It’s been a season of firsts for the Seattle Kraken, but being the first team to lose to the Arizona Coyotes was not a first they wanted any part of.
But that’s what happened at Gila River Arena Saturday as the Kraken (4-7-1) raced to a 3-1 lead in the first period and then were outscored 4-1 the rest of the way for Arizona (1-10-1) to win 5-4.
It was a loss for the expansion team that could only be described as ‘bad.’
After giving up the lead with just over six minutes left in the game, and with Philipp Grubauer at the bench for an extra skater, Seattle tied the game at 18:42 on a Mark Giordano slap shot, and it looked like they would at least salvage a point by forcing overtime.
But 13 seconds later, Adam Larsson turned the puck over behind his own net, and it was passed out to Lawson Crouse who scored the go-ahead goal on his second of the night.
“Obviously that’s a real disappointing loss,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said.
The Kraken stormed out of the gates Saturday and Jordan Eberle scored at the 15 second mark with a backhand from in close followed by a Yanni Gourde goal at the 59 second mark, scored off the rush. That chased Coyotes starter Karel Vejmelka who gave up goals on each of the two shots he faced. Scott Wedgewood, who was just claimed off waivers by the Coyotes on Nov. 4, replaced him and made 27 saves to give Arizona a chance to come back.
“I don’t know. We got two quick goals and I don’t think we played real well after that,” Gourde said. “We weren’t managing the puck really well, weren’t playing fast, weren’t playing with our identity.”
Perhaps a harbinger of the way the night was going to end up came after the two early Kraken goals.
Just 34 seconds after Gourde scored, Seattle’s Morgan Geekie turned the puck over in the neutral zone and Shayne Gostisbehere found Antoine Roussel who had a two-on-one breaking into the Kraken zone. Roussel scored his first of the year and the Coyotes stemmed the tide a bit.
Even then, things looked good for Seattle as Nathan Bastian answered that goal at 11:04 of the opening period with his first goal as a Kraken.
The period ended with Seattle up 3-1 and leading in unblocked shot attempts and a somewhat dominating 59.77 expected goal percentage (xGF) – meaning not only were they getting more shot attempts but higher quality shots at that. This is how the game was supposed to go considering the Coyotes had been woeful the first 10 games of the season.
But Arizona quietly began to walk the Kraken down in the second period.
After a dump in by the Coyotes, Haydn Fleury got to the puck and the Kraken defender threw a backhanded pass up the boards in an attempt to break out. Gostisbehere read it, pinched, and broke the pass up. The puck would get to Travis Boyd who had an easy one-timer to cut the lead to 3-2 at 3:12.
The Coyotes started to turn the tide while down only one goal. They matched the Kraken in shot attempts and swung the quality shots to their side with an xGF of 59.77 in the second period.
“We had some of the pieces to our game, but we didn’t have the completeness at all,” Hakstol said. “That shows in… volume of chances. We didn’t make them work hard enough to get (chances).”
Third period unravels for Kraken
With a 3-2 lead for Seattle things started frantically in the third. The Kraken were in on Wedgewood on the first shift, nearly scoring on a couple of great looks. But they didn’t go in and Arizona transitioned the other way, getting the puck behind the Seattle net.
Johan Larsson beat the Kraken defenders to the puck and flung it in front to Crouse who blasted a shot to tie the game 3-3 at the 46 second mark.
“We got a good start early in the third, had a good shift,” Gourde said. “They get a scoring chance and score, quick turnaround. We’ve got to manage the game better…we got more looks in the third, but we’ve got to be better than that. Our identity is to play 60 minutes hard and we didn’t do that.”
Gourde is right, Seattle did get more looks in the third. A lot more.
Seattle had 18 unblocked shot attempts to the Coyotes 7 and had 77 percent of the quality shot attempts. Wedgewood made 12 saves in the period to keep Arizona in it. That allowed Phil Kessel to put the home team ahead at 13:34 with a power-play goal.
The goal was set up by Gostisbehere who ended with three assists.
“We’ll look at the clips, look at the tape and come up with an answer,” Gourde said. “Overall, our battle level, they won more battles than we did.”
— Seattle was 0-for-2 on the power play and has failed on 22 straight attempts.
