off circle to make the score 4-2. His one-timer was his 34th goal of the season and 764th of his illustrious career.
“He’s obviously one of the, if not the, biggest threats out there,” Joonas Donskoi said. “You always try to make plans, try and take him away but It’s not easy. And unfortunately, he was able to score one again today. So, it’s not an easy job, but I think there was a lot of things we could have done better.”
Conor Sheary scored an empty-netter at 17:50 for the 5-2 final.
Ovechkin added two assists on the night, Sheary had two goals, and Tom Wilson had a goal and an assist for the Capitals (30-18-9), who won for the first time against the Kraken. Vitek Vanecek turned away 29 shots.
Colin Blackwell and Joonas Donskoi scored for the Kraken (17-35-5), who celebrated game 1000 for defenseman Mark Giordano. Chris Driedger made his second start in a row and made 20 saves.
“I really liked our work ethic throughout the entire 60 minutes,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “I don’t think we gave up 30 shot attempts at even strength tonight. So defensively, we played really hard… defensively we worked hard in terms of our play with the puck. We generated enough offensive zone time for sure. You don’t win a game because of offensive zone time but we had some opportunities out of that as well.”
It was a frustrating night for the Seattle offense which dominated the play at 5-on-5 by taking 62.5 percent of the unblocked shot attempts for the night. When it came to quality scoring chances at even strength, the Kraken excelled and had 55 percent of all shot quality.
“I thought five on five we did a lot of good things,” Schwartz said. “I think we controlled the play for the most part.”
Coming off a game where they scored four goals, three at even strength, the Kraken played well enough to score more, but once again, struggled to top the two-goal mark. Seattle is 27th in the NHL in goals scored averaging 2.55 per game.
At least for one night, the return of Schwartz, who logged 18:12 of ice time and led the Kraken with six shots on goal, did not lead to more scoring.
“My legs felt pretty good for being out so long,” Schwartz said. “Near the end of the shift, you could tell that you don’t have this the same jump after 30-35 seconds, so try keeping them short. But overall, the timing and everything was pretty good. I tried not to think about it.”
Schwartz didn’t land on the scoresheet, but he did create offensive opportunities, and the Kraken will hope that leads to more goals the rest of the season.
“I thought he was all over the puck,” Hakstol said. “I think we’ll look back at this on tape and find him around a lot of scoring chances. Somewhere affecting the play to create scoring chances. For his first night back and going on what has got to be close to 10 weeks, I thought his performance was really good.”
How the scoring played out
Wilson opened the scoring at 11:30 of the first period to make it 1-0 after he crashed the net, scooped up a loose puck and scored on a backhanded shot.
Washington doubled the lead, 2-0, 34 seconds later at 12:04 when Dmitry Orlov one-timed a pass from Nic Dowd from the top of the face-off circle.
Joonas Donskoi cut the lead to 2-1 at 16:56 with his second of the season. Riley Sheahan had a backhand chance that was stopped by Vanecek, but the rebound was free and Donskoi buried it for his first goal in 11 games.
Colin Blackwell continued his hot play with a goal to tie the game 2-2 at 58 seconds of the second period. He intercepted a Capitals pass at the Seattle blue line and turned up ice with Yanni Gourde, but Blackwell held it, fumbled it briefly, got it back, and scored on a wrist shot.
“Wasn’t worried about it going downhill and this group hasn’t gone downhill,” Hakstol said. “They haven’t gone away. I liked the response. I really liked our work ethic throughout the entire 60 minutes.”
Washington snatched the lead back, 3-2 on a Sheary power-play goal at 11:48 when he was able to knock in a bouncing puck on a rebound off Driedger.
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and the Seattle Kraken are feeling good. That’s because they finally snapped their seven-game losing streak on Wednesday against the Predators, Jared McCann and Jaden Schwartz are likely to return to the lineup, and Kraken captain Mark Giordano will skate in career game No. 1,000 when Seattle visits the Washington Capitals on Saturday.
A milestone for Mark Giordano
We’ve recently been joking on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast about how the hockey world celebrates players for hitting “round number” milestones, even though we may not necessarily understand the significance. Is 300 goals really that good? What about 500? Why don’t we celebrate No. 501 instead? It all feels somewhat arbitrary, when you think about it.
