We don’t want to sound too hyperbolic, but we think that was one of those Kraken wins that will stick with us for a while. Aside from Seattle skating away with a last-minute 4-3 win over the Avalanche, there were storylines galore in this one, and we felt several adrenaline spikes while watching it.
Ryan Winterton made his NHL debut and looked very good. Shane Wright played his first game of the season with the Kraken and was fast and confident. Matty Beniers scored his first goal of the season and even did the “monkey off the back” celebration. Oliver Bjorkstrand scored two goals, including a late game-winner, in his first game back at Ball Arena after scoring two goals in Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Vince Dunn, Eeli Tolvanen, Jamie Oleksiak, and others put their bodies in harm’s way in the closing moments of the game to solidify the win. Should we continue?
“There’s going to be some ebbs and flows in a hockey game,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “But ultimately, we showed great resiliency at the end of the game and found the game winner. It’s a great win.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a big 4-3 Kraken win over the Avalanche.
Takeaway #1 (Curtis): Winterton shows off two-way skill in solid debut
Ryan Winterton, 20, made his NHL debut Thursday. It began auspiciously, with a no-bucket warm-up.
“I was pretty nervous for my first lap without my helmet on,” Winterton admitted after the game with a laugh. When did he know he’d be taking the ice without his helmet? “I go to my stall and there’s no helmet there, so you got to go out without one.”
By traditional counting stats, Winterton’s night was fairly quiet–Natural Stat Trick credited him with just two shot attempts (one on goal), one takeaway, one giveaway, and one hit in a team-low 7:01 time on ice.
But those stats don’t tell the whole story on the young forward’s night. From the moment he stepped foot on the ice, Winterton’s play consistently stood out; he generated a shot on goal on his very first shift.
“After my first shift everything started to calm down,” Winterton said. He settled into a game where he played fast and responsible two-way hockey. He diagnosed plays well, used his body to win battles, and got to the right spots on the ice to create opportunities for himself and others. At 9:12 of the first period, he converted defense into offense when he sprung Devin Shore on a breakaway with a tape-to-tape pass.
Later in the first period, effective play from Winterton and his linemates set up Seattle’s first goal. The fourth line hemmed in Colorado for a protracted defensive-zone shift, and when the Avalanche finally broke the pressure to center ice, they were slow to the bench, allowing a clean Kraken re-entry that led directly to Jaden Schwartz’s score.
All of these details contributed to excellent relative shot quality analytics. When Winterton was out there, Seattle generated 82.02 percent of the total expected goals. This was the second-best mark on the team.
Post-game, Hakstol said Winterton and Wright had “rock solid” outings. “Both showed poise. They looked like they were comfortable to me. The moment was definitely not too big [for them].”
Winterton’s overall takeaway on his first game? “It was pretty surreal, to be honest.”
The Kraken didn’t make it easy on themselves on this night, again temporarily blowing a two-goal lead, as has been commonplace for the team this season. But give credit to the Avalanche, who are a very good club and who feed off their home crowd well. Once Bjorkstrand scored to make it 2-0 at 4:29 of the second period, we had this hunch that a Colorado answer was coming.
Regardless of whether we are clairvoyant or simply observant, the hunch proved to be correct when Nathan MacKinnon passed to Bowen Byram on a two-on-one rush, and the Avs were suddenly back within one goal just 28 seconds after Bjorkstrand’s tally. From there, you knew it was going to be a tense contest the rest of the way.
Things reached a fever pitch when Valeri Nichushkin got his stick on a Devon Toews point shot and redirected it past Philipp Grubauer at 12:15 of the third period. That tied the game 3-3, and it seemed like the game was heading south for the Kraken.
But have no fear, Bjorkstrand is still here!
He snuck out from behind the net and cleaned up a Tolvanen rebound that happened to skitter right onto Bjorkstrand’s stick with 31 seconds left on the clock.
Oliver says "Please sir, can I have some more?" and gets his second of the game!
“We just stuck with it,” Bjorkstrand said. “We kept pounding it, and we were able to find a way to get that last goal, so it’s a good step for the team.”
It was a heroic night for Bjorkstrand, but he has been outstanding all season and is closing in on point-per-game status with six goals and six assists through 14 games.
