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.
by Darren Brown | Dec 7, 2022 | Three takeaways
What an odd game that was. With Shane Wright scoring his first NHL goal and just generally buzzing throughout the first period, it seemed for a while like we were headed for a storybook type of night for the Kraken against the Canadiens. But somehow, despite dominating possession for much of the night, Seattle came up short against Montreal, outshooting the Habs 33-16 but losing 4-2.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a disappointing Kraken defeat to the Canadiens.
Takeaway #1: Shane Wright gets his first NHL goal
It really felt like the story of the game was writing (Wrighting?) itself. A lot had been made of Wright’s return to the Kraken’s NHL lineup, especially being that it came against No. 1 overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky and the team that snubbed Wright at the NHL Entry Draft.
Early returns were excellent, as Wright easily could have had a hat trick in the first period. His first NHL goal was sandwiched between two other robberies by Jake Allen, and there were several other moments throughout the night where he looked like he was inches away from deflecting or poking pucks into the Montreal net.
Wright’s goal came at 15:30 of the first, after Yanni Gourde made a hard play on the forecheck to dig the puck out to Oliver Bjorkstrand. Bjorkstrand made a short pass to Wright in the slot, and Wright wired it past Jake Allen. It was one of those memorable Climate Pledge Arena moments, where the crowd got extra loud for not only the goal, but also the ensuing announcement.
“I think, obviously, it’s gonna be something I remember for the rest of my life,” said Wright. “I think getting your first NHL goal is a pretty cool accomplishment, cool milestone, definitely something pretty special for me.”
“It’s awesome,” added Jared McCann. “He’s a great kid. Obviously him going out in the minors there, he battled, he worked his bag off, and I mean, it was good to see.”
The goal tied it at 1-1, and with the way Wright’s line with Gourde and Bjorkstrand was humming, it seemed like there would be more points coming for the rookie.
Alas, the Habs were opportunistic offensively, and Allen played well enough to thwart a Kraken comeback attempt, turning away 31 of 33 shots on goal.
It wasn’t just about the goal for Wright, though. He looked very different from the player we saw before he was loaned to Coachella Valley. In those first few games he played earlier in the season, it always seemed like he was playing to not make a mistake. After potting four goals in five games in the AHL, he came in Tuesday with swagger and appeared to be playing without thinking too much. Against the Canadiens, he looked like things were starting to click.
It has been a slightly tougher road for him than he expected, but what’s been most impressive about Wright is his maturity for his age and attitude through the early struggles in his NHL career. “I think that anytime you come to the NHL, you picture yourself playing right away,” he said. “You picture yourself scoring lots and getting points, and at the end of the day, that’s not the reality of the NHL and stepping in as an 18-year-old. You have to work yourself up, you have to make sure you earn everything you get.”
On the other side, Slafkovsky had the second assist on Josh Anderson’s second-period goal but was otherwise quiet.
Kraken fans surely would have loved for Wright’s first goal to come with a Seattle win, but seeing him play the way he played Tuesday was very encouraging.
Takeaway #2: Bad defensive lapses cost the Kraken
It was an especially weird night between the pipes for Martin Jones, who faced just 16 shots in total with seven of those shots coming in the final 11 minutes of the game. In the second period, he faced four measly offerings, and three of those ended up in the back of the net.
Lifelong goalie speaking here, those are incredibly difficult nights for a netminder. You need to feel the puck to get into a rhythm, and after giving up a soft goal and stopping just three other shots in the opening frame, the only work Jones got in the second was on grade-A opportunities for the Habs. It’s hard to defend four goals on 16 shots, but there is some context to consider, being that Seattle hung Jones out to dry three times in that costly middle frame.
That brings us to the main point of this Takeaway, which is that the Kraken generally played well in terms of possessing the puck and generating chances, but lapses cost them the game.
Andre Burakovsky committed a heinous turnover to Nick Suzuki that led to Cole Caufield’s goal. It then took just seven seconds and some poor play along the wall to give Montreal its next great chance, on which Anderson scored.