Jokes aside, we do understand the significance of 1,000 games. Yes, it too is simply a round number, but the longevity required to reach that number is something that all players strive for and only a select few achieve.
“It means a lot,” Giordano said at morning skate. “It was an up-and-down journey for me to get into this league, but I feel like I put a lot of hard work and a lot of years in, and [it’s] definitely a milestone that I’ve been looking forward to and feel a huge sense of accomplishment.”
The early portions of Giordano’s NHL path were winding. After going undrafted, Giordano was set to attend York University, but received an invitation to Calgary Flames’ prospect camp and earned an AHL contract in 2004. He got called up to the Flames for the first time in January 2006 but couldn’t come to an agreement with Calgary for a one-way contract after that season. A two-way deal would have made it more likely that he would get sent back to the AHL, which he did not want. So Giordano bet on himself in a big way and signed with HC Dynamo Moscow in Russia. He then came back to Calgary for the 2008-09 season.
In all, he played parts of 15 seasons with the Flames before being selected by the Kraken in Seattle’s Expansion Draft. The former Norris Trophy winner has 149 career goals and 383 assists. The captain has served as a great role model for the Kraken’s younger players and has been the perfect ambassador to help shepherd Seattle into the NHL.
“It’s well known that I sort of came into my own a little later than the average guy, so I still feel like I do have game left, and I still can contribute in a positive way,” Giordano said. “I still have a really good passion, and I feel like I still love hockey. I love watching hockey, I love playing, so I have no intention of not playing in the near future.”
“Playing No. 1000 today, he’s just the absolute model of character, of competitiveness,” coach Dave Hakstol said of the team’s captain. “He shows leadership in everything that he does, so for him and for our team and for his family, this should be a pretty special day.”
A ceremony to honor Giordano is expected to be held at Seattle’s next home game on March 16. Here’s hoping he doesn’t get traded before then.
Schwartz and McCann returning (we think?)
Hakstol implied there were still lineup decisions to make, but he projects Schwartz and McCann will be available Saturday.
McCann’s absence hasn’t been terribly long, as he has only missed three games with an upper-body injury, but any time your top scorer goes on the shelf for any stretch, it is impossible to replace him in the lineup. So, his return will be a welcome one.
This also feels like a great time to remind you that we spoke with McCann on the latest SOH Podcast, and it was a fantastic interview, so give it a listen if you haven’t already.
Schwartz back in a Kraken jersey will be a sight for sore eyes. The veteran forward has missed a whopping 25 games with a hand injury sustained on Dec. 29 against Philadelphia. It happened on an innocuous-looking play, but Schwartz got up grimacing, and news came out a few days later that he had undergone surgery.
Before going on injured reserve, Schwartz was a staple on an effective top line with McCann and Jordan Eberle and was the bumper on Seattle’s top power-play unit. He had six goals and 14 assists in 29 games.
The first time these teams played each other on Nov. 21 was one of the most memorable nights of the inaugural season at Climate Pledge Arena. Facing a star-studded Capitals lineup, the Kraken played phenomenal team defense, got a goal and three assists by Schwartz and a power-play goal by McCann, and Philipp Grubauer made 37 saves to help snap a six-game losing streak.
On Saturday, Seattle will again face netminder Vitek Vanecek, who was selected by the Kraken in the Expansion Draft and then traded back to Washington. Vanecek is having a good season with a 11-7-5 record, 2.26 goals against average, and .920 save percentage.
Chris Driedger will get his second consecutive start for the Kraken. Driedger didn’t have his best outing of the season on Wednesday, stopping 19 of 22 shots, but he played well enough to get the win. So, Hakstol is rewarding him with another nod tonight in our nation’s capital.
The Capitals as a whole are solidly in a playoff spot with 67 standings points. Alex Ovechkin, who has been in the news lately after facing questions about his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is having yet another insane season. Ovechkin has 33 goals and 32 assists, and he did score one of Washington’s two goals against Seattle in November.
