by Darren Brown | Oct 21, 2022 | Three takeaways
That one might stick with us for a while. Few in the hockey world expected the Kraken to defeat the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in their barn Friday, but Seattle did just that and came away with an impressive 3-2 win.
The Kraken really deserved the victory, too, getting the better of the play in almost every statistical category. It was a real team win, from the goaltender(s) out.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an exciting 3-2 Kraken win over the Avalanche.
Takeaway #1: Stay cool, man! It’s Karson Kuhlman!
You have to love when a grinder ends up the hero. That’s what happened Friday, as Karson Kuhlman skated into a perfectly placed high flip from Jaden Schwartz, then fought off all 233 pounds of Kraken Expansion Draft selection Kurtis MacDermid and snuck the puck between the pads of Pavel Francouz.
“I think it starts with a good wall play there,” Kuhlman said. “Schwartzy makes a good play, puts the puck to space, let me skate into it… I saw a little opening and was able to put it in the net.”
Schwartz had a great game too and has continued to be an important piece for the Kraken since returning from the various maladies that cut his 2021-22 season short. He scored a power-play goal in the second period after a great setup by Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle on a slick high-low-high play.
On Kuhlman’s game winner, Schwartz said, “We just needed to change and I knew he was fresh. Just looked up quickly and he had a lot of speed, so just tried to get it somewhere in his area, and he made a heck of an individual play there.”
It really was an impressive play by Kuhlman, who said MacDermid was “draped all over” him, but he battled through and got enough of a shot away to beat Francouz.
It was a heck of a game by both Kuhlman and Schwartz, who ultimately connected to give Seattle the win.
Takeaway #2: Grubauer plays great, exits with an injury
Philipp Grubauer was a big reason Seattle had a chance to win this one. The Kraken remarkably outshot Colorado 38-20 and had 58.6 percent of the expected goals for, but Grubauer was a big factor. He looked dialed in from pre-game warmups, and he stood tall against several point-blank shots in the first period.
“I thought Grubi was outstanding, right from that first shift,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “They had a couple opportunities the first couple of shifts, and he was rock solid. Looked really calm, really confident, and that feeds through the rest of the group as well.”
His best save of the night came on an early partial breakaway by Alex Newhook, when Newhook dangled through Seattle’s defense and appeared to have Grubauer dead to rights. The German gentleman was moving to his right, and Newhook deked back the other way. Somehow, Grubauer stopped his momentum and flared out his left pad to get his toe on the puck and keep the Avalanche off the board in the opening frame.
The lone Avalanche goal of the second period was a backdoor tap-in for Evan Rodrigues after Valeri Nichushkin threaded the needle under Jamie Oleksiak’s stick. The second goal against was painful both literally and figuratively. With Seattle on the power play in the third period, Andre Burakovsky lost the puck along the wall in the offensive zone. The Avs went down three-on-one, and Bowen Byram finished to level the game at 2-2.
You can see in the video, Grubauer immediately seized up. He stayed down for a moment, then went to the bench to talk to the medical staff. He did stay in the game initially, but Martin Jones came in at the next whistle and finished out the game. Ironically, Jones earned credit for the win as the goalie of record, his 200th career win, despite stopping just one (!!) shot.
Jones played 9:43, so the fact that he faced just one shot is a testament to how well Seattle was playing defensively, especially in the closing minutes of the game.
Hakstol did not have an update on Grubauer after the game, but we do not think the injury is terribly serious. We will see if he is able to dress in Chicago Sunday.
Takeaway #3: Bend but don’t break
The win wasn’t entirely flawless. We talked in Takeaway #1 about Seattle conceding a short-handed tying goal, but to its credit, the team didn’t allow that to be a backbreaker. Instead, the Kraken stuck with it and found a way to earn the two points it deserved.
“That’s a little bit of a benchmark right there,” Hakstol said. “We played a real good hockey game. We made a mistake, and that can rattle you, especially in this building when momentum gets rolling. But we didn’t [get rattled]. We just went right back to work, and the next couple shifts were solid shifts.”
