by Darren Brown | Dec 2, 2022 | Three takeaways
Just when you thought the Seattle Kraken would have their win streak snapped at six, they flipped Thursday’s game against the Washington Capitals on its head and skated away with a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory.
After Daniel Sprong drove hard to the net and Yanni Gourde cleaned up the rebound with 2:27 left in regulation, the crowd inside Climate Pledge Arena went berserk. But when Matty Beniers scored the game winner just seven seconds into overtime, the volume level inside the building may have hit a new all-time high.
The crowd was right to be excited; that was as thrilling a win as we’ve seen from this team, and it brought Seattle within two points of Vegas for first place in the Pacific Division with two games still in hand. The Kraken have now won seven games in a row for the first time in franchise history, and they’re 12-1-1 in their last 14. Perhaps most importantly, they got back to playing their game Thursday after a bizarre 9-8 win left an odd taste in the mouths of players and fans alike.
Here are our Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s latest triumph, a 3-2 overtime thriller over the Capitals.
Takeaway #1: The legend of Matty Beniers grows
It’s almost comical to think that we at Sound Of Hockey were recently expressing concern over Beniers’ stretch of six games without a point. Since then, he has erupted for 12 points in his subsequent six games and now leads all rookies in scoring.
Though he was held to just one measly point Thursday, it was an enormous one. Off the face-off to start the overtime period, Lars Eller tried to push the puck back to John Carlson. But sensing that Carlson was going to have a hard time handling it, both Beniers and Andre Burakovsky jumped past their marks and attacked the defenseman at the Washington blue line. Sure enough, Carlson coughed up the puck to Beniers, and he was off to the races.
Showing once again a level of poise typically reserved for seasoned veterans, Beniers made no mistake. He looked up, found his spot, and rifled it through Darcy Kuemper to send the Kraken faithful home happy yet again. The goal came just seven seconds into the three-on-three period, giving the Kraken their fourth overtime win in their last four tries.
“Those two guys did a great job creating that loose puck,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “It’s a 50-50 puck, and those are— I don’t care if it’s overtime, three-on-three or five-on-five in the middle of the game. It comes down to little battles like that.”
Jaden Schwartz was on the bench when the winning goal was scored. He said he couldn’t recall seeing a game end like that, so soon after the center-ice face-off. “It happened so fast that I think I was grabbing water, actually,” Schwartz said. “I looked up, and he was on a breakaway.”
Worth noting, Beniers did take his first NHL penalty in this game when he somehow flung Anthony Mantha’s stick all the way up into the protective netting behind Washington’s goal in the third period.
“I’m gonna sit him down right away [Friday], and we’ll go through that,” joked Hakstol.
Takeaway #2: Philipp Grubauer is starting to play
The great thing about having a platoon of two reliable goaltenders is when one falters, the other—at least in theory—can take the baton and run with it. Martin Jones was incredible in Philipp Grubauer’s absence and deserved to continue taking the lion’s share of starts, even after Grubauer came back from his injury. But with Jones showing signs of cracking in his last three starts, it was high time to get Grubi in more frequently.
After a solid 20-save win against the Golden Knights Friday, Grubauer turned in a 21-save performance against the Capitals Thursday. While that doesn’t sound like that many shots, he had some 10-bell stops in the second and third periods that gave his team a chance to win.
Grubauer did give up two goals in the first period, including one off an unscreened blast by Martin Fehervary that had us wondering if he was on his game early.
“First period was a little tough,” Grubauer said. “Two goals on three or four shots there, that’s not how you want to start things off. But second period went well, and that’s the type of period I needed for myself to get back into this.”
The German Gentleman made a key save off a deflection with eight seconds left in the opening frame that seemed to settle him down. “They made a nice play there,” he said. “Obviously, [it’s a] timely save. If that goes in, it’s 3-0 going into the second period and might be game over.”
When Grubauer came out for the second period, you could almost tell nothing else was getting past him for the remainder of the night. His best save came on a two-on-one rush for the Capitals. TJ Oshie made a ridiculous play to get the puck across to Evgeny Kuznetsov. On what looked like a sure goal, Grubauer slid to his left in a full split and robbed Kuznetsov.
He also stood tall against one of the best goal scorers of all time, Alex Ovechkin, who had five shots on goal, including a few of his patented power-play blasts.
