The guys start the latest episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast by falling on the… spear (sort of)… for a mishap on their last show. They then dive right into Kraken talk, recapping an eventful week for the team, which sandwich a nice win and a skills exhibition between two rather stinky losses.
John, Andy, and Darren then shift their focus to the NHL as a whole, which had some big stories over the past week like coach firings, Jack Eichel returning, and Tyler Toffoli getting traded.
The Sound Of Hockey Podcast is back from the All-Star break, and the guys start this episode out on an extremely high note.
With no Kraken games to talk about (this show was recorded on Wednesday before Seattle faced Arizona), John, Andy, and Darren instead spend time breaking down the women’s game between Team USA and Team Canada at the Winter Olympics.
They then shift to some general Kraken talk, including taking a look back at the first half and making some predictions for the second half.
Next, the guys recap some of the All-Star Game festivities and Gary Bettman’s press conference at that event, before moving onto their segments.
Segments this week include Serious Business, Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and Three Stars.
The Kraken are FINALLY back at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday, as they welcome the Arizona Coyotes for the first time. It is not the first time these two squads have faced one another, as Seattle fell to these lowly Coyotes 5-4 on Nov. 6 in Glendale.
That was a miserable loss for Seattle. The boys got out to an early lead and chased netminder Karel Vejmelka from that game, but with Scott Wedgewood on in relief, fell behind in the third period. The Kraken got a late tying goal, then immediately gave up the winning goal to Lawson Crouse with just a few seconds left.
It was the first win of the season after 11 consecutive losses for the Coyotes, and it also kicked off a painful six-game losing streak for the Kraken.
Interestingly, that night, Vejmelka got his second start in two nights, an extreme rarity for NHL netminders. Well, would you believe if we told you that this same scenario is playing out again for this second matchup between these teams? It’s true! The Coyotes lost 5-1 last night in Vancouver, with Vejmelka in net. He is expected to get the nod again on Wednesday, though, despite his very recent usage.
Jamie Oleksiak and Carson Soucy getting close to returning
As recently as our walk into the arena (see video below), we thought it was unlikely that Jamie Oleksiak or Carson Soucy would return to action against the Coyotes, even though they participated in morning skate on Wednesday. Coach Dave Hakstol has been hinting that both have been getting closer, though.
Interestingly, Oleksiak has been removed from injured reserve, according to the NHL media site. Will he dress on Wednesday? UPDATE: Neither Oleksiak nor Soucy are present in warm-ups, so it looks like Will Borgen and Haydn Fleury will make up the third pairing.
Philipp Grubauer gets the nod for Seattle, as he looks to extend his stretch of very positive play that dates back to Jan. 10.
Projected lineup
The latest
House band “Enumclaw” raised some eyebrows they dropped a very clear f-bomb. “I don’t wanna be a f***in’ loser!” the lead singer screamed into the microphone. Same, Enumclaw. Same.
The Kraken also rolled out some cool new touches to the pre-game show.
The #SeaKraken now have a bell-ringing ceremony just before the opening face-off. Here’s Miracle on Ice hero Rob McClanahan ringing it for the first time. pic.twitter.com/PTYMbLdor6
As we’ve seen many times before, the Kraken conceded an early goal. Adam Larsson tried to make a little backward breakout pass off the halfwall, but Janis Moser got a piece of it and deflected it right to a wide-open Phil Kessel in the slot. Kessel deked around Grubauer and put it away at 4:07 of the first period.
The Kraken had the better of the possession in the opening frame and got some good looks on Vejmelka, including Mark Giordano and Vince Dunn shots that hit the post. Seattle failed to find the back of the net in the opening frame, though, and went to the room down 1-0.
Grubauer did make a couple solid saves on Clayton Keller and Jacob Chychrun to keep his team within one goal.
Second period highlights
Halfway through the second, Vejmelka made a ten-bell save on Jordan Eberle, who looked like he was about to score his first goal since Dec. 6. On a two-on-one with Marcus Johansson, Johansson put a perfect pass area pass on Eberle’s stick at the top of the crease. Vejmelka sprawled from right to left and somehow got his blocker on it. Eberle looked skyward as he skated to the bench.