Having watched a lot of Kraken hockey, it really felt to us like the defending Stanley Cup champions were about to find a game winner after they got the equalizer. Seattle flipped the script, though, and came away with an impressive victory.
That’s a big-time win. Are the Seattle Kraken on the way up?
by Darren Brown | Oct 20, 2022 | Three takeaways
After the way Seattle played in its first two home games Saturday and Monday, having the Kraken of old back against the St. Louis Blues was refreshing. When we say “Kraken of old,” we’re referring to the version we saw last year, the one that would often fall behind in the first period, rally back in the second, and ultimately come up just short in the third and/or overtime.
That’s exactly what happened Wednesday, but salvaging a point against a good Blues team and getting back to their tenacious ways was a positive result for the Kraken.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-3 overtime Kraken loss to the Blues.
Takeaway #1: The boys are back
Kraken fans’ hopes may have been elevated after the first two games in Southern California, contests that Seattle largely dominated. But those hopes came crashing back down to earth when the Kraken laid two consecutive eggs against Vegas and Carolina and lost those first home games of the season by a combined score of 10-3.
The typically raucous crowd inside Climate Pledge Arena was largely silent both nights, and there were early races to the exits upon realization that the games were well out of reach.
On Wednesday, the Kraken got back to showing the identity they worked so hard to develop last season.
“We played a good hockey game,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s two or three minutes in the first period where we gave up a couple of quick ones, but we regained our composure, played a hell of a hockey game.”
Seattle fell behind 3-1 in the first period. Just over a minute after Will Borgen had scored his first goal of the season, Martin Jones made too soft of a pass to Vince Dunn behind the net. Dunn had a chance to pass behind the net to Adam Larsson, but he failed to get it past a forechecking Robert Thomas. That led to Brayden Schenn punching it into an open net.
Then 17 seconds later, after Jordan Eberle had fumbled a puck in the neutral zone, the Blues quickly transitioned and sent Justin Faulk in for his first of two goals on the night (the second was the game winner in overtime).
Even after that first period, though, the effort felt very different than it did against the Golden Knights and Hurricanes.
The Kraken scored two in the second with a breakaway goal by Ryan Donato, created by a fantastic outlet pass from Brandon Tanev, and an own goal by Torey Krug that got credited to Adam Larsson.
After 40 minutes, the Kraken exited the ice to a standing ovation, something they certainly wouldn’t have deserved from the home faithful in the previous two games.
“I thought we played a tired hockey game against Vegas,” Hakstol said. “I don’t like at all the way we played the other night against Carolina and handled things. This is our hockey team tonight; the way we battled, competed, executed, the pace and the tenacity that we played with… Tonight is a good standard to go off of and continue to build from.”
“That just shows the resiliency in this room,” Borgen added. “We never thought we were out of it. We were gonna keep coming at ’em, and we got ourselves back into it a little bit.”
That resiliency has been missing for a couple games, so it’s good to see Seattle can battle back when it gets down.
Now, if only the Kraken could figure out how to get ahead in games…
Takeaway #2: Big games by Ryan Donato and Will Borgen
Donato came off a healthy scratch Monday and—as we saw after he was scratched on several occasions last season—played like he never wants to spend another game in the press box. Not only did he score a big goal off a breakaway, Donato also got into his version of a scrap with Ivan Barbashev in the first period.
Barbashev laid a punishing welcome-to-the-show-type hit on Shane Wright, and Donato, not known for his physical play or feistiness, didn’t think twice about jumping to the rookie’s defense.
“I didn’t really get to see the hit,” Donato said. “I just heard him go down hard, and no matter what, I think any guy would stick up for the teammate if they’re in that position. I happened to be the closest guy to him, and I think it’s a blessing that I didn’t get hurt and he didn’t get hurt.”
Wright was thankful for Donato jumping to his aide and joked after the game that he might owe Donato a dinner for that.