“[Ovechkin] shot one in the first period from the boards, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God,’” Grubauer recalled. “He can definitely shoot it, and for us goalies, you can’t really react to it. You’ve just gotta be in position and hope that it hits you. That’s why he’s scored so many goals, right?” Grubauer added that having plenty of practice time against Ovechkin during their time together in Washington is a big help now in being able to stop him as an opponent.
If you go back to the game against Colorado, the night when Grubauer got hurt, he has now had three solid starts in a row. We think there’s a good chance Hakstol hands him the reins for a bit, so let’s see if he can run with that opportunity.
Takeaway #3: Playing their game
THAT is Kraken hockey, baby. It was clear from morning skate on Thursday that the Kraken were putting a lot of emphasis on getting back to the tight defensive structure that they pride themselves on playing.
“I thought we played like we should play, like we’re used to seeing the Kraken win games,” said Gourde. “This is exactly the type of game that we want to be in.”
After giving up four or more goals in three out of their previous four games, including eight goals against in Los Angeles on Tuesday, there was something oddly refreshing about a tight-checking, low-scoring affair.
“This feels so much better,” Gourde added. “Giving up eight goals and winning a game, I mean, every win is important, especially against a divisional rival like LA, but this feels much more like a Kraken win.”
Schwartz offered up similar sentiments to Gourde on how the team played in LA compared to how it played at home against the Caps. “We know we can’t be giving up that many chances and turning pucks over, giving up the middle of the ice,” Schwartz said. “So we just need to be harder together, support each other a little more and just play better defensively.”
They did those things Thursday. We sounded alarm bells on this week’s Sound Of Hockey Podcast that the group could have some bad habits creeping in. But the Kraken quieted those alarms Thursday and played a good, sound game in all three zones that re-established our belief that this win streak can continue for many games to come.
by Darren Brown | Nov 30, 2022 | Three takeaways
Where do we even begin? Neither team played any semblance of defense, and everybody scored goals in a 9-8 overtime victory for the Seattle Kraken over the Los Angeles Kings. Of course, we won’t complain about a Kraken win, but that was a bizarre and at times truly ugly game.
Matty Beniers, Jared McCann, and Andre Burakovsky each scored two goals for the Kraken (but wait, there’s more!), while Oliver Bjorkstrand, Daniel Sprong, and Alex Wennberg scored the other three. Martin Jones allowed eight goals on 35 shots, good for a .771 save percentage, yet hilariously got credit for another win.
22 unique players registered at least a point in Tuesday’s game, which saw 17 total goals scored by 13 different players.
“I haven’t been in a game like this since junior hockey,” said Jared McCann. “Other than [the San Jose game last Wednesday], I guess.”
McCann is onto something there. It was almost as if Tuesday’s Kraken game against the Kings saw that recent 8-5 Kraken game against the Sharks and said, “Hold my beer.”
We probably could have written about 20 Takeaways from this one, but we whittled it down to three. Here they are, our Three Takeaways from whatever that [motions wildly] was.
Takeaway #1: A game like no other
When we say that was the craziest game we’ve ever seen, we don’t just mean it was crazy in terms of Kraken hockey. We mean it was the most off-the-rails, bonkers hockey game we’ve ever seen. Full stop.
“It was kind of a messed up night,” said Burakovsky. “I think we were trading chances, a lot of sloppy plays. I don’t know. I think we played a really bad game, and so did they. I think we were lucky that they didn’t play good at home.”
“It was a crazy game,” added coach Dave Hakstol. “Obviously, not a well-played hockey game, and in a lot of respects. You look at the types of chances and the goals against and things like that. It was one of those games where last shot wins, and that’s exactly what happened.”
And it wasn’t just nuts because seemingly every shot went in the net. The number of goals scored alone was enough to make our heads spin, but there were some downright bizarre things happening during the course of play, too, especially in the third period.
A good example, Kevin Fiala blasted Oliver Bjorkstrand with a nasty hit from behind in front of the Kings bench. A big scrum ensued, and all the players on the ice stopped playing momentarily. But the referees never blew the whistle, and the puck just rattled around in the Kraken zone for a good 10 seconds before things got sorted out in the neutral zone. Then, the players just… began playing again, like nothing had happened.
While that was shaking out, the scorekeeper apparently stopped the clock thinking the whistle had gone. So, fast forward to the end of the third period, and the horn randomly sounded with about 10 seconds left on the clock. Apparently that was the result of the mix-up after the Fiala hit, but it was cause for one last round of confusion for everyone involved.
