Three Takeaways – Grubauer, Beniers help Kraken find crucial shootout win over Islanders

by Darren Brown | Feb 13, 2024 | Three takeaways

What a difference a day can make. After an abysmal performance Monday in New Jersey, the Seattle Kraken looked like a different team against the New York Islanders on Tuesday and earned a 2-1 shootout win to snap a three-game skid.

With the Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and Nashville Predators all losing on this night, the win remarkably pushed Seattle right back to within four points of either of the two wild card spots. So, for as much as we thought it might be time to throw in the towel on Monday, suddenly this team has life again. 

“It’s a heck of a road game,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “That’s the way you have to play it. You’re playing teams that are in a fight for a playoff spot every single night, or fighting for playoff positioning every single night. And this is the type of game that you have to play.”

Here are our Three Takeaways from a critical 2-1 Kraken shootout win over the Islanders. 

Takeaway #1: A nice return for Philipp Grubauer

It was oddly unfamiliar to see Philipp Grubauer between the pipes for the Kraken on Tuesday. Though the German Gentleman was activated off long-term injured reserve way back on Jan. 23, Joey Daccord continued to hold down the goal crease for the next six consecutive games. Hakstol stuck with the guy that had helped get his team back into the race, even as we thought—on several occasions—that surely he’d turn to Grubauer and give Daccord a break. 

Finally, Grubauer got the nod Tuesday for the first time since suffering an injury in Seattle’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 9, and he looked good in his return.

One thing that has plagued Grubauer through his tenure with the Kraken has been when games start with few or no shots on goal. When a shot finally comes, it tends to be off a doozy of a rush or takes a weird deflection, and suddenly he’s off on the wrong foot.

Grubauer seems to like getting into a rhythm with a few early shots to let him feel the puck, and he really didn’t get much work at the beginning of the game Tuesday. But when he did—and things picked up toward the end of the opening frame when Andre Burakovsky took a bad-luck four-minute penalty—you could tell he was tracking the puck well, despite facing only a couple offerings in the first half of the opening period. Shots were hitting him and either sticking to him or getting steered into the corners. 

“In practice you can only work on so many game situations, but once you get out there, it’s a totally different story,” Grubauer said. “There’s a lot of positives you can draw out of [missing time], and you see the game from a different perspective and you can slow it down a little. But obviously it takes a little bit of time to get back into it, and I was saying to the guys, there’s no better way than killing off a four-minute power player there to get back into it.” 

We especially liked this play where he read the pass and got his paddle down to deflect it, then reacted in time to make a pad save on a quick shot from a prime scoring position. 

“Really solid tonight,” Hakstol said. “He did a nice job being real settled and calm in net, and I mean, our guys did a really good job in front of him.” 

Grubauer stopped 26 of 27 shots on the night for a .963 save percentage, his highest of the season. Two of those shots came in overtime, and he also stopped all three of Oliver Wahlstrom, Bo Horvat, and Mathew Barzal in the shootout to seal the deal. For his trouble, he earned first star honors and the Davy Jones Hat. 

While Daccord was awesome in his long stretch of play since Grubi went on the shelf, we all knew the Kraken would need both goalies at some point. The question was how the team’s No. 1 goalie (is he still No. 1?) would play when he returned to the net. 

One game is a small sample size, but that was a very positive outing for Grubauer. If this team is going to make the playoffs, it will need Grubauer to get hot down the stretch. 

Takeaway #2: Bounce back for Matty

After a tough outing for Matty Beniers on Monday against the Devils—he rode the pine for 11 minutes following a terrible turnover that led to a goal—the forward had one of his best games of the season Tuesday. 

He scored Seattle’s only regulation goal, and it came mere seconds after he got thrown awkwardly into the end boards and briefly appeared injured. But Beniers dusted himself off and retreated to the neutral zone in time to receive a stretch pass from Jared McCann just outside the Islanders blue line. 

