Three Takeaways – Andre Burakovsky injured on … dark … night for Kraken against Rangers

by Curtis Isacke | Oct 22, 2023 | Three takeaways

Even before the opening face-off Saturday, we saw signs this game between the Rangers and the Kraken was going to be a strange one.

Something was a little off in the pre-game show; maybe Game Ops had intentionally toned things down, but it didn’t seem like they were doing all the on-ice projections they normally do, and one set of lights didn’t go off like usual. More on this in a bit, but it was a sign of things to come. 

The game itself was a real stinker from the Kraken. After they jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period on a Justin Schultz one-timer, it was a slow, painful slide (both literally and figuratively) the rest of the way. 

Here are our Three Takeaways from an ugly 4-1 Kraken loss to the Rangers. 

Takeaway #1 (Darren): Did Artemi Panarin pull the plug? 

After Tommie Burton brought the house down (as he always does) with his pre-game Star-Spangled Banner rendition, the lights came up, and the puck was quickly dropped at center ice. I couldn’t put my finger on it right away, but the playing surface just didn’t quite look right. As the synthetic smoke used in the pre-game show slowly dissipated, it suddenly became clear the offensive end of the ice for Seattle was darker than its defensive end. 

A set of lights had malfunctioned, causing about a 10-minute delay to the game, as the officials gave technicians at Climate Pledge Arena a chance to find a solution. There was a flurry of activity on the catwalks high above the ice, including Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke pacing up and down and talking on his cell phone. 

In the end, no solution was found to the lighting issue, so the NHL decided the game should go on, and that the teams should switch ends at the first stoppage after the 10:00 mark of each period to eliminate unfair advantages. 

“Switching every 10 minutes is kind of crappy,” said McCann. “Especially when you get momentum, they stop the game and switch ends, it’s obviously not great, but we didn’t have our best effort tonight. We weren’t there defensively. It felt like we were soft on pucks and we weren’t making hard plays.”

Both teams dealt with the problem, so it’s hard to say this negatively impacted the Kraken (and McCann also shared similar sentiments on the issue). But Philipp Grubauer did give up the softest goal he has allowed this season just six seconds after the switch in the second period, letting a Jacob Trouba slap shot squeeze through him and lay loose in the crease for Kaapo Kakko to push over the line.

That goal came on the brighter end of the ice, so again, you can’t blame the lighting, but it is an odd coincidence in terms of timing. 

“I don’t think that had an impact on the game,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “The initial delay isn’t great; it takes a lot of energy out of the building, but that’s not a crutch we’ll lean back on.”

Regardless of if the lighting situation actually skewed the game, the Kraken had no answer for Artemi Panarin’s line with Filip Chytil and Alexis Lafreniere on this night. Panarin came away with two goals (both scored on the dark end of the ice), Chytil had three primary assists, and Lafreniere added a goal of his own. 

I asked Panarin what he made of the whole lighting situation, and he said, “For me, I want it darker, so it’s harder for goalies.” He then claimed responsibility for pulling the plug himself. “I’m doing all that stuff before the game.” 

Mr. Leiweke, we found the culprit! 

Takeaway #2 (Curtis): Kraken offense is ice cold

By any measure, the Kraken did not generate enough offense to win on Saturday night. Total shots on goal? The Kraken had just 17 in the game, a season low. Compare that with the 36 shots the team put on goal in Thursday’s win against the Carolina Hurricanes; that’s a big drop. 

How about high-danger shot attempts? The Kraken had just two all night according to Natural Stat Trick–also a season low and well off the team’s average of 11.4 per game entering Saturday’s contest.

How about total shot quality? According to Natural Stat Trick, the Kraken generated shots worth just 1.38 expected goals in the game. Again, this is a new season low. The team generated fewer expected goals just once during the entirety of the 2022-23 season (at Carolina on Dec. 12, 2022) and only one other time during the team’s low-scoring inaugural campaign (at Tampa Bay on Nov. 26, 2021). 

So it is fair to say Seattle has never in its existence put out such anemic shot quality on home ice. The next worst expected goal performance was a Nov. 11, 2021, a home game against the Anaheim Ducks.

“We didn’t execute very well,” Hakstol said. “We weren’t moving. We didn’t have a lot of pace to our game. You saw that five-on-five. You saw that on our power-play opportunities. The sharpness [and] crispness [was] not there.”

