by Darren Brown | Jan 16, 2023 | Three takeaways
The Seattle Kraken players and their head coach were not hanging their heads after losing 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning Monday afternoon. Even with a perfect seven-game road trip in the rearview, you just knew coming in that this was going to be a tough one, and although the result wasn’t what the group wanted, Seattle performed admirably.
Seattle stayed within reach of the Lightning for the entirety of the game, and if it could have gotten things going offensively just a little earlier, we could have seen a ninth consecutive victory.
Alas, the win streak was snapped at eight, as the Kraken dropped the first game of this odd set of back-to-backs with travel.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken loss to the Lightning.
Takeaway #1: No excuses, but also there are lots of excuses
Vince Dunn, who scored Seattle’s lone goal and extended his career-best point streak to seven games, said there were no excuses for a relatively slow Kraken start Monday. “We had a whole day yesterday, we had the morning off this morning,” Dunn said. “So, we’re at home, we’re in our beds. There’s no excuse why we come out a little flat.”
BUT… It was plain to see the deck was stacked against the Kraken for this one. The first game after a long road trip is always a tough one, but that wasn’t the only thing working against the group. Add in a rare 1 p.m. start time, no morning skate, a very tough opponent, and the comedown that surely followed a record-setting perfect seven-game road trip, and the Kraken were ripe for a loss.
“That’s part of the NHL schedule, right?” Hakstol said. “It’s not one you look at on the schedule and say, ‘Well, this is going to be an easy one to be at the top of your game.’ But I felt like our group was good. They were ready to go.”
Predictably, the home side looked slow in the first period against a Tampa Bay team that was buzzing and pumped 15 shots on Philipp Grubauer. Seattle did well to keep most opportunities to the outside, and Grubauer came up big to bail them out a few times.
The Bolts broke through late in the first period, though, after what looked like an opportunity to clear the puck bounced right off Ryan Donato and onto Corey Perry’s stick. Perry fed Ian Cole at the point, who blasted away. Cole’s shot was off target, but Pierre-Edouard Bellemare got his stick on it and redirected it around Grubauer.
Keeping the deficit to just one goal after that frame was a small victory that made us think we might see a breakout in the second period. But the Kraken didn’t generate like they did on the road trip, and Nick Paul’s goal 6:44 into the third would end up being enough for the Bolts.
Dunn had an unfortunate unofficial assist on Paul’s goal after he lost control of the puck behind Seattle’s net. He joked that he made up for it with his third-period goal that got Seattle back within one. “Goals at home are always big,” Dunn said. “It gets the crowd back into it. For myself, I definitely owed the boys one by letting that second goal get through me there.”
Coach Dave Hakstol summed up the afternoon well. “In the first period, our bigger issue was coming out of the zone,” Hakstol said. “The second period, we didn’t shoot a whole lot of pucks inside. They’re a tough team to get inside on. They box you out early, so you got to find a way to get inside and win that race inside early, and then shoot pucks inside. We weren’t able to do that. We did a little bit more of it in the third.”
Onward and upward for the Kraken, who now have the pleasure of going right back out on the road to play Connor McDavid and the Oilers again on Tuesday. No excuses.
Takeaway #2: Tampa Bay is still very good
When you pay close attention to a particular team, it’s easy to nitpick its performance and hang the outcome of a game entirely on that team (in our case, the Kraken). But sometimes you need to give credit where it’s due, and the Lightning again showed why they have been so good over these last few years.
“They won two Stanley Cups, they’ve been really successful over the last couple years,” said Grubauer. “They know what they’re doing. They’re really good within their system, and then they have the skill to make plays happen outside their system.”
The Kraken, who had been scoring goals at will over the previous eight games, mustered just 12 measly shots through the first two periods.
The Bolts are just so efficient in all three zones. As soon as you get the puck, they are on you. If you’re trying to get the puck out of your own end, you better be on the money with your passing, or they will make you pay. And if you want to generate sustained offense, you simply have to outwork them. That did not happen Monday.
“They’ve got good players, and they play within good structure,” said Hakstol. “There’s big bodies that take away time and space very well.”