Then, the Kraken getting a power play and Burakovsky scoring the sudden-death game winner because the Kings had TOO MANY MEN ON THE ICE IN THREE-ON-THREE OVERTIME was the frosting on top of a downright hideous cake.
It was an unforgettable game. Let’s never do it again.
Takeaway #2: Bad habits creeping in?
The Kraken absolutely rolled through the month of November, with an almost shocking 10-1-1 record. They’re now 11-1-1 in their last 13 games, and this latest victory extends their current win streak to six games. It also keeps them within four points of the Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division with two games in hand. That’s all good stuff.
But one thing we’ve seen from teams that have gotten onto prolonged hot streaks over the years is that when things are going this well for this long, players start to feel like they can get away with taking shortcuts on the ice. They stop doing the things that made their team successful in the first place, like playing sound, structural hockey. When the dam breaks and losses start leaking in, it’s really hard to stop the leaks from turning to a massive flood.
The Kraken, who are typically so hard to play against, have now given up four or more goals in three of their last four games, including a whopping eight against the Kings. There were many times Tuesday when Martin Jones looked completely hung out to dry, and that is something you never want to see from a team that prides itself on its defensive structure.
The players and coach were notably critical of themselves after the game, despite coming away with an important victory.
“We didn’t particularly play well defensively,” McCann said. “We didn’t shut it down in front of Jonesy, and you know, that’s on us. We gotta figure it out here and get back to the way we know how to— it would be better if we win 3-2 than 9-5, 9-6, 9-7 in a game.”
The Kraken were too loose in the neutral and defensive zones, and their puck management was horrendous.
“We have a lot to clean up on the defensive side,” said Burakovsky. “On the offensive side, we’re still scoring nine goals, so I mean, that’s definitely a positive. But we need to help our D out better, and we need to help out our goalie better. We can’t have nights when we let in eight goals. That’s just reality.”
Kraken fans can take solace in the fact that this team is continuing to find different ways to win. And even when they have these bad defensive nights, they’re able to outscore opponents, something they never would have been able to do last season.
Still, they can’t play like they played Tuesday and expect to keep winning. Hakstol has done a good job this season of addressing issues, so let’s keep an eye on this over the next few games to see if he and the Kraken can nip these bad defensive games in the bud.
Takeaway #3: A tough night for the goaltenders
It was a great night for padding offensive stats but not a great night for the goaltenders, who collectively got torched. As things were going back and forth in the earlier stages of the game, Kings coach Todd McLellan opted to relieve Jonathan Quick and send out Cal Petersen. The hook came after Jared McCann scored his second goal of the game at 4:56 of the second period, making it 5-4 Kraken.
The Kings then answered right back to make it 5-5, but interestingly, Hakstol left Jones in the game. That’s a tough call to make, because the score is close, and the goals to that point really hadn’t been Jones’s fault. But it’s also not good for his psyche to stay in there for eight goals against.
Hakstol said as McLellan was making his change, he never considered sending out Philipp Grubauer. “Jonesy was good to that point,” Hakstol said. “I think he probably showed a little bit of fatigue as we got into the third, with some of the opportunities that we had given up.”
We thought Jones had stopped the bleeding toward the end of the second period and into the third period, but a stinker from Mikey Anderson was what allowed the Kings to tie the game late and send it to overtime. But by then, do you send in a cold Grubauer with six minutes left? Probably not.
“The seventh goal is off of our stick, it’s a deflection, no chance there,” Hakstol said. “Probably the eighth one is the one that— if I were to sit with Jonesy and look at it, we’d probably look at it and say that’s one that he probably could have had.”
In the end, it’s yet another ‘W’ in the win column for Jones, but the Kraken have been riding him hard. It may be time to give him a couple nights in a row off to recuperate, both mentally and physically.
by Darren Brown | Nov 27, 2022 | Three takeaways
What is it about those pesky last-place Anaheim Ducks? Seattle had them dead to rights on opening night in October, dominating every facet of that game, only to collapse in the third period and lose in overtime. Sunday, the Kraken came out again looking like they were ready to blow the Ducks out of the pond, but somehow Anaheim hung around, scored three power-play goals, and made things downright stressful in the third period.
Seattle learned from its early-season sins, though. Sunday, when it looked like they were about to give the game away, the Kraken bent but didn’t break and escaped with two more important points in the standings.
