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.
Seattle Kraken versus New York Rangers 6 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington TV: ROOT Sports, NHL Network Radio: 950 AM KJR
The Seattle Kraken go from one spooky test Thursday to an even spookier one Sunday and Monday, as they enter back-to-back games with travel against the New York Rangers and the Edmonton Oilers. They did pass the last test with flying colors, defeating the Minnesota Wild 4-1. Seattle also gets to enjoy Sunday’s contest at the friendly confines of Climate Pledge Arena before hustling off to Edmonton, but New York is riding high, so Seattle will again need its ‘A’ game.
On the back-to-backs, coach Dave Hakstol says, “Stay in the moment. Right now we’ve got a game against the Rangers. We’ll turn the page later tonight and worry about game No. 2. Right now the focus is purely on the job at hand, and that’s the New York Rangers here at home tonight. That’s our approach.”
Since the win against Minnesota, Mason Appleton has officially been placed on injured reserve, and Max McCormick was recalled to take his spot. Hakstol said Appleton is out “indefinitely.” We wouldn’t expect McCormick to get into the lineup, especially with the Kraken coming off of two-straight wins, but he is present and accounted for should something else happen.
As for other injuries, it seems Chris Driedger is getting closer to a return, but he did sit out one of the small-area drills Saturday. We still think he’s out for at least a few more days, and Hakstol confirmed Grubauer will start against the Rangers. We’re guessing this means Joey Daccord likely gets one more start against Edmonton Monday before being returned to Charlotte.
Marcus Johansson and Colin Blackwell both skated on Saturday and Sunday, but Blackwell does not appear close to returning and has not yet fully participated. Johansson looks a little closer but is still listed on IR.
Kraken coming together
The vibe at practice on Saturday was notably looser from the players than in training camp, when it felt like everyone was trying to feel things out. Winning can do that, of course, but it does seem like the camaraderie is improving amongst the group. Chemistry has improved on the ice as well, as has the team’s play within Hakstol’s structure.
From listening to Hakstol talk, he continues to indicate that there’s room for improvement, but he’s pleased with the progress the team is making.
New York Rangers
It truly is impressive how quickly the Rangers have re-stocked their roster with a mix of veteran superstars and young up-and-comers. Of course, Artemi Panarin remains the lynchpin, but add in the likes of No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere and reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox, and this is suddenly a very good team again. Fox is such a stud, and his exceptional skill and vision were on full display Thursday.
The Blueshirts as a team have gotten off to a hot start as well, currently sitting at 5-2-1, and won 4-0 at home on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. In that game, Chris Kreider scored two goals—both off re-directions in front of the net—and extended his team lead for goals to six.
Netminder Igor Shesterkin was unbeatable Thursday, stopping all 31 of the shots he faced. He’s now 4-1-1 with a 1.81 goals against average and .944 save percentage, and we assume he’ll go again on Sunday, being that coaches don’t like switching goalies after a shutout.
Says Hakstol, “We know how good of a team they are, we know the depth that they have and the ability they have at all positions from goal through their D-core—the ability that they have there—and it spreads throughout their forward group. So our focus is on our preparation and what we need to do to be successful.”
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.
It could have been one of those nights that live on in Seattle Kraken lore forever, and in a way it still will. But what if Nathan Bastian had converted on the Mason Appleton rebound that skipped right off his stick in the second period? What if the Appleton breakaway chance that Thatcher Demko just swept off his goal line had trickled just a smidge faster? What if the pass back to Vince Dunn at the point with four minutes left in regulation hadn’t been out of his reach?
While it was certainly a momentous night that those in attendance will never forget, the outcome did leave a residue in the mouths of Seattle fans, players, and coaches. For as magical as the first game ever at Climate Pledge Arena was—and it really was magical—imagine if Seattle had won.
“It was electric in here all night,” said captain Mark Giordano after the game. “I mean the fans— that’s right up there with any [game I’ve played].”
“I don’t know if you can get more,” coach Dave Hakstol quipped when asked if he wanted to see more from the fanbase. “That was outstanding. Yeah, it was an amazing atmosphere, and you know, the bottom line is we wanted to reward the group in the stands with a win tonight. It’s a sour taste, you know walking out of the rink tonight, and that’s a part of it because [the fans] were awesome.”
Ah, what could have been.
The Kraken are evolving before our eyes
The Kraken have morphed into a very different team after a couple days of practice. Hakstol talked a lot about giving up too much off the rush during Seattle’s challenging two-week road trip that ended with a 1-3-1 record.
Yanni Gourde nearly scored just 15 seconds into the game on a breakaway that Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko turned away with his blocker. But after that rush, Seattle’s attack was measured during the first period Saturday.