One of those big bodies is Victor Hedman. Every time it seemed like something was cooking for Seattle, Hedman—who we could have sworn played the entire game—would magically appear to break up the opportunity. In fact, the big Swede rejected a sure Jared McCann goal in the second period when he calmly intercepted a Donato pass in the crease. In all, Hedman led all players in the game with 26:09 of ice time and scored one of Tampa Bay’s two empty-net goals.
Hedman is just one of Tampa Bay’s many stars. The Lightning are still good.
Takeaway #3: Are both goalies going?
It seems like both goalies are going for the Kraken right now. Hakstol has again been relying heavily on Martin Jones, who was named the NHL’s No. 1 star of the week with a 3-0-0 record and two shutouts.
But, we’ve long believed getting both goalies clicking at the same time would be what gets this team to new heights. That seems to be happening right now, and the loss Monday came despite Grubauer kicking out 29 of 31 shots.
“Both guys have been good,” Hakstol said. “You look at Jonesy’s win-loss record, you look at Grubi’s performances over the past four or five [outings], he’s been solid.”
Hakstol may have forgotten about Grubauer’s start against Edmonton on Dec. 30, when he gave up three goals on five shots. But, if you take that game out, Grubauer has a .931 save percentage in his other three starts since Dec. 28. Meanwhile, it goes without saying that Jones has been stellar, earning every bit of his 21-5-3 record on the season.
Grubauer really was good Monday, and as has often been the case for him this season, deserved a better outcome. His best save came late in the second period when Mikhail Sergachev hit Corey Perry on the doorstep. Grubauer did a painful-looking full split and robbed Perry with his skate.
“No, it didn’t hurt,” Grubauer said with a laugh. “I think I got a little lucky. The stick broke too, and he shot it right into me. Obviously for [goalies], it’s a really difficult play, because you’ve got to travel so far to get back there, but got lucky, made the save, and on we go to the next one.”
If both goalies keep going, Hakstol is going to have some tough decisions to make down the stretch as to which netminder starts each night. And that would be a very good problem to have.
by Darren Brown | Jan 5, 2023 | Three takeaways
If your early season belief in the Kraken waned in December, perhaps it has been reinstated now. After being blown out by the Oilers at home to close out 2022, Seattle has started the 2023 calendar year with three impressive full-team wins. The most recent Kraken victory came in convincing fashion against the high-flying Toronto Maple Leafs in their barn on Thursday.
Good feelings are continuing to build back up around this club, which seems to have put its December bad habits in the rearview and once again looks confident playing in front of goalie Martin Jones.
The win is Seattle’s first ever against Toronto and also gives coach Dave Hakstol his first victory against the club for whom he served as an assistant coach two seasons ago.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a stirring 5-1 Kraken road win over the Maple Leafs.
Takeaway #1: A bad first period on paper was actually great for the Kraken
Toronto came out flying in the first period and at one point had an 8-0 advantage in shots on goal. Yet, the Kraken held firm and kept the Maple Leafs off the board, living to fight another day (or in this case, another period).
Sometimes when you’re playing a highly skilled team like Toronto on the road, it’s easy to get caught flat footed in the early going. You have to do what you can to batten down the hatches and bide your time until opportunities present themselves. If you keep your structure and don’t panic, eventually things will settle down, and you’ll be able to push back.
That’s exactly what the Kraken did in the opening frame Thursday, and as the Maple Leafs continued to buzz, Seattle limited second chances, blocked shots, and mostly kept things to the perimeter.
“They kind of jumped on us at the start of the game,” said Jones. “I thought we did a pretty good job kind of weathering the storm a little bit, they got a couple chances, but once we got our legs and started checking, started skating, we were able to control a lot of the play tonight.”
“We weathered the storm,” said Hakstol. “The first 10 minutes, they were skating through the neutral zone… They had a lot of speed and pace coming through, but we were able to— you know, we weathered that.”
Hakstol also called it “a dangerous way to start a hockey game,” but the Maple Leafs did eventually ease off the throttle in the second half of the period, and that set Seattle up to go gangbusters in the second.
The Kraken got a lot of help in the first period from Jones, who stopped all nine of the shots he faced in those first 20 minutes.
“Jonesy was a big part of that,” Hakstol said. “To be able to get us through that portion— that was pretty important for him to help us do that.”