We just had a feeling this was coming. Every long losing streak has a “bottoming out” moment, where the team plays so badly, you start to think it might never win again. But it gets past that moment, then takes little steps toward the win column. We thought the bottoming out on this seven-game streak happened in the first 20 minutes of the Kraken’s game against the Islanders last Tuesday. They played much better in the second half of that game, then had two good performances against Boston and San Jose but didn’t get results. If they could just score a few goals, we thought Seattle was bound to get a win soon. Lo and behold, the Kraken knocked off the Predators 4-3 on Kraken Day.
Here are our Three Takeaways from Seattle’s first home win since Jan. 23.
Takeaway #1: …And then the floodgates opened
For the majority of this painful streak, the Kraken had that “can’t buy a goal” look to their game. They scored two or fewer goals in every contest but one, and that night, they fell 5-3 to the Winnipeg Jets.
On Wednesday, the team was playing decently through the first 26 minutes but again found itself trailing by two and staring right down the barrel of a potential eighth consecutive loss. But 29 seconds after Matt Duchene had extended Nashville’s lead, Alex Wennberg scored a nice goal off an even nicer Marcus Johansson pass, and suddenly the floodgates were open.
The Kraken notched three goals in the course of just three minutes, and Climate Pledge Arena got back that electric feel that has been so noticeably absent for the past month.
“It’s a great feeling, obviously,” said Wennberg. “It’s great too, it’s three different lines that go in and score, so I feel like that’s good for the team as well that you have everyone chipping in, doing their part.”
After the third unanswered goal, Seattle had all the momentum in the world. Nashville coach John Hynes astutely called a timeout, which worked wonders to settle things down. His team actually took back the momentum after Duchene scored his second of the period to tie the game at 14:36, but for the first time since the start of its seven-game losing streak, Seattle had more than three goals up its sleeve on this night.
Takeaway #2: Yanni Gourde and Colin Blackwell were the heroes
Coach Dave Hakstol has done plenty of line juggling this season for the Kraken, but one trio that seems to keep coming back together over the last few weeks has been Gourde, Blackwell, and Mason Appleton. The three feed off each other nicely, and Gourde and Blackwell played huge roles for the Kraken in defeating the Predators.
Blackwell passed to Gourde to contribute to the three-goal barrage in the second period, and Gourde then returned the favor in the third to set up the game-winning goal while Seattle was shorthanded.
We saw a massive celebration from Blackwell, after he was initially robbed by Juuse Saros but continued whacking away at the puck until it finally snuck over the line.
“That one felt good,” Blackwell said. “A team that I used to play for, those ones always feel good, like they may have given up on you or something along those lines, so scoring against them, and it was a big goal, a shorthanded goal, late in the period. That one definitely sticks out for this year and felt really good.”
That trio seems to enjoy playing together, and Hakstol seems to trust them together.
“Gourdo and Apps, I got nothing but good things to say about them,” Blackwell said of his linemates. “They’re really straight-line, hard-working players, and I thought we’ve had some pretty good chemistry together… The three of us complement each other pretty well.”
Added Hakstol: “With some of the injuries that we’ve had, that was a combination we went back to. They grind and they’ve taken on some of the heavy minutes in terms of playing against other teams’ top lines… They’ve done a good job of working hard together so as we go forward, certainly it’s a combination that we’ll consider holding and keeping together.”
Takeaway #3: Kole Lind has entered the chat
Kole Lind has played just a handful of games with the big club this season and still has just 12 career NHL games under his belt. In six previous appearances with the Kraken, we didn’t find the 23-year-old winger to be particularly noticeable, but on Wednesday, he was everywhere.
He led the Kraken in shots on goal with five and had the second assist on the Wennberg goal, giving him just his second NHL point of the season and in his career.
“Lindy, he’s been in our lineup before, but coming back and getting an opportunity tonight on the right side with [Wennberg], those guys did a nice job,” Hakstol said. “Lindy was a good part of that. His puck management was good, I thought he was strong on the puck, was in good spots to support a lot of plays getting up ice and getting into the zone. He had a couple decent opportunities and might have missed the net on his best opportunity in the third period.”