Matty cruised in and fired it off Ilya Sorokin’s blocker and in, giving Seattle a 1-0 lead at 5:27 of the first. 

“It definitely hurt,” Beniers said. “I was trying to just get off the ice, and then I saw the opportunity, and I was like, ‘I’m not that hurt.’ It didn’t feel good, but plays will happen like that in hockey. And [Ryan Pulock] just kind of got me off balance, I went into the boards pretty hard. Canner made a nice play, and I was just fortunate to be there.” 

This season has not gone according to plan for Beniers, and the Kraken desperately need him to find his game. Perhaps Tuesday was a step in the right direction for the reigning Calder Trophy winner. 

Takeaway #3: The Kraken showed life

One thing we found interesting from that Davy Jones Hat presentation video in Takeaway #1 was Hakstol joking that the team had heard enough from him during the day. Clearly, there was a lot of conversation had amongst the team in the lead-up to this game, and the players and staff were not happy with how things had been going since the All-Star break and bye week ended. 

Whatever was said worked. Since Seattle’s nine-game win streak ended on Jan. 15, this group had not looked right but finally put together a cohesive performance against the Isles.

“It was awesome, I think, all night from the whole team,” Beniers said. “I don’t think our battle level and compete was there the last two nights, and that’s kind of been our identity since the beginning. So that was the big emphasis on tonight was we’re not going to get outworked, we’re not going to get out-battled.”

Indeed, the Kraken came out of the gates fast Tuesday and managed to overcome a couple penalty-related stumbles. And even as the game wore on, and they dealt with the fatigue of a back-to-back, the Kraken stayed on the gas and pushed for a go-ahead goal. 

“We worked hard defensively, we did a lot of really good things, we had some saves when we needed to, our penalty kill did a really nice job tonight,” Hakstol said. “And I really liked our third period.” 

Now, had the shootout gone the other way, we probably would again be writing that the sky is falling. But the Kraken earned two points in this game and truly deserved them. Can this be a spark to get the Kraken going again? 

Darren Brown

Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.

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Three Takeaways – Kraken drop another ugly one; time to sell?

by Darren Brown | Feb 12, 2024 | Three takeaways

If you were looking for an inspiring performance from the Seattle Kraken on Monday to reinvigorate your belief that they could make the playoffs, well… you didn’t get that. The Kraken laid an egg for the first 40ish minutes of this game against the New Jersey Devils, ultimately lost 3-1, and dropped themselves farther out of the race. 

The first period looked messy, and the second period was even worse. It seemed like the team sort of found its game in the third period, but not until the point when overcoming a three-goal deficit would have been bordering on miraculous. And after a stinker in Philadelphia on Saturday, Seattle’s first game back from the break, you can’t blame this one on rust. 

“No, we’re not resting on that crutch tonight,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “Game 2 [since the All-Star break and bye week]. That’s on utter readiness, compete, [being] ready to go… For the first 35 minutes of this hockey game, we weren’t at a level that’s acceptable, and that takes us out of the game.”

It’s not looking good, folks. Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-1 Kraken loss to the Devils. 

Takeaway #1: Costly mistakes from young players

It was a tough night for a couple of Seattle’s younger players. Matty Beniers and Ryker Evans each played starring roles on New Jersey goals, and even Hakstol—always reluctant to call out his players directly—made it clear Beniers had blown it on Jack Hughes’s second-period marker that ended up as the game winner. 

After Seattle had broken up a rush, Beniers found himself with the puck on his stick and a clear lane ahead of him to either hit the gas and skate it out of the zone or make an outlet pass into the neutral zone. Instead, he came to an almost dead stop, allowing Erik Haula to catch up to him and strip him of the puck. 

The Devils quickly transitioned back to offense, and Hughes eventually made an elite play to bank the puck in off Joey Daccord’s mask 48 seconds into the period. 

“The turnover came off of his tape, and ultimately… that’s his responsibility,” Hakstol said. “But there’s five guys on the ice that have to be in the right spots in order to move that puck and get it going and look organized.” 