Similarly, Borgen scored a goal of his own and made a huge defensive stop on Jake Neighbours in the third period. On the play, Neighbours kept driving and ran right into Martin Jones, earning himself a goalie interference penalty. Borgen took offense to an opponent touching his goalie, and went right after Neighbours, creating a big skirmish behind the net.
Combining offensive output with solid defensive play and a willingness to stick up for teammates made for a good night for two relatively unsung players.
Takeaway #3: Shane Wright shows progress
Hakstol’s lack of usage of No. 4 overall pick Shane Wright was the talk of the town after Seattle’s ugly loss to Carolina Monday. Wright ultimately played similar minutes Wednesday, but he was far more noticeable. After two periods, he was on pace for a higher time-on-ice total, but with the game tied in the third period, Hakstol shortened his bench. Predictably, Wright’s fourth line didn’t get much time in the final 20 minutes. Still, he got credited with his first NHL point and missed scoring his first NHL goal by mere centimeters.
On Donato’s goal, Wright deflected a cross-ice pass in the defensive zone. Tanev scooped up the puck, found Donato behind the Blues’ defense, and hit him with a perfect stretch pass, sending Donato in for the eventual tally.
Wright was not initially credited for the point, though. It got added during the second intermission and announced to a large ovation from the crowd in the third period. He found out that he was on the scoresheet at the same time as everybody else in the building.
“I didn’t know,” Wright said. “I kind of thought on the play that maybe I would have gotten an assist there. I thought I touched the puck but didn’t know in the room until they announced it. So, obviously a pretty cool moment for sure.”
In the third period, Wright found himself with the puck on his stick in a dangerous area after Donato found him from below the goal line. Wright got a good shot off and cleanly beat Jordan Binnington, but he hit the base of the post.
A third-period winner would have made Wednesday an unforgettable night, but for now, Wright and Hakstol are both happy with the progress.
“I think every game, I feel more comfortable, feel more confident out there,” Wright said. “I think that’s part of the learning experience and part of the learning curve.” He also recognized it is taking him a couple games to get used to the pace but knows that’s also part of the process.
“Getting his first point is awesome, I think that’s a great step,” Hakstol said. “He deserved to score his first goal tonight. That line did everything right on that shift. Now, I gotta get him on the ice for a couple more minutes a night and just continue to let him grow.”
We thought that last comment by Hakstol was especially interesting, given the Twitter storm about his lack of minutes on Monday. Will Wright start seeing his ice time increase now?
by Darren Brown | Oct 18, 2022 | Three takeaways
So far we’ve seen two different Kraken teams this season; the one that controlled its first two games in Southern California (though it fumbled the first one away in overtime), and the one that has looked almost outclassed in two home games since. We’re hopeful Seattle can figure it out, but man, this could be a long season if what we’ve seen these last two games is what this team really is.
Granted, the Hurricanes are expected to again be Stanley Cup contenders this season, but if the Kraken want to be a playoff team, they need to be able to skate with the Carolinas of the world. On Monday, it seemed like every time the Kraken touched the puck, a Hurricane player was on them, forcing them to make the wrong play. Meanwhile, Carolina did not get that kind of pressure from the Kraken, and the result was a dominant 5-1 win for the Hurricanes.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a second uninspiring home Kraken loss in a row.
Takeaway #1: Let’s talk about Shane Wright
We may have fueled the fire a bit with our tweet after the second period that Shane Wright had only gotten 2:58 of ice time through 40 minutes. After sending that, we heard folks loud and clear that they were frustrated with Wright’s usage through four games. We get it, and we too would love to see him play more.
Here’s the thing, though… He’s 18 years old, and he just jumped from the OHL to the NHL, which is a massive step for any player to take. From the Kraken’s perspective, of course they want him to develop, and him being around the team, even if it’s just to practice and play a few minutes here and there, can help with that development process.
