For Saturday’s game between the Kraken and the Blackhawks, we found ourselves watching with a slightly different energy than we’ve had during games throughout the season. Now that the Kraken have clinched their first playoff appearance, the tension went down a notch, as Seattle cruised by a team that is actively trying to lose.
Still, it was a party-like atmosphere in Climate Pledge Arena, where fans continued to celebrate the home team and its remarkable turnaround from last season. With the win, the Kraken are now one win away from 100 points on the season after finishing last season at the bottom of the Pacific Division with a measly 60 points.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an imperfect—but ultimately easy—7-3 Kraken win over the Blackhawks.
Takeaway #1: Seven different goal scorers
There are only so many different ways we can write about Seattle’s depth scoring being its strength, but the team demonstrated this for the umpteenth time Saturday. Seven different players found the back of the net, 12 players had points, and four players had multi-point games.
The most notable scorers on the night were Jamie Oleksiak, who had three assists, Daniel Sprong (again), who had a goal and two assists, and Jared McCann, who scored his 39th goal of the season.
“That’s kind of been our strength all year,” said Jordan Eberle, who became the club’s fifth 20-goal scorer on the season. “Every line, it seems like we’re getting contributions each night from different guys, different lines, defense pairings, whatever it may be. So that’s obviously a big skill to have going into the playoffs.”
We can’t help thinking of everything now in that context of the postseason. How will this balanced approach work in playoff hockey? We *think* it should be an advantage, but until we see Seattle in playoff action, we just don’t know.
We think about a team like Edmonton, which effectively has the opposite makeup of the Seattle Kraken. The Oilers have two of the most talented players in the world, and they lead the Western Conference—by a long shot—in goals scored. But they also give up a lot, and they are very top-heavy. They can be beaten if a team figures out a way to limit the damage Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl can do.
On the other side of the coin, a team like the Kraken probably won’t have one guy put his mates on his back and carry them through a series. But it’s awfully difficult to check a team that has a 20-goal scorer even on its fourth line.
Thinking that way gives us hope the Kraken can surprise some folks in the coming weeks.
Takeaway #2: Adam Larsson has silky mitts, Dave Hakstol has jokes
With the Kraken killing a penalty midway through the second period, Adam Larsson, Yanni Gourde, and Alex Wennberg found themselves on a three-on-two rush into the offensive zone. Larsson passed it to Gourde, who gave it right back to the defenseman, but Larsson shot it off the outside of the net. He then blew a tire and crashed hard into the end boards, and then—from a prone position—extended his stick and tripped Seth Jones.
It wasn’t the smoothest-looking play, and the penalty came 200 feet from Seattle’s net, an area in which coaches generally despise taking penalties. It put the Kraken down five-on-three for almost a full minute.
Jones scored his second goal of the game during the two-man advantage, and that brought Chicago back into the game at 3-2. The marker came before Morgan Geekie’s initial penalty had ended, so Larsson remained in the box, and the Kraken stayed on the penalty kill.
Larsson’s teammates did kill off the rest of his infraction, and when he came out of the box, he quickly made amends for taking the penalty that led to the goal against.
Oleksiak deflected a Chicago pass to McCann, and McCann quickly passed to the newly freed Larsson in the neutral zone. On a breakaway, Larsson showed off some silky moves and deked Peter Mrazek right out of his jock.
BIG CAT! 🐱 🚨
His penalty ends, so he gets out of the litter box just as McCann picks off a pass in the defensive zone. McCann sends him in, and he shows off his silky mitts again.
This isn’t the first time Larsson has made a move like that; he scored the overtime game-winning goal in Dallas on March 21 in similar fashion.
The goal led to some good chuckles in the dressing room after the game. Larsson was asked if he should be a candidate for future shootouts, and he said, “Yeah, I think so. But Hak probably doesn’t think so.”
Following that, Hakstol was then asked if he knew Larsson had that kind of move in his toolbox. Hakstol said, “Which, the one when we went down five-on-three, or the one after?”
That’s cold, coach. That’s cold.
Takeaway #3: First wild card clinched, new health concerns
Now that the Kraken have hit the first big postseason-related milestone, it’s our opinion here at Sound Of Hockey that the two best things Seattle can do are 1.) stay healthy, and 2.) stay right where they are in the standings.
On the health front, there are a couple new concerns after Saturday’s game. Martin Jones left after the second period and was not on the bench for the third period. Asked if it was injury or illness that forced Jones out of the game, Hakstol said, “[He was] just unavailable. I won’t comment, but it wasn’t illness.”
We expect Philipp Grubauer to be the starter throughout Seattle’s playoff run, but the team needs two goalies. You simply never know what can happen, and if the top guy falters, it’s always good to have a second guy that can potentially turn the tide in a series.