The skaters on the ice would try to get control in the offensive zone, but if there was nothing there, nobody over-committed. Instead, as soon as possession was ceded, all five Kraken players were consistently racing to the neutral zone to set up a trap for Vancouver.
“We settled things down a little bit in the neutral zone in terms of the way we approached our neutral zone play,” Hakstol explained of the altered style. “You talk about having five guys in the picture going both directions, and we did a pretty good job tonight. We didn’t give up a whole lot off the rush.”
In fact, there were practically no odd-man rushes against for the Kraken all night, save for maybe a partial break on the Garland game winner, but even that was the result of a fluky play in the offensive zone.
Vancouver did own the puck and zone time for most of the opening 20 minutes and made Philipp Grubauer work a bit. But most opportunities for the Canucks came from the perimeter, right where Hakstol wants them.
The Kraken finally started to push back late in the period, especially after an impressive penalty kill that featured a big Brandon Tanev hit and a painful Joonas Donskoi shot block, as well as a power play that nearly scored several times.
The Kraken sustained pressure for the final three minutes of the period, and with just three seconds left before the horn Dunn scored the first goal ever at Climate Pledge Arena. With tired Canucks desperately trying to get the clock to zero, Dunn took a pass from Adam Larsson, delayed, and wired a perfect wristshot off the right post and in.
Climate Pledge Arena erupted with the Kraken heading to the dressing room ahead 1-0.
Kraken got the better of the play, but the Canucks got the goal in the second
In the second, the Kraken looked like a different team again. While there was still some trapping whenever they gave up control, they spent most of the stanza with the puck and in the offensive zone and had a couple of very near misses. As Hakstol said, Seattle “tilted the ice” that period.
The first Grade ‘A’ chance came when Appleton put a shot with purpose into the feet of Demko from a bad angle. Demko kicked a juicy rebound right onto the stick of a streaking Bastian, but Bastian partially fanned on what looked like a sure goal.
Later, Appleton had a clear breakaway and fired a shot into Demko’s armpit. The puck squirted through the Canuck netminder and sat right on the goal line for a moment before Demko was able to dive back and sweep the puck off the line.
The Canucks did not register a shot on goal for the first 11 minutes of the period. Then Giordano tried to bank a breakout pass off the boards to Alex Wennberg, but Garland got a stick on it and quickly found Bo Horvat in the slot. Horvat put it right through the wickets of Grubauer, a goal that the Seattle netminder probably wanted back on the first shot of the period.
With the Kraken threatening all period long, it was Vancouver that got the lone goal.
A late penalty and a bad bounce doom Kraken
Giordano atoned for the errant pass and gave the Kraken a 2-1 lead back at 5:09 of the third period, after Jared McCann found him breaking over the blue line.
Unlike other nights when Seattle has had late leads, it did not sit back. Instead, it continued to pressure offensively without sacrificing structure in the neutral and defensive zones.
Still, you could really feel the tying goal coming. Carson Soucy went to the box for the second time at 12:34 after tripping Juho Lammikko, a tough time to take a penalty. It took Vancouver just 18 seconds of power play time before Quinn Hughes put a shot into Grubauer’s pads that Horvat found and deposited for his second of the night.
With the Kraken pushing back and threatening to retake the lead, an errant pass to Dunn at the point was just out of his reach. Garland jumped past the defender and raced through the neutral zone, firing a shot from the right circle that again beat Grubauer through the five hole.
That game winner came at 15:58 of the third and sucked the air out of an otherwise raucous building.
“I liked the way we played in the third, you know taking a penalty at a tough time against a good power play hurt us,” Hakstol said. “And then the one bounce of the game went their way on the game winner.”
Kraken need to find ways to win
The loss was disappointing. It came against what will surely be a bitter rival in Seattle’s emotional home opener. It also came in a game the Kraken really should have beaten a tired group finishing a six-game road trip.
Seattle has found several different ways to lose so far, which have added up to an underwhelming 1-4-1 record. When the Kraken have the game in hand like they did on Saturday, they need to start finding ways to win.
Said Giordano, “We play that sort of game, we’ll be ok more nights than not, I think. We generated a lot more tonight, we created a lot more, and that’s the game. It could go either way. It’s a tight game and they get a couple… They made us pay when they got their chances.”
It’s time for the Kraken to start making other teams pay, or this season could quickly become an uphill battle.
The Kraken are off Sunday. They will practice Monday before welcoming the Montreal Canadiens to Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday.
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 Vancouver Canucks 7 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington How to watch: CBC or stream on Hulu or ESPN+ Radio: 950 KJR AM
A wise and very angry lead singer once whispered into a heavily distorted microphone, “It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now?” That singer wasZack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, and he was most certainly not talking about the Seattle Kraken home opener, which will finally be played Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks.
