Photo Gallery – March 16 – Kraken versus Lightning

by Darren Brown | Mar 18, 2022 | Uncategorized

All photos taken by Brian Liesse. Photos are property of Sound Of Hockey and cannot be reused.

Assessing the Jared McCann extension against comparable contracts

by Curtis Isacke | Mar 14, 2022 | Uncategorized

Along with the rest of the Kraken community, Sound Of Hockey was abuzz when the team announced that Jared McCann had signed a five-year extension worth $25 million last week. McCann is the team’s leading goal scorer and one of a small handful of players young enough and skilled enough to bridge the Kraken from the current roster to whatever comes next.

We had debated potential McCann contracts internally just days earlier after Ron Francis indicated the team would get something done with McCann one way or another. When the contract came down on March 8, we all agreed that this was a good deal for the team, but disagreed a bit on whether there was anything truly surprising about it. As recounted on the SOH podcast, Darren Brown appropriately took a victory lap for his close contract prediction. Good job, Darren. Andy Eide and John Barr indicated the deal was in the neighborhood of expected term and value for the player. But I thought the deal was incredibly team friendly.

My reaction was largely based on my projection of the value that Jared McCann brings to the team. Per TopDownHockey’s WAR statistic, McCann has been the 23rd most valuable skater in the NHL since the beginning of last season. (If you’re curious to read more about TopDownHockey’s WAR stat, dive in here.) Even if that metric is a bit optimistic on McCann, there is no denying his goal scoring touch is tremendous. And at 26 years old, he should have several productive years in front of him.

I also thought I understood McCann’s negotiating leverage. McCann was scheduled to be a restricted free agent this summer, meaning that he was almost certain to return to Seattle on a new contract of some kind. He could only sign with a different team on an offer sheet, and offer sheets are exceedingly rare in hockey due to the draft pick compensation involved—and, you know, the collusion.

But McCann was due for unrestricted status in the summer of 2023, which in my mind should have given his camp significant clout to seek a long-term, big-money deal or a one- or two-year bridge deal that would have gotten him to UFA status quickly.

Given that McCann’s contract didn’t fit my expectations, I wanted to dig into the recent precedent for McCann’s deal by examining contracts signed by comparable players with one year left to unrestricted free agency. After analyzing these comparables, I will return to the question of whether this is a fair and expected deal, or the best contract the Kraken have signed, by far.

Methodology

I gathered contract information from CapFriendly. At the time Jared McCann signed his contract, he had played in 403 games and amassed 188 points. Using CapFriendly’s contract comparable tool, I was able to compile a long list of contracts signed by players as restricted free agents with similar totals in games played and points at the time of signing.

From this long list I further filtered the results manually. Most importantly, I limited the results to only those contracts signed beginning with the player’s last RFA year. In other words, when the contract was signed, the player had only one more season left to unrestricted status.

Second, I included only contracts signed for the 2010-11 season to the present. I chose this limiting factor arbitrarily with the goal of limiting the sample to a reasonable recent time period in which point production is roughly similar.

Third, I calculated the points-per-game production of this list of players and further reduced the sample to only those players whose production matched Jared McCann’s scoring production with .1 points per game. Put differently, assuming a full season of games played, I limited the sample to players who had averaged approximately eight points per season more or less that McCann has averaged.

For each of these contracts, CapFriendly supplied not only the dollar average annual value (AAV) of the deal, but also the percentage of the salary cap the AAV represented at the time the deal was signed. Using this percentage, I was able to adjust these contracts into a present value by multiplying the percentage by the current NHL salary cap ($82 million). This facilitates a fairer, direct comparison to McCann’s deal. I refer to this figure as the “cap-adjusted AAV” below.

Reviewing the comparable contracts

The narrowing process described above yielded 13 comparable contracts.

A few trends and takeaways from this group of player contracts:

More than half of the comparable negotiations resulted in contracts of two years or shorter

Of the 13 comparable contracts, four were one-year deals, meaning that the team did not buy out any UFA years. Three were two-year deals, meaning that the team was able to secure only one UFA year.