Joey Daccord has reportedly been recalled from Coachella Valley, so there’s obviously something going on with Jones. Daccord playing in the arena of his alma mater sure would add some intrigue to Seattle’s game against the Coyotes on Monday, though, wouldn’t it?
Also worth noting, Jaden Schwartz did not play Saturday. We would guess that’s more of a maintenance thing, but Hakstol did say he’s “day to day,” so we will keep an eye on that. Meanwhile, Andre Burakovsky, who skated with the team for the first time last week, hasn’t skated with his mates since then.
As for seeding for the playoffs, Seattle clinched the first wild card spot, so they can’t move backwards and can’t face the top seed in the Pacific Division. That’s a good thing. They are quickly closing in on Los Angeles for third place, though, and they currently sit just two points back with a game in hand on the Kings.
Meanwhile, Edmonton is two points behind the Golden Knights. If Seattle were to leapfrog the Kings, they would play either the Oilers or Golden Knights, whichever team finishes second in the division.
“You’re always looking at the standings,” said Oleksiak. “But, you know, you can only control what you can control, right? So I think we’re just going into games, getting as many points as we can, and see what happens here. I think at the start of the year, a lot of people probably didn’t see us where we’re at now.”
We like the Central Division matchups that would come with Seattle’s current position better than Vegas or Edmonton, so it may behoove Seattle to drop a game or two in these last few outings.
What a night that was. As the Kraken stepped onto the ice before their game against the Coyotes, and “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys blasted in Climate Pledge Arena, the crowd let out the type of cheer that only comes when a fanbase is truly proud of its team. It was one of those cheers that sent goosebumps up and down our arms and made us reflect on what an incredible journey the last two seasons have been.
That journey is far from over, but the Kraken hit a major milestone Thursday by qualifying for their first playoff appearance with a 4-2 win over Arizona.
“We’re new, right?” said coach Dave Hakstol. “Everybody in this room a year and 10 months ago was new, but we’ve grown a little bit. So that belief has shown itself, and we probably put just a little building block of tradition in place by solidifying a playoff spot tonight.”
To get Seattle over the line, the entire Jared McCann / Matty Beniers / Jordan Eberle line contributed in a big way, combining for eight points, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 27 shots.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a memorable night.
Takeaway #1: A huge night for the McCann/Beniers/Eberle line
Last game, we were raving about a Matty Beniers backcheck that thwarted a JT Miller breakaway. This game, we’re raving about the forechecking he did to create two goals for his linemates. Oh, and he scored a beautiful goal to boot on a night when his whole line was clicking.
Beniers’ first goal-producing attack came in the waning moments of the first period with the game tied 0-0. Jared McCann tried to center the puck, but it got deflected behind the net. Nick Schmaltz corralled it but couldn’t escape Beniers, who seemed to read Schmaltz’s mind and took the puck right off his stick. In a flash, Beniers had found Jordan Eberle in front, who got it back to McCann for McCann’s 38th goal of the season.
MCCANN CAN FOR THE 38TH TIME THIS SEASON! 🚨
Awesome forecheck by Matty Beniers, who gets it to Jordan Eberle, who gets it to Jared McCann.
The second goal Beniers created came six minutes into the second period, although Beniers actually did not get onto the scoresheet for this one. With the puck deep in Arizona’s zone, JJ Moser was first on the puck. His defense partner, Patrik Nemeth, slowed down to create a pick and fend off Beniers. That plan backfired, though, because Beniers checked Nemeth into Moser, who coughed up the puck to McCann. It was the old two-for-one special.
“Gotta try to do something,” Beniers said. “Just trying to push them in, trying to make them make a mistake, and it kind of popped to Canner, and Canner made a great play.”
McCann returned the favor to Eberle from earlier in the game, and Eberle had all day to wait out Karel Vejmelka and give Seattle a 3-0 lead.
THREE-GOAL EBERLEAD! 🚨
Another unbelievable forecheck by Beniers, who checks two Coyotes at once. They cough up the puck to McCann, who finds Jordan Eberle alone in front.
The two veteran forwards didn’t keep all the goal-scoring glory for themselves, though, as they worked together to send their rookie mate on a breakaway 3:37 into the third period. On that play, McCann made an elite defensive read to pick off a Juuso Valimaki pass in the Kraken zone. He spun and passed to Eberle, who then sprung Beniers. Beniers went in and sniped his 23rd goal of the season, then skated by the Coyotes bench and either shushed them or hit ’em with the Shooter McGavin finger gun.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨
Jared McCann picks off a pass in the defensive zone, gets it to Eberle, and he springs Beniers. Beniers snipes inside the post.
