After a first period where the Seattke Kraken fell behind by a pair of goals to the New Jersey Devils Tuesday, it looked like a repeat of Monday’s blowout loss was on the menu again.
But not this time.
The Kraken pushed back in the second period, got their legs under them, and twice got back within one before finally falling 4-2 against the Devils. The Kraken got goals from Riley Sheahan and Jared McCann while goalie Joey Daccord made 29 saves in an emergency start.
“We just ran out of time and ran out of gas a little bit,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said.
Despite the loss, the Kraken’s third straight, there was excitement as two hours before the game Seattle announced that center Yanni Gourde was coming off injured reserve and would be playing. It would be Gourde’s debut with the Kraken as he has been recovering from an offseason torn labrum operation.
To say he was ‘recovering’ is underselling what he had been up to. Skating with the team from day one of training camp, it was obvious that Gourde was going to be back prior to the initial target of December. At the start of camp, general manager Ron Francis declared Gourde was ‘ahead of schedule.’
Turns out he was way ahead of schedule.
Gourde was good Tuesday. He logged 21:37 of ice time and centered a line with Jared McCann and Jaden Schwartz. While on the ice together the three took 57% of the unblocked shots. Those are encouraging possession numbers.
They didn’t figure in the scoring – Gourde did pick up an assist on a third-period power-play goal – but had several near misses as passes just eluded or hopped over sticks. Schwartz in particular missed the puck by inches on two great feeds from Gourde.
“It’s pretty tough to come in with new linemates, but I think we did a good job of simplifying things and going north and going deep,” Gourde said. “It didn’t work, we didn’t win but we had some good looks.”
New Jersey’s Dawson Mercer opened the scoring by converting a two-on-one at 5:02 of the first period. A bad pinch by defenseman Adam Larsson combined by no high third forward created the break and for the fourth time this season, Seattle gave up the first goal. Just over a minute later Damon Severson would score for the Devils to build a 2-0 lead.
Seattle’s second period was better, and they missed on back-to-back power plays but came close and built momentum. That led to Sheahan’s goal to cut the lead. The momentum was short-lived, though, as Jimmy Vesey would score before the period ended to re-establish New Jersey’s two-goal advantage.
“Not a whole lot had to be said,” Hakstol said about any intermission pep talk he gave the team. “We came out against a fresh team, and they were quicker than us for the majority of the first period. They won a lot of races and got us on transition for one of the goals. As the period went on, I could see us getting our legs.”
McCann would score on a power play late in the third to give the Kraken life again but the Devils would seal the deal with an empty net goal scored by Pavel Zacha.
Daccord answers the call
After making one start in the AHL with Charlotte over the weekend – he made 26 saves and won 4-1 – Daccord was called on to fly to New Jersey and start the game. It turns out that Chris Driedger injured himself at some point during his third period duty Monday in Philadelphia.
Not the best conditions in which to make your first start, but Daccord showed no nerves or uncertainty. He allowed three goals while making 29 saves. None of the goals he allowed were questionable and he made several big saves to keep Seattle within striking distance.
“Joey was outstanding tonight,” Hakstol said. “He made some huge saves for us. It’s not always about big saves it’s when you make them. Joey gave us both, he gave us big saves and he gave them to us at the right time.”
Driedger was placed on injured reserve but no timetable was offered. Daccord will be with the team for at least the next week.
Other notes and tidbits
There was a lot of talk after the game about Seattle’s lack of practice and how it impacted the Kraken as the road trip wore on. “We definitely need some practice time,” captain Mark Giordano said. “You can see it in little areas of the game.”
Seattle will have Wednesday off before getting back to that needed practice on Thursday.
A night after the team didn’t fight as hard as they would like, the compete level was there Tuesday. “I like the fight and the pushback from the guys,” Giordano said. “I think we’re guilty a little bit of guys caring too much. You start squeezing it and overthinking it because you don’t want to be the guy that makes the mistake. We’ve just got to clean up a few areas.”