The Coyotes then stretched their lead to 2-0 when a broken play in Arizona’s end allowed Nick Schmaltz to sneak behind the Kraken defense. Alex Galchenyuk found a loose puck and hit Schmaltz at the far blue line. Schmaltz went in on a partial breakaway and beat Grubauer at 14:51.
That was how the second period would end. While Seattle was outshooting Arizona through 40 minutes, the Coyotes had more shot quality with 2.04 expected goals for to the Kraken’s 1.39.
Third period highlights
The Kraken got on the board just 16 seconds into the third period. Colin Blackwell fought through a slash as he crossed over the blue line and fired a harmless-looking shot from the top of the right circle. It was perfectly placed, though, and hit off the inside of the far post to bring Seattle within one… for a moment.
As is tradition for Seattle, the Kraken gave that goal back fewer than two minutes later. Haydn Fleury blocked a Ryan Dzingel shot from the point. The puck caromed right onto the stick of Anton Stralman, who made a move and backhanded it past Grubauer. The goal made it 3-1 and reminded us that the Coyotes lead the league in guys that make you go, Oh yeah! That guy!
The Seattle Kraken fell 3-2 to the Boston Bruins Tuesday at TD Garden in a game that was the tale of two power play units. One was Seattle’s that ended the game 0-for-6 while the Bruins cashed in twice giving them the edge in a one-goal game.
David Pastrnak scored both the goals on the Bruins (26-14-3) power play, which is one of the best in the NHL and Linus Ullmark made 25 saves.
Joonas Donskoi scored his first of the year, Mason Appleton scored, and Chris Driedger returned to the net and kicked out 23 shots. The Kraken (14-27-4) outshot Boston 27-26.
“It’s a relief,” Donskoi said about finally scoring. “It’s been obviously a tough year and mentally it’s not easy. Nothing’s going your way and we’re losing a lot of games and I just want to help the team, and I feel like I haven’t been able to do a lot of that this year. So, it was nice to get that out of the way, but another one-goal loss, tight game… it’s frustrating.”
Seattle had six power-play chances but failed on all of them. That included a short, 38-second 5-on-3 opportunity in the second period, and overall, the Kraken managed eight shots with the man advantage.
“It was a tight game, five on five, and comes down to special teams,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had some opportunities on the power play that could change that. In terms of scoring earlier in the game, we weren’t able to do that.”
The loss dampened what had been a good comeback by Seattle.
Trailing 2-0 entering the third period, Donskoi cut the lead with a wrist shot through traffic 42 seconds into the period. Seattle rode that momentum and Appleton scored his fourth of the year at 7:30 of the period when he fired a loose puck through traffic to make it 2-2.
Pastrnak got the game winner on the power play at 10:49 of the third when his innocent looking shot was going wide before it hit Driedger’s glove and rebounded into the goal to make it 3-2.
“I’m just not really happy with the third I let in there, it’s pretty deflating,” Driedger said. “That one’s on me. Especially when we come back to tie in the third like that, and you know obviously, we want to get that third one.
“I honestly thought he was passing it back door there. Puck was lying up on its edge a little bit so I’m not sure if he was trying to [pass]… but whenever it hits off your glove and kind of flows back I’m never really happy with those. Obviously, he’s an elite player but there’s a lot of elite players in this league and you’ve got to stop them if you want to be good yourself.”
The Kraken had looks during a desperate 6-on-5 stretch late in the third, but Jared McCann rushed a shot where it appeared he had a wide-open net to shoot at.
Bruins goals forced Kraken to chase game
Boston got on the board first with a Pastrnak one-time clapper from the circle. It came on a Bruins power play after they worked the puck low to high and Taylor Hall spotted Pastrnak open.
Seattle fumbled the puck away at 16:09 when Cale Fleury and Riley Sheahan suffered a miscommunication and left the puck in front of their own goal. Hall cleaned it up and scored to make it 2-0.