“I don’t know if I did that, did I?” Beniers said with a massive grin. “Emotions run high, so I don’t know. I don’t even remember doing that, so… sorry.”
Takeaway #2: More late-game silliness from the Coyotes
It is a weird quirk in the NHL schedule that the Kraken and Coyotes are playing each other three times in a week, right at the end of the season. There must have been some carryover emotions from the Coyotes after the Kraken had embarrassed them 8-1 on Monday. In the most recent contest, the desert dogs embarrassed themselves, led by Liam O’Brien and Milos Kelemen.
In the third period, with the game out of reach, Will Borgen crushed Laurent Dauphin in the neutral zone with a clean hit. Kelemen quickly responded with a dirty hit from behind on Brandon Tanev. Tanev didn’t like that, and he got up punching.
Later, the game got out of hand when Valimaki blindsided Eeli Tolvanen away from the puck. Yanni Gourde went after Valimaki, both teams converged, and O’Brien picked a fight with Borgen.
The beautiful game.
This all started after a nasty hit by Valimaki on Tolvanen, well away from the play.
Kelemen and O’Brien each received 17 penalty minutes for their roles on those two separate plays.
This isn’t Seattle’s game, per se, but with the playoffs now officially on the horizon, we have been really impressed in these two games against the Coyotes with how the Kraken have handled themselves. They’re taking care of a bad team between the whistles, but after the whistle, they’re sticking up for each other when Arizona starts running around. Fighting isn’t a big part of the playoffs, but being willing to pay a physical price and stand up for your teammates certainly is. Seattle has shown this week that it is more than willing to pay that price.
Takeaway #3: The Kraken did the damn thing
Coming into this season, the team was consistent in its message that the goal was to make the playoffs. Recognizing the massive turnaround that was needed, we were quite guarded in our optimism and were just hoping to see meaningful hockey at the end of the regular season.
Seattle gave us that meaningful hockey and more, achieving its own goal and clinching its first playoff berth with four games left in the season.
“You look at the leap that we made, I mean, it’s special,” said Eberle. “We’ve got a special group here, and I think from Day 1, a lot of people have written us off. And to get to this point is obviously an accomplishment.”
It’s a remarkable jump after the Kraken finished in the basement last season. Give credit to general manager Ron Francis for his many shrewd offseason additions, and even his in-season ones, like claiming Eeli Tolvanen. Also give credit to coach Dave Hakstol, who has proven time and again his ability to diagnose problems for his group and quickly fix them. The result has been an entire regular season in which a second-year team has avoided anything more than three consecutive losses.
“We use the term and the word ‘belief,’ and that’s a really hard thing to establish,” said Hakstol. “But you establish it through working hard, you establish it through camaraderie, you establish it through going through some ups and downs together and coming out on the other side with a little bit of success. And this group did that throughout the season in small little increments.”
Now, staring down their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, can the Kraken make some noise?
“I think this group feels that we’re not done,” said Eberle. “You look at the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that’s why it’s the funnest thing to play in, everybody has a chance. So, this is only half the battle, and now it’s time when the real work begins.”
The Kraken came back from a 2-0 first period deficit to defeat the Canucks in Vancouver Tuesday night, 5-2. Seattle had been winless in its first six road meetings against its geographic rival to the north dating back to last year, but the Kraken have now won their first in Rogers Arena, taken two straight from the Canucks, and even “won” the 2022-23 season series with Vancouver, five standings points to four.
More importantly, the Kraken now have 94 standings points overall with five games remaining on the schedule. The team is now just one victory (or two standings points, however secured) away from earning its first ever berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (More on this below.) The stakes are clear for this team as it returns to Seattle Thursday for a second game in four days with the Arizona Coyotes.
Main Takeaway
The Kraken penalty kill wrote the narrative in Vancouver. The team was five-for-five killing penalties overall (including one in the first period and a double-minor in the third period), but it was how the team handled two overlapping penalties early in the second period that really changed this game.
The Kraken came into the second period down 2-1. They weathered a first Vancouver power play chance late in the first and into the second, but couldn’t convert that kill into any momentum because the team quickly took two more undisciplined stick infractions. First, Vince Dunn tripped Sheldon Dries at 2:17 in the second; and then, just over a minute later, Alex Wennberg’s stick caught J.T. Miller up high.
Facing an extended two-man disadvantage of almost a minute, the Seattle penalty killers did an admirable job winning the defensive zone draw, clearing the zone, and then denying controlled zone re-entries for much of that time. Yanni Gourde, in particular, stood out for his active work.
After killing the first penalty, Kraken defenseman Carson Soucy attempted a clear, but the puck ricocheted off Conor Garland and directly to Brandon Tanev who broke up the ice one-on-one with Vancouver defenseman Akito Hirose. Jared McCann jumped into the play as well, which held Hirose off, and Tanev snapped off a wicked wrist shot high blocker for a shorthanded goal at 5:07 in the second period.