To us, Wright looks like he’s able to keep up, but he’s not quite ready to be a guy that pushes the pace or be a centerpiece of Seattle’s offense. He should be that with time, but the Kraken do also want to win now, which means relying on the guys they think will create (although, to be fair, nobody did much creating on Monday).
Coach Dave Hakstol was asked about Wright’s usage after the game, and he said, “That’s the way the flow of the game went. That’s partly the special teams and partly the flow of the game.” We think that means Hakstol leaned on his trusted guns to try to get the Kraken back in the game, and Wright hasn’t gotten to trusted gun status yet. Fewer penalties in the third resulted in more ice time for Wright, and he finished with 6:50 in total with one shot on goal.
If you’re concerned this minimal usage is stunting Wright’s development, remember too that Seattle still has the option to send him back to the OHL and can keep him for up to nine games played before burning the first year of his entry-level contract. So, playing him two games and scratching him the other two means they’ve only used up two of his nine games thus far. If they are still considering returning Wright to Kingston, by spacing out his usage, Seattle gives itself more time to keep him around and get him used to the NHL pace.
Give it time, folks. Minutes and development will come.
Takeaway #2: Second lopsided loss is cause for concern
We hate to be ringing any alarm bells this early in the season because there’s still some jelling that needs to happen for the Kraken. But seeing the team get smoked by a combined score of 10-3 in its first two home games is absolutely cause for concern.
Thinking back to last season, for as bad as the team’s record was, and for as many painful losing streaks as they endured, there weren’t that many nights where—from start to finish—the Kraken looked overmatched by an opponent. They’ve looked that way for two games in a row, though, and on Monday, Carolina seemed like it could do no wrong, while the Kraken couldn’t create much offensively.
Heck, even when Seattle got a power-play goal at 13:06 of the second to get back within one, it gave it right back with a penalty and then a Carolina power-play tally, all in just 18 seconds. That was just how the night went, and it was a reminder that the Kraken could have a long way to go, while the Hurricanes are looking to make a deep run this season.
“They were tight on us,” Andre Burakovsky said. “Every time you got the puck, it felt like there was somebody right on top of you right away.”
Burakovsky, who scored Seattle’s lone goal for his 300th career point, does think Seattle could have done things differently to give itself more of a chance. “We have to recognize how we find success. I think the second period, we find some good shifts when we chip it down, and we’re hard onto the pucks and skating toward the puck and second guy is tight on the first guy. We were winning that battle and come up with the puck and play o-zone. It’s way more fun to play o-zone.”
Takeaway #3: Penalties were a factor
Unsurprisingly, the Hurricanes had the better of the puck possession in each of the first two periods. When the other team has the puck, it’s easy to take penalties as you try to get it back.
In the end, each team got called for five infractions, but Seattle took four of its five in the second frame. It’s no coincidence that the wheels came off the wagon in the second period.
“You’re playing with fire when you put those guys on the power play that often,” Hakstol said. “It came back to get us on their second goal, the Aho goal. We missed a rotation on that… Then the high-stick penalty [on Vince Dunn] right after our first goal, we actually broke the play up, but they got a bounce and made a play on it. That’s the fire that you’re playing with.”
The rotation Hakstol was referencing on the Aho goal was a shift between Brandon Tanev and Jared McCann, in which—instead of forming the top of a four-man box—they ended up in a vertical line with McCann standing behind Tanev. That left Aho alone at the top of the left circle with plenty of room to get his lethal shot off.
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Things won’t get any easier for the Kraken the rest of this week. After a day off Tuesday, Seattle will welcome the St. Louis Blues to Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday before traveling to Colorado to face the Cup-winning Avalanche on Friday.
by Darren Brown | Oct 16, 2022 | Three takeaways
That was a truly miserable home opener for the Kraken. After a bad start put them behind the Vegas Golden Knights 2-0 in the first few minutes, Seattle didn’t find its way until the third period when the score was 5-0 and well out of reach.
