by Darren Brown | Jan 22, 2024 | Three takeaways
With their forward lines in a blender, the Seattle Kraken again struggled to generate offense Sunday, and the result was a 3-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, their fourth loss in a row.
The group is still battling through injuries, illnesses (although the bug that’s been working its way through the dressing room seems to be subsiding), and now even a suspension to Yanni Gourde. So the lineup got jumbled again, and a discombobulated offensive attack struggled to get much through a team not known for its defensive prowess.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-1 Kraken loss to the Maple Leafs.
Takeaway #1: Not enough offense
Toronto goaltender Ilya Samsonov has struggled mightily this season, to the point that he was demoted to AHL Toronto Marlies for a stretch. He hadn’t won an NHL game since Dec. 9, and since that win, hadn’t gotten over a .870 save percentage in any of his five outings.
Samsonov deserves credit, because he made a handful of remarkable saves in this game, particularly the three in a row on Tomas Tatar in the second period and the sprawling save on Justin Schultz with 6:39 left in the third.
Still, Seattle did not get nearly enough pucks through to Samsonov in this game, mustering a total of 17 shots on goal and taking only a 40-percent share of the shot quality, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“If you really break it down, they took advantage of one more scoring opportunity than we did,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “They’re going to be a challenge to play against because of the octane that they have and the way that they can get up ice.”
On the topic of “really breaking it down,” it’s never a good sign when you can think through a game in your head and easily remember all the scoring chances a team had, and that is doable when recalling this game.
The Kraken had a tipped shot that Samsonov kicked out to Jaden Schwartz in the first, and his rebound shot got blocked. They had a goal by Jordan Eberle and then a breakaway for Oliver Bjorkstrand on which he hit the crossbar, the three-save sequence on Tatar, and the robbery on Schultz. You could maybe mix in the four-on-one rush in the second period, but Seattle didn’t execute on that and ended up not getting a shot.
There were a few more where Kraken players had open looks and missed the net, but that’s really the extent of what Seattle was able to generate.
Takeaway #2: Line jumbling
Absences certainly contributed to the offensive struggles of the Kraken on Sunday. With centers Matty Beniers and Yanni Gourde both missing (plus top defenseman Vince Dunn), coach Dave Hakstol mixed things up both with his pre-game lineup and throughout the contest.
Oddly, at morning skate Sunday, the team did not do any line rushes, and with a handful of players missing from practice Monday, there wasn’t an opportunity for new line combos to get comfortable playing together. Maybe Hakstol figured line rushes didn’t matter, since he knew things were going to get constantly shuffled in this game anyway, with the team down two centers.
The only line that remained intact from previous games was Tatar, Jared McCann, and Eberle, the trio that scored the Kraken’s lone goal and should have gotten a second one.
Aside from that group, things were mixed up, as Hakstol matched up Alex Wennberg and Eeli Tolvanen against Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, played John Hayden and Devin Shore under six minutes each, and rotated through the rest of the forwards.
“It definitely puts up a challenge for us having guys out and different line combinations and guys who don’t play center that much, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse,” Bjorkstrand said. “We can still win games. And yeah, when guys are hurt, you’ve got to find a way.”
We don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Kraken looked disjointed at times in this game. With two of their top three centers and their best puck-moving defenseman out, Hakstol and his staff were doing what they could to get things on track. But in the end, nothing really worked.
Takeaway #3: Streaky Kraken
It’s easy to attribute the current four-game skid to all the health (and disciplinary) issues this team has endured of late, but there’s no denying that this group is officially streaky.
After losing eight in a row, the Kraken flipped a switch and took points in 13 straight, including a nine-game win streak. Since that ended, they’ve struggled offensively, scoring just five goals in four games, and the results have followed suit.
“We have to find a way to score, especially when the last few games, we’re fighting it a bit at 5-on-5,” Eberle said.
The good news is that the Kraken has a soft schedule coming up, with three terrible teams (the Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Sharks) and one mediocre team (the Blues) on the docket before heading into a nine-day All-Star break and bye week.
As Seattle continues to drift back out of the playoff picture, the time is nigh for the Kraken to flip the script and start streaking in the other direction once again.
by Darren Brown | Jan 19, 2024 | Three takeaways
A big game and a big road trip ended Thursday with a big thud in Edmonton. The road-weary and still unwell Kraken are thankful to be back home after their longest journey of the season, but the second half of the trip left fans, players, and coaches alike feeling disappointed.