Takeaway #2: More second-period success
Just one game after the Kraken hung four second-period goals on Stuart Skinner and the Edmonton Oilers, they did the exact same thing to Matt Murray and the Toronto Maple Leafs, proving again that patience pays off.
Eeli Tolvanen got the scoring started, blasting a power-play one-timer past Murray at 7:02 of the second. Much like on his goal on New Year’s Day against the Islanders, Vince Dunn laid a soft pass right into Tolvanen’s kitchen. Tolvanen unleashed another howitzer that blew Murray’s hair back as it hit the Toronto twine, making it 1-0.
Tolvanen is quite the story. Scratched in seven straight games after being claimed from Nashville, the Kraken are now 3-0-0 with him in the lineup. He seems to have single-handedly fixed the team’s power play woes by adding a left-shot weapon, and he now has two goals and three points in three games. How does Seattle *not* continue putting him in the lineup moving forward?
After Tolvanen’s goal, John Tavares got Toronto on the board at 10:54. But Vince Dunn got the ever-important response goal 14 seconds later, and Seattle never looked back.
“Biggest goal of the game, for sure,” said Hakstol. “That was the biggest point of the game; they tie it up, the momentum can push the other way. For our group to be able to come back and get that goal, that was the biggest turning point of the hockey game.”
Our favorite goal of the night came at 17:25. Adam Larsson slung the puck around the wall behind Seattle’s net to Dunn. Dunn moved it along to Jaden Schwartz, who heard Jared McCann screaming for the puck in the neutral zone. Without even looking, Schwartz somehow hit McCann in stride, who flew over the blue line and beat Murray with a no-doubter.
It was a pretty play and another shining example of McCann rubbing Toronto’s nose in its decision to acquire him in a trade from Pittsburgh and then immediately expose him to Seattle in the Expansion Draft.
Newly minted NHL All-Star, Matty Beniers, rounded out the second-period scoring with a pretty goal of his own, fielding a partially whiffed Jordan Eberle shot, spinning, and rifling it past Murray to make it 4-1.
This could be the game plan for the foreseeable future, folks. Seattle loves bottling teams up with the long change in the second period, and as long as it can get through the first and stay in contact with the opposition, watch out for the fellas in that middle frame.
Takeaway #3: Lots of big-time performances
Thursday was a game for big-time performances, as the Kraken waited out and eventually outgunned a star-studded Maple Leafs team.
As the game went on, it was as if a relay baton was being handed from player to player, with said baton signifying which player would carry the team for that portion of the game.
It started with Martin Jones, who stood tall during the early onslaught and gave his teammates a chance to get things rolling in the second period. The 26-save victory brought Jones to a remarkable 17-5-3 record on the season, and it represented his third straight quality start and his third win in as many tries.
From there, Jones handed the baton to Tolvanen, who kindly shared it with nine other point scorers on the night.
The top defensive pairing of Dunn and Larsson was especially impressive when it was their turn to carry the baton. Dunn set up the Tolvanen goal, scored the response goal that Hakstol called the “turning point” of the game, and had the secondary assist on the beautiful McCann goal.
Larsson saw his seven-game point streak snapped, but he started that play that created the McCann goal, led the team with six shots, and was outstanding defensively in a whopping 26:58 of ice time.
That was a heckuva win against a heckuva team. Let’s see if Seattle can keep it rolling on this long road trip when it visits Ottawa on Saturday.
by Darren Brown | Jan 1, 2023 | Three takeaways
The Kraken sure needed that win against the Islanders, and when the final horn sounded (actually, the final horn never sounded, but more on that later), Seattle left no doubt as to which team deserved the victory.
After getting shellacked by the Oilers Friday, the Kraken bounced back with a convincing 60-minute effort in which they started strong, played well in all three zones, and had success on both the power play and penalty kill. The win stops the bleeding of an otherwise miserable stretch and gives the group life and belief as it heads out on its longest road trip of the season.
If the Kraken had dropped this game to the Islanders and extended their losing streak to four games before leaving for Canada, things could have started to feel like they were getting away from the team. Instead, it put itself back ahead of the Oilers in the Pacific Division standings and closed the homestand on a high note.
“We faltered,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “Two nights ago was an embarrassing night. That’s a hard one to play in this building, yet we were able to recover from that today and get an important two points.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a crucial 4-1 Kraken win over the Islanders.