With the victory, the Kraken are now 10-1-1 in their last 12 games and are on their second five-game win streak of that stretch. With the Golden Knights idle Sunday, the win brings Seattle (at least temporarily) within four points of Vegas for first place in the Pacific Division. Oh, and the Kraken still have two games in hand on the VGK’s.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an imperfect but important 5-4 Kraken win over the Ducks.
Takeaway #1: Ding dong! It’s Daniel Sprong!
It’s hard to put our finger on exactly why we root so hard for Daniel Sprong to succeed, but there’s something about how the story has played out for him since he arrived in Seattle at last season’s NHL Trade Deadline. He keeps getting asked to prove himself, and he keeps responding.
Sprong’s big shot on the power play led to Matty Beniers’ power-play goal in the second period (more on that in the next Takeaway), but his biggest play came in the third period. He streaked across the Anaheim blue line and tried to dump the puck deep. It hit a Duck defender, but the puck took a fortuitous bounce and sat up nicely for Sprong to regain control at the top of the slot.
With Ryan Donato creating chaos by driving to the net, Sprong looped around to his backhand, waited, waited, waited, and finally lofted the puck into a yawning cage.
With things looking like they could have gone sideways for the Kraken at that stage in the game, regaining the lead was paramount. Leave it to Daniel Sprong; he’ll get the job done.
Takeaway #2: Matty Beniers is on fire
We wrote a couple games ago that concern had started to creep in when Kraken star rookie Matty Beniers had gone quiet for six straight games. Well, he has been anything but quiet in the four games since and notched his second three-point night during that span Sunday against the Ducks. In total, Beniers now has nine points in his four-game scoring streak, which officially qualifies him for “a heater.”
Sunday, he won the face-off that led to Jared McCann’s game-opening goal. That earned him a second assist. He also got an assist on Sprong’s game winner by connecting on a long breakout pass to Ryan Donato that started the play.
Yet, his biggest moment came midway through the second period with Seattle on the power play. Things had gotten shifted around a bit in the course of play, and instead of hovering around the right half wall, where he is normally posted, Beniers found himself in the net-front position. Sprong initially fumbled a pass but quickly picked it up and fired it at John Gibson. Gibson didn’t handle it cleanly, and Beniers pounced and swatted it home.
It was a huge goal at the time, because it re-extended Seattle’s lead to two goals.
This kid is so special. After that quiet stretch, here’s hoping he stays noisy for as long as possible.
Takeaway #3: Morgan Geekie injured by friendly fire
The win may have come with a cost for the Kraken. Three minutes into the second period, with the Ducks changing, Seattle had plenty of time to reset for a breakout. Morgan Geekie laid a pass back to an uncontested Vince Dunn, then began racing up the boards. Looking back at Dunn, Geekie didn’t see Adam Larsson crossing his path. Larsson’s shoulder caught Geekie right in the face, and the 24-year-old forward went down in a heap.
Geekie was helped to the bench and then immediately went down the tunnel. He did not return to the game, and the team announced that he had suffered an upper-body injury.
It would be complete conjecture to say what we think happened to Geekie, so we won’t; but it didn’t look great. If Geekie misses any significant time, it will be a big loss for the Kraken. In the midst of his best NHL season so far, Geekie has been key for Seattle’s impressive fourth line that has helped drive offense for the team.
Without their fourth center in the second half of Sunday’s game, Matty Beniers was often seen doing double duty to center both his usual line and also that fourth line. That’s not sustainable, so if the Kraken need to replace Geekie in the lineup, the most obvious options would be to have Ryan Donato play center with Sprong and Karson Kuhlman on the fourth line, or they could bring Shane Wright back from his conditioning stint in Coachella Valley.
Bonus Takeaway: Set plays are cool when they work
McCann’s goal less than a minute into the game came just after an offensive-zone face-off. Best friend of the pod, Alison Lukan, called this out on the ROOT Sports broadcast as well, but we wanted to mention it here. The goal was scored because Beniers, Jordan Eberle, and McCann executed a pre-designed set play to perfection.
Beniers pulled the face-off back between his feet. Eberle, who had lined up on the left hash, lunged to his right to grab the loose puck. McCann, who had lined up on the right hash, immediately took off to loop around the bottom of the face-off circle and hopefully get lost by the Anaheim defense. As soon as Eberle gained control, he blindly threw the puck to the front of the net, hoping McCann would be there. Sure enough, McCann had gotten lost by the Ducks defense and was alone in front of Gibson. The pass from Eberle was on the money, and McCann just had to wait out Gibson and throw it up under the bar.