“As you get into these trips, obviously, [3-3-0] is not what we wanted,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “You get one of these last games, either in New York or tonight, and you walk away feeling like it’s a really successful, good road trip. But we weren’t able to do that, and that’s disappointing.”
Alas, after winning the first three games of the jaunt, Seattle got sick and hurt and went from a nine-game win streak to a three game losing streak.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Kraken loss to the Oilers.
Takeaway #1: Good start, but then…
We were convinced after the first period that Seattle was going to run away with that game and that the Oilers’ 11-game win streak would come to an end.
Seattle jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, taking advantage of poor transitional defense from Edmonton and converting with pretty goals by Eeli Tolvanen and Jared McCann.
The McCann goal, especially, was a quick-strike banger created by tic-tac-toe passing from Yanni Gourde to Jordan Eberle to McCann, who finished with a perfect shot into the very top corner of the net for the second consecutive game. While the team has floundered the last few games, Seattle’s top goal scorer is heating up.
There were also a couple missed opportunities, which we will discuss in Takeaway #2, but once the second period got underway, the game went sideways.
“The first 20 was good,” Hakstol said. “The first 10 minutes of the second period is what would cost us. We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be and gave up too much in that time, so we had to push back after that. But we weren’t able to capitalize on what was a good start.”
By the 8:00 mark of the second, Warren Foegele had scored twice, Leon Draisaitl had banked one in off Joey Daccord on the power play, and suddenly the Kraken had gone from being in the driver’s seat to chasing the game.
“We gave them too much,” McCann said. “We’ve just got to realize that sometimes you’ve just got to play D, and especially against a team like that. So, it’s a learning experience for us.”
Hakstol called a timeout to settle things down, but Seattle was never able to tilt the ice back in its favor, and high-flying Edmonton rolled to its 12th consecutive win.
Takeaway #2: Missed chances
There were two key plays at the offensive end of the ice that stand out as killers for the Kraken’s momentum in this game. The first came at the end of the opening period, when Brandon Tanev had a breakaway opportunity, Seattle’s third such rush of the frame. With a chance to send Seattle to the room with a 3-0 lead, Tanev flubbed the shot and missed wide, which kept the game within reach for Edmonton.
Then in the second period, with Seattle trailing 3-2, Daccord showed off his incredible puck-handling abilities for the umpteenth time and hit Alex Wennberg in stride at the far blue line with a perfect stretch pass, catching the Oilers in a line change.
Wennberg glided in and scored, but a challenge showed Kailer Yamamoto—making a line change of his own and completely uninvolved in the play—had inadvertently drifted over the blue line ahead of the puck. Edmonton won the challenge and negated the tying goal.
It’s not in the spirit of the offside rule to negate a goal because a guy on the opposite side of the ice is not paying attention, but the rule is the rule, and Yamamoto made a bad mistake there. There’s no reason for him to cross the blue line to exit the ice; he just has to be more aware of his surroundings in that scenario.
Of course, there are no guarantees Seattle would have come away with a win had Tanev scored or Yamamoto stayed onside, but those were crushing mishaps in retrospect.
Takeaway #3: Tough way to end the trip
This game was always going to be an uphill battle for the Kraken, who we knew were still dealing with injuries and illnesses coming in to face the hottest team in the NHL. We also knew Seattle was closing out a dreadfully long two-week, six-game trip, with an odd stopover in Edmonton after spending 12 days on the East Coast, and the players were surely looking forward to getting home to their loved ones and their own beds.
But this was also a huge game against a divisional rival that the Kraken needed to win to come home feeling positively about the trip. Instead, they let an early two-goal lead evaporate in a matter of minutes, and they came home with an uninspiring 3-3-0 record.
Now, there are two pieces of good news for the Kraken. 1.) The team is getting marginally healthier. Andre Burakovsky returned and played 14:16, though he was -1 on the night and did not register a shot on goal. Our friend, Piper Shaw also reported that Vince Dunn skated separately from the team Thursday morning, so hopefully he too is on the mend. 2.) Seattle finally gets a day fully off and at home Friday to recuperate.
“We’ve got to get home,” Hakstol said. “We don’t have a lot of time, but we get a day off [Friday], and we’ll try to get some bodies healed up and feeling better. And then we have to get back at it at home.”
by Darren Brown | Jan 16, 2024 | Three takeaways
It was better but still not good enough for the Kraken, who continued their battle with illnesses and injuries Tuesday. One day after lacking any kind of jump in Pittsburgh, Seattle came apart late in the second period, which led to its second loss in as many days, this one to the New York Rangers, 5-2.