It was disappointing for fans, surely, who so badly wanted something to cheer about Saturday. By the time the devastating 18-inning Mariners game ended on the other side of town, the Kraken were already down and mostly out. Things largely stayed quiet inside the typically raucous Climate Pledge Arena, as the Golden Knights took care of business and improved their all-time record against the Kraken to 5-0-0.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a tough home opener for the Kraken against the Golden Knights.
Takeaway #1: Are bad starts still a thing?
Bad starts were common for the Kraken last season. So far, in three games, they’ve twice had what we would consider bad starts, giving up a goal 51 seconds into the Anaheim game on Wednesday and one-upping themselves Saturday by allowing Vegas to score just 12 seconds in.
On Wednesday, the Kraken righted the ship quickly against what may be a bad Ducks team, but against the high-flying Golden Knights, Seattle couldn’t figure things out quickly enough to make a real game of it.
“We weren’t sharp with the puck right from the start of the hockey game,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We were stuck in quicksand for the first 10 minutes of this game and couldn’t get our feet going.” By the time the Kraken registered a shot on goal, they were down 2-0.
Just after the opening face-off, Yanni Gourde was back to retrieve a puck, fanned on his pass and put it onto the stick of William Carrier. Before you could blink, Keegan Kolesar had scored, and the Kraken were chasing the game.
“Obviously, first shift, I got to do a better job,” Gourde said. “I lose that puck, it’s in the back of our net, so kind of killed our legs there a little bit. I’m supposed to be on the ice to bring energy to this team and make the right play. This can’t happen the first shift.”
Vegas followed that up with a Jonathan Marchessault power-play goal three minutes later.
“That kind of set the tone for the game in my opinion,” Jordan Eberle said. “But you should be able to rebound off that and be a mature enough group that if things go wrong, especially in the first eight seconds or whatever it was, we still have three periods pretty much to come back from it, and we just didn’t really have an answer.”
We saw the Kraken bounce back from those starts on a number of occasions last season and on Wednesday, but they didn’t have it Saturday. Being able to overcome an early deficit is really addressing the symptom, though, and not the problem. The problem that needs to get fixed is giving up goals and committing horrendous turnovers seconds into the game.
Takeaway #2: Odd-man rushes galore
When the second period started Saturday, it seemed like the Kraken had abandoned playing to their usual level of structure, and they started turning pucks over constantly. The result for Vegas was too many odd-man rushes to count.
Typically when there are a lot of odd-man rushes at one end of the ice, it means the game has opened up, and there are plenty of counter-attack rushes the other way. But that wasn’t the case Saturday, as Vegas really had the bulk of those opportunities with only a handful going against them.
Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy gave a good explanation for why his squad was so successful at generating those chances. “We were good on the walls,” Cassidy said. “I think that’s where we have the advantage; we’re a bigger team than Seattle. We won our wall battles, and they were pinching down on us. We were able to support from underneath, which is the next part of that. Win your wall battle, support from underneath, now you’re in attack mode. If your D is able to activate, you get some numbers on the rush.”
With the Golden Knights coming in waves, Martin Jones, who was relieved after Seattle had fallen behind 5-0 at the end of the second period, actually did well to keep the Kraken in the game through most of that frame. The wheels came off, though, after Reilly Smith gave the Golden Knights a 3-0 lead on the power play, and that led to two more not-so-good goals against Jones.
From the Seattle perspective on the odd-man rushes, Gourde said Vegas was doing a good job of getting players behind the Kraken’s defense. “They like playing three forwards behind, flip pucks, and they’re off to the races. We got caught having three guys kind of reading what the forecheck was going to be, and when you’re doubting a little bit, you’re slow, and that’s what happened.”
Too many odd-man rushes against is a fixable problem, but it does need to get resolved quickly.
As an aside, this doesn’t quite deserve its own Takeaway, but face-offs were also a big problem Saturday. Seattle won just 29.8 percent of the face-offs, and Hakstol pointed out the team had lost the first nine draws in a row. A bad night in the face-off circle can be overcome with good forechecks and winning battles, but Seattle was nowhere near good enough in those areas of its game to make up for rarely starting with the puck.