For a team that is so thin on NHL prospects, it is good to see a flash of what the former second-round draft pick can bring in the future.
He also continues to kiss his netminder after victories, and we are big fans of this practice.
Bonus Takeaway: A memorable night off the ice at Climate Pledge Arena
Before the game, the public address announcer at Climate Pledge Arena stated that the Kraken condemn the aggressive actions that Russia has taken over the past week. The Ukrainian flag was projected onto the ice, and singer Roman Vashchuk was welcomed to perform a stirring rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem.
Vashchuk got a massive cheer after, as the crowd showed its support for the people of Ukraine.
“I thought that was definitely a very emotional way to start the game,” Blackwell said. “With everything going on, I think sometimes as hockey players we can be in a little bit of a bubble and not realize how good we have it. You know, there’s players that we play with from different countries that might not necessarily be as lucky as us, so to have that and have Ukrainian citizens be in our community, I think it means a lot for the city of Seattle to show that much emotion and stand with them tonight.”
That was another one of those moments in this inaugural season that got the goosebumps going, and one we won’t soon forget.
As if that wasn’t enough, one of our founders, John Barr, was recognized as a Starbucks Community Star for his work in helping to bring the NHL to Seattle. Knowing John, this acknowledgement was an enormous honor for him, and we are so appreciative of the Kraken for including him in the Kraken Day celebration.
Is Wednesday the night that the Seattle Kraken collectively get off the schneid and finally get back in the win column? It feels like it’s been a loooooooooong time since we’ve seen the Kraken celebrating on the ice at Climate Pledge Arena, and that’s because… well… it has. It has actually been more than a month since the last home win. Yes, not only is Seattle on a seven-game losing streak, but the team has not had a victory on home ice since it beat the Florida Panthers way back on Jan. 23.
That’s a long time. It’s also the last chance for the Kraken to get a win on home ice before they go on a two-week road trip, so an already long home winless stretch could become much longer.
The good news for the Kraken is that they’re facing a team in Nashville that has been up and down of late, going 4-5-1 in its last 10 games. The Kraken have also looked much better in their last two and a half games, so here’s hoping they can put it all together for their fans on Kraken Day.
A weird day for the Kraken
Kraken Day got off to a very strange start for Seattle. Just before morning skate was scheduled to begin, team representatives notified media that the skate had been canceled and availability had been moved from in-person to Zoom.
We at Sound Of Hockey assumed the worst, but the news wasn’t as bad as it initially seemed, at least in terms of player availability. Coach Dave Hakstol indicated that the cancellation was only a matter of “readiness,” noting that the team has been on the ice a lot lately. The added precautions were the result of a “concern” with one of the members of the Kraken’s traveling party, as the team prepares for its long east coast swing.
Hakstol also stated there is no change in availability from Tuesday’s practice. Based on what he said and what we saw at that practice, we are expecting Kole Lind to draw in for Austin Czarnik, while Chris Driedger is expected to start in net for the Kraken.
Projected lineup
On Tuesday, Morgan Geekie was elevated to the first line with Calle Jarnkrok and Jordan Eberle. Geekie scored in Sunday’s 3-1 loss in San Jose, his first goal since Dec. 11, and has generally played very well of late.
The latest
Before the game, Ukrainian singer, Roman Vashchuk, sang the Ukrainian national anthem, and the PA announcer said the Kraken denounce the recent actions of Russia.
The Kraken had a couple decent looks in the first period, including a great opportunity for Alexander Wennberg, which Juuse Saros denied with a diving glove save.
The Predators’ fourth line broke a scoreless tie at 13:13. Off a Roman Josi forecheck, Michael McCarron got the puck behind the net and passed it into the crease. Driedger got a piece of the pass, but then seemed to lose track of it a split second. Philip Tomasino was there and banged it through to make it 1-0.
With Yanni Gourde in the box for the game’s first penalty, the Predators made an elite play through the neutral zone. Ryan Johansen got to the Kraken blue line and didn’t like what he saw, so he bumped it back to Josi. Josi found Matt Duchene streaking across the blue line, and sent him in on a partial breakaway. Duchene buried it with a beautiful shot to make it 2-0.