In one respect, I felt a bit of deja vu when two consecutive power play opportunities in the middle of the second period came up empty and drew the life out of the offense. Hakstol pointed this out after the game, saying the Kraken took themselves out of the game in the second period.

More notable from this vantage point was the team’s overall inability to get inside and generate shots from the slot area between the circles. This has been a struggle all season, but it was especially evident Saturday. If the Kraken are going to break out of their early-season offensive malaise, they need to commit to getting to the middle of the ice.

Takeaway #3 (Darren): Andre Burakovsky injured, and it seems bad

Adding (potentially major) injury to insult, Andre Burakovsky got hurt again Saturday, and it sounds like it could be serious. About six minutes into the second period, Burakovsky was hustling toward the corner in the offensive end. He took a little shove from the oft-problematic hitter, Trouba, and slammed awkwardly into the end boards, shoulder first.

Burakovsky was hunched over skating to the bench, holding his shoulder or collar bone area. He went straight down the tunnel and didn’t return, and Trouba was given a two-minute minor for boarding. 

On Burakovsky’s status, Hakstol said, “I’ll wait until tomorrow morning to make sure, but I mean, I don’t think it’s going to be something that’s real short term.” 

Hakstol does not give injury updates. He just doesn’t do it. For him to say that in his post-game presser, that means Burakovsky’s injury is serious. That’s awful news for both the Kraken and Burakovsky, who was Seattle’s top scorer before he tore his groin and was lost for the second half of last season. 

Burakovsky worked all offseason to rehab and be ready to go for 2023-24. He lasted just four and a half games, and now we would guess he’s out for the foreseeable future. 

Three Takeaways – Dunn, Daccord, Kartye star in 7-4 Kraken win over Hurricanes

by Darren Brown | Oct 20, 2023 | Three takeaways

The Kraken entered Thursday’s matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes winless through four games on the season. Call us crazy, but we still felt confident going in that Seattle was going to come out victorious, even though the team had only scored three total goals and had only beaten Carolina one time out of four previous tries in franchise history. 

Sometimes, you just get a feeling on game days, and hearing coach Dave Hakstol challenge his players to look at themselves and “do a little bit more” at morning skate gave us a hunch the players would refuse to let themselves sink into a deeper hole. 

Lo and behold, seven different players scored goals, including two power-play goals and a short-handed goal, and—despite some hairy moments in the third period when the lead shrunk to 4-3—the Kraken ended up with a lopsided W as their first win of the season. 

“At some point in time, you just have to go out and get it done, and that’s what we did tonight,” said Hakstol. “So, a little wobble at the start of the third period, gave up a couple quick ones, but nobody got back on their heels.”

Here are our Three Takeaways from an important 7-4 Kraken win over the Hurricanes. 

Takeaway #1 (Darren): Burakovsky and Dunn have entered the chat

I have to credit John Barr for this one, because he called out both Vince Dunn and Andre Burakovsky on this week’s Sound Of Hockey Podcast, saying he didn’t think either player had looked particularly sharp so far. The duo must have listened to the episode before Thursday’s game, because they came out firing and combined for five points on the night. Dunn had a power-play goal and two assists, and Burakovsky added two assists of his own, including his 200th career point. 

“Everyone really chipping in tonight makes my game shape itself,” Dunn said. “I don’t really get any of [my] goals without everyone doing their part out there, so a lot of credit to the other guys for finding me and getting open for me to distribute to them.” 

After several questionable plays in the first few games, Dunn was back to looking like the version of himself that earned consideration for the Norris Trophy last season. He was dynamic, he was physical, and he was getting himself involved offensively throughout his team-leading 22:55 of ice time. 

“It’s nice to see Dunner get on the board the way he did,” Hakstol said. “It’s a challenge when you miss a good chunk of training camp like he did, and I think there were different parts of his game that had a little bit of rust … He was rock solid tonight.”

We’re singling out Dunn and (to a lesser extent) Burakovsky mostly because it makes a convenient podcast-related narrative, but the reality is there were solid efforts up and down the lineup Thursday. The group finally got rewarded with a big bundle of goals, just as we predicted on that same episode, and all at once the floodgates opened. 