Ok, so Hakstol sort of spread around the blame, but that miscue is on Matty. It’s just a lack of awareness for where the opponents are on the ice and the wrong decision to not immediately get his feet moving. 

Evans followed that up four minutes later by getting burned up the wall by Timo Meier. Beaten on the play and trying to recover, Evans did well to avoid taking a penalty and actually got a piece of Meier’s shot to slow it down. That may have fooled Daccord, though, because he kicked the rebound on the off-speed pitch right into the slot for Dawson Mercer. 

We should also point out that Evans didn’t get much help on the play, and Jamie Oleksiak missed an opportunity to lift Mercer’s stick. Still, it’s a bad read and a slightly too aggressive angle that created the rush. 

Mistakes like these will happen for young players, and Evans and Beniers were certainly not alone in committing errors on this night. They have to keep playing, though, and learn from those moments. 

Takeaway #2: Another poor offensive showing

Against Philadelphia, the Kraken had a sloppy start to the first period but were playing with decent pace. As the game went on, they got worse at creating offensive opportunities and only took two shots at Cal Petersen in the third period. 

Monday’s game had a different script. The first 40 minutes were downright painful to watch, before the Kraken finally woke up in the third when it was extremely unlikely they would get back in the game. 

“Really our compete, our execution just took us out of this hockey game for the first 35 minutes,” Hakstol said. “That’s really what led to most of our issues.”

Pepper in a couple ill-timed penalties, including a too-many-men call when two Kraken players jumped over the boards at once, and you have yourself another ugly loss. 

“We came apart a little bit in the second period, and that’s something that can happen when things aren’t going well and things don’t look good,” Hakstol said. “You have to find a way to work out of it together, and that’s what the third period looked like to a certain degree, not to our level. But that was the positive of it.”

For the second game since the break, Seattle just wasn’t generating much of anything. Through those first two periods, there was such little push that goalie Nico Daws—a 23-year-old with a 3.12 goals-against average and .896 save percentage in 34 career games—looked completely untested. 

Takeaway #3: They look like sellers

We’ve held out optimism that this team would find its game again after the break and get itself right back in the playoff bubble with a win streak. But after these two games against the Flyers and the Devils, the outlook is bleaker than ever.

It’s hard not to wonder at what point general manager Ron Francis starts pulling the trigger on selling off his expiring contracts. In theory, he may get better value for veterans like Alex Wennberg and Justin Schultz if he moves them now, when there’s an extra month of service time left in the season that they can provide to their future teams (Schultz may be more important to the Kraken now, though, if Brian Dumoulin’s lower-body injury causes him to miss significant time).

As of the writing of this story, the Kraken had dropped to six points out of the last wild card spot, with three teams to jump over in order to get back into the picture. How far do they need to sink for Francis to make moves?

“I think, regardless of where the standings are, I think we just have to focus on our game,” Oleksiak said. “It’s a test for us, in terms of adversity and character, how we respond to it. And I think it’s a good opportunity for us [to play again Tuesday against the New York Islanders]. So we’ve just got to focus on one game at a time and take it from there.”

There’s still a chance they can turn this thing around, but man, that was not a strong performance. If the Kraken players want to send the message to Francis and his staff that they intend to make the playoffs and should be kept together, they better do it in one of the next two games on this road trip. The longer they wait to deliver that information, the more likely it is that players get traded away. Once that happens, the towel will have been thrown in on the season.

Darren Brown

Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.

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Three Takeaways – Kraken stumble out of break, lose 3-2 to Flyers

by Darren Brown | Feb 10, 2024 | Three takeaways

It’s easy to pin a loss like the one the Seattle Kraken took Saturday on rust, with the Philadelphia Flyers looking sharper and more structured throughout. But now that Seattle is finally back from its long break, the time is nigh to start racking up points. 