The Kraken exited the first period trailing 2-1, then tilted the ice for the first 10 minutes of the second before the wheels came off the wagon.
Now, after their 13-game point streak ended Monday, the Kraken have suddenly lost two in a row, and things won’t get easier Thursday in Edmonton.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 5-2 Kraken loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Takeaway #1: Costly “bump-up” goal
The Kraken were a tad flat in the first period, but they were hanging in with the fresher Rangers for the most part. They conceded an unsurprising power-play goal to Vincent Trocheck after taking two consecutive penalties, but even so, we thought they might get things going in the right direction when Jordan Eberle tied it 1-1 on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play at 10:41.
Instead, Erik Gustafsson used a moving screen to beat Chris Driedger from distance just 28 seconds later, and that sapped things for Seattle for the rest of the opening frame.
“We call those bump-up shifts after a goal,” Eberle said. “To try and continue with the momentum of a game, those always— on either side, if you score after they score, the momentum shifts pretty quickly. So, we need to be focused on those individual shifts, those lapses in the game. There’s always going to be momentum shifts, but you want to have it and keep it.”
Goals on the so-called “bump-up shift” were a big thing in the prior two seasons for the Kraken, but they’ve calmed down this season. When they happen in the wrong way, though, they still really crush the team’s momentum.
“It’s something we kind of pride ourselves on, having a great bump-up shift the next shift as well, right?” McCann said. “[We want to come] out with a high-energy line. And unfortunately they were able to get one there, but you know what? Sometimes it happens, and we’ve just got to regroup, refocus, and move forward.”
Takeaway #2: Second period spiral
Even after the slightly sluggish first period, the Kraken looked like they were going to tie the game again in the early stages of the second. They were buzzing, especially in the first few minutes of the frame, and hemmed New York into its zone for multiple shifts.
Seattle had some great looks in those first 10 minutes of the period, but Igor Shesterkin stood tall long enough for his mates to get another one by Driedger, who didn’t have a great night in his second start of the season.
The best chance came from Seattle’s fourth line, when Tye Kartye and Kailer Yamamoto had a clear-cut 2-on-1. Yamamoto elected to shoot, but Shesterkin rejected it with his blocker and got enough pace on the rebound to skip it over Kartye’s stick.
“We had great opportunities,” Hakstol said. “We didn’t execute on the 2-on-1; Shesterkin made the save on Yamo, and [on another] 3-on-1, we just didn’t execute. So really that’s the difference in the hockey game.”
Midway through the period, the Rangers got a good bounce when Blake Wheeler got a piece of a Jonny Brodzinski shot, and it then caromed off Driedger and in. Five minutes later, Kaapo Kakko scored off a 2-on-1, his first goal since he returned from a long-term injury Sunday.
That made it 4-1 heading to the third, and you knew the sick, tired, and hurt Kraken were not overcoming that deficit at MSG.
Takeaway #3: Going through it
While the Kraken are notoriously secretive when it comes to the health of their players, they have not been hiding the fact that the team is dealing with a lot right now. Adam Larsson was back in the lineup Tuesday after leaving Monday’s game with whatever bug is going through the team, but Seattle remained without Vince Dunn, Matty Beniers, and Andre Burakovsky Tuesday.
Hakstol again said all three of those players are day-to-day, but Beniers was placed on injured reserve Monday, and John Hayden was recalled from Coachella Valley.
Aside from those guys, we’re gathering that lots of players are under the weather. Hakstol mentioned Ryker Evans as one of the individuals playing at less than 100 percent, and Evans filled in for Dunn on the top defense pairing and ate up 25:04 of ice time. So, even the “healthy” guys Hakstol is leaning on right now to play extra minutes in the absences of others… Well, some of them are sick too.
“We’ve still got a lot of guys that are fighting through things,” Hakstol said. “That doesn’t just clear up in a day, unfortunately, and some of the effects on guys that had to play big minutes last night were– that wears on you a little bit tonight.”
As Eberle said, the timing of the illness—coupled with another recent rash of injuries—is tough for a team that just came off a massive streak and is now fighting to stay above water.
“The biggest thing is you see this ground that we’ve made up the last month, it can slip away pretty quickly if you start losing games,” Eberle said. “So I think the next game, obviously, is a must-win for us. We’ve got to find a way to… well, get healthy first off, but find some jump [and] some energy.”