“His numbers are starting to speak for themselves offensively,” Hakstol said. “But you know, over the last six, seven games, his 200-foot game is really rounding out. You see that night in and night out.”
Takeaway #3 (Darren): Matty magic is back
It was really hard to pick what should be our last Takeaway, but Beniers scoring his first goal of the season felt like an inflection point. The reigning Calder Trophy winner had his best game of the season to date Tuesday in Arizona and posted two assists that night. But he still had not found the back of the net on the season, prompting many (we are included in that group) to use phrases like “sophomore slump” and “gripping the stick too tightly.”
Matty had two of these looks last game and put both into the goalie's chest. He doesn't make the same mistake here, sniping past Prosvetov.
“It felt good… It felt great,” said Beniers, summing up the moment succinctly.
Beniers’s goal came on the power play at 11:35 of the second period and made it 3-1. He flew into the offensive zone to apply pressure on the forecheck and help Schwartz force a turnover. Then, he passed to Dunn at the point and raced back up to the blue line to make himself available for a return pass. Once he got the puck back, he started rolling downhill toward Prosvetov, but he smartly recognized that Colorado was giving him a lane to skate almost all the way down to the blue paint.
When Beniers finally pulled the trigger, he picked his spot just under Prosvetov’s glove, learning from his two similar looks against the Coyotes that ended up in Connor Ingram’s chest.
“I think I’ve had those chances in games past, and sometimes they just don’t go in,” Beniers said. “I was fortunate to get one in tonight.”
Matty was very impactful on this road trip and notched three points in two games. Do the floodgates open for him now?
—
Before we go, we want to wish Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen a speedy recovery. He slammed head-first into the boards in the second period after a nudge from Oleksiak threw off his balance in exactly the wrong way. It was one of those scary plays that you simply never want to see in a hockey game.
Though he required assistance getting to the bench and down the tunnel, we were relieved to see him get to his feet. Wishing him the very best.
The Kraken fell to the Arizona Coyotes 4-3 in a shootout Tuesday. They have dropped their last six games that ended in shootouts, and in this one, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Matty Beniers, and Jordan Eberle couldn’t find a way to get one across the line. Joey Daccord stopped two of three attempts on the other end, but Nick Bjugstad’s shootout tally was the game-winner.
The Kraken scored early, just 40 seconds into the game, when Eeli Tolvanen and Yanni Gourde executed a rare two-man breakaway to perfection.
🚨 GOAL-vanen! 2-on-0 break with Yanni Gourde leads to a tap in goal for Eeli Tolvanen 40 seconds in.#SeaKraken lead 1-0 early. pic.twitter.com/W7gIZvMKt6
After that it was a familiar refrain for the Kraken. Having built the lead, they gave it away.
“We gave up two on the [penalty kill] and ultimately that didn’t allow us to hold the lead. But it was a back-and-forth type of game,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said postgame.
Here are our Three Takeaways on this loss in Tempe, Arizona.
Takeaway #1 (Curtis): Seattle had the edge when it could keep five skaters on the ice
Hakstol indicated before the game that he was looking for the team to play with improved pace following a lackluster effort at home Saturday at home against Calgary. After watching his team’s effort, he seemed encouraged with the response he saw. “Real hard effort. Guys played hard throughout,” he said. “We played a full sixty-five minutes tonight.”
When Seattle was able to keep five skaters on the ice, the team played a fast, forechecking style that held Arizona down. “We used our legs well, we forechecked well,” Jamie Oleksiak said of the team’s five-on-five play. “We didn’t try to get too fancy with the puck. We used our speed to our advantage.”
Seattle outscored Arizona 2-1 in five-on-five situations. In addition to the Tolvanen goal in the first period, Justin Schultz scored on a pinpoint wrist shot from the top of the right-wing circle off a feed from Beniers in the second period.
This five-on-five advantage was fully earned by the shot quality the team was able to generate. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Kraken generated 58.82 percent of total shot quality in normal manpower situations.
The Schwartz-Wennberg-Eberle forward line, in particular, stifled the Coyotes at five-on-five. That unit gave up just one low-danger shot attempt against Joey Daccord, while creating 11 shot attempts on Connor Ingram, including two high-danger attempts. All in, the line generated an astounding 97.26 percent of total on-ice shot quality in almost ten minutes of five-on-five time.