Sure, there are still 32 31 games remaining in the season, but general manager Ron Francis is down to 11 contests before he will need to make his final decisions on whether this team is a trade deadline seller. Every loss at this point pushes Francis and his staff closer to that end of the “stand pat or sell” seesaw. 

Seattle didn’t get an easy draw for its first game back, facing a good Flyers team that had jumped out to two impressive wins over Florida and Winnipeg since returning to action on Tuesday. Still, this game felt significant for the Kraken, who needed to get off on the right tentacle. Instead, they stumbled out of the break and missed another opportunity at valuable points.

Here are our Three Takeaways from an uninspiring 3-2 Kraken loss to the Flyers. 

Takeaway #1: A rotten night for the power play

Not only did the Seattle power play fail to score in three opportunities on this night, it also gave up a short-handed goal at an ill-chosen moment. Tomas Tatar had just tied the game 1-1 at 17:09 of the first period, taking a pass from Vince Dunn in the slot, turning and wristing it through Cal Petersen. 

Replay showed that when Seattle entered the zone, Tatar—at that point not involved in the play and crossing the blue line on the opposite side of the ice from the puck—was within an eye-lash length of being offside. Flyers coach John Tortorella challenged and lost, earning his team a delay-of-game penalty. 

This should have been the big turning point in the game for Seattle, but the opposite happened. Chasing the puck in the offensive zone, the Kraken got too aggressive and left only Dunn back to defend after Garnet Hathaway pitched it down the ice. Ryan Poehling got to the puck first, drifted toward Joey Daccord, and fired it through the wickets to regain a 2-1 lead. 

The Kraken PK was ok in this one, allowing the game’s opening goal but also getting some important kills. But it was also forced into action at problematic points in the third period. Will Borgen launched a puck over the glass at 5:39 of the third, just nine seconds after Sean Couturier’s eventual winning goal, and Jamie Oleksiak hauled down Travis Konecny at 9:10. 

Philadelphia didn’t score on either of those chances, but those penalties cost the Kraken four precious minutes at a point in the game when they could not afford to be down a man. 

Takeaway #2: Face-offs do matter sometimes

There have been some healthy debates around the Sound Of Hockey community in the last month about whether face-offs matter. Our best friend, Alison Lukan, eventually convinced John Barr that face-offs, in fact, do not matter. Speaking about the face-off percentage statistic, that is likely true. The team that wins more face-offs doesn’t necessarily win the game, and one could argue it really has no bearing on the outcome.

HOWEVER… And this is where the trusty eye-ball test comes into play…

There are moments in a game where you look at the situation and think, Man, these guys need a face-off win here. Every time we thought that on Saturday, the Kraken lost the draw, with a few key losses coming in the waning minutes of the game when Daccord was off for an extra skater. 

And then, of course, there’s the case of the game-winning goal. With 14:32 left in a tie game, Matty Beniers lost a defensive-zone draw to Couturier, who pulled it straight back to Konecny. Konecny nudged it to Travis Sanheim, who blasted it toward the net for Courturier, who was able to get a piece of it and deflect it by Daccord. 

The Kraken could have used a face-off win there, too.

Takeaway #3: TWO LOUSY SHOTS?! 

No issue in this game was more glaring than how ineffective Seattle was at getting pucks through to Petersen. The team got worse at this as the game went along, and Tortorella’s well-coached skaters clogged up shooting lanes and built a bunker around their goalie. 

But what we’re about to tell you is jarring. Jared McCann scored 36 seconds into the third period, getting a good bounce off a Philadelphia defender. He also took Seattle’s next and only other shot on goal, 19:04 later. Two shots by McCann in the third period, more than 19 minutes apart. That was it. No other Kraken player got a puck on net while the team was chasing in a one-goal game.

Meanwhile, Daccord got peppered with 38 Philadelphia offerings and did everything he could to keep his mates in the game, despite a 70-30 split in shot quality. Joey deserved better. The Kraken did not.