Kraken’s offensive woes continue
It doesn’t help that they’re missing Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Tanev, but the Kraken are not scoring enough. It’s not just the power play, they aren’t scoring at 5-on-5 either and have scored two or fewer goals in the last three games.
The lack of scoring cost them in New York and Tuesday in Boston.
To add to the misery, Seattle’s power play is mired in a 3-for-38 slide over its past 10 games.
“They did a real good job killing,” Hakstol said. “We couldn’t find shooting lanes. Several shots blocked and on a couple of our good opportunities on the power play we missed by a couple inches. We’ve got to try to take advantage of those opportunities.”
Tentacle Tales
+ Cale Fleury came off the taxi squad and started Tuesday. He played on a defensive pairing with his brother Haydn to become the third pair of brothers to play on the same team this season joining Chicago’s Caleb and Seth Jones and Tampa’s Darren and Taylor Raddysh.
+ Defenseman Will Borgen was placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol Tuesday morning.
+ Forward Calle Jarnkrok returned to the lineup Tuesday after missing Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers.
+ Seattle wraps up its road trip Wednesday evening against the New York Islanders at 4 PM, Pacific.
The Seattle Kraken are in Boston Tuesday to face the world-famous Bruins, an original-six team, if you’re into those kinds of things.
Boston has the history and the tradition, which of course has no impact on the game, but Seattle will have its hands full in this one. For starters, the Bruins enter the game with a 25-14-3 record and in fourth place of the tough Atlantic Division.
They are coming off a 6-1 drubbing Sunday at the hands of the Dallas Stars so should be in a sour mood when the Kraken show up. Offensively, Boston is 15th in the league with 3.02 goals per game but only have a plus-ten goal differential. The Bruins are not invincible and are 14-8-1 at home.
Is the Perfection Line still perfect?
The Bruins still feature one of the more dangerous top lines in the NHL. Led by the all-popular Brad Marchand (21g, 26a, 47p), Dunkin Donut enthusiast David Pastrnak (20-20=40), and the ageless Patrice Bergeron (12-21=33) the so-called ‘Perfection Line’ is still kind of perfect.
Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin continue their competition over who's the last guy off the ice during warmups: pic.twitter.com/z4LGs9FbxZ
There’s a bit of a fall-off after that top line, however. They’re getting scoring from Taylor Hall (27 points) and Charlie McAvoy (28 points) on the back end but not much from anyone else.
It doesn’t take a hockey expert to see that the Kraken will have to try and contain the Perfection Line if they want points. Easier said than done, but must be a key to victory.
Who’s stopping the puck for the Bruins?
Former Buffalo Sabres sort-of-good goalie Linus Ullmark will start in net against the Kraken. Overall, Ullmark is having a decent season with a 15-6-0 record and .912 save percentage. He’s allowed four goals twice over his last three starts, including that loss to Dallas, so if you are the Kraken… shots, shots, shots.
Ullmark was a pupil of Kraken goalie coach Andrew Allen when the two were in Buffalo. Has Allen spilled all Ullmark’s secrets to the team this week? We will find out.
Bruins odds and ends
Boston is 16-0-0 when leading after one period while Seattle has trailed after the first period 21 times this season – and ended up winning three of those games.
On the power play, the Bruins are sixth in the NHL with a 25.4 percent success rate. At home, it’s even better where they are at 28.6 percent and second best in the NHL. So, don’t take penalties.
Killing penalties, Boston is ninth best at home with an 84.7 percent success rate.
From the Northwest to Boston
There are a couple of local connections with the Bruins. One is obvious while the other may fly under the radar.
The latter is Tuesday’s backup goalie Jeremy Swayman who grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. After Alaska, Swayman played his college hockey for the University of Maine which means he was once a Black Bear and is now a Bruin.
Defenseman Brandon Carlo has spent some time in Washington State with the Tri-City Americans. Carlo, a physical defenseman, spent three seasons in Kennewick with the Americans from 2013 to 2016. The Bruins selected him with the 37th pick during the 2015 NHL Draft.
