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.
by Darren Brown | Dec 21, 2022 | Three takeaways
The Kraken were in the holiday spirit Tuesday, and they gifted their home fans with a solid 5-2 win over a St. Louis Blues team that had Seattle’s number coming into the game. In fact, the Kraken had lost all four previous meetings against the Blues.
In front of a boisterous full house at Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle got on the board late in the first period, dominated the second period to get out to a 4-0 lead, and then held on despite some hiccups in the third to earn the victory.
“It’s huge,” said Ryan Donato. “It just goes to show when you do the right things, you can beat a lot of good teams in this league.”
Things got loose in the final frame, which coach Dave Hakstol didn’t like. But by that time, Seattle had gotten so far ahead, a big save by Martin Jones and an empty netter by Brandon Tanev quickly assuaged any growing angst in the festive crowd.
Here are our Three Takeaways from the first ever Kraken win over the Blues.
Takeaway #1: Stretch passes are really cool when they work
Seattle scored two breakaway goals Tuesday, one by Donato to make it 1-0 in the first period, and one by Daniel Sprong to make it 3-0 in the second.
The finishes by both players were impressive, but what really made the goals pretty were the home run passes that set them up.
Donato’s goal, which came 16:27 into the game, was created by an outstanding 125-foot pass by Adam Larsson from deep in the Kraken zone. Drifting back and surveying the ice, Larsson spotted Donato coming off the bench and snapped a pass all the way to the far blue line. Donato did the rest.
“That was a spectacular pass from him,” said Donato. “I saw it coming a little bit, but with him going backwards with his momentum carrying him that way, to be able to get it all the way across his body and up that far, that was awesome.”
Hakstol noted that Larsson actually had options on the play and said he made the right read. “If we’re going to go into a full line change, you got an option of bringing it back, getting organized, and getting five guys going up ice, in which case, you’re going to face five of them,” said Hakstol. “Or doing what he did, he read the play, he saw speed coming off the bench, and he got it moving.”
Not to be outdone, Geekie too made an unbelievable pass to… wait for it… spring Sprong for his breakaway goal. As Tanev was slinging the puck around the boards in Seattle’s end, Geekie made a quick look to see where Sprong was on the ice. Then as soon as the puck got to Geekie just inside the blue line, he blindly spun and fired the puck up to his linemate before getting clobbered by Colton Parayko.
While we didn’t get the sense from Hakstol that the Kraken were looking to exploit opportunities to connect on stretch passes, they sure utilized them to perfection Tuesday.
Takeaway #2: Ryan Donato is cooking
It has been easy to root for Ryan Donato ever since he signed with the Kraken before the team’s inaugural season. He’s gotten kicked around the league a bit in his career, and even after a good year with Seattle in 2021-22, he was not tendered a qualifying offer and could have left as an unrestricted free agent.
Yet, here he is, again filling whatever role Hakstol asks him to fill, and again finding ways to produce offensively. Donato’s first-period tally Tuesday gave him goals in four consecutive games for the first time in his NHL career, and this one was a beauty.
“As I was going in on the breakaway, I just kind of closed my eyes and hoped for the best,” Donato said. We aren’t sure we fully believe him on that, since he made a heck of a move to get Thomas Greiss moving the wrong direction before pitching it up high. “You kind of pray for those opportunities. They don’t come around very often, and when they do, you’ll be kicking yourself if you don’t capitalize on them.”
Interestingly, Donato scored in three straight games right around this time last year as well. He has been streaky at times in his career, but he has the ability to score in bunches and do so in different ways. That’s what we’re seeing from him now.
“It definitely is sweet,” he said. “It’s exciting, but I mean at the end of the day, I think everybody in here can agree that it’s more about winning, so for me, to be a part of that win, it’s definitely a good feeling.”
Takeaway #3: Both goalies are playing well
We didn’t love Philipp Grubauer’s game in Tampa Bay on Dec. 13, but since then Seattle has gotten three straight solid performances in net. Two of those good starts have come from Grubauer and one has come from Jones.
It is exciting to see both goalies starting to play well again, as things weren’t looking too good in that area during Seattle’s recent two-week rut. Neither has faced huge volumes of shots in these last two games against St. Louis and Winnipeg, but there were important saves made by both netminders at key points in those respective games.
Jones’s best save Tuesday came in the third period, soon after a miscue between Will Borgen and Carson Soucy let Parayko get St. Louis on the board. With the Blues showing life after the goal, Jones slid to his left to rob Brandon Saad and—at that time—keep the score at 4-1.
Pavel Buchnevich did notch a power-play goal two minutes later, but if both of those had gone in, we have a feeling this story would have a very different tone.
Hakstol said it’s important to have both goalies performing. “You gotta have it. I’ve said it all year, both guys gotta do their part, and Jonesy did his part tonight, just like Grubi did a couple nights ago.”