The collective bargaining agreement limits a player to restricted free agency with his existing team through all of his early prime years. (See an explainer on the NHL’s free agency rules here.) This status depresses the player’s salary because he is not able to really shop his services to the entire league. Naturally, a player gains greater leverage to maximize his salary when he is unrestricted.

For a player like McCann heading into his final RFA year without an existing long-term deal, a short deal has the advantage of getting the player into unrestricted free agency when he’s still in his mid-to-late 20’s, the prime range for scoring the biggest free-agent payday. There was a strong preference in McCann’s comparable group for this short-term approach, likely because any longer terms offered weren’t enticing enough to forego the chance to become a UFA.

Teams needed to pay to increase the term

Due to the dynamic described above, players and teams were more willing to settle on a lower AAV on a short-term deal. Conversely, to secure a player long term, the team needed to commit to a higher AAV. This is because a longer-term deal would mean that the player could not become an unrestricted free agent until he was well north of 30 years old.

The data suggests that while the team and McCann may have been able to settle on a sub-$4 million, one-year contract, it should have required $6 million AAV or more to get the longest terms available under the CBA.

Only one comparable negotiation resulted in a deal longer than McCann’s five-year term

Of the six contracts longer than two years, five of the negotiations settled on a three-to-five-year term. Only one contract broke that mold. Las Vegas and William Karlsson agreed to an eight-year maximum-length deal starting in the 2019-20 season. That said, it may be fair to characterize that particular negotiation as an outlier. (More on Karlsson’s unique circumstances below.)

Jared McCann’s contract is below market value relative to the comparable group

Based on the precedent set by comparable players in comparable circumstances, McCann should have expected more than $5.5 million AAV on a five-year term contract. The data further suggests that, absent a deal in that neighborhood, McCann would have been well justified to reject any offers beyond a one-or-two-year term in order to test unrestricted free agency sooner.

The fact that the Kraken got a full five-year term on a below-expected AAV is fairly surprising. At the time of signing, McCann’s contract is projected to provide the most surplus contract value for the team versus market expectation of any player in this data set, narrowly edging Tyler Kennedy’s undervalued two-year contract. (More on Kennedy’s unique case below.)

Analyzing notable comparable contracts

While the above analysis fairly supports the conclusion that McCann’s contract is team friendly, the comparables did not follow a particularly tight correlation along the trend line (r squared ~ .62). So, I dug further into each of the comparable players to see what, if anything, could be learned. After all, not all players with similar point-per-game totals hold the same value, particularly when those players are spread across more than a decade of league play.

Jared McCann (403 games played; 188 points; 5 x $5 m AAV in 2022 at age 26)

McCann’s point totals have been trending up with increased playing time opportunity, and he has established himself over the last three years as a highly efficient goal scorer. With strong play driving analytics too, his total contributions to his team are understated by his raw point totals.

Brock Nelson (398 gp; 188 pts; 1 x $4.25 m AAV in 2018 at age 26; $4.387 m adj AAV)

Islanders forward Brock Nelson was McCann’s closest point production comparable. Nelson had logged an identical number of points as McCann (188) in five fewer games played when Nelson signed a contract in summer, 2018, before his final RFA year. But digging deeper into Nelson’s offensive, defensive, and special teams play-driving analytics, his other play doesn’t match McCann’s contributions.

Nelson submitted for arbitration and ultimately settled with the Islanders on a one-year, $4.25 million deal. The next year, without any significant uptick in play, Nelson was able to leverage his pending unrestricted status into a further six-year, $6 million AAV contract from the Islanders before free agency.

Since McCann is a better player, Nelson’s monetary result (a total of $40.25 million over seven years) was likely there for McCann had he pursued it. On the other hand, Nelson carried the risk of injury and performance decline in the 2018-19 season. There’s no guarantee McCann would have been so fortunate should he have opted for a short-term deal.