Now, let’s see if they remain open moving forward. 

Takeaway #2 (Curtis): Joey Daccord immense early

To Darren’s point, this had the feeling of a “get-right” game. Three-goal margin of victory. Seven goals by seven different goal scorers. For five of those scorers, it was their first of the season. 12 Kraken players recorded a point. This is the type of performance that allows everyone to loosen the grips on their sticks a bit and get into the flow of the season.

The story might have been different, however, but for the play of Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord in the first period. The Hurricanes recorded an incredible 34 total shot attempts in the first 20 minutes, 21 of which made it through to Daccord. According to Natural Stat Trick, Carolina had the decisive edge in the shot quality battle early, generating 1.9 expected goals in the first period alone, mostly on the strength of seven high-danger opportunities.

Those chances started almost immediately after puck drop. Just 17 seconds into the game, Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook received a centering pass in the slot 10 feet from the goal and fired it on Daccord. But Daccord was ready to answer the bell, large and square at the top of the crease. (Shortly after, there was net-front traffic that led to a long-range wrister deflecting in on goal off Dunn’s body, but Dunn quickly swatted it away and saved a goal.) It’s easy to imagine the game going sideways if Seattle found itself in a 1-0 hole immediately—and to a team against which Seattle has struggled over the first two years.

The high-danger chances continued throughout the period. At 8:20 in the first, Martinook had another opportunity off a rebound directly in front of the net, but Daccord gave very little space for the Hurricanes to shoot.

Then, starting at 11:24, Daccord saw a flurry of chances from Seth Jarvis and Dimitri Orlov, but deftly navigated back and forth across the blue paint to turn each away.

And, finally, in the dying seconds of the period, Daccord had his biggest save of the night. It came just after Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored to give Seattle a 3-1 advantage. Had the Hurricanes gotten one back at that point, it would have sapped much of Seattle’s momentum going into the intermission. With respect to the save itself, frankly, we’re not sure how Daccord managed to extend on Martin Necas’s shot here. It was just a remarkably athletic play.

It wasn’t all perfect for Daccord. Hakstol said as much after the game, indicating Daccord would have some “learning opportunities” from the goals he allowed. The young netminder ended up conceding four in total, with three coming in the third period. Indeed, if you were just looking at the advanced statistics after the game, you might reach the conclusion Daccord had a mediocre outing, having conceded those four goals against on just 3.32 expected goals according to Natural Stat Trick. But, as is often said, the timing of a goaltender’s saves is critical. And on Thursday night Daccord kept a then-winless Kraken team in the game early. He allowed the skaters to find their scoring touch and build a lead they never relinquished. He was a star of the game in my book.

(PS: It’s much easier for me to write than it is for me to talk right now. I’m on the mend, though.)

Takeaway #3 (Darren): Tye Kartye is so back

After Tye Kartye made the Kraken roster out of training camp, he was scratched for opening night in Vegas, then seemed to be trying to find his footing for the next couple games, before really creating buzz with linemates Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Kailer Yamamoto Saturday against Colorado. Kartye took the next step Thursday, making himself noticeable every time he was on the ice in that fourth-line capacity. 

But he became really noticeable in the third period, when Jaden Schwartz left the game (we believe it was the result of a shot block off his foot toward the end of the second period), elevating Kartye to the top line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle. 

“We went back to something that was familiar,” said Hakstol. “Karts has played a lot with Matty and with Ebs … He jumps in and stepped up into that role much like he did last year in the playoffs for us. He’s got a good presence about him. He plays the game the right way, and he went up there and did a good job when called upon.” 

Kartye scored three goals in the playoffs last year, but he got his first official regular-season goal in the NHL just 21 seconds after Jared McCann had made it 5-3. Kartye’s goal came off a perfect pass into the crease by Beniers, and it gave the home faithful a huge sigh of relief. 

“It feels really good, and obviously that we won too, and we got off the schneid a little bit there,” Kartye said. “It feels really good.”

Kartye didn’t stop there. The very dislikable Brendan Lemieux ran over a prone McCann, earning himself a penalty late in the game. We aren’t convinced the hit was intentional (though it was Lemieux, after all, in a game that had gotten away from Carolina), but Kartye—like a veteran—went right after Lemieux as soon as he got out of the box.