—

We’re getting into must-win territory here. The Kraken have lost seven of their last nine since their nine-game win streak ended on Jan. 13. If they lose a few more before they can get going in the right direction, their veterans on expiring contracts will be out the door. 

Darren Brown

Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.

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Three Takeaways – Kraken escape with 4-2 win over Blue Jackets

by Darren Brown | Jan 29, 2024 | Three takeaways

Phew! The Kraken made that one harder than they needed to, but they escaped with a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday and got themselves back within two points of a playoff spot with one game left before the All-Star break. 

“We were disappointed to lose the point the other night [against St. Louis], but we came back and got the two points tonight that were critical,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Anything less, we’d be walking out of this building tonight not feeling very good about ourselves.” 

Thanks to two goals and an assist by Jordan Eberle and a goal and an assist by Jared McCann in the first period, Seattle was able to squeak through a nerve-wracking third.

Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken win over the Blue Jackets. 

Takeaway #1: Nice night for the top-line players

Since Matty Beniers got hurt the last time these two teams met, Jared McCann has been centering the top line between Tomas Tatar and Jordan Eberle and continues to do so now that Beniers is back.

That trio connected for the second goal of the game Sunday, after Tatar took advantage of a pinching Damon Severson at the defensive blue line, then hit Eberle with a stretch pass to create a 2-on-1. 

Eberle had the other two goals of the first period, both on the power play, with one of the two coming off a McCann rebound.

Tatar and Eberle have been great together ever since Tatar’s acquisition from Colorado, and Hakstol seems to really be liking the combination with McCann in the middle. 

“They’re continuing to produce, especially on the offensive side,” Hakstol said. “They’ve  done a pretty good job defensively, so we’ve liked the line and stayed with the line.”

In their last six games together (they’ve played seven in total, but we’re excluding that miserable 3-0 loss in Pittsburgh on Jan. 15), Eberle and McCann each have four goals and five assists, and Tatar has four points (2-2—4). 

Now, with his hot streak continuing, McCann again has 20 goals on the season after scoring 27 in 2021-22 and 40 last season. Remember, the most he had ever scored in his career prior to arriving in Seattle was 19, so he has now topped that in all three seasons with the Kraken. It’s amazing what opportunity can do for a skilled NHL player.

“[Goals] come and they go, right?” McCann said. “You’re going to be hot one minute, and the next, you’re not. I’m just trying to be as consistent as possible, whether it be… do something defensively, or… it’s not always about scoring goals.”

As for Eberle, he too has heated up nicely after a dismal start to the season in which he notched just three points in his first 12 games. The veteran forward has been producing in spurts since then and has found the scoresheet more frequently of late. 

“We need that offensive spark and production that he’s providing for us,” Hakstol said. “We would have loved to have it a couple of months ago, but we’re real happy to have it right now from him.”

Takeaway #2: Things got hairy

Here’s how the game played out: 

• First period, Kraken are in control.
• Second period, Kraken are getting a little lackadaisical, but whatever, it’s still 3-0.
• Third period, Kraken are no longer in control, and oh my God, what are they doing? They’re going to give this away, aren’t they? 

Thankfully for Kraken fans, that last bullet didn’t quite play out in full, but there was an uncomfortable familiarity to this game after Yegor Chinakhov scored his second goal of the third period at 15:58 and pulled Columbus back within one goal. 

“We kind of let the game slip away a bit,” McCann said. “We got on our heels and kind of let them take control of the game, and we can’t do that.”

Of course, this was one game after the Kraken dominated most of the second period against St. Louis and grabbed a 3-1 lead, only to fritter it away and ultimately lose 4-3 in overtime. So, alarm bells were ringing when the Blue Jackets got it to 3-2. 

“I just thought we got a little sloppy,” Eberle said. “We started to give them pucks in the middle, and they started transitioning on us with great speed. That’s a good hockey team over there. I know that obviously everyone looks at the record, but they’ve got some healthy guys who’ve had injury problems all year. And they got some guys back and they’re rolling, and we gave them an opportunity to get back in this game.”