Andre Burakovsky (386 gp; 190 pts; 2 x $4.9 m AAV in 2020 at age 25; $4.928 adj AAV)

Burakovsky was McCann’s fifth closest comparable on a point production basis, but when digging into his analytics, Burakovsky has emerged for me as McCann’s most similar and interesting comp for several reasons.

Like McCann, his underlying play-driving and efficiency analytics are strong. Burakovsky mildly outperforms McCann as an offensive finisher but lags behind the Kraken forward as a defender. All told, his value and leverage at the negotiating table in 2020 was almost identical to McCann’s position in 2022.

Burakovsky wielded this leverage differently than McCann. He negotiated to a virtually identical AAV but on a two-year term. In other words, Burakovsky sold only one UFA year, whereas McCann sold four. Burkaovsky favored flexibility and upside; McCann opted for certainty.

Now Burakovsky is slated to be a sought-after free agent in the 2022 unrestricted free agent class at 27 years old. He is poised to strike with a big-value, long-term deal.

This was the precedent for McCann to “bet on himself” and recoup as much of his value as possible. Again, had McCann gone this way, he would have carried some risk of career-altering or career-ending injury. But, assuming he emerged relatively healthy, McCann was likely to find a taker that would match or surpass his current $5 million AAV—even if his play slipped some.

Consider the Kraken’s own Jaden Schwartz as an example. When Schwartz hit unrestricted status in 2021, he was already years removed from his performance peak. Even so, the Kraken signed the former Blues forward for 5 years at $5.5 million AAV.

By committing to the Kraken early instead of following the similar path set by Burakovsky, McCann put a lot of expected value in Seattle’s pocket. Just how much? We’ll get a better sense when we see Burakovsky’s 2022 free-agent deal.

Tomas Tatar (345 gp; 194 pts; 4 x $5.3 m in 2017 at age 26; $5.797 adj AAV)

Superficially, Tomas Tatar was the weakest comparable for McCann in the group, having recorded more points than McCann in approximately 60 fewer games played. But Tatar’s weaker underlying play-driving analytics indicate a player of similar overall value to McCann.

Also like McCann, Tatar opted for medium-term deal, signing for four years. But Tatar landed a much stronger deal, returning only slightly less total cash than McCann over four years rather than McCann’s five.

Tyler Kennedy (372 gp; 168 pts; 2 x $2.35 m in 2013 at age 26; $2.993 adj AAV)

Kennedy was McCann’s third closest point production comparable when he signed. When Kennedy was entering his final RFA year in 2013 at age 26, he had a 20-goal season under his belt, and his underlying analytics were solid, even if trending downwards over the previous two years.

Pittsburgh traded Kennedy to San Jose in June 2013, and Kennedy signed perhaps the weakest deal among the comparable group: a two-year, $2.35 million AAV contract (approximately $3 million AAV on a cap-adjusted basis). And while the deal was cheap and “team friendly,” Kennedy’s on ice performance cratered. He would sign just one more minimum contract in 2015 before exiting the league entirely at 29 years old.

The case of Tyler Kennedy is certainly an outlier in McCann’s comparable group. But it is also a cautionary tale for a player choosing to “bet on himself” in his mid-20’s at the end of restricted free agency. Sometimes these bets pay off, as with Brock Nelson and others. But without the long-term guarantee, those bets can go bust. Kennedy busted and unfortunately never truly monetized the value he delivered to the Penguins in his early 20’s.

William Karlsson (347 gp; 184 pts; 8 x $5.9 m in 2019 at age 26; $5.937 m adj AAV)

Moving from one extreme to the other, we arrive at the well-documented case of William Karlsson. A middling player in Columbus, Karlsson improbably broke out into superstardom after being selected in the Expansion Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights. Karlsson scored 43 goals in the 2017-18 season after amassing just 18 total across his first three seasons in the league. After he followed that up with a solid 24-goal performance in 2018-19, Karlsson approached the negotiating table in the summer of 2019 just one year from unrestricted free agency with significant bargaining power. He maximized that leverage to obtain an eight-year, maximum-term deal, carrying a $5.9 million AAV.