Set plays don’t always work, because everything from the drop of the puck onward has to break perfectly in your favor. One minute into the game against the Ducks, everything broke perfectly in Seattle’s favor, and the result was a beautiful goal.
by Darren Brown | Nov 23, 2022 | Gameday Coverage, Three takeaways
That’s… *not* Kraken hockey, baby! You don’t often see Seattle in track meets (or swim meets, since both teams were sea creatures?), but that’s what happened Wednesday against San Jose. In the end, the Kraken outran (out-swam?) the Sharks with an 8-5 win to improve to 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and close out their six-game homestand 4-1-1.
“It was fun for the fans, but it stunk for the coaches,” coach Dave Hakstol joked about the high-scoring affair. “Sometimes there’s nights like this. It kind of had that feel right from the go.”
With the win, Seattle now officially jumps over Los Angeles in the standings and holds sole possession of second place in the Pacific Division with three games still in hand. That was a big two points.
It’s another new way for the Kraken to win, earning a franchise record eight goals and overcoming a Timo Meier hat trick. And although coach Hakstol couldn’t have been thrilled about his team continuously letting the Sharks back in the game, the boys prevailed in the end.
“You gotta win games all different ways,” Hakstol said. “This isn’t the way that you draw it up, but it’s still a win, and you got to find different ways to win hockey games.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a wild 8-5 Kraken win over the Sharks.
Takeaway #1: Everyone off the schneid!
It had been a long time since we had seen Jaden Schwartz score a goal. It had been longer since we had seen Ryan Donato pot one. And it had been really really long since Oliver Bjorkstrand had gotten one.
Schwartz, who had two goals, had last scored Oct. 29 against Pittsburgh. Donato, meanwhile, hadn’t scored since Oct. 19 against St. Louis, and Bjorkstrand hadn’t scored since the team’s very first game of the season in Anaheim.
Bjorkstrand getting on the board feels especially important. The key offseason acquisition has scored more than 20 goals in three of his last four seasons, but he has been mired with just one this season thanks to a shockingly low shooting percentage.
He finally got the monkey off his back against the Sharks. With the game tied early in the third period, Brandon Tanev forced a turnover at the San Jose blue line. The puck went right to Yanni Gourde, who found Bjorkstrand all alone with oodles of time. Bjorkstrand waited out Kaapo Kahkonen and tucked a backhander up under the bar.
“He scores that goal, and we all went nuts on the bench,” said Matty Beniers. “He’s so deserving of it. He’s getting so many offensive chances every night, and now one’s going in, and you’re probably going to see they’re all going to start falling for him.”
Andre Burakovsky shared that Bjorkstrand had a secret weapon Wednesday. Bjorkstrand recently switched to a new stick and had been scoring a lot in practice recently. So, when he buried one Wednesday, Burakovsky told him, “It’s the new stick, bud.”
“It’s great for him,” Hakstol added. “That’s a heck of a goal. He’s had some really good opportunities here over the last 10 games. That play is— first of all, it’s off of hard work on a re-load in the offensive zone, and he made no mistake.”
It was a big goal in the game and perhaps an even bigger goal for the player, who Seattle certainly hopes can get going offensively.
Takeaway #2: Jamie Oleksiak is back
Though the Kraken had some success with Jamie Oleksiak out of the lineup, the Big Rig was a sight for sore eyes on the Seattle blue line Wednesday. It is our belief here at Sound Of Hockey that consistent and balanced right-shot/left-shot defensive pairs has been hugely helpful to this team. Without Oleksiak, Seattle had temporarily lost that balance, plus a big, physical presence on the back end was suddenly missing.
In his first game back from his lower-body injury, Oleksiak found his way onto the scoresheet. Midway through the second period, San Jose had a delayed penalty coming. With Martin Jones off for an extra skater, the Kraken maintained possession for an extended period. They worked it around the offensive zone until Justin Schultz found Oleksiak open on the doorstep. Oleksiak redirected it by Kahkonen to make it 4-2 Kraken.
“He was good,” Hakstol said of Oleksiak. “Obviously, we love his defensive game and the hardness that he brings there. He chipped in with a goal in the six-on-five with the delayed penalty. So it’s not really a defensive two-way defenseman’s dream tonight at 8-5, but he contributed in a lot of different ways, and he’s a big part of our group. It’s nice to have him back in the lineup.”