In the first period New Jersey’s young star Jack Hughes was taken to the ice hard in the corner by Seattle’s Jeremy Louzon. Hughes got up slow favoring a shoulder and did not return to the ice. Similarly, Morgan Geekie was hit in the face by New Jersey’s Jonas Siegenthaler in the second period. Geekie did not return and there was no update after the game.
Seattle Kraken at New Jersey Devils 4 p.m. Pacific time Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey TV: ROOT Sports Radio: 950 AM KJR
UPDATE: The Kraken dropped some late-breaking news Tuesday afternoon, just hours before Seattle was set to take the ice against the New Jersey Devils. Yanni Gourde, who had been recovering from shoulder surgery that was originally supposed to keep him sidelined for several months, has been activated from injured reserve and will make his debut for Seattle on Tuesday.
In the same tweet from Kraken PR, the team revealed that netminder Chris Driedger, who was expected to start Tuesday, had been placed on IR, while Joey Daccord had been recalled from AHL Charlotte. Daccord will now make the start.
The #SeaKraken have made the following roster moves:
-Yanni Gourde has been activated off of IR -Joey Daccord has been recalled from the Charlotte Checkers -Chris Driedger has been placed on IR -Kole Lind has been reassigned to Charlotte pic.twitter.com/758RuMlDPZ
To get yourself fired up for a Daccord start, you may want to watch this video, which we filmed with him during Kraken training camp.
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Here’s our original story:
Sometimes in hockey, the best thing you can do is forget about your last game and move onto the next one. Teams typically look at back-to-back games as a challenge to overcome, but occasionally it’s a benefit to be able to get right back on the horse after taking a hard fall. Seattle got crushed 6-1 in Philadelphia on Monday in a game where nothing went right. Thankfully for the Kraken, they have no time to dwell on the ugly loss and have an opportunity to salvage their brutal five-game season-opening road trip with a victory tonight against the New Jersey Devils.
One thing we thought we would see from Seattle coming into the season was a 1A/1B goalie platoon, where Philipp Grubauer got more starts than Chris Driedger, but Driedger would be used regularly. With that in mind, we were sure that Driedger would get his first start of the year on Monday after Grubauer had gone for each of the first three.
Instead, Grubauer again was in the crease to start the game, indicating that Driedger would finally go Tuesday in Newark. What’s interesting about this utilization is that it’s more indicative of a team with a traditional starter and backup than it is of a team that intends to rotate its battery throughout the season.
Playing Grubauer for the fourth game in a row backfired on Monday. That’s not to say that the goals were Grubauer’s fault—they really weren’t, save for perhaps the fifth one that squeaked through his pads—but having the team’s starter get shelled is not good for anybody.
And because there was another game against the Devils looming Tuesday, coach Dave Hakstol was clearly hoping that Grubauer could gut it out to save Driedger. By Hakstol’s own admission, he ended up leaving Grubauer in for the fifth goal, at which point he probably should have been out of a game that had already gone sideways.
Though there was no morning skate to confirm, we are fully expecting that Driedger will get his first start for the Kraken Tuesday. He stopped six of seven shots Monday in relief and got a little help from his goal posts. The 27-year-old had a breakout season in Florida last year, where he went 14-6-3 with a 2.07 goals against average and .927 save percentage in 23 games, commanding plenty of time despite sharing the net with Sergei Bobrovsky.
In addition to getting beaten up on the scoreboard Monday, Kraken players also took their lumps physically. Nathan Bastian—who returns to New Jersey to face his old team Tuesday—was fed a whole tray of knuckle sandwiches in a fight with Nate Thompson. Jamie Oleksiak landed several rights on Nick Seeler, but also went to the penalty box looking at his hand after hitting Seeler’s helmet with a few of those blows.
While those are all just bumps and bruises, Mason Appleton was involved in an awkward collision late in the game that was a bit more concerning. He was ridden into the boards by Flyers defenseman Keith Yandle in an innocuous-looking play, but Appleton went down in a heap. He then struggled to the bench, where he was doubled over in pain for a while. It was hard to tell what happened on the play, but it looked like he may have tweaked something. Again, no morning skate to confirm if he’ll be back in the lineup Tuesday, but keep an eye on his status when the Kraken take the ice against the Devils.