“We had a turnover at the end of a shift, and we made a mistake on a face-off,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “They’re different plays, but those bump-up shifts are very important. You gotta make sure that you seal those off and push back the other way, and we’ve been outstanding in that area, but we didn’t get it done tonight.”
The icing on the cake came after a bad line change with the teams playing four-on-four, and noted Kraken killer Rem Pitlick put the Canadiens up 4-1.
A huge part of Seattle’s success this season has been minimizing the damage caused by turnovers and breakdowns, but those were the plays that doomed the Kraken this game.
Takeaway #3: PK better, but scoring drying up
It’s interesting how a team can appear to fix one problem, only to have a new issue suddenly pop up. Recently, the penalty kill has been a huge concern for the Kraken, who have struggled mightily with the manpower disadvantage. On Tuesday, the PK was successful, killing off all four of Montreal’s opportunities.
“There’s nothing special to it,” Hakstol said. “We were a little bit better in just our cohesion with our pressure all over the rink, and that’s a nice step forward. That’s a real positive for that group.” Hakstol also mentioned they added a couple forwards to the personnel rotation, with hopes of making sure guys were fresher on the kill.
Speaking anecdotally, it felt Tuesday like the “plus one” player in the “wedge plus one” formation, the guy who chases the puck around the top of the zone, was more aggressive than we’ve seen recently. Visually, there just seemed to be way more pressure on the points and on the half wall than in recent games.
Meanwhile, Seattle has stopped scoring. After potting nine goals against the Kings a week ago, Seattle has scored three goals, one goal, and now two goals in the subsequent three games. We were concerned that Seattle’s incredible shooting percentage could be an indicator that the team’s success wasn’t sustainable. Let’s hope these last few games have just been blips for a team that was rolling so well offensively through the month of November.
by Darren Brown | Dec 4, 2022 | Three takeaways
That’s the way the cookie crumbles. The Kraken lost 5-1 to the Florida Panthers Saturday, snapping their franchise-record win streak at seven games.
For a while, it felt like this game could end up being a carbon copy of the previous Kraken game against the Capitals, in which Seattle overcame a 2-0 deficit and pulled out a thrilling 3-2 overtime win. Instead, Spencer Knight came up big for the Cats, the Kraken gave up three power-play goals against, and Florida pulled away in the end.
You can’t win ’em all.
Here are our Three Takeaways from Seattle’s first loss since Nov. 13.
Takeaway #1: A penalty for a lost challenge is a terrible rule
Seven minutes into the first period Saturday, Marc Staal collided with Philipp Grubauer and eliminated any chance the Seattle netminder had of getting back in position to make the next save. Carter Verhaeghe scored into a wide-open net.
The rule for goalie interference says contact with the goalie outside the crease is allowed if the player makes an attempt to avoid said contact. This was a lot of contact, though, so we thought it could be overturned. Sure enough, Kraken coach Dave Hakstol challenged, but the call went against Seattle.
“The challenge— there’s two different ways to look at it,” Hakstol said. “I feel like in that case, Philipp didn’t have a chance to do his job. Their look and their ruling at it was different than my viewpoint, but that’s not for me to determine.”
As a result, not only did the goal stand, but the Kraken had to send a player to the penalty box for delay of game. On the ensuing power play, Verhaeghe scored his second goal in 26 seconds.
“Obviously it’s frustrating, but you can’t focus on it,” said Jared McCann of the lost challenge. “We have a lot of veteran guys here who just kind of calm us down and let us play hockey.”
We don’t get that worked up about goalie interference. The rule is confusing, and there are plenty of times that we think it will go one way, only to have the call go the opposite way. You win some, you lose some, it is what it is, yada yada.
What we do get worked up about is the penalty that comes with a lost challenge. Again, we understand why the call went against the Kraken in this case, but if it had gone the other way, that also would have been completely understandable. When a call is truly debatable like that, why should a team be penalized for challenging? It makes no sense.