Karlsson’s late blooming goal production is unique. He no doubt leveraged his 40-goal campaign and his 67 total goals over two years to achieve a result that McCann could not. I’m confident that the Kraken would have bristled if McCann’s camp raised Karlsson’s contract as a comparable. But when checking below the hood, McCann in 2022 is not far off from the player Karlsson was in 2019.

Visualization by JFreshHockey

An eight-year term was unrealistic for McCann. No other comparable player had achieved more than a five-year term. But there is a reasonable argument that McCann had the second strongest overall value profile in this sample behind Karlsson. For that reason, I do not think it would have been unreasonable for McCann to insist on a six-or-seven-year term at a comparable cap-adjusted AAV to Karlsson’s deal.

Cap-adjusted five-year earnings for McCann’s comparables

One other way to look at McCann’s contract is to consider what comparable players earned, in cap-adjusted terms, over the same five-year term to which McCann just committed.

Of the thirteen comparable contract situations, three (Burkavosky, Tierney, and Athanasiou) are scheduled for unrestricted free agency this offseason and have not yet signed new deals. Thus, it is still uncertain what these players will earn over a full five-year term.

Of the ten other contracts, six returned slightly more cap-adjusted value to the player than McCann’s five-year, $25 million deal. Three players earned slightly less cap-adjusted value than McCann. And, one player, Tyler Kennedy, was out of the league three years after his RFA contract and earned significantly less than McCann.

Refocusing on Jared McCann’s contract

After working through these comparable contracts, it’s fair to say I had set my sights too high for McCann when I argued to John, Darren, and Andy a few days before McCann’s signing that the Kraken forward shouldn’t accept any offer below $6 million AAV or any offer in the three-to-five-year term range. Players in his point production range do not regularly secure such premium contracts before unrestricted free agency. Based on his significant skillset beyond his point production, McCann and his team could have argued for a two-year $6 million AAV short-term deal or a six-year $6.5 million AAV long-term deal. But the historical precedent was not there.

That said, we can be confident in the conclusion that Jared McCann’s contract is quite team friendly relative to his contract comparables, both in term and AAV. The Kraken did well to secure a building block player who wanted to stay in Seattle on a very favorable contract for the club. The McCann deal is the best contract the team has ever signed.

After blowing late lead Kraken recover for 4-3 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens

by Andy Eide | Mar 12, 2022 | Uncategorized

It was closer than it needed to be, but Philipp Grubauer put the Kraken on his back and ended their five-game road trip with a 4-3 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Saturday.

Grubauer stopped 15 shots early and helped Seattle build a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.

He had the Kraken up 3-2 with time winding down and the Canadiens net empty. Then it happened. Adam Larsson attempted to knock away a puck from the Seattle net. He swung his stick and deflected it past Grubauer for a game-tying own goal at 17:48 to send the game into overtime.

“Shit happens, you know, it’s hockey,” Jared McCann said. “Sorry about my language. But, it’s just the way it goes, [Larsson] tried to make a play and everybody saw that so we were there for him. He’s done a lot of great things for us this year, so we just stuck with him. It was great to get the win for him.”

Seattle leaned on its goalie for four more saves in overtime, including a big-time glove save from in close.

“Reaction save for sure,” Grubauer said. “Not the ideal situation in, in overtime, to give that shot up but I made the save and we won the face off and went up the other way.”

Neither team scored in overtime and Grubauer would be tasked with shutting down seven shootout attempts before finally Marcus Johansson won it by lifting a backhand over Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault for the win.

“I wasn’t even watching on JoJo’s goal,” Grubauer said. “I had my head down… So, I don’t even know what he did. But he scored so I guess it was a nice move.”

Grubauer ended the night with 30 saves to send the Kraken (18-37-6) home on a happy note with a 1-3-1 record on the trip. Johansson had two assists to surpass 400 career points.

Montembeault stopped 32 shots and Alexander Romanov had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens (15-35-8), who failed to make up ground on the Kraken and pull out of the league’s basement.