New Jersey Devils
Many in the hockey world thought that the New Jersey Devils would take a big step last season. They did not, however, finishing 19-30-7 for seventh in the temporarily formed East Division. Can they do it this year? They’re young, but there’s again reason for Devils fans to hope for improvement.
Our choice for breakout player of the year is Jack Hughes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. When he was selected, it was obvious that he had plenty of growing and maturing to do physically. Now that he’s 20 years old, he appears to be filling out a lot more and sounds confident and ready to lead this Devils team.
Hughes got off to a great start in New Jersey’s first game Friday against the Chicago Blackhawks, scoring two goals including the overtime game winner. He was so excited to have potted the winning goal, he threw his stick in the crowd in celebration, something we don’t believe we’ve seen before.
New Jersey also got a shiny new cornerstone player on the back end in Dougie Hamilton, who signed a seven-year $63 million deal over the summer. The offensive defenseman immediately made his presence known in New Jersey, scoring 17 seconds into that opening game against the Blackhawks.
Ryan Graves—acquired in a pre-Expansion Draft trade with Colorado—skates with Hamilton on an all-new top defensive pairing.
In net, the Devils have problems. Their starter, Mackenzie Blackwood, is one of just a handful of players in the NHL who has so far refused to get vaccinated against Covid-19. This is an issue anyway, but it will be especially painful for New Jersey when they travel to Canada, where—as of now—he will not be eligible to play.
All that is moot for tonight, though, as Blackwood is apparently getting over an injury. So, newly signed Jonathan Bernier gets the nod for the second time in as many games. Bernier, 33, has become a journeyman in the later stages of his career, having now spent time with six NHL organizations. He was 9-11-1 behind a terrible Detroit team last season, with a 2.99 GAA and .914 save percentage, in line with his career numbers.
Former Spokane Chiefs superstar and current Devils defenseman Ty Smith is on injured reserve, so we will not see him against 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.
They can’t all be Picassos, and the Seattle Kraken certainly aren’t hanging the film from Monday’s 6-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in a museum any time soon.
Seattle actually had some life and a few chances early in the game.
Jordan Eberle got the puck on the doorstep early on but Flyers goalie Carter Hart was able to get his glove on it, or depending on how you look at it, Eberle shot it into his glove, to keep the game scoreless.
Had the Kraken cashed in on one of the early looks perhaps the game would have gone in a more positive direction for Seattle.
“It’s hard to say,” Kraken defenseman Carson Soucy said. “It would be nice if one of those goes in but we just didn’t stick with it enough.”
The Flyers were the ones sticking with it and would score thrice over the last ten minutes of the first period. The goals came from Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny, and Derick Brassard who banked one off Soucy.
It was 3-0 heading into the first intermission, but it already felt like the game was decided.
“We had a really competitive start in the first ten minutes and we did have a couple of good scoring chances,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We gave up the first goal from 200 feet away which was a little bit of a theme tonight…we got beat up ice.”
Hakstol didn’t like the way his team defended the entire ice, feeling the goals were results from the lack of a forecheck or plays in the neutral zone.
Philipp Grubauer took the brunt of those mistakes, allowing five goals on 20 shots through two periods. Chris Driedger started the third period for Seattle and made six saves while allowing one goal in the third.
There was some thought that perhaps Grubauer should have been given the night off earlier and Hakstol said after the game that in hindsight he would have made the switch sooner. He also stressed the change in net wasn’t indicative of how Grubauer has been playing for the Kraken.
Seattle would eventually fall behind 5-0 in the second period before Soucy scored his first as a Kraken to stop the bleeding.
It’s a long season and teams will occasionaly lay an egg the way Seattle did on Monday. After the game there was no panic amongst the Kraken.
“There’s a lot of things that it looks like,” Hakstol said. “We were out of sync, we couldn’t put ourselves back on the right track and that’s the end result.”