“It’s awesome,” said McCann. “He’s not known for that, right? But it’s a Soo boy sticking up for a Soo boy, so it’s nice.” (As a reminder, both players played their major junior hockey for the Soo Greyhounds of the OHL.)

And sure, Lemieux fed Kartye his lunch, but what a gutsy thing for a 22-year-old rookie to do. The legend of Tye Kartye continues to grow. 

—

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Three Takeaways – Kraken sink to 0-3-1 with 4-1 loss to Avalanche

by Curtis Isacke | Oct 18, 2023 | Three takeaways

After such a magical playoff run last season, this is not the start the Seattle Kraken and their fans would have wanted. In their home opener Tuesday, Seattle had a good jump out of the gate, but then eased off the gas as the game went along, and Colorado took over, gliding through to a 4-1 win.

“We lacked execution in a few spots tonight,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “Against a good team, that leaves us on the wrong side of the ledger.”

The Kraken have unfortunately lived on that side of the ledger so far this season, and they remain winless through four games. Here are our Three Takeaways from the latest loss.

Takeaway #1 (Curtis): 5-on-4 play in the second period was the turning point

The game hung on the blades of the Kraken power play unit for four minutes in the middle of the second period, and they couldn’t deliver. It was the turning point in the game, and like last season, that is again quickly becoming a theme.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Kraken generated more than 60 percent of the total shots and 64 percent of total shot quality in the first period en route to a 1-0 lead at the first intermission. Then, the team came out in the second period and kept the pressure on. Despite conceding the game-tying goal to Artturi Lehkonen, Seattle continued to carry the balance of play.

At 8:13 in the second, Seattle’s pressure seemingly paid off when Yanni Gourde drew a tripping penalty from Colorado defenseman Josh Manson. The power play quickly generated a couple close opportunities from Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle but struggled to create any danger for much of the two minutes thereafter. 

Just seconds after that power play was over, however, Gourde drew another penalty, this time an interference call on Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon. All of the momentum should have been in Seattle’s favor as a weary group of Colorado penalty killers returned to the ice. But, in a familiar refrain for Seattle’s young season, the power play didn’t look cohesive and struggled to establish itself.

Worse, when a clear by Colorado defenseman Cale Makar hopped over Vince Dunn’s stick at center ice, Avalanche forward Logan O’Connor was left behind the defense to corral the puck and skate in on Philipp Grubauer unchecked. The result was a shorthanded goal and a 2-1 lead for the Avalanche.

Seattle didn’t recover. From that point forward, the Avalanche generated more and better scoring chances than the Kraken. In the third period, Natural Stat Trick had the Avalanche with more than 75 percent of the total shot quality, a dominant number. Overall, Seattle finished 0-for-4 on the power play, but the failed opportunities in the middle of the second period were a big part of the story in this one.

Takeaway #2 (Darren): Are the guys gripping the sticks too tightly?

Somewhat comically, Hakstol was asked this exact question about players gripping their sticks too tightly trying to force the puck into the net, and he said, “Oh, you guys [the media] will talk about that. We won’t.”

So here we are, aggressively taking the bait and talking about that.

Regardless of how much the Kraken discuss their offensive struggles in the dressing room, the struggles are there right now. The team collectively has registered just three total goals in four games, and every goalie they have faced has looked like a world beater against them. That is never a good sign and brings back memories of the team’s inaugural season.

The good news is that the Kraken are getting looks, so in theory, pucks will start to go in the net at some point. But the lack of finish is certainly setting off alarm bells.

Some examples Tuesday, Jaden Schwartz had a chance in the first period where he had all day to pick his spot on Georgiev, and he put it into his pads. Andre Burakovsky had a look on a two-on-one rush with Eeli Tolvanen, took his time to line up his shot, and rifled it off the end boards. Gourde had a wide-open opportunity to end the second period, and Georgiev slid across and robbed him with his left pad.

When things were going well for the Kraken last season, they would have scored on at least a couple of those, and Tuesday’s game might have had a different outcome.

With the number of chances the Kraken are getting (they ended the night Tuesday with 3.04 expected goals for across all situations), it does feel like one positive outcome in a game is all they need for an offensive jumpstart. If they can get one game where a few guys get on the board, monkeys will start coming off backs, and the floodgates will open. But Seattle does need that to happen relatively soon, or they will have dug themselves a massive hole in the standings before races even get underway.