“It was a pretty even hockey game and there was a lot of pace to it,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “At the end of the day there was pretty good goaltending at both ends of the rink, good opportunities at both ends of the rink, and it’s a good way for us to finish out the road trip. It’s tough to give up the lead but I didn’t dislike the way we played in the third. They played well and they had a good push. But, you know, I didn’t feel like we had any panic to our game at all.”

Kraken build lead early

Gourde put the Kraken on the board with a shorthanded goal at 9:26 of the first period to make it 1-0. The Canadiens mishandled the puck coming out from behind their net and Gourde tapped in a loose puck for his 13th of the year.

Moments later, on the same penalty kill, Mason Appleton snapped a shot for another shorthanded goal, but the play was challenged and the goal was disallowed as Appleton was offside. It’s the second straight game Appleton has lost a goal to an offside challenge.

Montreal evened the score 1-1 at 14:50 in the first period after a scramble in the Seattle end put the puck on Michael Pezzetta’s stick in the slot. He fired and scored.

Ryan Donato gave the Kraken a 2-1 lead at 16:42 in the first when he scored after Johansson’s initial shot rebounded hard off the boards. It was the second straight game scoring for Donato.

Seattle extended its lead to 3-1 at 15:05 of the second period on a Jared McCann power-play goal. Johansson drove the puck behind the Montreal net and flung a perfect pass to McCann in the high slot where he would bury his team leading 23rd of the season and second in two games.

With the tally, McCann equaled his career high in points with 35 and power-play goals in a season with eight.

Romanov cut the lead to 3-2 at 1:04 of the third period with a point shot after another big rebound off the end boards.

Special teams big for Kraken

At the start of the road trip, Seattle’s special teams were a struggle. The power play was not converting, and they gave up a host of power play goals against. At one point they had allowed seven out of 11 on the penalty kill.

The Kraken took too many penalties Saturday, giving the Canadiens six looks, but Seattle killed them all off and scored a shorthanded goal.

“Guys were good on the PK and they got their looks and believe me that’s where you know your best PKer has to be the guy in the pipes and Grubi did a really good job there,” Hakstol said. “We found a way to get a shorty. That another big point of the hockey game.”

Tentacle Tales

+ Joonas Donskoi and Alex Wennberg missed the game due to injury. Donskoi had been placed on the injured reserve list Friday with an upper body injury.

+ Kole Lind was recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League. He started on the second line, but ultimately played just over 11 minutes in this special teams heavy game.

­+ Morgan Geekie had an assist Saturday giving him one in each of the past two games.

+ The Kraken will return to Climate Pledge Arena for a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.

Kraken roar back in third period but lose 4-3 in OT to Senators

by Andy Eide | Mar 10, 2022 | Uncategorized

Unfortunately, the Kraken are buried in the standings, otherwise the point they earned Thursday in Ottawa would have loomed huge in a playoff race.

After playing flat for two periods, Seattle trailed 3-0 heading into the third but would roar back to score three goals and force overtime. Ottawa’s Josh Norris scored on a power-play goal at 2:34 of the extra period and the Senators would hold off the Kraken with a 4-3 win at Canadian Tire Centre.

“The first two periods were inexcusable, I think we knew that,” Ryan Donato said. “The momentum was dead. We needed something, Jared [McCann] got a big goal and once we got that feeling of ‘we’re back in this,’ I think a lot of guys felt a lot better about the situation. I thought we put in a hell of an effort in the third period and unfortunately it ended the way it did. But testament to our character.”

The results weren’t what Seattle wanted, but the comeback was impressive as the Kraken continue to show resiliency no matter the circumstances.

“It’s important to be able to go out there and play hard for one another and fight, compete right till the very end, whether we got one or not,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “That’s real important, but, to be able to execute and build on that momentum and have that period where everybody fed off each other is important but doesn’t lessen the disappointment in terms of the loss in overtime. We’re not looking for feel good points, we’re looking for wins and it’s tough to tie that game up and come back and then lose it in overtime.”