Just like how the Kraken saw immediate results in three-on-three overtime after practicing that scenario, they also practiced six-on-five situations this week. Lo and behold, an extended opportunity came up in the middle of the game, and they took advantage. As we said after last game, practice makes perfect.
Takeaway #3: The Killer B’s come through in a big way
Not only did Bjorkstrand score an important goal Wednesday, the other two of the “Killer B’s” had an enormous night as well.
Burakovsky had Seattle’s first goal of the game on a five-on-three power play, then assisted on Oleksiak’s goal and Schwartz’s first goal.
Beniers had three points of his own, with a beautiful goal off a rush to seal the game at 7-5, and an even better assist on Vince Dunn’s goal in the second period. He made something out of nothing, attacking an offensive zone full of Sharks, despite being completely outnumbered. Beniers flew deep into the zone, then somehow snuck a pass between Jaycob Megna and Luke Kunin. The pass found Dunn driving to the net, and he tied the game at 2-2.
“I loved his game three nights ago,” Hakstol said of Beniers. “If you go back and look at that hockey game, he did so many really good things. High-level, good two-way play, good offensive plays, and he followed it up tonight.”
We’ve quietly had just the smallest inkling of concern that Beniers may have been hitting a bit of a wall. This is, after all, his first full pro season and the first time he’s experienced the grind of an 82-game campaign. After a torrid start to the season, Beniers had gone six games without a point before earning two assists against the Kings on Saturday. Wednesday was a breakout.
It’s a great sign to see Matty back to his contributing ways after a quiet stretch.
by Darren Brown | Nov 20, 2022 | Three takeaways
That was a big one. The Seattle Kraken battled through the daunting 1-3-1 forecheck of the Los Angeles Kings to earn two huge points against their Pacific Division rival Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena.
If the Kraken had gotten the W in regulation, they would officially be sitting in second place now, but since the Kings got a point, they’re still technically in the lead despite having played three more games. Regardless, it’s a huge victory for the Kraken, who have righted the ship after two consecutive losses Friday and Sunday of last week.
“When you go into those games, those are huge points that you give up,” Jordan Eberle said of the recent losses. “You never know when you might need that extra point to get in [the playoffs], so we’ve worked on it, and obviously, it’s worked out.”
“Every divisional game is so big,” added coach Dave Hakstol. “So that extra point is really important. It’s the kind of game that you would expect on these kinds of nights.”
Another impressive 27-save performance by Martin Jones, plus goals by Jared McCann, Daniel Sprong, and Eberle, gave the Kraken the big 3-2 overtime victory against the Kings. Here are our Three Takeaways.
Takeaway #1: The Kraken have figured out overtime
After Seattle lost to Winnipeg in overtime on Sunday, alarm bells were ringing about the team’s struggles in three-on-three extra sessions. The Kraken at that point had not only lost all three of the extra sessions they had played, but they also seemed to just not really have much of a plan.
The Kraken worked on it this week in practice, and it’s a good thing, because Saturday’s game against the Kings was Seattle’s third straight game to go to overtime in a 2-2 tie. Against Los Angeles, Seattle showed impressive patience despite not being able to gain possession of the puck for much of the first two minutes.
“It was a different overtime tonight [compared to Sunday],” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We didn’t have the puck a whole lot, but we defended really well. We never really gave up— we didn’t give up anything threatening.”
When the Kraken got their chance, they pounced and took advantage of an overly aggressive play by the Kings. With Justin Schultz battling with Kevin Fiala in the Seattle zone, defenseman Sean Walker jumped up to help. Schultz gained control for just long enough to chip it past Walker and send Eberle and Brandon Tanev on a two-on-one.
“We were patient,” Hakstol said. “Schultzy does a good job defending, we took advantage of their defenseman diving in as we punched that puck past him, and that creates the outnumbered and the odd-man situation.” Hakstol also joked that the practice this week hasn’t meant anything. Instead, he said the formula is just getting Eberle and Tanev out there together, as they were the forwards on for Schultz’s game winner Thursday against the Rangers as well.
This version of Kraken overtime where they stay behind the puck, wait for their opportunities, and aren’t afraid to circle back and regroup isn’t anything groundbreaking; a lot of teams do that kind of thing. But, it sure will give them a fighting chance far more often than the previous version, which tried to force plays and seemed generally out of sorts.
Takeaway #2: Just don’t look
Sprong and Eberle scored two very different types of goals Sunday, with Sprong firing away from the left circle on the power play, and Eberle beating Cal Petersen off an odd-man rush opportunity in OT.