Suddenly, it feels like the team can be comfortable with whichever goalie it taps to start in Vancouver on Thursday, where the Kraken will play their final game before the Christmas break.
by Darren Brown | Dec 18, 2022 | Three takeaways
Getting a win over the Winnipeg Jets Sunday felt important for the Seattle Kraken on multiple levels.
Not only has the team been in a rut since the start of December, this particular game was against an opponent that was on the second night of back-to-back games with its backup goalie playing. The Jets were also the team that beat Seattle in overtime on Nov. 13, when the Kraken had the lead late, but Carson Soucy took an undisciplined penalty that cost the team the win that night.
And although the Kraken still have games in hand on almost all of their divisional rivals, they have been losing ground in the standings.
One win doesn’t necessarily cure all of a struggling team’s problems, but it definitely helps build confidence. Seattle needed that one. Here are our Three Takeaways from an important 3-2 Kraken win over the Jets.
Takeaway #1: Goals don’t come easy in the NHL
For most of this season, the Kraken have enjoyed the spoils that come with having an astronomically high shooting percentage. As long as they were shooting, pucks were going in, the team was winning, and everybody was happy.
It’s no coincidence that as Seattle got into its December downturn, the goals dried up. The players have clearly been gripping their hockey sticks a little too tightly, and while the Kraken came out on top Sunday, offensive success still didn’t come easy against the Jets.
“That’s the league at this time of year,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “We went through a stretch a couple weeks ago where there were some crazy scores, right? All over the league. But in general, the league gets tight.”
Hakstol explained that as the season goes on, teams get better in their structure, and it becomes harder and harder to score.
On Sunday, even against Winnipeg’s backup goalie, it was still hard to find goals. But Seattle stuck with it, kept firing shots at David Rittich, and eventually broke through enough times to take two points in the standings.
“We stayed patient, we stayed with it, scored a couple determined goals, and that made the difference for us,” Hakstol said.
Jared McCann, who scored the game winner on what Hakstol called a “world-class shot,” said he thought pucks had stopped going in because Seattle had been trying to get a little too cute offensively.
“We kind of got away from shooting the puck a little bit,” McCann said. “I felt like we tried to make the extra play, the backdoor tap-in, that kind of thing. Sometimes that’s— you know, defensemen have such good sticks in the NHL. You’ve got to just shoot the puck sometimes, and you know, I try to preach that as much as possible.”
By sticking with their game and continuing to push, the Kraken eventually earned the win they deserved Sunday. We hope this will get them to start really trusting in their abilities again to pull themselves out of this rut.
Takeaway #2: Jordan Eberle had a ridiculous goal
While McCann’s game-winning snipe was nice, Jordan Eberle’s goal to get Seattle on the board in the second period was nicer.
Adam Larsson made a pass to Eberle at the left hash, and in one fluid motion, Eberle spun to his backhand and flung it toward Rittich. The puck eluded Rittich’s mask and snuck just under the bar.
Ryan Donato, who also scored for the third game in a row, called Eberle’s goal “disgusting,” while McCann said it was “vintage Jordan Eberle.” McCann added that it was the kind of goal he remembers seeing from growing up watching Eberle play. He then joked he was probably making Eberle sound older than he actually is.
“I had to look twice at it,” said Hakstol. “I think I was yelling ‘Shoot the puck!’ before Lars passed it over, but that’s just a great play by Ebs.”
Plays like that remind us that Eberle is a very gifted player. It was only his second goal in his last 10 games, so perhaps this will help him get rolling again.
Takeaway #3: A solid team game
Nothing about that Kraken win over the Jets was easy, but as we mentioned before, Seattle needed that one badly. What is encouraging about the victory is that the group really earned it by sticking to its game, playing mostly sound defense, and firing 34 shots at Rittich.
“This is what we are, right?” said Hakstol. “As a team, we have to have everybody contributing. And it’s not about the number of minutes or who’s scoring the goals or anything like that, but when you’re out there you gotta do your part for the group.”
Seattle was good in all three zones and only let 17 shots through to Philipp Grubauer, with both goals against coming on Winnipeg power plays. Even in the closing minutes of the game, when the Jets were trying to push, the Kraken hemmed them into their zone so long, Rittich was having a hard time getting to the bench for an extra skater.
“That’s the way we should play for 60 minutes,” said McCann. “If we could do that, we know we’re one of the best teams in the league. We need to find that every night.”
Getting out of a slump always happens step by step, and turning things around often comes with two steps forward and one step back. So, we don’t think Seattle is out of the woods yet, but Sunday was a nice move in the right direction.
by Darren Brown | Dec 13, 2022 | Three takeaways
A slow start, a bad goal, and three bad minutes of hockey in the second period were all it took for the Kraken to get zapped out of Tampa Bay by the Lightning in lopsided fashion.