About five minutes into the third period, Chris Driedger got his body in front of a shot from Artem Zub. It was a shot that looked like it would flip the score to 4-0 and end the night for the Kraken. Driedger kept it out and it woke up the Kraken.

Starting with Jared McCann scoring his 22nd at 9:14, the Kraken stormed back with goals in quick succession. McCann’s goal was followed by Donato tipping a Jamie Oleksiak pass in to cut the lead to 3-2 at 9:50.

Donato was playing his first game since March 2 and had been a healthy scratch the past three games.

“He was prepared, he was ready for puck drop,” McCann said. “It was good, really good to see him get one there. He deserved it, he works his bag off.”

The comeback would be completed at 13:01 when Mason Appleton’s shot hit goalie Anton Forsberg but fluttered in to tie the game at 3-3.

“We just came alive, we played simple,” McCann said. “It sounds cliche at this point, but that’s the way we’ve got to play to win games. The first two periods were pretty bad obviously and we had some bad turnovers and kind of left [Driedger] out to dry again.”

Forsberg stopped 30 Kraken shots and Norris scored two goals for Ottawa (21-31-5), who won its second game in a row. Brady Tkachuk had a goal and an assist.

Driedger ended the game with 23 saves for Seattle (17-27-5), who have lost the first four games of a five-game road trip.

Early disallowed goal costly for Kraken

Seattle scored first in the game when Appleton converted a cross-ice pass from Colin Blackwell. It gave the Kraken life and momentum, but it would be short-lived as the Senators challenged the play for offside. After a review, it was ruled that Yanni Gourde was in the zone early, no goal.

Fifteen seconds later, Norris gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 8:32 of the first period when he attacked the net and tipped in a pass from Tkachuk for his 21st of the season and fourth point in his past two games.

“I think there’s always ebbs and flows,” Donato said. “I feel like lately, a lot of the chances that we’ve got or the reviews have gone the other way for us and sometimes that can be deflating, but I think we got to learn from our past lessons. You can’t get too high or too low on those decisions. You can’t control those, and you got to be big the next shift.”

What was a fast and energetic start for Seattle soon deflated like a leaky party balloon.

Tkachuk extended the Ottawa lead to 2-0 at 5:43 of the second period after Oleksiak failed to clear the puck out of the zone. The Senators intercepted his outlet pass and put it on net where Tkachuk backhanded a rebound past Driedger.

Another defensive mistake allowed the Senators to go up 3-0 at 7:40. Adam Larsson fumbled the puck in his own zone and Ottawa jumped on it, leading to a goal by Parker Kelly.

Tentacle Tales

+ Defenseman Haydn Fleury was in the lineup for the Kraken Thursday. He had not played since Feb 22.

+ Joonas Donskoi was a healthy scratch for the Kraken.

+ Despite earning a point in the standings, the Kraken have slipped to the bottom of the Western Conference standings. Already a lottery team for the upcoming draft, Seattle leads the Montreal Canadiens by three points (Montreal has three games in hand) for the last spot in the league, and the most lotto balls in the Draft. The two teams will play in Montreal on Saturday.

SOH LIVEBLOG: Matthews scores hat trick, Maple Leafs beat Kraken 6-4

by Darren Brown | Mar 8, 2022 | Uncategorized

We know it has been a big day in Seattle sports news (with the biggest news, of course, being the five-year contract extension for Jared McCann), but we are here to remind you that there is also a Seattle Kraken game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday! 

This is the SOH Liveblog for that game. We will update this article with highlights as the game goes on, so check back often!  

Kraken at Maple Leafs

Pre-game

These teams played each other a few weeks ago at Climate Pledge Arena, and it did not go well for the Kraken. That night, Seattle got spanked 6-2, as Philipp Grubauer gave up three goals on 11 shots and was lifted after the first period. 

That first meeting between these clubs was one of just a handful of times the Kraken have looked outclassed this season, as they were dominated from the drop of the puck. 