“Everybody wants to score a little more and provide a little bit more,” Hakstol said. “But you can’t wave a magic wand and have that happen.”

Takeaway #3 (John): Shot quality to date

Lack of scoring was the main theme of this game and the season to date. As we have mentioned several times, the eye test says the Kraken are getting chances, but are they good chances? Certainly, we can call out the more memorable opportunities in last night’s game (as Darren did), but are we seeing a good volume of high-quality shot attempts compared to the rest of the league?

Using the always reliable Natural Stat Trick, I pulled the season-to-date data for all games to see how the Kraken stacked up.

This somewhat confirms what the eye test is telling us. The boys are getting chances but have been unable to bury the puck with those chances. Let’s take a look at how that compares to last season.

The shooting percentage last season was one of Seattle’s strengths, and based on the 2022-23 chart, that applied to high-danger shots as well.

Now, I do not expect Seattle to lead the league in high-danger shooting percentage again, but I think they are still a much better shooting team than they are showing and should be able to get close to league average… eventually. In the meantime, it is really frustrating, and if there was a magical formula to just “shoot better,” I am sure the team would have used it already. Sadly, Hakstol confirmed there is no “magic wand.”

If we take a conservative, lower-than-league-average high-danger shooting percentage of 30 percent, and multiply it by the 31 high-danger shots Seattle has taken, the Kraken would have scored 9.3 high-danger goals at this point. Subtract the two high-danger goals they have scored and the team would have seven more goals to show in the season. Those additional seven goals would have helped.

We can cite data all we want, but at the end of the day, the Kraken are not winning and that is a concern. But we are also only four games into the season. Last season the club was 1-2-1 after four games, and there was a lot of doom and gloom chatter from the fans at that point as well. I still believe the 10-game mark is where we can start to draw some conclusions about this team, so I will do my best to be patient.

Three Takeaways – Kraken earn first point but lose third straight against Blues

by Curtis Isacke | Oct 15, 2023 | Three takeaways

The Kraken returned home after Saturday’s game in St. Louis with one measly point to show in the standings following a three-game road trip to open the 2023-24 season. In all three games so far, we can pinpoint moments where a bounce or two going Seattle’s way could have turned the tide and given the Kraken at least a chance to win. But that’s hockey, and you have to take advantage of your opportunities so that bad bounces aren’t as damaging.

Regardless of how the hockey gods are treating them right now, the fact is the Kraken haven’t been able to score goals thus far, so they head to their home opener with an unimpressive 0-2-1 record with just two combined goals in three games. 

Saturday’s game was a little different than the previous two, in that the Kraken did so many things right and had every chance to come away victorious. They looked faster in transition, they maintained control of the puck through the entire overtime period, and they even got a power-play goal. They were on the front foot for a lot of the night.

“I thought the team played great; we played really well,” said goaltender Joey Daccord. “We did a lot of good things, we got a lot of chances. It just didn’t drop for us tonight, but if we keep playing like that, the puck will go in for us.”

Here are our Three Takeaways from an unsatisfying 2-1 Kraken shootout loss to the Blues. 

Takeaway #1 (Curtis): Schwartz brings juice in return to St. Louis

Jaden Schwartz played with the St. Louis Blues for 10 seasons, including the 2018-19 Stanley Cup winning campaign. On Saturday, Schwartz returned to his former home arena as a visitor for only the second time, and it was clear he had a jump in his step early.

Schwartz played with excellent pace, perhaps the best we’ve seen in the regular season during his time with the Kraken. In the first period, he chased down Blues defenseman Justin Faulk in open ice and generated an extra possession. In the second period, he created a two-on-one opportunity with speed by driving wide. And he got in on another rush in the third.

But no play was more important than his net-front work on the power play early in the second period when he tracked an Oliver Bjorkstrand shot and tipped the puck past Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington. The goal gave Seattle its first lead of the season.

Even more significantly, Schwartz’s work broke the ice for the Kraken on the power play. Seattle had gone 0-6 (including a major penalty) through the first two games of the year. This power play futility had been a topic of conversation recently, but for one night at least, Schwartz took the pressure off that unit. Unfortunately, the Kraken didn’t get the opportunity to build on Schwartz’s success because the team didn’t draw any other power plays on the night.