The Kraken answered just 29 seconds later, though, and once they broke through, the floodgates opened. First, it was Wennberg getting revenge for the earlier robbery. Off a two-on-one, Marcus Johansson made a great pass around a sprawling Matt Benning, and Wennberg fired it home to bring Seattle within one.
NHL Video Highlight – Alexander Wennberg scores against the Nashville Predators to make it 2-1. pic.twitter.com/U0cRQKdoyd
— Seattle Kraken Gamebot (@KrakenGameBot) March 3, 2022
A minute and a half after that, the Kraken got some extended zone time. Jordan Eberle found himself with the puck to the right of Saros. He passed to Calle Jarnkrok, who was being dragged down in the slot. While falling, Jarnkrok still got enough mustard on the shot to beat Saros and tie the game at 2-2.
NHL Video Highlight – Calle Jarnkrok scores against the Nashville Predators to make it 2-2. pic.twitter.com/vJP8dUSFcw
— Seattle Kraken Gamebot (@KrakenGameBot) March 3, 2022
The momentum continued to swing in Seattle’s favor, as they took their first lead at 10:02. Off a three-on-two, Colin Blackwell passed to Gourde, who scored his 12th of the season.
The Predators immediately took a timeout, which effectively stopped the bleeding for them. With things calmed down, they tied it at 3-3 at 14:36. Eli Tolvanen deflected a shot wide, but it hit the endboards and caromed back out in front. Driedger thought Tolvanen was going to shoot the rebound, so he slid back to cut that off. But Tolvanen whiffed, and it instead went right onto the stick of Duchene, who had a wide-open net for his second goal of the game.
The Kraken regained the lead at 3:19 of the third period with a shorthanded goal. Off a dump in, Gourde won a puck battle with Filip Forsberg below the goal line. He got it out to Blackwell in front, who was initially denied by Saros. But Blackwell kept whacking away until the puck finally snuck over the line. The greasy goal made it 4-3.
We really thought Sunday would be the night Seattle would snap its six-game skid. The Kraken did come out flying and largely dominated the Sharks in the opening frame, outshooting them 19-4 and taking an early 1.25 to .37 lead in expected goals for. Yet, San Jose hung in there and somehow got the first goal, then went to the dressing room with a 1-1 tie.
A disallowed Kraken goal turned the tide in the second, James Reimer played great throughout, and the Sharks got enough opportunistic scoring to extend Seattle’s current streak of misery to seven games.
Here are our Three Takeaways.
Takeaway #1: Video reviews are not a strength for the Kraken
Remember game 1 in franchise history in Vegas? The winning goal that night came off the skate of Chandler Stephenson on a play that many Kraken fans and Kraken coach Dave Hakstol thought should not have counted. Well, that play set the tone for how things would go for this team in video reviews throughout this inaugural season, and Seattle’s lack of success in this area was especially prevalent on Sunday.
The Kraken appeared to take a 2-1 lead four minutes into the second period, when Calle Jarnkrok fired home what would have been his 11th “Calle Tally” (that nomenclature is courtesy of John Forslund) of the season. Replay showed that Marcus Johansson had made contact with Reimer at the top of the crease, but it definitely seemed like he had been forced in by Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Calle Jarnkrok puts a second puck in the net for #SeaKraken but the Sharks are challenging for goaltender interference pic.twitter.com/GY5g0cA3m2
Sharks coach Bob Boughner challenged, and predictably—because that’s just how things have gone for the Kraken with video reviews—the call on the ice was overturned. So, back to 1-1 we went, and the decision clearly took some wind out of Seattle’s sails.
“I think if you reverse the situation, I think they would have called it a goal on us,” Philipp Grubauer said with a smirk after the game.
Then late in the contest, Jonah Gadjovich got in Grubauer’s grill. A Brent Burns shot got tipped by friend of the pod, Jasper Weatherby, then pinballed off Grubauer and off Gadjovich’s skate, and finally slid into the net for Gadjovich’s first career NHL goal. Hakstol challenged that play for goalie interference, and there was also a league-initiated review for a potential kick in, but neither was enough to overturn the goal.