But if you look closely, there’s an interesting little similarity between the two. As Sprong shot the puck 53 seconds into the third period, his eyes were actually on Alex Wennberg, who was drifting toward the top of the crease.
“I work on it a good amount in practice, the no-look five hole, but it hasn’t been going in for me when I’ve tried it in a game,” Sprong said. “The D takes [Wennberg], so I just kind of use Wenny there, and [Petersen’s] legs are open, and I put it five hole.”
Taking a page out of Sprong’s book, as Eberle raced up the ice with Tanev in the extra frame, Eberle took a quick peek at Petersen, but otherwise had his gaze glued on Tanev the whole time. Still looking to his right, Eberle let the puck fly and beat Petersen over the glove.
So, our takeaway here is that the secret to scoring is to just not look where you’re shooting… or something like that. But seriously, both of those goals were pretty sick because of the no-look aspect of them.
Takeaway #3: Response to goals against has been good
We’ve talked about this a number of times lately, but Seattle has done a fantastic job of minimizing damage after giving up goals against. A big part of that has been the outstanding play of Jones, who was great yet again Saturday, but the Kraken have made an effort to push back after conceding goals.
After Trevor Moore scored a short-handed breakaway goal early in the third period, the Kraken not only responded with a good next shift, they immediately re-tied the game at 2-2.
“It’s not really something we’ve talked about recently,” Hakstol said of responding to goals against. “We talked about it early on, whether it’s a goal for or a goal against or a good shift or a bad shift. It’s a recognition, to start with, right? You gotta realize and recognize what just happened in the hockey game and then what needs to come and follow that type of shift up.”
It was common for the Kraken to allow goals in bunches last season, and we saw that a few times early this season. But aside from two quick goals against to start the third period in Calgary on Nov. 1, it’s been one and done for opponents in November.
A great example of the Kraken’s ability to push back was Sprong’s tying goal against the Kings. Moore’s short-handed goal could have really sapped Seattle’s momentum, but the power play went right back to work and answered in just 18 seconds.
“That can really flip momentum,” Hakstol said of the goal against. “That can be a switch on the game, and the fact that the next power-play group went out there and was able to answer was really important.” Hakstol added that on the shift after a goal against, they don’t need to go out and do anything special, but they need to have a competitive shift. Seattle has certainly done that and more since the end of October.
Bonus takeaway: Kraken denting the posts
The Kraken could have had several more goals Saturday, if not for those pesky goalposts that kept getting in the way. During a mad power-play scramble in the second period, Alex Wennberg swung the puck behind the net to Matty Beniers. Petersen was way out of position and dead to rights, but Beniers shot the puck across the front of the wide open net and hit the far post.
Then, in the third period, Beniers made a great play to spin off a check and find Jared McCann open on the far side. McCann had what looked like his second goal of the game, but he too rang it off the post. Seattle has been doing that a lot recently.
We asked Eberle about that after the game, and he said, “I think it was the Mighty Ducks that goes, ‘If it hits three inches the other way, it’s completely missing the net,’ so you can’t really focus on that stuff.” If we’re getting nitpicky, the exchange between Gordon Bombay and Charlie Conway indicated that shots hitting the post come down to a quarter of an inch in either direction, but the sentiment is the same.
The Kraken have done a good job of sticking with it and not getting frustrated, despite denting the goalposts on a number of occasions.
by Darren Brown | Nov 13, 2022 | Three takeaways
The Kraken shot themselves in the tentacle against the Jets Sunday. Actually, they shot themselves in all eight tentacles, with each of their eight penalties representing another wounded appendage.
Often times, when a team takes a point out of a game for losing in overtime, it’s easy to find moral victories. But after the Kraken had Sunday’s game against Winnipeg in the bag and let it slip out the bottom thanks to an outrageous number of penalties, the mood in the Seattle dressing room was somber.
“For me, it’s about the third period,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We put ourselves in position to win a game, and three minor penalties are probably the thing that stands out the most. When you do that during the third period, right down to the last 30 seconds, that’s a tough way to close out a hockey game.”
Seattle took a whopping eighth penalty of the game with 25 seconds left in regulation. Blake Wheeler tied the game with just five seconds left, and Mark Scheifele won it just 54 seconds into overtime.
“Those are the ones that really sting,” Jordan Eberle said. “You never know what point is going to get you into the playoffs, and when you make mistakes and keep giving good teams like that opportunities, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a miserable 3-2 Kraken overtime loss to the Jets.