The Kraken were less successful in reduced manpower situations, however. During 4:00 of four-on-four play during regulation and then 5:00 of three-on-three during overtime, Arizona found space to use their skill game, dominated possession, and seemed to have Seattle on the ropes at times. While Arizona wasn’t able to capitalize with a goal in these situations, they effectively suppressed Seattle’s offensive chances and pushed the game to a shootout where the Coyotes capitalized.
Takeaway #2 (John): Penalty kill continues to struggle
I mentioned it in my Monday Musings this week, but the penalty kill has been a big struggle for the Kraken in recent weeks, and that continued Tuesday; Arizona continued on two of their four power plays. Since the Detroit Red Wings game on Oct. 24, the Kraken have killed just 52 percent of their penalties. The league average in that span is 79 percent.
I rewatched every penalty kill from this Coyotes game, and the only observation I could make is they are not winning the 50/50 pucks often enough to clear the zone and kill time. There were several moments where the Coyotes would get off a shot attempt and reclaim the puck for more zone time.
Another contributing factor is Seattle’s face-off percentage on the penalty kill. For the season, they are around league average at 45.3 percent, but over the last five games they are at 20 percent. Losing the face-off enables opposing teams to have more zone time, which will ultimately lead to more shots and goals.
I don’t think it will solve the penalty kill issue, but help might be on the way in the form of Brandon Tanev who has been sidelined with a lower-body injury since opening night. He is on this road trip and participated in morning skate with the club in Arizona. Tanev was the Kraken’s leading forward in penalty kill time last season, and his speed might add a dynamic to opposing teams’ defense pinching in on 50/50 pucks.
Takeaway #3 (Darren): Matty’s best game of the season
I need to first address my colleagues here before I really get into my Takeaway from this game.
John, those stats about the PK are staggering. The team got off to such a hot start in that area, and things have really regressed. On Tuesday, it was interesting to see Seattle get cooked by the exact same play executed by the same two players twice. On both of Arizona’s power-play goals, Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz did a simple give-and-go play between Keller on the right hash and Schmaltz in the high slot. Keller was the trigger man both times, and both times, it ended up in Seattle’s net (though Barrett Hayton got a piece of the first one to earn credit for the goal). I would love to see A.) the Kraken figure out how to defend this play, though it is tough with a good shooter in the bumper spot, since you have to respect Schmaltz there. And B.) the Kraken take a page out of Arizona’s book and use that play on their own manpower advantages.
Curtis, you mentioned in an offline conversation (sorry to put you on blast here) that you thought Matty Beniers looked a bit lost in this game, aside from his two assists. I would disagree with you on that, which brings me to my actual Takeaway.
From what I saw, this was Matty’s best game of the season so far by a long shot. I think because he has been struggling so mightily, I was hyper focused on him throughout this game, and every time I saw him on the ice, he made a play that I liked. There were a few mishandles and one bad turnover in the offensive zone that thankfully didn’t bite the Kraken. But, he made two good offensive plays that turned into goals, he had a breakaway opportunity late in the game, and he had two great looks from the left circle. Both of those he unfortunately put into Ingram’s chest, but still, the looks were there, and his hustle was constant.
We often hear slumping players say they only get concerned when the chances dry up. Matty had a lot more chances in Tuesday’s game than he has in past games this season, and that’s a sign that goals will start going in for him soon.
The Kraken might be finding their mojo. Thursday’s 4-2 win against the Nashville Predators felt like so many of the games from the 2022-23 campaign. It was common last season for Seattle to get in a position where it badly needed to score a goal, and lo and behold, some unexpected hero would step up with the clutch goal.
Thursday, it was Brian Dumoulin who came up with a massive response goal at 16:58 of the second period, just 24 seconds after Roman Josi had tied it for Nashville. Couple that goal with Philipp Grubauer’s play to close out the frame (Grubauer took a rare penalty to make things more difficult on himself, but he came up huge in those closing minutes of the second), and the Predators’ momentum was completely sapped.
The Kraken are now 3-1-1 in their last five games. Are they getting on a roll?