Hakstol tweaks the lines
The top line had a new look Monday as Hakstol moved Alex Wennberg to center the Jaden Schwartz and Eberle group.
“We wanted to see a different combination,” Hakstol said. “It was a tough night to evaluate all of that.”
When Wennberg was acquired in free agency the general thinking was that he would take the top center role until Yanni Gourde was available to return from injury. While Hakstol is right, the line didn’t score and how they played in their own end is the stuff for film study.
However, an argument could be made they were the Kraken’s best line Monday, ending the night with positive possession numbers, something to build on moving forward.
Notes
The Kraken will finish their road trip Tuesday with a game against the New Jersey Devils. It’s expected that Driedger will make his first start for Seattle.
Nathan Bastian found himself in the middle of a number of skirmishes and one tilt with former Seattle Thunderbird Nate Thompson. Bastian was on the ice for 6:35 while earning 27 minutes in penalties.
Kole Lind played his first game with the Kraken. He played 9:21 but did not figure in the scoring. It was the eighth NHL game for Lind who played seven for the Vancouver Canucks last season.
Seattle Kraken at Philadelphia Flyers 4 p.m. Pacific time Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania TV: ROOT Sports Radio: KJR AM 950
Who doesn’t love a good revenge game? Because that’s what coach Dave Hakstol gets to experience tonight as the Seattle Kraken take on the Philadelphia Flyers. Well… sort of. He did visit as an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs a couple seasons ago, but this is his first game back as a head coach, so that’s a big deal, right?
“It’s always nice to come back,” Hakstol said Monday morning. “Obviously I have a lot of great memories here, and a lot of good friends, and obviously as you get to this time of day, it kind of flips full circle right to the competition of the game tonight.” Now those are some fighting words!
Ok, maybe it’s not really a “revenge” game per se, but Hakstol does certainly have a history with the Flyers organization, which hired him straight out of the college ranks back in 2015 and eventually relieved him of his duties after the team got off to a 12-15-4 start in 2018.
Hakstol also gave the update on Monday that Vince Dunn is still day-to-day, though he did participate in morning skate, so we will again see both Carson Soucy and Haydn Fleury in the lineup.
The only real change to the lineup comes up front.
After Alex Barre-Boulet made a huge play to set up Alex Wennberg in his first game with the Kraken on Thursday at Nashville, and after hearing what Hakstol said about his play that night, there was a general sense that he may have a role in the lineup moving forward. On Sunday in Columbus, he only saw the ice for a few seconds of the third period and spent the rest of the game on the bench.
Tonight, Barre-Boulet is being scratched in favor of Kole Lind, who makes his official debut with the Kraken, though he did appear in several preseason games as well. Lind, who was a well-liked prospect for the Vancouver Canucks before being selected by Seattle in the Expansion Draft, has seven games of NHL experience but does not yet have a point.
Philadelphia Flyers
There’s a strong connection to the Pacific Northwest in this evening’s game, as Carter Hart is expected to be between the pipes for the Flyers. The former Everett Silvertips superstar burst onto the scene as Philadelphia’s full-time starter three seasons ago as one of the youngest goalies ever to hold such a role. He faltered last season, though, posting an unimpressive .877 save percentage and 3.67 goals against average in 27 games.
Hart is looking to get his young career (believe it or not, he’s still just 23 years old) back on track.
We may also see veteran center Nate Thompson, an Alaska native and former Seattle Thunderbird, suited up for the Flyers tonight.
As for the rest of the Flyers, the roster looks a bit different from what we’ve seen in the past. Cam Atkinson was acquired in the offseason for Jake Voracek, while Shayne Gostisbehere was jettisoned and Ryan Ellis and Keith Yandle were added on the back end.
The Flyers have played just one game so far, a 5-4 shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.
Projected lineup
For lack of a better guess, we’re predicting that Lind will slide in with Wennberg and Joonas Donskoi, though Hakstol gave a big “maybe” on his forward lines in his press availability, so we could see some shuffling.
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.