Tied at 2-2 with 34 seconds left in regulation, the New York Rangers won a faceoff back to the point and onto the stick of defenseman K’Andre Miller. Seattle Kraken forward Riley Sheahan raced out to cover Miller but was hit square in the chest by New York’s Chris Kreider. There was no interference call, and Miller fired a shot that found the net to give the Rangers a 3-2 win at Madison Square Garden Sunday.
The goal spoiled what was a dramatic comeback by Seattle.
“’I’m gonna stay away,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said after the game about the goal. “I’m not going to waste time on that play or how I feel about it. I think that would take away from the spotlight of how well I think our team played and how hard our team played today.”
After heavily outshooting the Rangers to the tune of 42-24, Yanni Gourde’s one-timer at 18:52 of the third period on a 6-on-4 power play tied the game at 2-2 and appeared to give the Kraken a shot at winning in overtime for the second straight game.
“Honestly, the game was right there,” Gourde said. “At least getting out of here with a point. Very unfortunate. We battled, you gotta be proud of the guys there because they battled for 60 and unfortunately, we weren’t able to come up with any points tonight, but we had the right mentality.”
Like on Oct. 31 at Climate Pledge Arena, Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin was too much for the Kraken. In that first game between these teams, he made 31 saves to win 3-1. On Sunday, he kicked away 40 shots to win 3-2.
Jared McCann scored for the third straight game and Philipp Grubauer was sharp, making 21 saves. The Kraken were 1-for-5 on the power play.
“I thought we played a really good game throughout, and I thought we generated a lot,” Mark Giordano said. “I don’t know what the shots ended up, but we got a lot of pucks toward [Shesterkin]. You’re not gonna get more than two or three on that guy most nights, he’s a top goaltender in the league for a reason. Made a lot of big saves tonight but we executed pretty well there.”
How it played out for the Kraken
The Rangers opened the scoring at 11:46 of the first period. After quick passing on the power play they worked it to Mika Zibanejad who scored on a one-timer from the circle to the right of Grubauer.
A Zibanejad shot at 4:23 of the second period would extend the lead after the puck hit the post and was tapped in by Alexis Lafrenière to make it 2-0.
Seattle got one back from McCann at 7:17 when he finished a quick passing play with Marcus Johansson and Jordan Eberle to cut the lead to 2-1.
“It’s just a tough way to lose,” Giordano, who had an assist, said. “It was a fun game to play in. I always loved coming to this rink and playing in New York and I feel like we’ve been on the wrong end of those way too many times this year. So hopefully in the next 40 it’ll change the other way.”
The Kraken outshot New York 25-12 over the first two periods but found themselves trailing 2-1.
Injury bug bites Kraken before and during game
Calle Jarnkrok, who has been hot for Seattle, was a late scratch Sunday after taking warmups. He reportedly had an upper body injury that prevented him from playing. Morgan Geekie was inserted into the lineup without warming up and played 9:54 of the game with five shots on goal and won three of four faceoffs that he took.
In the first period, Karson Kuhlman slammed into the side boards hard, left the game, and did not return.
“This group is growing together, and I say it every day, we’ve still got a ways to go, but the signs and the results of what we’re doing are improving,” Hakstol said. “Today we played like a pretty tight hockey team, and we had some injury issues before the game, during the game, and guys just stepped forward and continue working. We’re still working towards exactly who we want to be, but again, we played a pretty good game tonight.”
Tentacle Tales
+ McCann’s goal was his 18th of the season, and he is one away from his career high, set during the 2018-2019 season playing with both Florida and Pittsburgh.
+ Seattle had 42 shots on goal Sunday which is a franchise record.
+ Miller’s go-ahead goal with 34 seconds left is the second go-ahead goal the Rangers have scored in the final minute of a game, which is the most in the NHL this season.
+ The Kraken will next be in action Tuesday when they play the Boston Bruins.