This has been a strange road trip so far, with the Kraken winning the first three but then running face-first into a big wall of adversity. Now, to avoid fumbling all the good feelings built up at the start of the trip, Seattle will have to somehow beat an Edmonton Oilers team that has won 11 in a row.
The odds will be stacked very high against the Kraken in that one, but a 4-2-0 trip sounds a heckuva lot better than 3-3-0. It’s officially gut-check time.
by Darren Brown | Jan 15, 2024 | Three takeaways
All good things must end, and all signs were pointing toward the Seattle Kraken nine-game win streak and 13-game point streak ending Monday in Pittsburgh when they took on the Penguins at a strange early-afternoon start time. Sure enough, the shorthanded (and apparently sick) Kraken lacked their usual jump and fell 3-0 to Sidney Crosby and his mates.
Author’s Note: I have limited time to write this, so this will be a shorter Three Takeaways than usual, but here you go!
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-0 Kraken loss to the Penguins.
Takeaway #1: Injury/illness bug biting hard
Before the game, coach Dave Hakstol was even more cagey than usual about his lineup but indicated there would be personnel challenges Monday after Matty Beniers and Andre Burakovsky left early Saturday in Columbus.
So, we had a sense that those two wouldn’t go, but we didn’t expect Vince Dunn to also be missing from pre-game warmups. Once Adam Larsson left the game in the first period after just 4:01 of ice time, you knew the streaking club was facing a major uphill battle the rest of the way.
The Penguins came out looking fresher than Seattle in the second period and connected for two goals, one off a 2-on-1 rush between Bryan Rust and Drew O’Connor, and a second off a one-time snipe by Crosby.
Lacking their usual zest, the Kraken limped through the rest of the game, trying to muster up some offensive push. Although they hit the crossbar twice, they just couldn’t sustain enough pressure to overcome Pittsburgh and get pucks past Tristan Jarry, who made 22 saves in the shutout.
“We just didn’t have the same jump and energy,” Jaden Schwartz said. “When you’re missing key pieces of your team, it’s tough… We’ll be better tomorrow.”
After the game, Hakstol reiterated that several players were under the weather and that Larsson’s early exit was because of illness. We’re still unclear on if Beniers, Burakovsky, and Dunn missed the game because of illness or injury, but Hakstol said all three are day to day.
Takeaway #2: Crosby is still really good
This Penguins club, aging as it is, is still a strong group that is dangerous offensively. They’re unsurprisingly led by their veteran captain, Crosby, who is having a near-MVP-caliber season with a whopping 26 goals and 20 assists in 42 games at 36 years old.
Crosby’s goal (one of two on the afternoon) in the second period was another reminder of the unique skill he possesses to shoot from seemingly any angle accurately and with power. In this case, he received a pass from behind him, and in one fell swoop, dropped to a knee and rifled it against the grain behind Joey Daccord.
Daccord thought he may have been interfered with by Jake Guentzel, but nothing doing there, and there was no challenge from Hakstol.
Takeaway #3: What a run
What a fun streak this was. The Kraken went from dead in the water and their fans and media thinking the season was over, to getting on the best streak in their three-year history and launching themselves right back into the playoff conversation.
Seattle turned things around with a stretch of elite, all-world goaltending from Daccord, good defensive structure, and timely, depth scoring.
Now, to get things back on the rails starting Tuesday in New York, the Kraken will likely need some reinforcements from Coachella Valley and some quick recoveries from the guys that are ailing.
by Darren Brown | Jan 14, 2024 | Three takeaways
It wasn’t always pretty, and this one could have costly ramifications for the Kraken moving forward, but they slid by the Blue Jackets for their franchise-record ninth consecutive win, 7-4, Saturday in Columbus.
Neither Andre Burakovsky nor Matty Beniers finished the game, and the bench got shortened and shuffled, but Seattle overcame those absences and three different deficits.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that are feeling less than 100 percent,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s that time of year where there’s stuff running through the guys, but guys did what they could in the lineup. We weren’t at our best, we weren’t sharp, especially to start the hockey game. But we showed some real good resiliency to dig out of a hole and build a lead.”
Indeed, after Tye Kartye tied it 3-3 at the 9:45 mark of the second period, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Jared McCann, and Brian Dumoulin scored the next three goals to put the game out of reach.