Takeaway #2 (Darren): Nice outing by Joey

After he earned the full-time backup NHL job out of training camp for the first time in his career, we were curious to see what kind of performance Joey Daccord would have in his season debut.

“I felt pretty good in there,” said Daccord. “It was nice to be back in a real game.”

Good on coach Dave Hakstol for getting him in there early in the season and resisting the urge to keep riding Philipp Grubauer, who was coming off an outstanding game in Nashville.

Daccord rewarded Hakstol for the decision, and if he was at all nervous, it didn’t show. Daccord looked calm, cool, and collected throughout, and the one shot that beat him came from a prime scoring area, off a rush, by Jordan Kyrou. On that play, Jared McCann did a good job to back check and turn a three-on-two into a three-on-three, but he flew right by Kyrou, the eventual goal scorer.

Daccord stopped 24 of 25 shots, with his best save of the night coming against Sammy Blais with five minutes left in the third period.

On the play, Will Borgen stumbled, allowing Blais to barrel right in toward Daccord. But Joey stood his ground and got the left pad out to reject the scoring opportunity.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blues had 2.29 expected goals for, meaning Joey stopped 1.29 goals more than he should have in the game. Hakstol called the performance “rock solid.”

That’s a nice start to Daccord’s career as a full-time NHLer.

Takeaway #3 (John): Penalty kill still perfect

One bright spot for the Seattle Kraken so far is their penalty kill. Saturday night against the Blues, the Kraken went to the kill four times and still kept their unblemished record intact.

“The special teams were solid tonight,” said Hakstol. “Our PK did a really good job.”

That brings the total of successful penalty kills this season to 11 out of 11. Though Seattle was quite good in these situations in the second half of last season, it was still an area that we expected to improve in 2023-24 with the additions of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Brian Dumoulin.

In Bellemare’s case, he is revered for his play in manpower disadvantage scenarios and ranked first for penalty kill time on ice amongst Tampa Bay forwards last season.

Bellemare’s defensive instincts especially shone through with three minutes left in the first period Saturday, when he intercepted a Robert Thomas pass and cleared the zone, despite not having a stick in his hands.

It is also important to note that Brandon Tanev, who has been a staple of the Seattle Kraken penalty kill unit, has been out the last two games with an injury.

Three games is still not a big sample, and last season, there were several stretches of five games or more where the Kraken did not allow a power-play goal. But we like what we have seen so far. With the Avalanche, Hurricanes, and Rangers coming to town this week, the penalty kill unit will certainly be tested.

Three Takeaways – Grubauer’s night spoiled, Larsson soured, Kraken get shut out

by John Barr | Oct 12, 2023 | Three takeaways

It hasn’t been the hottest start to the Seattle Kraken’s season through two games, both of which they have lost while mustering just one combined goal. They scored zero against Jusse Saros and the Nashville Predators Thursday en route to a 3-0 loss.

After a decent first period, Seattle got dominated in every metric in the second period, but was largely bailed out by netminder Philipp Grubauer, who stopped 32 of the 34 shots he faced on the night. A shorthanded goal by Colton Sissons was a huge turning point for the Predators, though, and Seattle couldn’t find a way to fight back.

“They took a lot of momentum out of that [shorthanded goal] for the second half of the second period,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “I wouldn’t say ‘chaotic’ is the word, but on the offensive side, a few too many missed nets.”

Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-0 Kraken loss to the Predators.

Takeaway #1 (Darren): Grubauer’s awesome night spoiled

After Grubauer got off to rough starts in each of his first two seasons with the Kraken, we were curious if his stellar playoff run would carry into 2023-24. So far, we would say it has. While the German Gentleman gave up three goals on 27 shots against Vegas on Tuesday, we were unsure of what to make of his performance that night. His stat line wasn’t outstanding, and he did allow a goal on the first shot he faced, something we’ve seen from him many times before. But that goal was an easy tap-in off a rush, the second was a wonky redirect off a Brandon Tanev booboo, and the third was a partial breakaway.

Though he took another ‘L’ Thursday, there were no questions about his play in Nashville.

“Grubi’s been solid both nights here,” Hakstol said. “He’s been sharp, he’s seeing the puck well, and I really like his competitive level. So he played a good hockey game tonight.”