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken win over the Predators.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): A big game for Grubi
Grubauer continued Seattle’s run of strong goaltending Thursday, earning his second win in as many tries. The consecutive victories have to feel good for the German Gentleman, who played well in his first four starts but got almost no goal support in those outings and took L’s in all four.
What has been really encouraging from Grubauer is that he hasn’t been giving up the early goals that have plagued long swaths of his tenure in Seattle. In years one and two, it was a regular occurrence for him to give up a goal on one of the first five (or so) shots of the game, leaving the Kraken chasing from the jump. With Seattle very much struggling to find its legs in its first game back after a long road trip, Grubauer was sharp from the opening face-off against Nashville.
“You can’t control what’s coming at you,” Grubauer said of his approach to starting games. “If it’s a breakaway for the first shot or a fluffy from the red line, stop everything, right? That’s the mentality.”
Grubauer is playing aggressively, but when he gets outside the blue paint and gives up a rebound, he is reading the play and recovering quickly enough to slide and cover the follow-up shots as well. I recall a sequence in the second period (I can’t find video of it in the highlights, so this won’t be a great description) when Grubauer made a save to his right, then made a big push with his left skate and stopped a second shot from a bad angle. When he stopped the second one, he was a solid three feet outside his crease but was perfectly aligned to make the save. He recognized that as soon as the puck came off him, he needed to get repositioned in a hurry. It’s like he knows right where the play is heading even before it gets there.
Of course, his best save of the night came when Jaden Schwartz was in the box serving Grubauer’s own tripping penalty, just the second penalty of his career. Gustav Nyquist shot off Grubauer’s blocker, but the rebound went right onto the tape of Tommy Novak for what looked like Novak’s second power-play goal of the game. But Grubauer did a full split and got the toe of his right skate on the second opportunity, robbing Novak and helping his mates kill off the penalty he took.
“Sometimes it’s kind of awkward not being able to sit in the box there by taking the penalty,” Grubauer said. “There’s a couple of huge blocks, and we need those. It doesn’t matter who takes the penalty, sitting in the box, you want to kill it off for that guy and for the team.”
Grubauer ended the night with 32 saves on 34 shots, 1.99 goals saved above expected, two penalty minutes, and he helped Nyquist find his teeth on the ice after Adam Larsson knocked them out with a high stick in the first period. That’s quite the night!
By the way, when asked if Grubauer was actually hurt on the play where he took his penalty or if he was just milking it to get some sympathy from the refs, Grubauer said, “Wouldn’t you like to know! Next question.”
Takeaway #2 (John): Momentum for the power play
The power play has continued to improve as this season has gone on, and the Kraken notched another power-play goal on four opportunities last night. The Kraken are currently eighth in the league with a 25 percent success rate and are clicking at 35.7 percent over the last five games.
BJORK-JAM! 🚨
Oliver goes BarrDown Studios for a power-play goal! What a shot.
It still feels like there are moments where this team is struggling to enter the zone cleanly, but when they get set up, they are really moving the puck well. They are creating more options this season for scoring chances, instead of relying so heavily on Jared McCann and Daniel Sprong (like they did last season) to skate down from the left circle.
The Kraken ranked 21st in the league on the power play last season, so it is still a bit early to say if their top-10 ranking this season is the new norm for the power play or just some early-season luck.
Takeaway #3 (Curtis): Brian Dumoulin finds his footing
Dumoulin’s transition into the Seattle lineup has not been without its challenges. He has suffered a few notable defensive gaffes, and he has looked a step slow at times–perhaps still processing his role and fit in the Kraken system. As recently as last Thursday at Carolina, he blew a tire in the defensive zone attempting to take a breakout pass from Joey Daccord, which led to a turnover and an immediate Hurricanes score in a one-goal overtime loss.
Dumoulin has quieted some concerns over the last two games, though, showing savvy offensive instincts and sound, shutdown defense. He scored his first goal of the season Monday at Tampa Bay on a play where he read the strong-side action well and creeped down from his blue line position on the weak side with perfect timing to corral a rebound and shoot it before netminder Jonas Johansson could recover. Beyond the goal, he was Seattle’s best defenseman that night by on-ice shot quality at five-on-five. As measured by Natural Stat Trick, Seattle generated 77.05 percent of total shot quality when he was out there.