McCann and Yanni Gourde had three and two points respectively, putting both forwards over the 300-career-point mark in the same game, which is neat.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 7-4 Kraken win over the Blue Jackets.
Takeaway #1: Beniers and Burakovsky exit
Just when the Kraken were starting to enjoy the luxury of four healthy forward lines, two of their key players left the game in Columbus early. Burakovsky played just 1:40 of ice time before being ruled out with a lower-body injury.
One thing we thought of was that maybe Burakovsky is sick and tried to gut it out, since Hakstol referenced “stuff running through guys.” But the lower-body tag makes us second-guess that and just hope that whatever is happening isn’t a long-term thing.
Said Hakstol, “I don’t know if he got hurt on a particular play or not. He went down the tunnel to get checked out and just wasn’t available for the rest of it.”
Burakovsky’s tenure with the Kraken has been rough so far. He’s been good when in the lineup, but the guy just cannot stay healthy since he suffered a season-ending groin injury in February last season. Since spending the whole summer rehabbing from that, he’s worked his way back from two separate upper-body injuries, only to leave Saturday with another lower-body issue.
As for Beniers, he got rocked by Cole Sillinger with a blind-side hit into the boards toward the end of the second period. He played another shift after that and looked fine but took another more innocuous-looking high hit during that shift didn’t come back out for the third.
After Sillinger boarded Beniers, it was great to see Vince Dunn step in and immediately feed him his lunch. As we’ve said before, we don’t particularly care about fighting, but there should be a physical response when a guy takes a run at one of your players, especially the reigning Calder Trophy winner.
Seattle’s lack of physical response was a common topic of conversation early in the season when guys would take cheap shots at the Kraken, and nobody would react. That certainly wasn’t the case on this night, as Dunn wasted no time in making Sillinger answer for his actions.
We were really liking the four-line mix Hakstol got to run out the last two games. If Beniers misses additional time, we would presume McCann slides up with Tomas Tatar and Jordan Eberle, while the Alex Wennberg and Gourde lines stick together. If Burakovsky also can’t go, we would expect Devin Shore and Kailer Yamamoto to draw back in on the fourth line with Kartye.
It’s a relatively easy fix that doesn’t disrupt much in the top nine, but it means Seattle would be back to three even lines and a fourth line, as opposed to four even lines like they’ve had the last couple games.
Takeaway #2: A nice night for McCann
While the Kraken had been rattling off win after win, Jared McCann had quietly been on a nine-game goal-scoring drought. He broke out of it Saturday when Oliver Bjorkstrand did the hard work down low and found McCann in the slot, who got just enough wood on his shot to beat a sprawling Daniil Tarasov. That tied the game at 2-2 late in the first period.
McCann returned the favor to Bjorkstrand on his power-play goal that made it 4-3, then scored what would end up the game winner in the third, streaking in and sniping after Jaden Schwartz found him at the red line with a beautiful between-the-legs dish.
“You know [the goals are] going to come,” Hakstol said. “He’s been through a bit of a drought; it’s going to happen to everybody. We asked him to play up the middle tonight, [but we had him] playing up the middle, on the right wing, and the left wing. And with that, he scored a couple of real big goals for us, and so he ends up with the game winner.”
We do think getting McCann into different spots with different linemates and easier matchups has helped him build back any confidence he may have been lacking lately. He set up Kartye for his goal in Washington on Thursday, then erupted for his 15th and 16th goals of the season on Saturday. His assist on Bjorkstrand’s goal was point No. 300.
“Obviously, I have a lot of people to thank for being where I am,” McCann said. “My parents, ownership, [Ron Francis] for giving me that contract… I’m just very humbled, very honored, and I just want to keep it going. I really believe in this team and what we can accomplish together, so let’s just keep going.”
Takeaway #3: A different way to win
The Kraken players and their coach recognized the team wasn’t at its best Saturday, and this high-scoring affair was quite different from most wins on the team’s 13-game point streak (11-0-2).
Statistically, Joey Daccord had his second-worst game of the streak (his .882 save percentage was better than the .857 he posted in Seattle’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars on Dec. 18), but he still made phenomenal saves at important moments in the game and ended up with 30 saves.
Almost every game of this stretch has been Daccord standing on his head and keeping the opposing team to zero, one, or two goals, and Seattle’s skaters rewarding him with just barely enough offense to earn wins. This one was different, though, as four pucks got behind the Kraken netminder, but the offense came alive for seven tallies.