You could tell he was on his game early with how he was reacting to shots from in close and through traffic. Even with bodies in front, pucks were hitting him, and on plays where it seemed he shouldn’t have had enough time to react, he was still getting his extremities in the way.

Exhibit A:

Grubauer’s best save of the game came just past the midway point of the second period, when Roman Josi found himself with the puck on his stick and plenty of net to shoot at. The Kraken netminder made two big pushes with his left skate to get all the way across his crease and throw his blocker in front of what looked like a sure goal.

Exhibit B:

It wasn’t just about the shot volume Grubauer faced. With Seattle playing way too loose, especially in the second period, the Predators seemed to be getting breakaway after breakaway after open look, and Grubauer kept standing tall. In fact, according to Natural Stat Trick Nashville generated 65 percent of the shot quality in all situations, including a whopping 86 percent in the second period.

Unfortunately for Grubauer and for the Kraken, his teammates weren’t able to give him any offensive support, and his superb night was wasted.

“Grubi’s been great the first two nights,” said Yanni Gourde. “I thought he was unreal again, kept us in the game the whole night… We’ve got to give him more leeway a little bit, find a few goals.”

Takeaway #2: Adam Larsson’s tough shift

Adam Larsson had a few great moments defensively on Thursday, especially when he sprinted back to thwart a prime scoring chance by Cole Smith in the first period. But he also had one terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad shift in the third period when a Gustav Nyquist goal that directed off his foot literally added insult to injury. It effectively wiped out any chance for a Kraken comeback.

Larsson tried to hit Filip Forsberg in the corner behind Grubauer, but Forsberg sensed it coming and caught Larsson with a high “reverse” hit, throwing his back into Larsson’s face and causing some damage to his nose and lip. Incensed, Larsson retaliated with a wicked cross check, which caused the official to put his arm up for a delayed penalty.

With Saros pulled for an extra skater during the delayed penalty, the Kraken couldn’t get ahold of the puck long enough to get a whistle. So Larsson went to the front of the net and kept whacking away at Forsberg, perhaps figuring he wouldn’t get another penalty, so he might as well get a couple more licks in. Well, as he stood there at the top of the crease, Nyquist got a nice deflection off Larsson’s skate, just to drive home what an unfortunate sequence it was for Seattle’s most consistent defensive defenseman.

Of course, Larsson is a top-pairing stud, and we think the world of him as a player. His undisciplined penalty was uncharacteristic, and having a shift like that that goes from bad to worse is almost unheard of. Still, it cost the Kraken significantly on this night.

Takeaway #3 (John): Power play struggling while improving

Yes, we are going to talk about the lack of production on the power play again (it was minus-one on the night), but we are seeing promising signs. The Kraken failed to cash in for the second straight game on Thursday, though they only had four minutes of power-play time versus Nashville compared to 11 minutes on Tuesday against Vegas. We talked about it quite a bit on the podcast this week, and my theory is that with the team making so many changes in this area compared to last season, it will take some time to get everyone on the same page.

One thing I called out on the podcast this week was, despite the lack of goals scored on the power play, the Kraken averaged 3.6 shot attempts per two minutes of power-play time Tuesday compared to last season’s average of 3.3 shot attempts. That’s hardly a significant sample size, but they were still generating chances.

On the Kraken’s first power play against Nashville, they generated three shot attempts, with all of those coming from what I would call the first power-play unit of Justin Schultz, Andre Burakovsky, Jared McCann, Matty Beniers, and Jordan Eberle.

On the second power-play opportunity, Hakstol sent out the second unit to start, but with one wrinkle; Gourde subbed in for Jaden Schwartz, and the other four players on that unit were Eeli Tolvanen, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Kailer Yamamoto, and Vince Dunn. If my counting is correct, that group had nine shot attempts on that power play and kept the puck in the offensive zone for almost the entire two minutes.

“We switched up the unit with some tired bodies coming off of the previous shift to draw the penalty,” said Hakstol. “They generated good O-zone time. We missed a couple pucks that were directed towards the net early in that power play, so you’d like to get those on the net and find a way to find rebounds later in the power play.”

After only two games, it is still not close to a significant sample size, but I believe this shows promise. To really know what we have going on the power play, it will take about 10 games to even start to form real opinions.