Takeaway #3: Any positives?
Always the optimists, we wanted to see if we could come up with any positives to take away from this otherwise stinky pile of a home opener. We did manage to think of a few.
The Kraken looked better in the third period, and they scored a couple goals to give fans a little something to cheer about. It’s possible Vegas had just dialed it back by that point, but still, it’s good to see the team go down fighting in the end.
Justin Schultz scored his first goal as a Kraken, Jaden Schwartz continues contributing—a great sign after he dealt with major injury issues last season—and Matty Beniers got an assist, giving him 13 points in 13 NHL games.
We also liked the play of Philipp Grubauer, who came on in relief in the third period. Grubauer stopped all six of the shots he faced, including a nice right-to-left save to deny a quality two-on-one opportunity. We know six shots isn’t a lot, but it is important that the Kraken get him on the right track, and we aren’t convinced that happened in the first game in Anaheim.
By the way, if you’re wondering if Hakstol regretted handing this start to Jones, he was pretty straightforward when asked about the goaltending after the game. “The right guy started tonight. In fact, he gave us a chance to steal this game with the number of saves he made through the second period. The Marchessault goal obviously is one that he wants back, but Jonesy made a number of saves— had we been able to get one and get going— he kept us in a position to win this hockey game.”
by Darren Brown | Oct 14, 2022 | Three takeaways
If we told Kraken fans a few days ago that Seattle would take three points out of four from this two-game trip with back-to-backs, we surmise that most of those fans would have been quite excited about that predicted outcome.
Wednesday’s 5-4 overtime loss in Anaheim may have left a bitter taste due to the nature of the loss, but Seattle did everything it could to erase that from memory Thursday. From top to bottom, the 4-1 Kraken win over the Los Angeles Kings was a solid, convincing performance, and one that should bring optimism to the Puget Sound area.
“You learn from your mistakes,” Alex Wennberg said. “That just shows right now, I feel like this group is just getting together, and more and more it shows on the ice that we’re more connected.”
Thanks to goals by Jaden Schwartz, Brandon Tanev, Wennberg, and Adam Larsson, solid team defense, and a strong debut performance by Martin Jones, Seattle left Southern California happy.
Here are our Three Takeaways from the first Kraken win of the season.
Takeaway #1: Kraken learning on the fly
On Wednesday, the Kraken—holding a 3-1 lead—took a penalty late in the second period. After an offensive odd-man rush, they turned the puck over to the Ducks, which led to a rush and a power-play goal the other way. That gave life to Anaheim as the teams headed to the dressing rooms and was a huge turning point.
On Thursday, the Kraken—holding a 3-1 lead—took a penalty late in the second period. After an offensive odd-man rush, they… did NOT turn the puck over to the Kings. Instead, Karson Kuhlman was allowed to go in alone and take his shot, while the other three killers stayed above the puck this time. The result was a solid kill and a team heading confidently into the room, holding a two-goal lead after 40 minutes.
“I loved the room after the second,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “When guys are talking about the right things, it doesn’t mean it’s always going to go the right way, but they were relaxed.”
Hakstol denied having any sense of deja vu, but watching the two games, it was impossible not to draw parallels between the contests.
“You can’t really think about that too much,” Wennberg said, recognizing the similarities in the situations. “I feel like today we just maybe played it a little bit smarter than we did last night, and I mean, obviously it worked out, so maybe we look at this tape and see some good things from it.”
Jones, who watched Wednesday’s game from the bench, liked what he saw from the goal crease Thursday. “It was a lot better tonight,” he said. “Last night, we had some issues [holding the lead], but I thought tonight we were really strong. We checked hard, I thought we supported the puck really well, and it helped on our breakout.”
If the Kraken can replicate Thursday’s effort over and over this season, they should be a very fun team to watch. They did a lot of good things in all three zones and held what should be a solid Kings team mostly at bay.