The high-flying Leafs have struggled a bit, lately. They have had a middling 5-4-1 record over the last 10 games, and their goaltending has been called into question regularly by the rabid Toronto fanbase and media. Jack Campbell—who was such a huge part of this team’s success earlier in the season—has faltered lately with four straight games under a .900 save percentage, allowing 19 goals in that stretch. Campbell will get the nod Tuesday.

At the other end of the success spectrum, Auston Matthews has continued to tear up the NHL and became the first player in the league to hit the 40-goal plateau Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. 

The Leafs are on the second of back-to-backs after a 5-4 win Monday in Columbus. 

Kraken lineup

Here are the Seattle Kraken lines against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Looks like Haydn Fleury, Will Borgen, and Ryan Donato are scratches once again.

The latest

Prior to the game, Wayne Simmonds was presented with a silver stick for playing in his 1,000th career game on the same night that Mark Giordano also hit that milestone.

First period highlights

Joonas Donskoi took a tripping penalty at 2:46, giving Toronto’s top-ranked power play its first opportunity of the game. It did not take long for the lethal unit to strike. Morgan Reilly passed across to William Nylander, who went through the seam to Matthews. Matthews fired before Grubauer could get set, and just like that, it was 1-0 at 3:18.

The Kraken responded quickly. 2:03 of game time elapsed before Carson Soucy scored his seventh goal of the season to set a career high. He shot from the point and hit Mason Appleton in front of the net. The puck squirted back out to Soucy, who got a second shot away before Campbell could fully recover from the initial try that didn’t get through. With that, it was 1-1 at 5:21.

The early maelstrom of goals continued when TJ Brodie sent a stretch pass to Pierre Engvall at the Kraken blue line. The quick-up pass broke down Seattle’s neutral zone coverage and allowed John Tavares to sneak into the offensive zone untouched. Engvall hit Tavares with a little touch pass, and Tavares scored off a partial breakaway to make it 2-1.

Second period highlights

Seattle was closing in on killing off a Jeremy Lauzon tripping penalty, but with just a few seconds left in the Toronto power play, Mark Giordano shot a puck over the glass from the Kraken defensive zone and was called for delay of game. With nearly four consecutive minutes of zone time, the elite Leafs power play did eventually break through for the second time. Nylander shot from the right hashmark, and with Tavares creating some confusion in front, the puck just squeezed through Grubauer to make it 3-1.

The Kraken answered once again with a pretty passing play through the neutral zone. Marcus Johansson made an outlet pass to Jordan Eberle in the neutral zone, then sprinted up the ice to get in on the rush. Eberle passed to Alex Wennberg, who passed back to Johansson, who then went right back to Wennberg in the slot. Wennberg chipped it by Campbell and brought Seattle back within one with his third goal in four games.

Giordano took his second penalty of the period, which made us think Seattle was really playing with fire. But on the Toronto power play, Jamie Oleksiak forced a turnover in Seattle’s zone and Yanni Gourde was off to the races with Colin Blackwell. On a two-on-one, Gourde passed to Blackwell, who put it home with a nice finish and leveled the score at 3-3.

The second period ended with the score level. The Leafs held a slight advantage in shots on goal through 40 minutes, but they had close to 62 percent of the shot quality.

Third period highlights

At 5:57 of the third period, Jeremy Lauzon blasted a shot from the right point. Jaden Schwartz got a piece of the puck and redirected it down ever so slightly. The change in direction was just enough to throw Campbell off the scent, and give Schwartz his first goal since returning from hand surgery.

The lead was short lived. Seconds after Grubauer had made an outstanding save, the Kraken gave the puck right back to the Maple Leafs. Michael Bunting raced in with Matthews and got it to the NHL’s leading goal scorer, who made a beautiful move to tie the score at 4-4.

Then, just 40 seconds later, with Soucy in the box for cross checking, Mitch Marner faked Joonas Donskoi out of his jock and scored through traffic to give the lead back to Toronto, 5-4.