Tampa Bay’s stars were all shining at Amalie Arena, and after Seattle showed some bite to get back in the game in the second half of the first period and beginning of the second, a tough goal against got things rolling in the wrong direction for the Kraken.
In the end, the Lightning showed why they’re one of the NHL’s best teams, blowing out the Kraken 6-2. Here are our Three Takeaways from a painful loss.
Takeaway #1: You can’t start like that against Tampa Bay
The Kraken came out looking flat as a pancake against the Lightning, who coincidentally came out flying after cruising through their previous two games. By the 7:24 mark of the first period, the Bolts already had a 2-0 lead, and Seattle was chasing.
The Kraken hardly got the puck out of their defensive zone for the opening 10 minutes, and it was no surprise to see pucks end up in the back of Seattle’s net. Ian Cole got things started with a shot through traffic at 1:31. Six minutes later, Brayden Point drove to the slot and drew four Seattle defenders to him before making a hard cut to his right and sliding it to an open Erik Cernak. Cernak rifled it past Grubauer to make it 2-0 and put Tampa Bay in the driver’s seat.
Coach Dave Hakstol had more positive things to say about this one than we might have expected after a 6-2 thumping, but he too didn’t like the start. “It’s just the first 10 minutes, really, that was the biggest piece,” he said. “Our forecheck has to be better, we were a little bit slow on everything, and they’re gonna take advantage of that in a big way.”
As a visiting team facing an elite club like the Bolts, you have to come out and bring your best from the opening face-off. If the home team pushes hard in those first few minutes, you have to weather the storm and play near-perfect defense until things calm down in the arena.
Seattle was far from perfect in those first few minutes, and in the blink of an eye, it faced an uphill climb that got steeper as the game went on.
Takeaway #2: A bad goal derails a good PK
The Kraken entered the second period trailing 2-1. By the midway point of the frame, they looked ready to level the score and turn this game into a dogfight. After several good chances in a row for Seattle, the Bolts were hemmed in their zone. But with the forecheck humming, Brandon Tanev inadvertently tripped former Kraken Haydn Fleury 200 feet from Seattle’s net, something coaches always love to see.
With Tanev in the box, the Kraken had an outstanding penalty kill going and hadn’t allowed the Lightning to get their lethal power play set up for almost the entirety of the two minutes. With just a few seconds left before Tanev was due to be released, Corey Perry rushed into the Kraken zone and took a bad shot right into Vince Dunn. The blocked shot went back to Perry, and a seemingly harmless follow-up shot somehow beat Philipp Grubauer to the short side, a goal the Kraken netminder surely would have wanted back.
“We had one hell of a penalty kill in terms of our effort and execution,” Hakstol said. “When that third goal went in, that took a lot out of us.”
Going into that PK, the Kraken had all the momentum. If they had closed that out, it sure seemed like it would be just a matter of time before they got another one past Andrei Vasilevskiy. Instead, a stinky goal quickly tilted the ice back in Tampa Bay’s favor, and it was all downhill from there.
Takeaway #3: That escalated quickly
The uninspiring power-play goal against was just the start of a painful stretch for Seattle in the second period.
Point followed that up by demonstrating why he’s one of the best players in the world. With speed through the neutral zone, Point took a pass from Nikita Kucherov and stickhandled through Andre Burakovsky, Vince Dunn, and Adam Larsson, before going against the grain to beat Grubauer on a highlight reel goal.
That tally sent the Seattle goalie to the bench after four goals on 20 shots.
“We needed a little bit better on the second goal from Grubi, and we needed a little bit better on the third,” Hakstol said.
Tampa Bay didn’t stop there, as Ross Colton was left alone to tip a Mikhail Sergachev shot past Martin Jones. The Colton goal was Tampa Bay’s third in 3:23 and put the game out of reach at 5-1.
“That was a big momentum swing for them, and I thought probably 40 minutes of the game we worked hard,” said Jaden Schwartz. “Probably didn’t get to the inside enough in the offensive zone, but yeah that momentum swing in the second period hurt us.”
The Tampa Bay Lightning are consistently a top team in the league for a reason, and to compete with a club like that, you have to bring your absolute best. Seattle had good moments Tuesday, but it started late, had a huge letdown in the middle of the game, and did not get very good goaltending. Mistakes compound quickly against a team like that, and that’s exactly what happened in this one.
Hakstol thought the team deserved better than the score indicated after that second period, but still, it was a bad letdown that allowed the game to get out of hand.
Unfortunately, the Kraken will next face one of the other teams that ran them out of the building earlier this season, the Carolina Hurricanes. Here’s hoping Seattle gets a better start for that one and can salvage a split on this road trip.