The Kraken were led on this night by top players Bjorkstrand (1-2—3) and McCann (2-1—3), but they also got depth scoring from guys like Kartye and Brian Dumoulin. The team showed some blemishes, but on a night when it didn’t have its usual game, it still found a different way to win, a sign of a good team.
The Kraken are taking Sunday off to recuperate before returning to action with an early 10 a.m. Pacific game at Pittsburgh on Monday, then another game at the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
by Darren Brown | Jan 11, 2024 | Three takeaways
Thursday’s 4-1 Kraken win over the Washington Capitals felt similar to Seattle’s 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. It again wasn’t the best start for the Kraken, but Joey Daccord made stellar saves in the early going, and then a Tye Kartye goal at 8:50 of the first period gave the road team some jump.
The Kraken got another goal from Alex Wennberg at 18:12 of the first, then another at 18:20 of the second by Justin Schultz to re-establish a two-goal lead heading to the third. With the way Daccord has been playing, once Schultz made it 3-1, you knew this game was in the bag.
Sure enough, Seattle added one more beauty of a goal in the third for their eighth win in a row, tying the franchise record they set last season and extending their points streak to 12 games.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-1 Kraken win over the Capitals.
Takeaway #1: The Save™️
Joey Daccord has done some unbelievable things during this streak, but we think he may have had his best save of the season in the first period Thursday. After a defensive-zone turnover by Schultz and a quick transition by Washington, Connor McMichael found himself in alone with the Kraken netminder. Daccord sprawled to get his right pad on McMichael’s first shot—an exceptional save in and of itself—but the follow-up scorpion save was even more impressive.
This was one of those that caused utter disbelief by anyone who saw it because there was simply no way the puck did not go in the net. And yet, somehow, Daccord managed to get his pad elevated just in time to rob McMichael of a sure goal.
Just moments after the save, Kartye scored off a rush with a simple shot from distance that beat Darcy Kuemper, a fine juxtaposition of the level of goaltending at the two ends of this ice on the night and a massive swing in momentum.
“I think it was a quick turnover, and they kind of had a breakaway,” Daccord said. “I felt it hit my pad, and then it’s kind of tough when you’re kind of face-down on the ice to see what’s going on. I assumed that he had the rebound, and I could just kind of see his body, I couldn’t see the puck. So I just kind of stuck my leg up and hoped it would hit it. I felt it hit my pad, and I was like, ‘That was probably pretty cool.’”
It was, indeed, pretty cool.
“It erases a mistake, and it erases an opportunity,” coach Dave Hakstol said.
Daccord ended the night with 25 stops for a .962 save percentage, while Kuemper stopped just 19 of 23 shots for an .826 night.
Takeaway #2: Beauty from the gritty guys
We’re never surprised to see Adam Larsson make a skilled play, because he has under-the-radar silky mitts. But there’s something mind boggling about one of Seattle’s grittier players in Brandon Tanev making a perfect saucer pass over Martin Fehervary, Larsson taking it in stride, deking to his backhand, and making the finish look downright easy.
The goal starts back in the Kraken end of the ice, too, with Vince Dunn winning a battle, then Jaden Schwartz making a deft pass to spring the 2-on-1 rush for his third point in two games since returning from injury, and then it’s just perfect execution by Tanev and Larsson.
It’s plays like this, from guys who aren’t known as exceptional offensive players, that remind us just how incredibly good at hockey you have to be to play in the NHL.
Takeaway #3: “Fourth” line strikes
We wrote last game about the depth of the forward lines now that Jaden Schwartz is back in the lineup, and the only line that didn’t score against the Buffalo Sabres was the de facto “fourth” line of Kartye, Jared McCann, and Andre Burakovsky.
As mentioned above, Kartye scored the opening goal of the game after a pass from McCann, and while it wasn’t the prettiest goal in the world, it was an important one in the script of this game. The goal came after a minor tweak to the line for this game, in which McCann moved to center and Kartye went back to the wing.
Interestingly, three of the four lines again contributed goals on this night, with only the Tomas Tatar / Matty Beniers / Jordan Eberle line coming up empty this time (Tatar thought he had another highlight-reel goal in the third period, but the puck was lodged under Kuemper’s pad).
Last game, it was the Kartye / McCann / Burakovsky line that was held off the scoresheet, another example of how this four-line system can work. When one line isn’t scoring, another should step up and find the back of the net.
That’s what happened again on Thursday, and the result was even higher vibes than before. Will the Kraken ever lose again?
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