“That’s part of the game,” Hakstol said. “You gotta make your decision. You got 20 or 30 seconds to look at it, make the best decision possible. In that case, I felt that our goaltender— we needed to stand up for him a little bit. He didn’t have a chance to make that save. The determination on the other side, that’s not up to me.”
Alright, screw it, we’re ranting about the refs now. As long as we’ve gone there, we might as well call out that we thought Vince Dunn getting an extra two minutes for his sparring session with Verhaeghe was bogus. It led to Matthew Tkachuk’s power-play goal at 5:51 of the second period.
We thought it was bogus because 1.) that was a two-person dance in which both players got plenty of shots in, and 2.) Tkachuk unnecessarily involved himself and gave Dunn a good whack after things had calmed between Dunn and Verhaeghe. So how does Dunn end up with four minutes there?
Hakstol called Dunn’s penalty “undisciplined,” and said the goal against—which pushed Florida’s lead to 3-1—was the turning point in the game, so maybe there was something more there from Dunn that we didn’t catch.
Last thing, the refs were in the way a hilarious amount of times Saturday. We know they’re always trying to get out of the way, but they were like extra defenders for Florida at times.
Ok, this rare referee rant has now come to an end.
Takeaway #2: The Kraken penalty kill is a serious issue
We aren’t that far removed from the Kraken going six games without a power-play goal against, a streak that lasted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 13. That stretch made us believe that Seattle had resolved its penalty kill issues from early in the season, but since that streak ended against the Winnipeg Jets on Nov. 13, the Kraken have had a hard time with the manpower disadvantage. In fact, their PK has been downright stinky.
“It’s hard. I mean, a couple— we just can’t catch a break,” said Carson Soucy. “[They’ve been] shooting it wide a couple games in a row now, where it hits one of us or hits one of them and goes in. We’re trying to do the right things. I think it’s going to come around.”
The PK cost the Kraken in a big way Saturday against the Panthers. Our rant in Takeaway #1 about the refs becomes moot if Seattle just kills off the penalties, but that didn’t happen.
In addition to Verhaeghe scoring after the challenge, Tkachuk scored after the aforementioned bogus extra penalty on Dunn, and Gustav Forsling added a third power-play goal for the Cats at 13:03 of the third period. Worth noting, Grubauer probably wanted that one back, being that it was an unscreened blast from the point. Still, it came with the Kraken down a man, something that has happened far too often lately.
“We need to do a little better job in denying our blue line,” said Hakstol. “We need to do a little better job in finding our pressure. There were too many pucks that were going through seams tonight, which not only creates opportunities, but maintains possession. There’s different pieces that simply have to be better.”
Seattle has done a good job at fixing issues this season, but the PK has now dropped to 30th in the league with just a 66.7 percent success rate. That needs to be fixed again.
Takeaway #3: Spencer Knight was a factor, but the Kraken weren’t good enough
The Kraken were going to lose eventually, and there are worse things in the world than dropping one to a talented Florida Panthers team in a game when Spencer Knight is making enormous saves for his team. Hakstol was not happy with the way his team played, though.
“I don’t think there were very many parts of our game that were very good tonight,” Hakstol said. “So, that’s going to be a tough way to win a hockey game.”
Our immediate assessment of the performance was a little more friendly to the Kraken, because despite the bad breaks in the first period, it felt for a while like Seattle was going to get back in it, just like the previous game against Washington.
“I think we were just off a little from the start,” said Soucy. “They capitalized a couple early on the challenge and stuff. We did a good job trying to fight back, had our looks.”
Knight made an enormous save on Matty Beniers in the closing seconds of the first period, where he stretched to his left and just got his toe on what looked like a sure goal. Had Seattle scored there and gone to the room trailing by just one, we think the game would have had a different outcome.
“We had some good looks,” said Soucy. “He made a couple key, timely saves. When we’re trying to fight back, that just kind of drains us. You think you need one of those to go in, and then [they kind of] build the lead, makes it a little more.”
Onto the next win streak!