On Thursday night, Dumoulin may have been even better. He found the back of the net again on another skilled play. The Biddeford, Maine, native took open ice in front of him before changing the angle of his shot and simultaneously using Predator forward Cole Smith as a screen.
“We knew that their forwards sink back a little bit and try to block shots instead of coming out hard on us,” Dumoulin said after the game. “So, I knew I’d have an extra second there to try to create a lane for myself. And [Tye Kartye] did a great job screening the goalie also.”
The goal marked the first time in Dumoulin’s career he has scored in back-to-back games. “It’s great to contribute,” Dumoulin said of his goal-scoring streak. “With this team, everybody’s got to contribute for us to win. We’ve done that here in this last stretch. We’ve gotten goals from different people, and it’s important.”
Thursday’s goal–which put Seattle up 3-2 and held up as the game-winner–came at a crucial point in the game. Nashville had tilted the ice in its direction for much of the second period before finally breaking through with the game-tying goal at 16:34 in the period. Dumoulin responded just 24 seconds later. By scoring, he effectively wiped away all of Nashville’s hard work and gave Seattle the jolt it needed to hang onto this win.
Dumoulin’s contributions didn’t stop there. Though Nashville outplayed Seattle (except for Philipp Grubauer) over long stretches, Seattle generated 74.74 percent of total shot quality when Dumoulin was on the ice at five-on-five. This led all skaters for Seattle.
For the season, Seattle is generating more than 55 percent of total shot quality when Dumoulin is on the ice in five-on-five scenarios. This is fourth overall and second best among defensemen on the team, only fractions of a point behind his defensive partner Justin Schultz. Of course, Dumoulin and Schultz are taking some easier matchups, but this was likely Seattle’s vision when it signed Dumoulin to a two-year deal this offseason; take a player who has played first-pair minutes, move him down the lineup, and see if his productivity bounces back against lesser competition.
It’s a long season, and the sample size is still quite small. But, as it stands in early November, Dumoulin seems to have found his footing. “Obviously when you contribute you feel like part of the team,” Dumoulin said. “[I’ve] just got to continue to try to do that.”
The Kraken didn’t make it easy on themselves on this road trip, but in the end, they’re coming home with a positive 2-1-1 result after a four-game gauntlet that brought them meetings with a red-hot Red Wings team, then scary matchups against the Hurricanes, Panthers, and Lightning.
In a game that felt eerily familiar to the previous two losses, the Kraken again let a two-goal lead slip against Tampa Bay but this time found a way to get the second point in overtime.
“We’ve had kind of a similar theme to a couple of games on this road trip, and for the most part, we really liked the way we played in the third period,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We got through the next four or five minutes [after the tying goal], and then did a good job in the OT to execute on the power play.”
“It makes a six-hour plane ride [back to Seattle] a lot easier, for sure,” said Jared McCann.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an important Kraken win.
Takeaway #1: Schwartz and Yamamoto led the way
Two players really stood out for the Kraken in this one. One (Jaden Schwartz) was no surprise, based on how he has been performing this season and especially on the road trip. The other (Kailer Yamamoto) erupted for easily his best game with the club so far.
Schwartz has been Seattle’s most consistent player this season, bar none. He’s playing a fast, simple game, in which he just outworks his opponent at seemingly every turn. Monday, he was all over the top of the Lightning goal crease, and his presence there played a part in three of Seattle’s four goals.
He helped get the Kraken on the board first when he sprinted to retrieve a rebound, keeping the play alive for Brian Dumoulin to eventually net his first goal with Seattle.
DUMO DOES IT! 🚨
Great retrieval by Schwartz, big blast by Schultz, open net for Dumoulin, his first as a #SeaKraken.
He also was right there, whacking away to create a secondary rebound for Yamamoto’s goal, and he was in Jonas Johansson’s grill on McCann’s four-on-three power-play winner.
Yamamoto, meanwhile, looked dynamic and confident throughout the game, and he was rewarded with a goal and an assist. His marker came on the power play, again, after some hacking and whacking by Schwartz, and his assist was a beautiful backhand sauce to Yanni Gourde, who Yamamoto found streaking down the slot.