NHL Video Highlight – Brandon Tanev scores a shorthanded goal against the Vancouver Canucks to make it 2-2. pic.twitter.com/UdEXSdmo1U
— Seattle Kraken Gamebot (@KrakenGameBot) April 5, 2023
Tanev’s score only tied the game at 2-2, but it effectively ended the night for Vancouver. The Canucks managed just six more shots on goal over the remaining 35 minutes of game action and never again looked like a team capable of beating Seattle. The Kraken, on the other hand, poured on 17 more shots on goal and lit the lamp three more times (including an empty netter). The penalty kill was the difference maker.
After the game, Kraken coach Dave Hakstol noted the importance of this stretch. “The kills in the second, the five-on-three, and then finding a [short-handed goal] to tie the game up, that really energized the bench,” Hakstol said.
Stock Up
Penalty Kill. As mentioned above, Seattle went five-or-five on the penalty kill. Since January 16, 2023, the Kraken rank second in the NHL in fewest opponent power play goals allowed, with just twelve allowed. The Carolina Hurricanes are first in this stretch with just eight allowed goals. Similarly, the Kraken are second overall in net goals while at a manpower disadvantage in this time period. The Kraken have scored four shorthanded goals, for a net negative eight goals overall; again only the Hurricanes are better, at net negative five. Good stuff from this group, which has found its footing since going to a diamond scheme and incorporating Jared McCann as a forward penalty killer.
Matty Beniers. Some of the talk coming into this one was about payback for Vancouver defenseman Tyler Myers for his hit on Beniers during the last meeting between these two teams. Kraken coach Dave Hakstol conceded before the game that the team hadn’t forgotten that hit, but insisted the team’s focus was on two points and the drive for the playoffs. Beniers did not disappoint in this regard. After Brandon Tanev leveled the score at two goals apiece, Beniers’ line went to work at even strength, and the young forward ground away on the boards, won the puck battle, and centered for Jordan Eberle for a beautiful go-ahead, game-winning goal.
NHL Video Highlight – Jordan Eberle scores against the Vancouver Canucks to make it 3-2. pic.twitter.com/WzV5V05jpI
— Seattle Kraken Gamebot (@KrakenGameBot) April 5, 2023
This is the type of play the Kraken will need to see from the young Calder Trophy candidate if the team is going to make any noise in postseason play.
Later in the second period, a ferocious backcheck from Beniers foiled a J.T. Miller shorthanded scoring chance. Hakstol called it a “huge” play that “erased what could have been a game-changing mistake.” Kraken fans have come to expect this kind of defensive play from Beniers, but it is worth taking a moment to note just how incredible Beniers’s defensive contributions have been this year. On-ice shot effect models characterize his defensive zone play as somewhere between very good and elite. And all of this is coming at a young age, before we would expect Beniers’s defensive play to peak. The sky is the limit for him on the defensive end, particularly if he can add some more strength to his game and improve his face-offs.
Defensive structure in the second half of the game. As mentioned above, the Vancouver Canucks managed just a half-dozen shots on goal over the second half of the game. The Kraken suffocated Vancouver’s transition game through the middle of the ice and shut down the dangerous scoring areas in the zone. In the third period, Natural Stat Trick credited Vancouver for generating shot quality worth just about one-third of an expected goal. This was great work by the Kraken protecting a lead—something the team has struggled to do in the past.
The Bjorkstrands. Oliver Bjorkstrand was a late scratch and did not play in this one because he was needed back in Seattle for the imminent birth of his first child. Congratulations to the Bjorkstrand family.
Stock Down
Some poor defensive coverage in the first period. A few lackadaisical plays in coverage through the middle of the ice and in the defensive zone cost the team in the early going. First, certified Kraken killer Elias Pettersson tipped in a goal when Will Borgen failed to neutralize him in front of the net. Later, Anthony Beauvillier finished off a cross-seam pass—read poorly by Martin Jones and the Kraken defense—into an open net. Fortunately, from Seattle’s perspective, Yanni Gourde found the back of the net on a screened long-distance wrister to give the team some momentum at the end of the first frame.
Alex Wennberg’s stick control. Wennberg took six minutes worth of penalties for getting his stick up into the faces of his opponents. Generally, Wennberg is a disciplined player who does not take many penalties, but he should be thankful his teammates picked him up in this one.
Jesper Froden and line shuffling. With Bjorkstrand out, Jesper Froden drew in on Yanni Gourde’s wing. Froden did not skate a normal compliment of shifts, however. Indeed, he ended with just 4:55 in total ice time. The coaching staff likely did not trust Froden to jump back in at full speed after such a long layoff. This led to some line juggling throughout the game and some sequences where the forward lines seemed out of sync.