Takeaway #1: Eeli Tolvanen makes an immediate impact
After watching practice Saturday, we thought Sunday would be the night that Eeli Tolvanen would make his Kraken debut, and we were correct on that. What we got wrong was who would come out of the lineup to make space for the Finnish newcomer. Ryan Donato was rotating in and out of line rushes Saturday, but Morgan Geekie was the one who ended up watching the game against the Isles in street clothes.
Fair or not for Geekie, Tolvanen—claimed off waivers from the Predators on Dec. 12—was well overdue to get into his first game. Getting him in meant somebody had to sit. The move worked wonders for the Kraken, as Tolvanen had a memorable debut performance.
With the game tied 1-1 early in the second period and Seattle on the power play, Tolvanen set up in the right circle. Vince Dunn laid a pass right in Tolvanen’s wheelhouse, and the 23-year-old unloaded, launching a missile past Ilya Sorokin who coincidentally was having an outstanding game.
“The power-play goal, you can’t teach that,” said Hakstol. “That’s an ability that he has, and that was heavy. He got all of that, and he beat a good goaltender on that play.”
But it wasn’t just about the goal for Tolvanen, who skated on the third line with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde for 12:53 of ice time. Tolvanen was effective even in the defensive zone, where he made two big shot blocks.
“What I liked more [than the goal], probably— I know he can do that,” said Hakstol. “I didn’t know he was willing to block shots. He blocked a couple big shots from the line, he managed the puck well, he checked pretty well. So, you know, from top to bottom, that’s a nice start for him.”
It’s an impressive first outing for a guy playing with a new team and seeing his first game action since Nov. 19, when he played just 9:23 for Nashville against Tampa Bay.
“Things didn’t go well in Nashville, and I kind of got a fresh start,” Tolvanen said. “And you know, we’ve been all working hard for the last two weeks here with all the coaches and just getting back into game shape. I’ve got to say thanks to those guys. It’s been long skates, but I felt really good since the first time I hopped on the ice. So, it was definitely worth it to skate a couple weeks before hopping in the game.”
Tolvanen meshed well with his linemates. “It’s new for him, it’s a new team and first game with us, but I thought we tried to keep it simple and just work hard and compete out there,” said Bjorkstrand, who also scored a needed goal. “We’re going to keep talking if we’re going to keep playing together and find that chemistry, but I thought it was there, and he’s fun to play with.”
With the eventual game-winning goal, Tolvanen was named the second star of the game and was given the Davy Jones hat in the dressing room.
The second star meant he got to yeet his first fish. Asked how he graded his yeeting, Tolvanen said, “Solid A.”
After that debut, we would be willing to guess Tolvanen will not have to wait another month and a half before he sees his next NHL game.
Takeaway #2: A good night for special teams (finally)
Things had been going horrendously for Seattle on both the penalty kill and the power play. Correct us if we’re wrong in the comment section, but by our count, we *believe* the Kraken hadn’t scored a power-play goal since Dec. 11 against Florida. Ironically, that was one day before Seattle claimed Tolvanen, who had been healthy scratched every game before Sunday.
The power play got off the schneid with Tolvanen’s goal, and Seattle’s 31st-ranked PK finally pitched a shutout with two successful kills.
As we mentioned in Saturday’s Practice Notebook, the coaching staff changed its tactics for this one, switching from a wedge-plus-one to a more traditional four-man box. The change worked, at least for one game.
“We did some things a little bit differently,” Hakstol said. “Dave [Lowry] adjusted some things yesterday that we worked on in practice, and now, you know, there’s going to be some good pieces there that we can build off of for sure.”
Still, Hakstol knows there’s more improvement needed from the PK. “You don’t change things and then do everything right all in one day. It’s a longer process than that, but the bottom line is guys did the job tonight, and now we can continue pushing forward.”
Takeaway #3: In-arena hijinks
There were a few very strange things that happened during this game. First, Dunn had a good look in the opening period and fired a shot that Sorokin stopped with his left pad. Somebody in game operations jumped the gun and accidentally hit the goal horn button, sending a jolt through the arena. When you aren’t expecting the ferry horn to sound, it is very startling, so it caused a good chuckle for many in attendance.