— Ryan Donato was hurt after falling into the boards in the first period and did not return. After the game, Hakstol said that he did not have an update on the forward.
— Saturday was multi-goal comeback night in the NHL. Arizona came back from down two and was the third team to do so, joining the Vegas Golden Knights, the Minnesota Wild, and the Detroit Red Wings.
— With Eberle and Gourde scoring for the Kraken in the first 59 seconds, Seattle became the first road team to do so since the St. Louis Blues at Anaheim on Jan. 30 of 2004.
Through the first eleven games of their inaugural season, the Seattle Kraken find themselves at 4-6-1 and at the bottom of the Pacific Division standings. We at Sound Of Hockey are bullish on how they have been playing lately, so we decided to dig into the numbers to identify any trends and validate if our sense of optimism is justified.
Goals scored and goals against
Through the Nov. 5 games, Seattle is tied for 19th in average goals scored per game and 25th in average goals scored against. Those numbers reconcile with their record, but the goals against number is a bit surprising considering most media outlets forecasted the Kraken would be a strong defensive team.
Let us look at these same numbers by game so we can evaluate if the Kraken are trending in the right direction.
Even with Edmonton scoring five goals against the Kraken in game 10, the average goals against has been declining. This is a trend we like to see.
The goals scored is slowly trending in the right direction as well. Up until the game on Thursday against Buffalo, the team was feeling snakebitten after getting Shesterkinned against the Rangers last Sunday and having several near misses against the Oilers on Monday.
Shots taken and shots against
At 29.5 shots per game, the Kraken are 25th in the league, which correlates very well with their goals per game. On the other side, they are averaging the lowest number of shots against in the league which should be considered a very positive sign.
Here are how those numbers project by game.
These trends should give Kraken fans a sense of optimism. Shots for (taken) per game have been on a steady incline while shots against have been on a steady decline. The Kraken have outshot their opponent over the last six games, and if they can maintain that trend, they should start winning more games than they lose.
High-danger and medium-danger shot quality
Of course, it is not always about quantity, as sometimes you need to consider the quality of the shots being taken. To analyze the quality of shots we’re going to look at five-on-five high-danger and medium-danger shot counts by game.
The concept is relatively simple. A high-danger shot has a higher likelihood to go in than medium- or low-danger shots. We’re probably stating the obvious here, but ideally you would have more high-danger shots than medium- or low-danger shots to increase your chances of scoring goals. This data was pulled from NaturalStatTrick.com, a valuable resource if you ever want to know more about the advanced analytics of hockey.
This trend should be considered positive and could be the impact of the “learning to play together” narrative of an expansion team that is compiled of a bunch of players that had limited playing time together before this season.
Wrapping it all up
This is a case where the eye test is aligning to the analytics. We do not like to get pollyannaish about the team’s outlook, but there are some objective signs in the analytics that this team is getting better and is trending in the right direction. It will be interesting to continue to monitor these trends and see if the goals and therefore wins start to follow.
If you have any questions, insights, or feedback, let us know in the comments section.
Playing on the fourth line is not the most glamorous role on a hockey team, but it’s an important one.
If you have three guys who can win some shifts, get the puck into the other team’s zone, and create some energy, you’ll have a stronger attack. That’s the role that Seattle Kraken center Riley Sheahan is playing and he’s doing it well.
“I think when you’re in that role you just try to find chemistry with the guys you’re playing with and be effective on the penalty kill, and do all the little things right,” Sheahan said after Seattle’s practice Wednesday. “I’m having fun with it. We got a great group and I think our record doesn’t show the way we’ve been playing. We’ve been pretty happy with the way we’re playing, just got to fix up a few things and then generate some wins.”
Sheahan signed a one-year contract with the Kraken in September to be a depth forward. The 29-year-old has played over 570 NHL games with the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Buffalo Sabres.
With Seattle he’s averaging just over 11 minutes of ice time a game, is a part of the penalty kill, and has good puck possession numbers. He’s scored a goal but that’s not the role he’s in with the Kraken.
“Usually, you’re starting in the D-zone or neutral zone and try to set the team up for some O-zone draws or some O-zone play,” he said. “Just grind and kind of create some havoc for the other team and get them on their heels and produce when we can. Then just do the little things right and try not to give up too much and just play a strong game.”