Parting thoughts
Kraken prospect has a big night. Here’s a fun one: Jagger Firkus scored three straight goals for the Moose Jaw Warriors Tuesday in the first round of the WHL Playoffs. Moose Jaw is on the brink of eliminating Lethbridge, so it seems we will likely get to keep seeing the Firkus Circus for a while longer. We’ll be watching.
This Kraken team is built differently. This Kraken team generates offense in a fashion unlike any team the NHL has recently seen. According to the ROOT Sports broadcast, this Kraken team is the first since the 2005-06 season to have 13 different skaters record 30 or more points. And ROOT Sports’s Scott Malone noted on Twitter that the Kraken are the first team in more than 30 years to have 13 different players score 12 or more goals.
The depth of scoring has powered this team to within striking distance of the playoffs. “That’s been a part of our group’s success all of the way through and it’s going to have to continue for us to be in [the playoffs] and for us to have success once we get in,” Hakstol said after the game. Will it translate if and when the Kraken qualify for the postseason? That is the question.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are in sight. The Kraken now have 94 standings points and sit in the first of two wild card positions in the Western Conference. Seattle is competing with the Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, and Nashville Predators for these two playoff spots. If Winnipeg wins out its remaining games, the Jets would end up with 99 standings points. If Nashville wins out, it will get 96 standings points. If Calgary wins out its remaining games, it will end with 95 standings points. Since the Kraken already hold the regulation win tie-breaker on Nashville, regardless of the remaining games, this means the Kraken need to match Nashville’s maximum point total (96) to clinch one of the two wild card spots in the playoffs. In other words, the Kraken need just two more standings points from their remaining five games to clinch the postseason. They’ll have a chance to get those two points at home on Thursday night against the Arizona Coyotes.
Here’s @DarrenFunBrown’s post-game Walk and Talk after a gigantic 5-2 #SeaKraken win over the Canucks.
The Kraken took another big step toward their first playoff berth with a dominant 8-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes Monday at Climate Pledge Arena. After letting inferior teams hang around for a little too long in recent victories, Seattle put this one out of reach in the second period and left no doubt in the end.
Jared McCann had two goals, and Daniel Sprong, Vince Dunn, Carson Soucy, Morgan Geekie, Ryan Donato, and Justin Schultz each had two points. Meanwhile, Philipp Grubauer stopped 21 of 22 shots and had an assist of his own.
With the easy win, the Kraken got themselves off on the right tentacle for what figures to be a series of winnable games over the next week. It put them back to five points up on Calgary with a game in hand, and with Nashville losing Monday, the Predators are almost cooked. Now, by our math, if the Kraken can win three of their last six games, they are guaranteed a playoff spot, regardless of what happens elsewhere. Losses by Nashville and Calgary would shrink that number even more.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a big 8-1 Kraken win over the Coyotes, which earned the home squad two enormous points in the standings.
Takeaway #1: Jared McCann is so good
If Jared McCann ends up scoring 40 goals this season, he may go down as the 40-goal scorer with the least national press attention in history.
After potting two Monday against Arizona in his 500th career game, he needs just three more to hit the 40-goal milestone, a number typically reserved for the top echelon of players in the NHL. Yet, nobody seems to talk about him outside of Seattle.
“I’m not a guy that’s really focused on numbers,” McCann said. “I want to win a Stanley Cup. That’s the main thing, right? Your time in the NHL goes by so quickly, ask anybody on our team that’s been in the league [for a while], Jordan, Jaden, even some of those guys that have won a Cup. You have to work so hard for it, and if you get in the playoffs, it’s special and you need to take advantage of it.”
Ok, fine, but still, for a guy that says he’s had to “grind it out” in his career, we think it’s pretty special that he’s closing in on 40 goals after never hitting 20 before arriving in Seattle.
McCann’s first goal of the night came shorthanded after Matty Beniers broke up an Arizona zone entry, then quickly turned the puck north. Facing even numbers, Beniers and McCann did a simple cross-and-drop play, and McCann quickly snapped off his lethal shot, getting some help from an Arizona deflection.
McCann’s second goal of the night and 37th of the year was an absolute banger, and one that he created almost entirely on his own. He, Soucy, and Travis Boyd were all whacking away at a bouncing puck, just inside the Seattle blue line. McCann came away with it, and he and Jordan Eberle were off to the races on a two-on-one rush. Eberle went hard to the far post, and McCann did the rest.
The star scorer tried to toe drag the puck around the outstretched stick of Juuso Valimaki. Valimaki got a piece of it, but not enough to fully dislodge it, so McCann carried on with his drive to the slot and fired the puck against the grain. It was a perfect shot, off the inside of the post and in behind Ivan Prosvetov.