The second abnormality came with about six minutes left in the game, when suddenly we time warped, and the clock jumped ahead to under a minute remaining. It ticked all the way down to zero, and the home fans comically got up and cheered for what they believed was a win. Public address announcer Chet Buchanan quickly got on the horn and said, “The game is not over. There was a clock malfunction.”
The clock was adjusted, and the rest of the game was played out, as the Kraken defended well during New York’s late six-on-five push.
Yet, the shenanigans didn’t end there. After Brandon Tanev had sealed the game with an empty-net goal to make it 4-1, the clock oddly stopped with 2.2 seconds left, despite no whistle being blown. Recognizing the game should have ended, the referees just called it off, and post-game celebrations began, even though the final horn never sounded.
It was a bizarre way to end the game, but it took nothing away from a desperately needed 60-minute effort for the Kraken. Now, they head out on the road for two weeks, with their first stop in… [gulp]… Edmonton to take on Connor McDavid and the Oilers once again.
by Darren Brown | Dec 31, 2022 | Three takeaways
Hey, if you take out the first 10 minutes, that’s a 3-2 hockey game. Unfortunately for Seattle, though, by the time 10 minutes had elapsed, the Kraken had effectively already lost to the Oilers after giving up four goals, including three in the first 3:55.
Seattle didn’t have it from the drop of the puck Friday, and Connor McDavid took full advantage, slicing and dicing his way to five points and a far-too-easy win for Edmonton.
“I didn’t talk to the group tonight; we’ll talk tomorrow,” said an angry coach Dave Hakstol after the game. “There’s nothing constructive we’re going to talk about tonight.”
Added Adam Larsson: “Tonight was one of those nights we’re not proud of.”
And finally, Yanni Gourde: “I think lately, we haven’t been playing our best hockey, and tonight I think it was just a big slap in our face.”
That pretty much sums up the mood in the Kraken dressing room after a 7-2 drubbing by the Oilers at Climate Pledge Arena. Here are our Three Takeaways.
Takeaway #1: A disastrous start
Nothing went right for the Kraken in the opening 10 minutes of that hockey game. Just two minutes in, Spokane native Kailer Yamamoto drove hard to the net, forcing Philipp Grubauer to make a tough save. In the process, Carson Soucy tripped Yamamoto, giving the lethal Edmonton power play its first opportunity of the night.
The Oilers quickly took advantage when McDavid found Zach Hyman open on the doorstep for an easy tap in.
Just 30 seconds later, Edmonton had a three-on-two rush. Justin Schultz chased McDavid, taking himself out of position and leaving Klim Kostin all alone in the slot to make it 2-0.
Then 40 seconds after that, Vince Dunn pinched in from the offensive blue line to lay a hit on Yamamoto. But Yamamoto got a pass off to McDavid in time to send him on a three-on-two rush the other way with Jordan Eberle back as one of the defenders. The result was Darnell Nurse walking right down the slot untouched, and being allowed to pick his spot on Grubauer.
All that happened in under four minutes of game time, and that was all it took for Grubauer to be lifted for Martin Jones after making just two saves on five shots.
We would argue none of the three goals were Grubauer’s fault, but a change in that moment was absolutely necessary. As a coach, you need to protect your goalie there and do everything you can to settle things down and get your team playing the right way.
“I’m sure we want a stop there, but that’s about the fourth place that I’m gonna look at on that,” Hakstol said, referencing the Nurse goal. “We get beat up the ice in a couple different cases there at a time when our full mentality should be, ‘shut it down, settle the game down, work our way into it.’”
We asked Hakstol if the early goalie switch was more about Grubauer’s play or about what was happening in front of him, and he said it was a little of both. “Regardless of the situation, you know, we need our goaltender to make some saves, but at that point in time, our team wasn’t going. So, make a change in net, take a few seconds for everybody to reset and hope that you go back and push the other direction, and we didn’t do that.”
The early misery didn’t end there. Edmonton’s fourth goal came after Schultz left the front of the net, reading that Seattle had gained possession of the puck in the corner. He slid to the other corner to help facilitate a breakout, but Matty Beniers lost the puck to Hyman. In the blink of an eye, Jesse Puljujarvi was scoring from the top of the crease without a Kraken defender in sight.