Indeed, there were mistakes made that led to the goals, like Vince Dunn sending a stretch pass onto the tape of Severson, which eventually gave Chinakhov his first goal (comically, we could hear Dunn yell, “F***!” after he turned it over). On his second, the Kraken won a neutral-zone face-off, but then Alex Wennberg and Jamie Oleksiak seemed to both think the other was going to pick up the loose puck, and instead, Chinakhov took it, cruised to the slot, and sniped. 

Seattle got away with the letdown in the end, but Eberle was right that things needed to be tighter down the stretch of this game. 

Takeaway #3: Holding on for dear life

The last few minutes of a one-goal hockey game are always so beautifully dramatic. In this one, Daniil Tarasov went off to give Columbus an extra skater with 2:26 remaining, and the next 2:13—until Brandon Tanev hit an empty-net goal to seal it—were hold-onto-your-butt intense. 

With the 5-on-6 disadvantage, the Kraken did well to keep any shooting opportunities to the outside, despite Adam Larsson breaking his stick. And with the game on the line, Yanni Gourde came up with a massive, loud block on Severson. 

“Yanni made a great play, obviously, to block that shot, and he’s been doing that for a long time,” McCann said. “So, yeah, he does the little things right.” 

Added Hakstol on how the team closed the game, “We did a good job in that sense… 30 minutes before that, you’d like to affect the game so you don’t have to put yourself in that situation. But when push comes to shove, at the end of the day, the two groups that we used in the situation at 5-on-6… they did a good job. They did the things that we needed to have done.”

Now, with the All-Star break dancing in the heads of the players, the Kraken will head to San Jose for a game they simply have to win. 

“The reality is we have one game left before a long break,” Hakstol said. “So we have to get our heads completely focused on that job, make sure that we’re ready to go for a real competitive 60 minutes.” 

Darren Brown

Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.

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Three Takeaways – Kraken take stinging 4-3 overtime loss to Blues

by Darren Brown | Jan 27, 2024 | Three takeaways

It was right there. In arguably the biggest game of the season to date, the Seattle Kraken had the Blues on the ropes and could have delivered a knockout blow in the second period. But St. Louis fought back from 3-1 down, tied the game early in the third period, and defeated Seattle 4-3 in overtime on the back of Pavel Buchnevich, who scored both the tying and the game-winning goals. 

“It’s a tough point to lose,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We played hard, we played a pretty good hockey game. We obviously would like to capitalize on one or two good opportunities that we had, and that can maybe change the game when it’s a one- or a two-goal game.”

Getting one point out of the game is ok, but when you’re neck and neck with a team for playoff positioning, and you give yourself a chance to win the game, you need to win the game. That loss is a tough pill to swallow. 

Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-3 overtime Kraken loss to the Blues.

Takeaway #1: It turned with a penalty

The Kraken dominated the first 13 minutes of the second period in a way we haven’t seen them dominate a period all season. The ice was tilted, plenty of shots were being fired at Jordan Binnington, and Seattle cashed in with two beautiful tic-tac-toe goals from Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen. 

At that point, with the score 3-1 Seattle, we still had this sneaking suspicion that the game was far from over. Not to toot my own horn, but I said aloud, “They need to get one more here, while they’re dominating. It won’t last.”

The Kraken did not get one more, and indeed, the game turned on its ear with a penalty by Will Borgen at 13:17 of the second period. With star of the game Buchnevich driving into Seattle’s end, Borgen leaned on him and fell. Buchnevich stepped on Borgen’s stick and went down, drawing a tripping penalty. 

Robert Thomas then tipped a Scott Perunovich shot on the power play, and suddenly St. Louis—which looked dead in the water for most of the period—had life. 

“Obviously that’s a turning point,” Hakstol said. “They get back within one. Their power play is going pretty good right now, and we missed an opportunity at a clear. We had an opportunity to clear that puck with about 45 seconds to go in that kill, and we weren’t able to get the puck out and get it 200 feet [from our net].”