Sheahan has played mostly with Nathian Bastian on one of his wings. Coach Dave Hakstol has cycled other wingers through the fourth line such as Ryan Donato and recently Max McCormick.
When Sheahan and Bastian are on the ice together they’ve generated 53 percent of the unblocked shot attempts and don’t allow a lot of quality shots with an expected goals for (xGF%) percentage of 55.
“He’s a great guy,” Sheahan said about Bastian. “He’s easy to talk to and we can communicate, which always helps. Obviously, he’s a big body and he’s got a lot of skill. I think when we’re on our game, we can really be big up there, generate some O-zone shifts and hold onto it. And I just enjoy playing with him.”
Seattle plays Buffalo Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena but Sheahan isn’t looking at the game as a ‘revenge’ game. He only spent one season with the Sabres and says he made a lot of good friends on the team.
“It’ll be good to see those guys and have a couple laughs,” he said.
Kraken practice notes
— Jared McCann was not at practice Wednesday and remains in Covid protocol.
— Injured forward Colin Blackwell skated prior to practice again but Hakstol said there is no update on his return target.
— Chris Driedger was back in net at practice after coming off of injured reserve the day prior while Joey Daccord was returned to Charlotte of the American Hockey League. As to how long he’ll have to wait to get a start in net Driedger said, “I haven’t been told. I’m sure they’re talking about it, but I’m not privy to those conversations. I stop the puck when they tell me to.”
The script for the Seattle Kraken Monday looked awfully familiar as they fell 5-2 against the Edmonton Oilers.
Seattle (3-6-1) outshot and out chanced an offensively talented Oilers team but could not get enough goals to come out with two points on the road. It’s the same script as the night before in a frustrating loss to the New York Rangers.
“We had good chances tonight,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had good chances off the rush and off of some good offensive opportunities…that’s the way it’s gone for us the last couple of nights so we’ve got to push and find ways to change that.”
Edmonton (7-1-0) were led by a two-goal, two-assist performance from Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers were able to get a lead early and add on after the Kraken had cut the lead to 3-2 in the second period.
Jaden Schwartz scored his first for the Kraken, Carson Soucy scored as well, and Joey Daccord made 18 saves.
It’s becoming a broken record, but the Kraken deserved a better fate Monday night.
They held the Oilers to eight shots on goal at 5-on-5, they forced 30 scoring chances to 19 against, and had 56% of the quality shot attempts. If you didn’t look at the score, you’d think Seattle walked away with an easy win.
That’s not how it ended up though.
Things started rough as Draisaitl had a puck ricochet off his skate in front of the net and in at 2:12 in the first period. After Schwartz tied it, Draisaitl would score again on a power play when he tapped in his seventh of the year on a down low 2-on-1.
The Oilers power play is tops in the league and entered the game clicking at 47.8%. Monday it went 1-for-3.
“It’s a tough power play to handle, they have a lot of different looks,” Hakstol said. “We got a save or two from Joey on the PK and I thought the PK after that first goal against worked hard and did a good job to fend off their opportunities.”
Edmonton built a 3-1 lead in the second before Soucy cut the lead at 18:40 to set up a third period where Seattle trailed by just one. The Oilers would add on though, getting an early third period goal from Kyle Turris and an insurance mini breakaway goal from former Spokane Chief Kailer Yamamoto.
More chances, more chances, more chances for the Kraken
Seattle’s lack of goal scoring this season is not for a lack of chances.
They’re 11th in the league in 5-on-5 unblocked shot attempts, getting 52 percent of them, they’re getting more quality shots than their opponents, and they have been creating 53 percent of the scoring chances through the first 10 games.
But they are only averaging 2.5 goals per game.
They have had some bad puck luck and Monday there was a hit post and a chance from Jamie Oleksiak that slid across the crease, inches from the goal line that somehow stayed out.
“We look at the positives,” Oleksiak said. “It’s been a few games where we’re right in there and if we get the goal at the right time, we have a different record… we’ve just got to bear down.”
The lack of consistent scoring is a concern but the shots and chances the team is creating is the positive. Goals have to start coming at some point, right?