“You have to read possession,” Hakstol said. “We have possession of that puck, so we’re going to push it east-west, and that’s— Schultzy’s moving to a breakout spot, but we don’t make the play.”
The result of the misread and the mishandle was a wide-open shooter. “We should have layers there, but in that case, you don’t get much more naked than that at net front.”
Takeaway #2: Connor McDavid stinks
Just kidding, he’s incredible.
Last season, when Seattle beat Edmonton in a memorable home win in early December, the Kraken were able to minimize the damage caused by McDavid. On Saturday, every time he was on the ice, it felt like just a matter of time before he either scored or set up one of his teammates for an easy goal. Heck, Hyman had two power-play goals by simply standing next to the far post and letting McDavid bank pucks in off him.
“I don’t know how many points he has right now, but he’s the best player in the world for a reason,” said Larsson, McDavid’s former teammate. “He’s hard to stop. We can do a lot better job of stopping him, but I mean when you give him time and space, he’s going to make you look stupid most of the time.”
For the record, McDavid now has 32 goals and 72 points in 37 games and leads the league in basically every offensive category.
That’s also twice in three games that the Kraken have allowed one opposing player to rack up five points against them, after Elias Pettersson singlehandedly beat Seattle just before the Christmas break.
Takeaway #3: Line juggling does not yield results… yet
The always even-keeled Hakstol was a tad more animated than usual in his post-game presser, commenting several times on the lack of competitiveness from his group Friday and its unwillingness to check to create offense. Instead, he said the team was trying to score its way to victory, something the Kraken can’t do against a high-octane team like Edmonton.
Unlike last season, Hakstol has kept his lines very consistent throughout this campaign, but seeing that things had gone sideways Friday, he shuffled the deck in the second period.
Here’s what we saw:
Jard McCann // Matty Beniers // Andre Burakovsky
Jaden Schwartz // Alex Wennberg // Oliver Bjorkstrand
Brandon Tanev // Yanni Gourde // Jordan Eberle
Ryan Donato // Morgan Geekie // Daniel Sprong
“We didn’t have much going the right way,” Hakstol said. “A lot of the thought process there is— I mentioned competitiveness, we weren’t competitive tonight. So in some of those switches, and in some of those minutes to follow, we’re looking at competitiveness.”
Hakstol wouldn’t commit to having those lines stick together beyond Friday’s experiment, but we do think it’s time for some changes to the lineup. The team has been stuck in a rut for all of December and has now fallen out of a playoff spot behind Calgary and Edmonton, the two teams that just beat the Kraken at home.
So, yeah, it’s time for some shuffling.
by Darren Brown | Dec 29, 2022 | Three takeaways
A jam-packed Climate Pledge Arena was rocking and rolling Wednesday with an almost playoff-like atmosphere as the Kraken hosted the Calgary Flames.
The home team had a chance to create a memorable night for the 17,151 in attendance, many of which were there taking advantage of the holiday week. But Seattle came up short and couldn’t create enough offense in the third period, despite several situational advantages.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a disappointing 3-2 Kraken loss to the Flames.
Takeaway #1: “Undisciplined” penalty was the turning point
After Jamie Oleksiak scored 1:14 into the second period, giving Seattle a 2-1 lead, the Kraken had all the momentum and got chance after chance against Flames backup netminder Dan Vladar. The Oleksiak goal was all Seattle could muster, though, despite the tides so heavily shifted in its favor.
Those tides reverted the other way midway through the frame when Carson Soucy took a high-sticking penalty that coach Dave Hakstol called “undisciplined.”
On the ensuing power play, Elias Lindholm fired a shot under Oleksiak that Nazem Kadri tipped through Philipp Grubauer’s wickets.
The goal made it 2-2, and from that point on, the Kraken had trouble sustaining offensive-zone time, while Calgary continued to pepper Grubauer with shots.
“We took a bad penalty that ended up in a tie game when we had a lot of momentum rolling,” said Hakstol. “Once we got back to 2-2 after the penalty kill goal, we never— we didn’t really re-establish that momentum.”
Costly penalty aside, we thought Soucy had a generally tough game Wednesday, although he wasn’t alone in that regard. Hakstol said Seattle had “three or four key guys” he felt were “below the bar.”
So, we’ll see if that leads to any lineup changes against Edmonton on Friday.