Seattle had another chance to bury the game with the score at 3-2, but Jaden Schwartz—playing in career game No. 700 against his old team—put his shot off the outside of the net. 

The Blues came out with a hard forecheck in the third period, and Buchnevich tied the game. He then got the winner in overtime off a cross-crease pass by Brayden Schenn.

Takeaway #2: Oliver Bjorkstrand had a big night

A big reason the Kraken were so dominant in the second (before the penalty) was NHL All-Star Oliver Bjorkstrand. He was everywhere on the ice, and his reunited line with Tolvanen and Yanni Gourde was buzzing. 

Bjorkstrand got the finish on Seattle’s stunning passing play off a power-play rush at 3:55 of the second, after a great setup by Alex Wennberg. He then created Tolvanen’s goal three minutes later by sneaking up behind Perunovich and lifting his stick to steal the puck. 

The forward finished the night with a goal and an assist and five shots in 18:03 of ice time. 

“When [Bjorkstrand is] hunting the puck the way that he is, his stick becomes so effective,” Hakstol said. “If he’s moving his feet on pucks… I mean, I don’t know how many strips he had tonight, but he had some big ones.”

Takeaway #3: The band is back together

With Vince Dunn and Philipp Grubauer both activated off injured reserve prior to Seattle’s 6-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, the Kraken inched closer to full health. Only Matty Beniers and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare remained out at that point, but we knew Beniers was getting close (Bellemare still has some distance to cover before he can return). 

On Friday, all indications pointed toward a return for the reigning Calder Trophy winner, and indeed, he did return to the lineup against the Blues. 

“He’s done all the work to be back in the lineup,” Hakstol said. “He’s worked very hard and taken all the necessary steps. If anything, we’ve taken an extra day or two, and that’s what you do in these situations to make sure a player is ready to come back. I liked his game tonight.”

Since Beniers went out, Jared McCann has excelled in Matty’s usual spot between Tomas Tatar and Jordan Eberle. Hakstol kept that trio together Friday and opted to ease Beniers back in on a fourth line between Tye Kartye and Brandon Tanev, though Beniers ended up with higher-than-fourth-line minutes at 15:37. 

Every Kraken player was over 12 minutes of ice time Friday, which indicates Seattle is back to rolling four lines. That’s a good sign for the team moving forward. 

Now, if only they can stay healthy… 

Darren Brown

Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.

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Three Takeaways – Bad Blackhawks were just what the doctor ordered for Kraken

by Darren Brown | Jan 25, 2024 | Three takeaways

The dreadful Chicago Blackhawks were just what the doctor ordered for the skidding Seattle Kraken, who played a less-than-perfect game Wednesday but cruised to an easy 6-2 victory. 

The win ended a four-game losing streak for Seattle, reignited its offense (at least for one night), and was even a step in the right direction in terms of the group’s health. 

“You look at the game, and it’s not a clean game,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “But I liked some of the maturity that we showed at the right moments in the game.”

Added Jordan Eberle, “There are still little details that we need to fix, and Joey [Daccord] was there to make some huge saves today. They had more than enough [chances] to keep pace with us.” 

With a leaky Arvid Soderblom in net for Chicago (he has lost 10 straight decisions, and the Blackhawks have not won on the road since NOVEMBER), 12 different Kraken players recorded at least a point, including two goals from Tomas Tatar, a goal and an assist from Jared McCann, and two assists each from Eberle and Justin Schultz. 

Here are our Three Takeaways from a 6-2 Kraken win over the Blackhawks. 

Takeaway #1: Joey comes up big

Just when it seemed like Joey Daccord might need a break, he was razor sharp from the jump in this game. It was a good thing, too, because after McCann and Jaden Schwartz each scored within the first 7:12 of the game, the tide turned, and the Blackhawks started pushing. 