MCCANN CAN AGAIN! 🚨 He’s so good.
He gets a steal in the defensive zone, races in, toe drags, and snipes. Second of the night, 37th of the year.
“He had a great year last year here, and this year… he’s coming up big for us,” said Sprong. “He’s a threat offensively, he has the shot, and he’s dangerous every time he’s on the ice. And, you know, it’s [his] 500th game, so it’s good to see that he had a night like that. He deserved it.”
McCann’s pace had slowed of late—he had two goals in his previous 10 games before scoring twice against Arizona—so it was encouraging to see him get back on the horse in a big way.
Takeaway #2: The power play is suddenly cooking
We were chatting with Sprong this week about the power play, and he told us he thought the units had been getting good looks recently, so he felt like it was only a matter of time before they started clicking again. He has been a big part of the recent success, from his position on the left half wall on Seattle’s second unit, which is where he scored his crucial goal from against the Ducks on Thursday.
Sprong may have used that goal in the Anaheim game to the Kraken’s advantage Monday, as Coyotes defenders—who surely had seen the goal in their pre-scout—seemed to shift toward him once he got the puck. Instead of letting his wicked shot go this time, he whipped a shot-pass into the slot, where Jordan Eberle was waiting for the redirect.
EBERLE GETS ’EM ON THE BOARD! 🚨
Nice little shot-pass by Sprong, and Eberle deflects it by Prosvetov. Power-play goal.
The power-play goal got Seattle on the board, marking the third game in a row the Kraken have converted with the man advantage.
“We’re moving the puck, we’re getting pucks on net, we’re playing with confidence on the power play,” said Sprong. “And we’re taking the chances we need, the looks are there, and we’re capitalizing on it. So it’s good momentum for us, especially near the end of the year.”
Takeaway #3: That was the killer instinct Seattle needs this week
The second of back-to-backs Tuesday in Vancouver could be a tough game for the Kraken, but even so, it’s fair to say Seattle faces a weak schedule this week. The Kraken need to win a few more before they officially qualify for the playoffs, though, so taking care of business against these bad teams is critical.
The Kraken did just that against the Coyotes, and they left no doubt in this one, something we couldn’t say about their March 30 win against Anaheim. In that game, Seattle had chances to put a weaker opposing team away in the second period, but failed to do so, letting the Ducks hang around and giving a generally nervy feeling.
Monday against the Coyotes, the Kraken ended the second up 4-1 and gave themselves a good, comfortable third period to cruise through to victory.
“I think we just said in the dressing room, ‘We gotta stay on ’em,'” said McCann. “We can’t let up. We have a tendency to kind of back up a little more and kind of play defensive, and that kind of puts us in the soup sometimes. So we did a good job of staying on ’em tonight.”
As an aside, we love that phrase, “It puts us in the soup.”
What we saw in this one is exactly what we would love to see in Seattle’s next four games against Vancouver, Arizona again, Chicago, and… Arizona… again. Keep playing like that and closing bad teams out early, and clinching a playoff spot will be a breeze.
Bonus Takeaway: Unnecessary Roughness
Things got feisty at the end of this one. At 12:19 of the third period, Liam O’Brien gave Jamie Oleksiak no choice other than to fight him, a challenge Oleksiak accepted. O’Brien—who is much smaller than the 6-foot-7 Oleksiak—got the worst of it, but hey, at least O’Brien had his name called by the radio and TV broadcasters for his trouble.
Moments later, Soucy delivered a textbook reverse hit on Lawson Crouse, who then wanted to fight Soucy for some reason. The linesmen broke them up, but had they been allowed to drop the gloves, Soucy would have gotten a Gordie Howe hat trick.
Finally—and this is where things got out of hand—when Ryan Donato scored to make it 8-1, Sprong was going hard to the net. A second after the goal, Connor Mackey blew up Sprong with a completely unnecessary hit. Donato saw it and immediately went after Mackey, who dropped his gloves and punched Donato several times.
The hit by Mackey was an apparent retaliation for a hit Sprong had on Mackey earlier in the game, which earned Sprong an obvious interference penalty.
Worth noting again, these teams play each other two more times in the next week.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
When the Kraken played the Kings on Nov. 29 in Los Angeles, Seattle skated to a mind-bending 9-8 victory in a game that featured oodles of offense and zero defense. Saturday’s game at Climate Pledge Arena was the exact opposite, perhaps the tightest-checking game we’ve ever seen Seattle play.
Through 40 minutes, there was almost nothing happening offensively at either end of the ice. Both clubs did a great job of clogging up the neutral zone, and once it got into either offensive zone, there was just no room to work the puck inside. Shots either came from the perimeter or got blocked or deflected.