“It’s frustrating. The last game was right there for us and so was today,” Schwartz said. “They were opportunistic to start and we had a lot of chances and good looks and we’ve just got to find a way to put them in the net… our power play has to start executing better for us to get us on the board and get us momentum.”
Kraken power play continues to struggle
After a four-game homestand where the Kraken went 0-for-14 with the man advantage, Monday it didn’t fare any better.
Seattle was 0-for-3 on the night with six shots. Scoring would help but the Kraken would hope to at least gain some momentum from the man advantage, and it hasn’t been happening enough.
Despite a penalty kill that came into Monday as the league’s third best, Seattle is losing the special teams battle.
Kraken game notes
– Jared McCann missed his second straight game Monday and remains in the Covid-19 protocol. Max McCormick was in the lineup again and played 9:03 with two shots.
– Schwartz and Brandon Tanev led the Kraken with four shots apiece.
– Seattle’s next two games are winnable as they host the Buffalo Sabres at Climate Pledge Arena Thursday before traveling to Arizona Saturday to play the winless Coyotes.
That line includes the reigning Calder Trophy winner Kirill Kaprizov who had an assist in the first period but would be rendered unproductive the rest of the way thanks to Seattle’s efforts. After the game Kraken coach Dave Hakstol praised the work that Yanni Gourde and his line did in pinning the Kaprizov line in the Minnesota end, forcing them to play defense, for most of their shifts.
Gourde and company were good, but it takes five guys to effectively shut down a top player. Out with the Gourde line for the Kaprizov matchup were defensemen Adam Larsson and Jeremy Lauzon. The two are quickly developing into what could become the Kraken shutdown pair.
On the evening, Kaprizov ended up only creating one high-danger chance – which came when he stole the puck in the neutral zone from Gourde and walked in alone on a breakaway that was stopped by Philipp Grubauer – while he was on the ice. The Kraken, meanwhile, had four high-danger chances for against Kaprizov and his mates.
During Saturday’s practice at the Kraken Community Iceplex, the two were paired up again.
“As a pair, they’ve worked really well together,” Hakstol said. “They’ve been difficult to play against and they’ve got a little sandpaper to their game. They’ve got some good chemistry and they’re just a pair that communicates very well. They seem to be on the same page on the ice and they’ve been pretty diligent in defending hard and getting us out of our zone.”
They have a small sample size of playing together but the early results are positive. On the season the two have been on the ice for one five-on-five goal against and are coming off a strong game against a talented scoring line.
Hakstol stopped short of calling the duo a ‘shutdown’ line, saying it was too early to solidify a tag like that but don’t be surprised if Larsson and Lauzon log heavy minutes in the next two games – the New York Rangers Sunday and the Edmonton Oilers Monday – in which the Kraken will face offensively talented teams.
Chris Driedger and Colin Blackwell on the ice for Kraken practice
Blackwell, who has yet to play with Seattle as he recovers from an undisclosed lower-body injury was on the ice early Saturday. He did not participate in the practice session but skated on the alternate rink while the main group worked out.
Hakstol said there’s still no timetable for a possible return and classified Blackwell as out ‘indefinitely.’
Goalie Chris Driedger was a participant in practice and took some reps in net.
“I’m not ready to put a timeline on it,” Hakstol said about Driedger. “We’ll probably get to the point where we’re day-to-day with him, but he’s still got some work to do.”
Driedger was injured during an Oct. 18 game at Philadelphia.
Hakstol comments on Chicago Blackhawks situation
The talk of the hockey world has been the report that was released last week dealing with the Chicago Blackhawks’ mishandling of a sexual abuse incident involving a player and one of their video coaches. The fallout has been the resignations of general manager Stan Bowman and Florida coach Joel Quenneville.
Former Everett Silvertip Kyle Beach came out the following day to reveal he was the ‘John Doe’ in the report and detailed his horrific experiences during a TSN interview.
Hakstol was asked his thoughts on Saturday.
“In the case with Kyle it’s obvious and apparent that the organization in Chicago did not handle it well,” he said. “At the end of the day, they failed a young man working to come into this league. That’s my initial takeaway and reaction to it. And we all have a responsibility, whether or not it’s in our sport or in any walk of life, we have a responsibility to make sure that things like that are not acceptable and have no place.”