“I thought today was [Yamamoto’s] best game,” said Hakstol. “I mean, he had a ton of energy tonight, five-on-five, power play, everything. I thought he was involved in every part of the game.”
“I think I’m just using my speed around the net,” Yamamoto said. “Those guys are bigger, so I’m gonna use my speed around the net and try to beat them to the puck.”
After the Kraken lost a lot of fourth-line offensive firepower in the offseason, there was hope Yamamoto could replace some of that. He showed Monday he can be a key component for this team, so let’s see if he can continue to build as he gets more and more comfortable in his new surroundings.
Takeaway #2: Worst lead in hockey
An old adage says the two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey, and we do firmly believe this. There’s almost always a little slump in play that inherently happens from the team that’s up, because they start to feel subconsciously comfortable with their position in the game and might shift to a defensive posture. And the team that’s down tends to play looser and more aggressive, knowing they have ground to cover.
The Kraken all but proved the theory on this trip, watching two-goal leads vanish in all four of the games they played.
On Monday, they led by two on two separate occasions. Dumoulin and Gourde scored at 12:08 and 13:08 of the first period to make it 2-0, but Tanner Jeannot responded at 13:37 to make it 2-1. Then Yamamoto reinstated the two-goal lead at 15:52, and from there, things slowly started to shift toward another Seattle collapse.
“When you’re playing with a lead, sometimes you think about just sitting back on your heels and letting them skate into you and skate by you,” McCann said. “But I think we need to play a little bit more offense when we’re up, and we need to keep our feet moving, stay on their D.”
The Kraken aren’t the only team that has struggled at keeping two-goal leads; it really is an oddly difficult lead to keep in hockey. But maybe they should strive for more three-goal leads moving forward.
Takeaway #3: Just how they drew it up
McCann’s game-winner was a thing of beauty. You could tell it was the exact play Seattle’s coaching staff had drawn up during the timeout Hakstol called moments before the goal.
McCann walked the puck up the halfwall and switched spots with Oliver Bjorkstrand at the point, bringing the top defender in the triangle closer to the blue line. That opened the seam for Bjorkstrand to pass across to Vince Dunn. That pass drew the same top defender back down and created space for McCann to get rolling downhill (as he loves to do) and lean into his one-timer.
4-on-3 is a huge advantage, but this a beautiful setup by the #SeaKraken for the OT game winner.
Player movement, one-touch passing, and a perfect shot by McCann.
The boys needed that one. It wasn't always pretty, but that's an enormous win. pic.twitter.com/56NuOVaTIG
It was beautifully designed and beautifully executed. We also love the reaction from Hakstol on the bench.
Bonus Takeaway: Thank you, goalposts
The Kraken got some terrible puck luck against the Panthers, losing on a bounce off a stanchion. In this game against the Lightning, they again had an unfortunate carom on the tying goal in the third period when a Brandon Hagel pass deflected off Alex Wennberg’s skate and through Philipp Grubauer’s pads.
But Seattle had the lion’s share of good breaks in this game, as the Lightning had to have hit the post five times throughout the night, including two that looked like sure goals.
How did Jeannot miss with 29 seconds left in the third period?
The hockey gods taketh, the hockey gods giveth back.
Then Nikita Kucherov had what looked like a sure goal with 3:17 left in overtime, when Brayden Point found him off a two-on-one rush for an easy tap-in. Yet, Kucherov somehow shoveled it off the iron.
Grubauer was very good and deserved his first win of the season. But he also had a little bit of luck on his side, and sometimes that’s what you need to get a monkey off your back.
If you thought Thursday’s overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes was painful, just wait! We have a doozy for you in this one.
The Kraken had a two-goal lead against the Florida Panthers in the second period Saturday and seemed to be in complete control after Eeli Tolvanen scored his first goal of the year. But 1:19 after Tolvanen’s goal, Gustav Forsling got the Panthers on the board with a power-play goal, and just 11 seconds after that, the game was tied.
Florida’s game winner in the third was downright miserable for Kraken fans. We’ll talk about that in a bit.
Here are our Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s 3-2 loss to the Florida Meow Meows.