“3-1 with five minutes to go, they were in the crease,” Hakstol said of his decision to challenge Gadjovich’s goal. “To be honest, probably a 50-50 call from what I saw.” He added that he was looking more at the contact on the initial shot, rather than the rebound that actually got put into the net.
The decision to challenge was a desperation call that was made because the goal gave San Jose a two-score lead at 14:37 of the third period. The failed challenge was probably the nail in Seattle’s coffin, though, because it also gave the Kraken a late delay-of-game penalty.
We thought there was more of a chance for the kick to be the reason San Jose’s late insurance goal could get disallowed, but the NHL’s situation room did not see enough of a distinct kicking motion to change the call on the ice. We’ve also seen that movie before.
In retrospect, both goals probably should have counted, which simple math tells us would still have resulted in a 3-2 Sharks win. You never know about the butterfly effect if Jarnkrok’s goal had stood, though, as a 2-1 lead for the Kraken could have led to a different outcome.
By the way, Gadjovich and Scott Reedy both scored their first career NHL goals on Sunday, while Dzingel got his first as a Shark. So that’s neat.
Takeaway #2: Geekie gets the monkey off his back
Morgan Geekie can regularly be found by himself on the ice for 30 or 40 minutes after Kraken practices working on his individual skills. One of the areas he’s been focused on lately is lifting pucks into the top of the net from in close.
On Sunday, Geekie scored a carbon-copy goal of what we’ve seen him practicing in those extended sessions, hoisting a backhander over the outstretched pad of Reimer to tie the score at 1-1.
1-1
Nine seconds later, Geekie with the response goal.
Even though the Kraken lost, Geekie scoring is significant. It’s been a tough season for the young winger offensively, and he hadn’t registered a goal since Dec. 11.
“It definitely weighs on you, for sure,” Geekie said of the long drought. “I’ve had a lot of chances, so I try to take that for what it’s worth, and when those stop coming, I think that’s the real issue.”
Though he’s still just 23 years old, we hoped the offensively gifted forward would find the back of the net often and command a role closer to the top of Seattle’s lineup this season. That hasn’t happened, and the marker against San Jose was just Geekie’s third as a Kraken.
He has been noticeable for several games in a row, though, so we weren’t surprised to see him get the monkey off his back.
And you know who else was not surprised to see it? Morgan’s brother, Noah. “I do have to give credit to my brother,” Morgan said. “He did say that I was going to score tonight, so we’ll give that one to him… We’ll half it.”
We are very much rooting for Geekie to have a long, successful run with the Kraken. Here’s hoping that the goal in San Jose opens the floodgates for him.
Takeaway #3: Seattle is playing well, but still lacks the firepower needed to win
The main reason we thought Seattle was going to come out on top against the Sharks is that the group had put forth a good 60-plus-minute effort against the Bruins on Thursday, only to fall 3-2 in overtime. That performance had carried over from the second half of the game against the Islanders on Tuesday, so we thought things were trending in the right direction.
We were mostly right, except for the part about Seattle actually getting a result.
The Kraken came out flying against the Sharks, who initially looked like a tired team on the second of back-to-back games. But Reimer kept Seattle off the board long enough to allow Dzingel to find an opportunistic goal at the other end. Geekie’s goal came just nine seconds after Dzingel’s, but still, a 1-1 tie after such a lopsided opening frame had to give hope to a San Jose team that frankly should have been trailing by a couple goals after 20 minutes.
“We did everything other than come out of the first period with a lead,” Hakstol said. “That’s the way we wanted to start the hockey game.”
Added Geekie, “I think we forechecked hard, had a lot of pressure in the first period. I think that’s something that we just need to kind of sustain for 60 minutes, and I think if we can do that we’ll have some more success.”
Without taking anything away from Reimer, the lack of scoring is nothing new for Seattle, which has averaged just 1.86 goals per game on this seven-game losing streak. The latest loss was also another stark reminder that the Kraken simply do not have the offensive firepower needed to win on a regular basis, and that important missing element is especially obvious with Jaden Schwartz and Jared McCann simultaneously on injured reserve.