That was Toronto’s third power-play goal of the night.

Matthews added an empty-net goal to complete his hat trick and solidify a 6-4 win for Toronto.

That was a tough loss for the boys, who finally got some offensive production but were again doomed by the special teams battle.

The Kraken have now lost three games in a row and 10 of their last 11.

Kraken lose special teams battle for second straight night in 3-2 defeat to Hurricanes

by Andy Eide | Mar 6, 2022 | Uncategorized

The script Saturday was much the same as it was the night before. The Kraken scored twice but allowed two power-play goals against which again made the difference during a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.

Unlike Saturday’s loss to the Washington Capitals, the Kraken scored one power-play goal of their own but only managed one five-on-five score and would lose another close game.

“They won the specialty teams by one, that obviously makes a difference in the hockey game,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said.

Seattle has allowed four power-play goals over its past five attempts to start the road trip, but Hakstol doesn’t think they need to change up the strategy on the kill.

“We’ve got to complete the kill so we’re not going to overreact,” he said. “There’s no major adjustment that needs to be made, it’s a competitive scenario. We don’t like the way it’s gone for the last five, we’re gonna push that the other direction. We’re playing against, tonight, this is a good power play unit. We’re going to see another good one coming up in two days. So,we just got to make sure we get our heads clear.”

After playing to a 2-2 tie over the first two periods, Carolina got what would turn out to be the game-winning goal off the stick of Martin Necas, who found a loose puck in the slot, spun, and scored his ninth of the season at 10:22. The Kraken could not generate enough the rest of the way and dropped their ninth game out of the past 10.

“I feel like we have momentum in the game, we’re pushing and right now it’s just that we really can’t convert those chances,” Alex Wennberg said. “Obviously a tough loss yesterday and we wanted to get a win, we wanted to come out with a win, but like I said, there’s a lot of good things in the game as well. So obviously now we have a couple days here to get ready for our next game and we’re excited for that.”

Seattle has failed to score more than two goals in eight of its past 10 games.

“This is the first night we’ve been out chanced in several nights so we’re going to stay with the formula,” Hakstol said. “We got to stay with the formula and there’s no overreaction there. Last night we out chance our opponent probably nearly two to one. We can’t go and manufacture the puck going in the net, we’ve got to keep generating the opportunities, we got to keep playing hard, and our group has done that.”

Nino Niederreiter and Teuvo Teravainen each scored, and backup goalie Antti Raanta made 28 saves for the Hurricanes (39-12-5).

Calle Jarnkrok had a goal and an assist for the Kraken (17-36-5), who got 30 saves from Philipp Grubauer.

The Kraken had their chances

Wennberg gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 3:12 of the second period when he flipped a rebound off Raanta’s pads and in. Seattle ended the night 1-for-3 on the power play.

Carolina tied the game 1-1 at 7:10 with a power-play goal when Niederreiter got a quick pass in front of the net from Jesperi Kotkaniemi and scored easily into the empty net.

“If we get the puck out and win the draw,” Grubauer said. “A couple of tough bounces over the last couple of games, but we’ve got to win the special teams. They make such a huge difference in every game.”

The Kraken had a response goal in their bucket, however. At 8:16 Adam Larsson flung a stretch pass through the middle of the ice that found Jarnkrok’s stick in behind the Carolina defense. Jarnkrok was alone and snapped a shot past Raanta on the stick side for his second in the past three games, and Seattle had a 2-1 lead.

Another Seattle penalty would lead to the Hurricanes tying the game at 2-2. Right off the face-off on the power play, Teravainen found a rebound to score his 16th of the season.

The Kraken will next play at the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night.

Tentacle Tales

+ Wennberg’s goal gives him two over his past three games.

+ The Kraken are 4-5-0 against teams that are top-ten teams in points.

+ With an assist, Sebastian Aho recorded his 378th career point and moved past Blaine Stoughton (377) for sole possession of eighth place on the Hurricanes/Whalers all-time list. He is now just one shy of Jeff Skinner.