Takeaway #1: Awful way to lose
You never want to see a game decided on a lucky or unlucky bounce. Well… actually, maybe lucky bounces are ok when they happen in your team’s favor. But you definitely never want an unlucky bounce to cost you valuable standings points, and that’s exactly what happened Saturday.
With the game tied 2-2 with under seven minutes left to play, Josh Mahura dumped a puck into Seattle’s zone, an innocuous-looking play. Joey Daccord drifted behind the net to field it, as goalies normally do, but the puck never got to him. Instead, it hit a stanchion and took a hard right turn, meeting Nick Cousins at the top of the goal crease for perhaps the easiest goal he has ever scored.
Daccord fell on the sword after the game. “That one’s on me. I just should have stayed in the net. Late in the game, tie game, the stanchions here are pretty bouncy, and they stick out a lot. Just an unfortunate bounce.”
But coach Dave Hakstol defended his netminder. “He plays the puck really well,” Hakstol said. “The dangerous ones up in the glass, you can get a bad bounce like we got there, unfortunately. So, no, that’s a bad bounce at a tough time for us. That’s all.”
We would agree with Hakstol. Going after pucks off the glass is a little riskier than ones around the boards, but 95 percent of those behave the way they’re supposed to. Daccord was not doing anything out of the ordinary by going back to stop that one.
For as unlucky as the bounce was on the winning goal, the Kraken had some equally lucky breaks to keep the game 2-2 in the second period. Ryan Lomberg had a wide-open net on a rebound chance but rang it off the post, and Sam Reinhart scored with 10 seconds left in the period, before a successful offside challenge from Hakstol negated the goal.
Still, that’s a tough way to lose a hockey game.
Takeaway #2: Kraken put themselves in that position
Having said all that, Seattle had this game in its grasp and let the momentum swing wildly in Florida’s favor in the second half of the second period. Things were going swimmingly, and after the first period and first few minutes of the second (especially after Tolvanen pushed it to 2-0), we thought Seattle was marching toward its best all-around performance of the season.
And then—suddenly—it was a brand new, tie game, putting the Kraken in a situation where one bad bounce could sink them.
The first goal against came on Florida’s only power play of the entire game, a blast through traffic by Gustav Forsling that eluded Daccord. Then, just a couple blinks later, Matty Beniers lost a defensive-zone face-off and tried to block Dmitry Kulikov’s point shot, but it bounced off him and then Matthew Tkachuk before floating past Daccord.
This game was a classic example of Seattle needing to play the full 60 minutes to win. We heard the team and its coach talk about this ad nauseam after losses in 2022-23, and this is a prime example of what happens when the tentacle comes off the gas.
Letting down even for a few minutes can cost you games in the NHL, and the Kraken learned that lesson for the umpteenth time Saturday.
Takeaway #3: Joey Daccord got the nod again
It was interesting to see Daccord get the nod again in this game, his third consecutive start and fourth in five games. He was coming off an overtime loss to the Hurricanes, but he set a franchise record in that game with 42 saves.
Clearly, Hakstol has confidence in him right now and is trying to ride the hot hand, and he surely recognized that Seattle has racked up all its standings points on nights when Daccord has been in net.
“Both our guys are playing well,” Hakstol said. “[Daccord] has had a little bit of momentum here and that’s why we went back with him tonight, and he gave us every opportunity to win the game.”
It’s akin to when Philipp Grubauer went out with an injury last season, Martin Jones came in, and suddenly the Kraken got red hot. We’re not saying the lack of points on Grubauer nights has been because of Grubauer (he’s had some very good performances this season), but going back to Daccord Saturday is clearly a Which goalie gives my team the best chance to win? type of decision by Hakstol.
We’ve generally liked Daccord’s game this season. The way he gloves down almost every unscreened shot is very promising, and he is looking more and more like a true NHL goalie, rather than an AHL goalie filling in. He made 35 saves again Saturday and holds a .912 save percentage and 2.88 goals-against average in five starts.
We would guess Hakstol turns back to Grubauer for Monday’s road trip finale in Tampa Bay, but it will be worth monitoring how the goalie usage plays out moving forward.
Welp, that was one of those losses that stung a bit for Kraken fans. Seattle had the lead for most of the game against the Hurricanes, but then bent, bent… bent some more, and finally broke in the last few minutes of the game, before losing 3-2 in overtime.