“I really liked our first 10 minutes, but we got too loose in the last half of the period,” Hakstol said. “As soon as we went up by two, the momentum shifted on Chicago’s power play… We didn’t throw a bucket of water on that quick enough.” 

With Tye Kartye in the box, that aforementioned Blackhawks power play was Daccord’s first moment to shine on the night. He came up huge with a glove save on Jason Dickinson, and although Joey Anderson got one by him with a redirect a few minutes later, Daccord made 14 saves in the opening stanza to help his team get to the room with a lead. 

Thankfully for the Kraken, the Blackhawks came out and scored on themselves 15 seconds into the second period, and from there, the game was on the rails. 

While Joey’s save on Dickinson in the first was key, he also directly contributed to a Kraken goal in the third period by stonewalling former Kraken and Friend of the Pod™️ Ryan Donato on a 2-on-0 rush. Eberle retrieved the puck, hit Tatar with a stretch pass for a breakaway, and Tuna dashed in and scored his first of two third-period goals just 10 seconds after Daccord’s save. 

“[Daccord] made some crucial saves, one on a PK, which was a great glove save,” Tatar said. “Then on the breakaway… he’s just very steady for us, which is awesome. He’s just giving us a lot of confidence.”

Takeaway #2: Tatar and Eberle working well

Where would this Kraken team be without the acquisition of Tomas Tatar from the Avalanche on Dec. 15? Down on his luck in Colorado, Tatar cost general manager Ron Francis practically nothing to bring him in, and the veteran winger has proven to be a perfect fit for Seattle. 

Since the day he arrived, Tatar has had obvious chemistry with Eberle, and together with Matty Beniers for a stretch and now McCann, the duo has worked together like spaghetti and meatballs.

“I mean, he’s a smart player,” Eberle said of Tatar. “He sees the ice well, he hangs onto it, he makes little plays, creates space that way. He’s had a ton of chances to score. It was nice to see him get a couple tonight. So hopefully that keeps it going.”

We agree with Eberle’s sentiments entirely. It’s fascinating to think about what a change of scenery and more opportunity can do for a player sometimes, and Tatar is another prime example of that after Eeli Tolvanen wrote the book on the topic last season. In 27 games with the Avs, Tatar scored only one goal, which came in his second-to-last game before being traded, and averaged just over 11 minutes of ice time. 

Since moving to Seattle, Tatar already has five goals and four assists in 16 games and seems to really be enjoying his time in the Pacific Northwest. 

“It’s been wonderful,” Tatar said. “Since day one, I could feel the support from my teammates and the fans, and I just really feel good and welcome, which was… good for my confidence.”

The boost he’s received from playing with top-liners (and particularly Eberle) has been mutual, as Eberle too has drastically improved since Tuna’s arrival. 

“Ebs is a very experienced player,” Tatar said. “He’s played in the game for a long time, he’s very successful, and the great part about it is we are talking a lot on the ice, off the ice, which helps a lot to be and know where we’re at and what we have to do better. We’re not shy to talk about what to do. If something’s wrong, we want to be better every day, and that’s just I think what’s making it so good.”

Takeaway #3: A healthier group

We’re writing this last Takeaway while simultaneously knocking on wood. The Kraken are starting to get healthier. The illness that permeated through the locker seems to have run its course, Vince Dunn and Philipp Grubauer returned Wednesday, and we believe Matty Beniers is very close to returning. 

The recent spate of injuries and illnesses certainly contributed to the Kraken’s four-game losing streak and frankly came at a bad time. The team was on such a roll, and then just didn’t have the energy to get through their six-game road trip with positive feelings. Now, things seem to be turning again, and just in time for a weak series of opponents. 

The Kraken did apparently dodge a big bullet Wednesday, though, when Dunn blasted a slap shot off Schwartz’s ankle that sent the winger tumbling to the ice in a heap. After crawling for a bit, Schwartz got up and hobbled to the bench and down the tunnel, putting no weight on his left leg. 

His return to start the third period was a welcome sight for Kraken fans. What a warrior.