Takeaway #2: Jones, Schwartz, and Tanev played starring roles
Jones was impressive in his first start as a Kraken. Making 26 of 27 saves, he never looked under duress. Some of that is thanks to staunch defensive play in front of him, but some of that is also Jones reading the play well and always being in position.
“Good night for Jonesy tonight,” Hakstol said. “He was very calm in there. He didn’t have a lot of work in the first period, but second period, a little more action around him.” The Seattle coach recalled a specific cross-ice save Jones made on Arthur Kaliyev and said, “Saves like that give a little life and a little bit of confidence for the bench, for sure.”
Meanwhile, Schwartz and Tanev, two players who have just returned from season-ending injuries in 2021-22, have quickly made an impact. Schwartz set up the Beniers goal on Wednesday by driving hard to the front of the net, and he scored a power-play goal of his own Thursday, cleaning up a Jordan Eberle rebound.
Schwartz had another minor injury in training camp that caused concern he could miss the beginning of the season. But he has shown no ill effects from that or from last year’s major injury and has been a key piece of Seattle’s offense through two games.
Tanev, who individually makes Seattle look faster and more energetic, scored the eventual game winner at 6:08 of the second period Thursday. He took an indirect pass off the wall from Will Borgen in the corner, drove to the net, and jammed the puck up and over Jonathan Quick.
“That put us ahead and let us play with a lead on back-to-back nights, so that’s important,” Hakstol said. “Guys like him and Schwartzy who can play in small areas are important.”
It is very refreshing to have those two key players back in the lineup.
Takeaway #3: Beniers keeps cooking
Matty Beniers is making it harder and harder to temper expectations for his 19-year-old season. With his assist on Wennberg’s goal, he now has 12 points in 12 NHL games, and that’s after he had a goal negated Thursday due to a very close high-stick call.
“He’s unbelievable,” Wennberg said. “You see on [my] goal, he’s patient, he’s holding on to [the puck] to create space for me down low. And I mean, it looks easy, but for players out there, it takes a lot of skill to do that.”
It’s encouraging to see his usage so high, as well. Hakstol is deploying Beniers as a top-line center and on the right half wall on the power play. Beniers has rewarded his coach for the trust, producing consistently while playing responsibly at the defensive end of the ice.
It’s also encouraging when a veteran gives genuine praise to a rookie because players always know top-end talent when they see it. “He’s been in the league for— what is it, 12 games?” Wennberg said. “But he looks like he’s played in it for 10 years. It’s really impressive, and he could be a hell of a lot fun to follow this year, for sure.”
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Shane Wright was scratched against the Kings Thursday after playing just 6:14 Wednesday. Hakstol downplayed the decision, saying Wright played a good game in his NHL debut and indicating he simply wanted to get Morgan Geekie back in on Thursday.
by Darren Brown | Oct 13, 2022 | Three takeaways
It started bad. Then it got better. Then it got really good. Then it started to get bad again. Then it got better again. Then it got really bad. And this wraps up Sound Of Hockey’s analysis of the opening night 5-4 Kraken overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
Ok, we have more to say, but that does sum up how Wednesday’s game went.
Less than a minute in, the Kraken showed a familiar tendency for coughing up pucks into dangerous areas at early stages, but then somewhat unfamiliarly, completely took over for the next 37 or so minutes. It was a truly dominant performance until things went awry in the third period. And when we say “awry,” we mean things quickly went from celebratory to, Oh, no, they can’t possibly lose this game, can they?
Spoiler alert: They lost it.
“Little things make a big difference,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “Line changes, things like that that put you in the soup a little bit, make a big difference at that time of the game.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from an ultimately soupy season opener.
Takeaway #1: Bad mistakes doom the Kraken against the Ducks
There were a couple memorably unfortunate plays that led to Seattle’s defeat on Wednesday. The first came less than a minute into the game, when Jamie Oleksiak tried to retrieve a puck behind the Kraken net but misplayed it, and a second later, Troy Terry had put the Ducks ahead 1-0.