If you just look at it statistically, getting a point out of that one should be a nice consolation. Seattle was outshot 45-25, and Carolina had 63 percent of the shot quality in the game. Still, the game script playing out in that manner left a bitter taste.
“[Carolina] played exactly the way we thought they would,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “They generate zone time, they generate shots on goal, but we didn’t make a whole lot of mistakes other than some of the pressure plays that stayed in our zone… Obviously, we made the big mistake on the tying goal.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a smarting 3-2 Kraken overtime loss to the Hurricanes.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): One big, costly mistake
The mistake Hakstol was referencing came from Seattle’s top forward line of Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle, and Tye Kartye, deep in the third period. The Kraken were nursing an ever-so-tenuous 2-1 lead with under five minutes to play, and they had been bunkered in their zone for most of the period at that point.
There seemed to be an offensive opportunity brewing, so Adam Larsson jumped into a four-on-four rush with the three aforementioned forwards. Hurricanes defenseman Brady Skjei made a diving play to break up an Eberle pass, and Carolina transitioned quickly.
Kotkaniemi ties it late. Terrible backcheck by Eberle and Kartye, who both looked like they were out of gas and completely stopped skating.
“Our eyes got a little bit too big there, trying to do a little too much offensively,” Hakstol said. “We ended up with four guys probably below the tops of the circles.”
Beniers and Larsson sprinted to get back in the play defensively, and for a fleeting moment, it seemed Seattle had plenty of numbers back, as the Hurricanes broke in two against three. But the players that were following up the rush—Michael Bunting and Jesperi Kotkaniemi—were left completely unmarked by Eberle and Kartye, who both uncharacteristically stopped skating. Martin Necas spun and passed to Kotkaniemi, and Joey Daccord was hung out to dry.
To Seattle’s credit, the team didn’t let Kotkaniemi’s goal at 15:36 of the third period sink the ship completely. The Kraken got the game to overtime, where they again showed patience and control and earned several good looks. But the ’Canes got the last laugh when Necas fired a shot around a screen to beat Daccord.
Sometimes, all it takes is one little screwup.
Takeaway #2 (Darren): Joey’s big night spoiled
We aren’t giving him a full takeaway, but we need to call out Devin Shore for his stunning demonstration of hand-eye coordination to corral a waist-high stretch pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand and an impressive finish on the breakaway for his first goal as a Kraken.
Ummmmmmmmm…. Ok, Devin Shore.
Wait for the third replay. He took Bjorkstrand's stretch pass right out of the air. Heckuva way to get your first goal with a new team.
We are, however, giving a full takeaway to netminder Joey Daccord, who was fantastic and frankly deserved a win on this night. Daccord made 42 saves on 45 shots, setting a franchise record for most saves in a game. And while—as John will point out—most of his saves came on shots from the outside, Daccord looked very much in control throughout, gloving down seemingly every shot from distance with no rebound.
“It’s a frustrating loss, being up late in the game and ending up losing in overtime,” Daccord said. “But I think we’re still early on in the year, and I think we can keep building on this.”
The only regulation goals allowed by Daccord came after big booboos by his mates in front of him, including Brian Dumoulin catching an edge and coughing up the puck in a dangerous spot in the first period, and two players being left completely alone in the third.
Daccord is now 2-0-2 and has been in net for every standings point the Kraken have earned so far this season.
Takeaway #3 (John): Limiting shot quality
For as well as Daccord played in this game, the skaters did a great job at keeping most of the shots to the perimeter throughout the game. Only 29.6 percent of the Hurricanes’ shots were considered “high” or “medium” danger.
The Hurricanes managed to muster 45 shots on net, which was good enough for a season high, but their 29.6 percent medium- and high-danger percentage was a season low.
Hakstol called out in his post-game presser that the team really only made the one glaring mistake late in the third, and we would agree with that sentiment. Many of the shots Daccord faced came from the point without traffic in front. The Kraken will take those shots against all day, and that’s exactly what happened Thursday.
Stifling shot quality has been a steady theme for the Kraken in his young 2023-24 NHL season. If they can get some more consistency in the scoring category, and it looks like that is starting to come, they could be heading toward a solid run.