But that lyric feels like it fits, doesn’t it?
Yes, it does have to start somewhere, and there truly is no better place than here, in Seattle, at Climate Pledge Arena. No more city council meetings. No more construction updates. No more arguing about what the team name should be. No more discussion about who the Kraken will pick from which team. Now, it starts. Now, we just show up and celebrate.
Aw, hell, you can’t stop us now.
No more excuses
It truly was a grind of a road trip for Seattle, with five games in eight nights played in five different cities, spread across three timezones, and with injuries hitting the team along with plenty of Covid-related drama.
There was no time for practice, and the group was surely exhausted by the time it took the ice for its final game of the trip in New Jersey.
But all that is in the past now. The team had a day off followed by two days of practice, and for the first time in the history of the franchise, it will take home ice Saturday with a crowd fully behind it.
There were some obvious issues that needed fixing by the Kraken, and the hope coming off the trip was that a couple practices would allow coach Dave Hakstol and his staff to address them.
“We had a couple of really good workdays,” Hakstol said Friday. “We wanted to pinpoint certain areas, and we were able to do that. In general, our transition game from defense to offense, from offense to defense is really the area that we needed— one of the areas we needed to clean up, both with and without the puck, so that’s one of the areas that we touched on.”
The Covid drama has also apparently subsided within the organization, at least for now. After getting Yanni Gourde and Vince Dunn back from injury prior to the game against the Devils, veteran forward Calle Jarnkrok, who had been in Covid protocol for nearly two weeks, is expected to play his first official game for Seattle.
Inserting players like Gourde and Jarnkrok into the forward lineup changes the whole makeup of the team, and Hakstol will be able to roll out the deepest lineup he has been afforded to date.
So, no more excuses.
Kraken need a hot start
On their very challenging five-game road trip that the Kraken ended with a 1-3-1 record, they made a habit out of falling behind early. Though the team showed resiliency by battling back in Vegas, Nashville, and New Jersey, this trend can’t continue for long if Seattle expects to be in the hunt for a playoff position later in the season.
Saturday, with a rocking building, there will be a lot of emotions at play, and this should propel Seattle to a hot start. It will be Vancouver’s mission to withstand the initial onslaught and counter with a goal or two of its own, like we’ve seen other teams do against the Kraken.
Seattle needs to take advantage of the extra boost at the beginning. Potting a goal or two early would blow the once suspended roof off the newly christened arena.
“The energy obviously is going to be great,” said Kraken captain Mark Giordano after practice on Friday. “The only thing you can get in trouble with when you’re too excited is penalties and stuff like that. I don’t think our team has an issue with that—knock on wood—but yeah, just use that energy in a positive way.”
Vancouver Canucks
After Vancouver showed well in the NHL bubble two seasons ago, reaching the second round, there was hope in British Columbia that the Canucks would take another step in 2020-21, as their young stars gained another year of maturity.
That did not happen.
Everything went wrong for the club last season, and it finished seventh place in the Scotiabank North Division with a 23-29-4 record.
Now in the eighth year of general manager Jim Benning’s seven-year plan (don’t ask), hope has again returned to Vancouver that perhaps this year the group improves.
There are still the young players that will likely torment Kraken fans for the next decade—Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and Bo Horvat—but Benning added several pieces like Jason Dickinson, Conor Garland, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson that could have an impact.
“They got everybody going. It’s a real good hockey team,” Hakstol said of the Canucks. “When you look at the balance, whether it’s loading up the top six or a balance through nine and 12 forwards. You look at the changes they’ve made on the blue line. The thing that stands out about them is they play fast. They play direct, and they play fast, and they start on time.”
So far, the new mix has brought… mixed results, and Vancouver is 2-2-1 and wrapping up its own brutal six-game road trip Saturday. The Canucks are coming off a 4-1 win over an apparently very stinky Chicago Blackhawks team on Thursday.
WIth Vancouver just a stone’s throw up I-5 (Highway 99 north of the border), the proximity alone should make for a heated rivalry between the Canucks and the Kraken.
It has to start somewhere.
Home opener notes
The Kraken are “taking over” Seattle on Saturday as part of the festivities. Per an email from the team, “Lumen Field, T-Mobile Park, Pac Sci Arches, Climate Pledge Arena, Columbia Tower, and The Great Wheel will be lit in the Kraken colors while flags are being raised at Starbucks HQ and across the fleet of Washington State Ferries.”
A pre-game party at Seattle Center’s Armory Food and Event Hall starts at 4 p.m., and there will also be a ceremony just before puck drop honoring those who helped make NHL hockey a reality in Seattle.
Projected lineup
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.