The other came with the Kraken ahead 3-1 and on a penalty kill late in the second period. They had an offensive odd-man rush in which Alex Wennberg had a clear lane to shoot on John Gibson. Instead of firing the puck, Wennberg tried to force a pass to Ryan Donato and turned it over. Not only did Seattle fail to register a shot on a prime scoring chance, but because of the direction of the pass, three of the team’s four penalty killers found themselves above the puck in the offensive zone.
Mason McTavish went the other way and dished to Ryan Strome, who gave Anaheim life as the teams headed for the dressing rooms before the third period.
“I don’t like the second goal, the PK goal against,” Hakstol said. “We get caught up ice. We were too greedy there.”
Kill that penalty, and we think the outcome of Wednesday’s game is quite different.
We do also have to mention that Seattle could have really used a key stop at a few different moments and didn’t get it from Philipp Grubauer. After getting hung out to dry on the opening goal, Grubauer looked solid up until the third, but things went sideways quickly for him in that final frame.
Said Hakstol, “At the end of the day, they got one more [save] than we did, and that cost us a point.”
Takeaway #2: Is the Kraken power play… good?
If you’re a pessimist, stop reading. The rest of this article will be markedly positive, because there was a lot to like about Seattle’s game Wednesday.
It’s no secret the Kraken power play was atrocious in the team’s inaugural season, so seeing them score three goals on the man advantage for the first time in the history of the franchise was a sight for sore eyes. Not only did they score three goals, but two of the markers came off snipes from newcomers Oliver Bjorkstrand and Andre Burakovsky, with new power play quarterback Justin Schultz adding two assists.
Some of the team’s struggles last season were tactical in nature, but the personnel wasn’t there either. Now, with new sharpshooters acquired in the offseason, a new distributor on the blue line, and budding star Matty Beniers facilitating from the halfwall, the Kraken looked downright lethal when Anaheim took penalties on Wednesday.
“We just moved it quick,” Beniers said of what was working with the power play. “We’ve been practicing it a lot… We’ve been getting a lot of reps and feeling good with each other, and then you see it on the ice, and some go in the back of the net, so it’s nice to see results.”
Beniers, by the way, is now back to a point-per-game pace in the NHL after notching a goal and an assist.
About the power play, Hakstol added, “The execution was good. We got three, [and with the] game on the line, we executed really well on the last power play. I’m not sure what [Jordan Eberle’s shot] hit, I think it hit the defenseman’s skate in the blue paint, but we executed well and had the chance to get the game winner there.”
Yeah, a fourth power-play goal in the closing minutes sure would have been nice.
Now, watch these snipes by Jared McCann, Burakovsky, and Bjorkstrand (but keep scrolling down, because there’s more to read after the embedded tweets).
Takeaway #3: A dominant loss
It wasn’t the outcome Kraken fans wanted, but that was mostly an impressive performance. Coming in, we believed the team greatly improved over the offseason, and even with the eventual overtime loss, Wednesday’s game confirmed it.
In all, Seattle put 48 shots on Gibson (a franchise record), scored three power-play goals (another franchise record), and had 74 percent of the expected goals for at five-on-five. If the Kraken continue to play like they played Wednesday and clean up some of the costly mistakes, they could be really good this season.
“They had a good push, and we just gotta figure out how to close out those games,” Beniers said. “We played really well, and it was just those last 10, 12 minutes and they made a good push, and we didn’t have the best response, and they scored a couple and got it.”
Bonus Takeaway: Shane Wright’s NHL debut
Shane Wright, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, made his official NHL debut on Wednesday. The team treated him to his traditional rookie lap to start warmups, which he took bucketless. Comically, the home faithful gave him a few boos as he circled the Kraken zone alone.
Wright didn’t see much playing time, as he skated on the fourth line between Donato and Karson Kuhlman. In all, Wright played just 6:14.
We did get the pleasure of witnessing a very heartwarming moment after the game, when Wright’s parents met him outside the dressing room, and they each gave him a long and very proud hug. It hit us right in the feels.
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