In the end, the game came down to one bad bounce and one bad mistake. Here are our Three Takeaways from a hard-fought 3-1 Kraken loss to the Kings.
Takeaway #1: A bad bounce
This game had the feel that the first team to score would have an enormous advantage. That came to fruition after Sean Durzi got a fortuitous bounce and found himself all alone on the doorstep next to Martin Jones.
Late in the second period, with the score still 0-0, Durzi—a defenseman—was the first forechecker into the Kraken zone. Behind the net, he managed to poke the puck around the wall, but when he did so, he blew a tire and crashed hard into the end wall. Kraken defenders seemed to assume he was neutralized, so they let him be.
The puck swung around to Alex Iafallo, who loaded up at the top of the slot. McCann did exactly what he was supposed to do, lunging and deflecting the shot. But rather than ramping up over the net, as deflected shots often do, it skittered right to Durzi, who had recovered just in time for an easy tap-in goal.
Kings break the ice. McCann deflected an Iafallo shot, but it skittered right to Durzi on the doorstep for an easy tap-in.
“There’s a bounce of a puck on that play, but you always look at what you can do a little bit better,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “We can close a little bit quicker, and we can be in a little bit better spots.”
That’s a tough break. You’re defending so well, and even on a play that your forward blocks a shot, the outcome is an easy goal against.
Takeaway #2: A costly mistake
Considering how difficult it was for either team to get on the board with one goal, a second goal against made Seattle’s climb to get back in the game monumental.
Five minutes into the third period, the Kraken had shifted their approach a bit. Down 1-0, they were getting extended offensive zone time at five-on-five for the first time all game, and it felt like an equalizer could be on the horizon.
But Brandon Tanev, playing in career game No. 400, took a rim-around pass from Jones and started to skate the puck out of the zone. He slowed down ever so slightly as he prepared to make a stretch pass and didn’t sense the back-pressure coming from Carl Grundstrom.
The sneaky Grundstrom picked Tanev’s pocket and turned the play around in an instant, sniping a nice shot into the corner of the net.
D’oh! Tanev gets his pocket picked by Grundstrom, and Grundstrom snipes.
“Mistakes are part of the game, right?” said Hakstol. “Each of the goals that were scored tonight, there was a good play on one side probably a mistake on the other.”
To Seattle’s credit, the group didn’t give up and finally got on the board at 8:25 of the third with a power-play goal. The red-hot Daniel Sprong fired a hard shot that bounced off goalie Pheonix Copley and just missed going in. But LA’s clearing attempt went onto Oliver Bjorkstrand’s tape in the slot, and he had an easy goal.
That got Seattle back within one, but sure enough, the deficit proved to be too much to overcome against the air-tight Los Angeles defense and strong performance of Copley.
“There’s going to be games like that,” said Bjorkstrand. “You’ve gotta be comfortable playing those types of games. So, yeah, be patient, and when you get the chances, you just have to bury them.”
Takeaway #3: Tough sledding, but lots to like
The outcome is disappointing for the Kraken, who still have work to do to clinch their first playoff berth. One thing to consider, though, is that as they head down this final stretch, Seattle has a weak schedule remaining, with the exception of the last two games against Vegas.
Offensively, the Kraken didn’t do enough Saturday, but defensively they were excellent. That style of hockey wins you a lot of games in the NHL, especially if you’re playing weaker opponents. So, if they can replicate that effort every night the rest of the way, they should cruise easily into a playoff berth.
“We’re not going to break this one down into little bits and pieces,” said Hakstol. “We’re going to take some— two or three of the obvious takeaways and get going moving forward.”
Three Takeaways, you say?! We digress.
After the loss, Seattle’s lead is three points over Winnipeg for the top wild card spot, five points over Calgary for the last playoff spot, and six points over Nashville. The Kraken also have a game in hand over Winnipeg and Calgary and have seven games left to play.
The Kraken took another big step toward their first playoff berth Thursday by downing the lowly Ducks at Climate Pledge Arena. In a favorable matchup, Seattle just had to have the standings points in this one, as things had tightened in the Western Conference ever so slightly.
There was a significant slowdown from the Kraken in the second period, but in the end, they took care of business once again and registered their 89th and 90th points in the standings.
Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers, Daniel Sprong, and Alex Wennberg (empty-net goal) scored, and Martin Jones made 15 of 16 saves to earn the win.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an important 4-1 Kraken win over the Ducks.