Takeaway #2: A wasted opportunity
This was a wasted opportunity to get two huge points against a Flames team that could be battling the Kraken down the stretch.
Calgary was on the second of back-to-back games with travel and had its backup goaltender in net. Plus, Grubauer played an outstanding game, stopping 41 of 44 shots, the most he’s ever stopped as a Kraken.
“[He was] arguably the sharpest guy tonight, and I think he kept us in the whole way,” Oleksiak said. “Would have been nice to get him the win, but I think he was huge for us, for sure.”
Generally speaking, a team on tired legs tends to fade in the latter stages of its second game in two nights. As Wednesday’s contest wore on, we expected the Kraken to get the mojo back that we saw early in the second frame, especially as fatigue set in for the Flames.
But that never happened, and Calgary just kept firing shots at Grubauer, and Jonathan Huberdeau eventually got the game winner.
In fact, Calgary ended up with a lopsided 15-6 shot advantage in the final period. When you’re trying to come away with a win late in a tight game, you have to find more ways to generate offensive opportunities, and Seattle just didn’t do that.
Hakstol didn’t like what he saw in the later part of the game. “For me, the biggest thing is the second half of the game we didn’t get it deep, we didn’t spend time in the offensive zone, and we had—like I said—three or four guys that were a little below the bar tonight.”
Takeaway #3: You don’t see that every day
There were several strange moments in Wednesday’s game. A dumped-in puck hit and broke a camera poking through the photographer’s hole in the glass during the second period, littering the ice with pieces of expensive equipment. Brandon Tanev got two breakaways on a single shift, only to get stopped on the first one by Vladar and hit the crossbar on the second.
There was also a moment in which the Flames iced the puck and tried to make a line change in the process, which is, of course, not allowed. The officials actually took a notebook from the penalty box and skated to the Flames bench to determine which players should have been on the ice, eventually forcing Calgary to put those individuals back out.
But the weirdest moment was surely a too-many-men call against the Kraken in the second period. Seattle had just completed a line change in which several players crossed paths, and the puck slid harmlessly through the bench area without anybody touching it. It appeared to be a fully legal change.
Still, the Flames bench started yelling for too many men, and the official’s radar went up. When the puck went back through that area, Matty Beniers touched it in front of Seattle’s bench, and the Kraken were immediately whistled for a bench minor.
The thing about it, though, is Beniers was the fifth player on the ice when he touched it. It should not have been called too many men. Hakstol was livid at the call and rightfully so.
“I don’t know what the hell that was,” Hakstol said. “I mean, we had five guys on the ice. It wasn’t too many men.”
Too-many-men calls get missed all the time. How often do you see hockey broadcasts do the thing where they freeze the frame and use the Telestrator to write “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6” over all the players on the ice? Probably pretty often.
But when was the last time you saw too many men get called when there—in fact—were not too many men on the ice? That was bizarre.
It ended up mostly moot, since Seattle killed that one off, but who knows how much that helped with keeping the momentum in Calgary’s favor. Plus, it’s the principle; that was a bad call.
by Darren Brown | Dec 22, 2022 | Three takeaways
One day, the Seattle Kraken will beat the Vancouver Canucks.
It really felt like that first elusive victory was going to come Thursday, as Seattle had the game in its grasp. After Daniel Sprong put the Kraken back up by two goals six minutes into the third period, we were certain they would be skating into the Christmas break with a three-game win streak.
Instead, Elias Pettersson dominated, registering points on all five of Vancouver’s goals, including scoring the game-tying goal late in the third period. For good measure, Pettersson also sealed it with the shootout winner because of course he did.
That loss was as painful as they come, and it will certainly leave a bad taste in the mouths of players, coaches, and fans alike.
“They had a push, and you know, they capitalized on their chances,” said Sprong. “Sometimes that’s the way hockey goes, but it’s of course not the way we wanted to end going into the break.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a stinging 6-5 Kraken shootout loss to the Canucks.
Takeaway #1: Credit where it’s due; Elias Pettersson was outstanding
Sometimes you just have to tip your hat.
Michael Jordan’s most famous performance came when he was battling flu-like symptoms in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. Though we don’t put Pettersson in the same echelon as Jordan, this was an individual performance that will go down in Canucks lore for similar reasons.