Takeaway #1: Never retaliate, especially with 25 seconds left
The Kraken were playing with fire all night, taking penalty after penalty. Their PK, which entered the game with 16 consecutive successful kills, finally gave up its first goal against since Oct. 27. The streak-snapping tally came in the second period when Sam Gagner intentionally shot wide of Martin Jones and got a great bounce off the lively Climate Pledge Arena end boards. The puck caromed right to Scheifele on the other side, who had a yawning cage and an easy goal.
Even with the unfortunate bounce, Seattle looked poised to have another mostly successful night with the manpower disadvantage. It killed off Winnipeg’s sixth power play after Eberle had been nabbed for hooking Nate Schmidt at 16:39 of the third period. That was a dominant kill at a big moment.
Surely Seattle wouldn’t get another penalty after that, right?
With the clock ticking down and Jets goalie David Rittich off for an extra attacker, the Kraken looked fully content to bleed out the clock and take their two points. But in front of the net, Pierre-Luc Dubois gave Carson Soucy a nasty two-handed slash across the calves. Soucy responded with a punch to the back of Dubois’ head. The referee immediately blew the whistle and—we could have sworn—motioned as if he was taking both players to the box.
That’s not what happened, though. Instead, only Soucy went off, giving Winnipeg its seventh power play of the game.
“It’s an undisciplined penalty on our part,” Hakstol said. “We just need to close that game out. We don’t need to settle any scores at that point in time.”
While we recall seeing the referee motion as if both players were going off, Hakstol was further confused by the timing of when the play was whistled down. “I am a little confused at how that whole sequence happened and why the play was blown down when it was if both guys weren’t going to the box.” The whistle went when the Jets had the puck, which would have indicated the refs intended to take both players off.
So, there’s something fishy there. But the moral of the story is you never retaliate, especially in the waning seconds of a game when you’re holding a tenuous lead.
“Myself included, it’s just not understanding the situation,” Eberle said. “And that hurts.”
The ill-advised Soucy penalty doomed the Kraken in the end. Kyle Connor ripped a one-timer from the right circle that Jones stopped, but the rebound sat in the crease for Blake Wheeler to bang home.
The tying goal came with under four seconds to play. After that, you just knew things would go Winnipeg’s way in overtime, and they did.
Takeaway #2: “A wasted performance”
Jones continued his red-hot stretch of play that dates back to Oct. 29. He deserved another ‘W’ on his record Sunday, stopping 28 shots along the way, but his mates made some bone-headed decisions that made things unnecessarily tough on their netminder.
“Jonesy was unbelievable,” Brandon Tanev said. “He made some great saves for us and kept us in the game, and obviously, he played great. We want to have a better result for him next time.”
Jones’s best save of the game—and maybe the season—came late in the second period. Scheifele shoveled a shot into his pads, and Dubois pried it loose. Dubois then had what appeared to be an easy tap-in, but Jones fired out his left pad and somehow robbed Dubois on the goal line.
“Kind of a pass out and a rebound, and they were just kind of banging away,” Jones said. “I was kind of sliding out of the net, and just threw my leg back there and got a piece.”
That save was memorable, but Jones saved the Kraken’s calamari repeatedly, especially in the second period when he stopped 16 of 17 shots.
“We wasted a good performance there,” Hakstol said. “His performance was good enough to get two points.”
Takeaway #3: Some different looks for Seattle
Seattle came in with a modified lineup Saturday, as Hakstol shuffled his top three left wings, subbed Karson Kuhlman in for Daniel Sprong, and gave Gustav Olofsson his first NHL action since Dec. 3, 2019.
Hakstol explained at morning skate Sunday that the adjustments to the forward lines was an attempt to find a spark after the Kraken came up empty against Minnesota. Asked about his impressions of the new look after the game, Hakstol said, “We didn’t see much of it. We had nearly 20 minutes in specialty teams tonight, so we really didn’t get into any type of flow throughout the entire hockey game.”
So, the jury is out on if he likes this new mix.
As part of the shakeup, Oliver Bjorkstrand was moved to the third line with Tanev and Yanni Gourde. Bjorkstrand scored in Seattle’s first game of the year in Anaheim but hasn’t found the back of the net since.
“Bjorky had a couple of real good looks tonight,” Hakstol said. “Once one goes in him, things are gonna start going his way.”
Bjorkstrand did assist on Tanev’s go-ahead goal in the third period and hit a post late in the first.