Takeaway #1: That was an awesome game for Matty Beniers
Prior to scoring his 20th goal against the Predators on March 25, Matty Beniers had been stuck on 19 for more than a month, dating all the way back to Feb. 23. But he did get one by Juuse Saros to end the drought in that game, and against the Ducks at home on Thursday, he played like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
We can’t help wondering if the $250K “Schedule A” rookie bonus that kicks in at 20 goals could have been in the back of Beniers’ mind for a bit. Now that he has hit that threshold, it is not surprising that the floodgates seem to have reopened.
“Honestly, I think I was playing good before and after [getting my 20th],” said Beniers. “Sometimes it just doesn’t go in, and that’s how the game works. And, you know, you get one, and then they start falling. So I think everyone goes through it. I think I was playing a good game before, and I think I’m playing the same exact game now; they’re just going in.”
Beniers was everywhere on the ice against the Ducks, setting up his linemates for scoring chances, lugging the puck through the neutral zone, and making play after play that exuded confidence.
Case in point, his goal to make it 2-0 at 10:37 of the first period was both started and finished by Beniers. He hustled to track down a loose puck in the neutral zone, spun, and banked a perfect pass to send Jared McCann in for a quality chance. McCann took a high shot that got stopped by Lukas Dostal, retrieved his own rebound, and swung behind the net.
While McCann was doing all that, Beniers got himself back into a scoring area, where McCann found him standing wide open.
Once McCann got Beniers the puck, he could have overreacted and quickly shot into Dostal. Instead, he waited for Dostal to fully commit, and even after he lost the puck momentarily, he gathered it and tucked it inside the post.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨
Beniers shows some razzle dazzle, loses it temporarily, but sticks with it and makes it 2-0.
Beniers also registered a primary assist on Sprong’s crucial power-play goal late in the third, although on that one, Beniers took a one-timer that missed the net and rimmed around to Sprong. So, that one was less impressive, but still, it was a hell of a night for the kid.
Takeaway #2: Kraken could use more of a killer instinct
Don’t get us wrong, here, the Kraken did what they had to Thursday and earned two critical points in the standings. BUT… It got too close for comfort at the end of the second period and well into the third, as Brock McGinn scored late in the middle frame to make it 2-1.
“All of a sudden, it’s a 2-1 game,” said Hakstol. “We just had to come in and reset and settle down and go back and play a good third period.”
The Ducks continued to hang around and kept Seattle at a wing’s length all the way until Sprong got his 20th of the season at 15:41 of the third. It was a big goal in the game and a big goal for Sprong personally.
“Yeah, it feels pretty good,” said Sprong. “We played a good game. We’ve been struggling at home before going on the that road trip.”
A game that felt like it was very much on the rails after 20 minutes shifted to feeling like it could go either way after 40. Against a team that’s in the basement and didn’t even have its top players in Troy Terry, Trevor Zegras, or John Gibson in the lineup, another goal or two for Seattle in the second period would have made that one feel a lot easier.
After how the first period went, we would have liked to see the Kraken run away with that game in the second. But like the eventual 7-2 win in Nashville last week, the opponent hung around until Seattle was finally able to deliver the knockout blow.
“Other teams are pretty good too,” coach Dave Hakstol said with a chuckle. “They’re trying to win; like, it’s the National Hockey League. You build wins through 60 minutes… Everybody’s pretty good, everybody’s playing for something, everybody is motivated by something.”
We get where Hakstol is coming from; wins are never easy in the NHL, and playing a perfect 60 minutes almost never happens. Still, we would like to see a little more killer instinct when the Kraken have control of games, as they did against the Ducks before they got temporarily off track.
Good on ’em for figuring it out in time to get the win.
Takeaway #3: Martin Jones did what he had to do
If it wasn’t perfect for the Kraken players, it wasn’t perfect for goalie Martin Jones either. It was a positive outing for the him, though, as he stopped all but one of Anaheim’s shots to earn his first win since Feb. 28 and hopefully build some confidence.
The McGinn goal came from an angle after Jones was a hair late in getting over to cover his post. He bounced right back, though, and made some key saves down the stretch.
Hakstol talks a lot about timely saves, and Jones had a few of those Thursday. In the opening minutes of the game, he faced two or three point-blank shots that could have set a negative tone had they gotten through. But Jones was in good position and made solid butterfly saves to keep the game scoreless in those first few minutes, leading to a mostly dominant period by the Kraken.
Jones’s most important stop came after a miscue from the players in front of him in the third period. With the Kraken holding a tenuous 2-1 lead, Jamie Oleksiak, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and McCann were all briefly within a stick length of the puck, but none of them actually scooped it up.
It came back the other way in hurry, and Jones was facing a partial two-on-zero. Frank Vatrano took a quick shot, and Jones made a big kick save to keep Seattle in the lead. Soon after that stop, the Kraken seemed to find their game again and ultimately skated away with a key win.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