Prior to this game, it was stated that Pettersson was a game-time decision after missing Vancouver’s previous two games with the flu. Coincidentally, the Canucks had lost those two by a combined score of 10-2. If Pettersson was feeling any lasting effects from the illness, it didn’t show against the Kraken. He factored in on all five of Vancouver’s goals and scored twice before closing out the game with the shootout winner.
With the Kraken leading by two, Yanni Gourde took a slashing penalty on Quinn Hughes in the offensive zone at 8:18 of the third period. The Canucks’ lethal power play went to work, and from that point on, it was all downhill for Seattle. That was where Pettersson really took over.
On that power play, the Canucks were snapping the puck around Seattle’s zone, and Pettersson hit Brock Boeser with a perfect shot-pass at the top of the crease for an easy redirect. That brought the Canucks back within one.
Late in regulation, with the score still 5-4 and netminder Spencer Martin off for the extra skater, Vancouver’s six-on-five advantage looked very similar to a power play. The Canucks quickly worked it around the zone, and J.T. Miller found Pettersson for a one-time blast and an emotional game-tying goal.
Believe it or not, Pettersson was also one of three Canucks to hit the post in the overtime period, before he potted the deciding goal in the shootout.
The score on the night was 5-0 Vancouver with Pettersson on the ice and 5-0 Seattle when he was off.
Of course, we would have liked some better defensive coverage from the Kraken, but there are times when you have to give credit to the opponent. Pettersson was incredible Thursday.
Takeaway #2: Too many mistakes
Kraken fans were deservedly riding high for most of this one, and after Sprong scored his second of the game to again put his team ahead by two, we too were convinced this one was in the bag. But if you look back at the goals against, there were just too many mistakes made by the Kraken in all three zones that allowed Vancouver to get back in the game.
On Vancouver’s first goal, Justin Schultz played too tight on Andrei Kuzmenko in the neutral zone, then lost him and allowed him to find Pettersson coming through with speed. That created the two-on-one opportunity, and Lane Pederson eventually scored.
The third Canucks goal came seconds after Seattle had a golden chance to take a three-goal lead at the other end. On a three-on-two rush, Jaden Schwartz passed to Andrei Burakovsky, who was in a prime scoring position. Instead of shooting, Burakovsky tried to force one more pass to Yanni Gourde, but it was broken up, and suddenly the Kraken had three players above the puck. Five passes later, it went from almost being a three-goal game to instead being a one-goal game.
“The third goal injected a little bit of life into them, even though we got that back right away,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “That changed the tone of the period a little bit. We take a penalty a couple minutes later, and they get it to a one-goal game.”
If you look at every goal, you can find a pivotal spot where Seattle was either not strong enough on the stick to get a clear or blew a coverage and left a player standing wide open next to Martin Jones.
No matter how well you’re playing offensively, when you make mistakes like Seattle made Thursday, you’re asking for the opposition to get back in the game.
Takeaway #3: That one will sting for a while
There were a lot of positives to take out of this one. Here are a few:
- The Kraken got their first point ever against Vancouver, giving them five out of a possible six in their last three games before the Christmas break.
- Sprong scored two goals, giving him 10 goals on the season and putting him well on his way for the best season of his career, despite playing exclusively on the fourth line.
- Oliver Bjorkstrand had two points, including a nice finish off a great dish by Schwartz on a two-on-one. That was Bjorkstrand’s first goal since Nov. 29, and boy, did he ever need/deserve it.
- 11 different players had points for the Kraken.
Now that we’ve gotten those out of the way, that is one of the more painful losses in Kraken history. They had a great start, scored first, and had two-goal leads on three separate occasions during this game, only to have it all unravel in the end.
“There’s a couple things we have to do better,” said Hakstol. “We have to do better when we’ve got a two-goal lead. You know, that’s a game that we feel like we should be able to close out.”
Making it sting even more, it came against Seattle’s closest geographical rival, a team the Kraken still have somehow not beaten in six tries. AND it was just one game after Seattle defeated the Blues, another team it had previously never beaten.
So, that one hurts a lot, and having it happen as the last thing we’ll remember for the next six days of this holiday break doesn’t help.
The Kraken do have the second-best point percentage in the Pacific Division at Christmas. We hope that lessens the sting.