Mason Appleton out and Max McCormick back from Charlotte
Appleton was hurt during the second period of Tuesday’s game against Montreal, and Hakstol said that the forward is out indefinitely. Max McCormick has been called up from AHL Charlotte and was on the ice Saturday after a long day of traffic.
“I flew from Providence to Newark, and then went through Newark to Seattle,” McCormick said about his day of travel. “And when I got in Seattle some people saw the sticks and the hockey bags and were asking me ‘Are you playing for the Kraken?’ and ‘I’m gonna be at the game on Sunday,’ that type of thing, but for the most part, you get through there pretty easily.”
He said that he kills time on the plane by listening to podcasts or watching the latest episode of ‘Succession’ on HBO.
What podcasts are a NHL/AHL player listening to these days?
“My favorite podcast is ‘Meateater,’ he said. “Big ‘Meateater’ fan.”
Seattle Kraken versus Minnesota Wild 7 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington TV: ROOT Sports Radio: 950 AM KJR
Tuesday was a big step in the right direction for the Kraken, who won convincingly over a struggling Montreal Canadiens team, 5-1, for the franchise’s first victory on home ice. After the game, coach Dave Hakstol indicated that he was mostly pleased with how the team played, but there was still plenty of room for improvement based on the odd-man rushes Seattle gave up and some sloppy play at times.
Speaking somewhat anecdotally, Hakstol sounded more positive after the team’s 4-2 loss to Vancouver on Saturday than he did after the team’s 5-1 win over Montreal on Tuesday. He called the team’s execution in transition “sporadic at times.”
Perhaps that’s all part of the messaging to help the group recognize that their win came against a team that did not play well and is rightfully off to a terrible start to its season. He’s indicating that the team needs to play even better than it did on Tuesday to beat stronger, hotter teams. NHL coaches love to focus on how their team played, rather than the outcome of games, because there is always a level of puck luck that is beyond the control of the players. What you can control is your effort level and playing within the structure the coach has implemented, and that’s where Hakstol sees opportunity for the Kraken.
Still, the never-a-doubt victory has to be a big confidence booster for a group that was struggling to prove it could score goals and win games.
Seattle gets one of those stronger, hotter teams on Thursday, as the 5-1-0 Minnesota Wild visit Seattle.
Goals from goal scorers
Of course it’s been awesome to watch Brandon Tanev’s meteoric rise to Seattle fan favorite, as the man teammates call “Turbo” has potted five goals in seven games. That’s two goals shy of his 32-game total from last season.
A breakout from Tanev is feeling more realistic with every passing game, but him serving as the team’s top goal scorer for an 82-game season is probably not sustainable. And if he does remain the top scorer, that likely means that guys who should lead the team are not having great seasons.
Two of Seattle’s more skilled forwards, Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde, got their first respective goals on Tuesday. Eberle was admittedly snake-bitten coming into that game against the Habs, and his play after notching an early goal looked looser and more confident than we had seen in the several contests prior.
For a team that is expected to sometimes have difficulty scoring, getting their top guys going is extremely important. Let’s see if Gourde and Eberle can build off that production on Thursday.
Appleton out, Bastian in
We were surprised to see Nathan Bastian come out of the lineup Tuesday after he was right in the middle of several near-miss chances on Saturday against Vancouver. But Ryan Donato didn’t really deserve to sit either, and… well… somebody had to do it. Healthy scratches do not always come fairly.
Now Mason Appleton has been ruled out after Sami Niku dragged him down and fell with all his weight on Appleton’s foot Tuesday. Appleton was helped off the ice and was putting no weight on his right leg as he went down the tunnel.
As a result, Bastian will slide back in. During line rushes Wednesday, he skated with Riley Sheahan and Morgan Geekie, while Donato—who scored a beautiful breakaway goal against the Habs—was with Tanev and Jared McCann.
Haydn Fleury has been swapping in and out of the lineup with Carson Soucy to start the season, but Fleury played well on Tuesday and took line rushes with Vince Dunn Wednesday. He also addressed media after Thursday’s morning skate, so it feels likely that he will be back in against the Wild.
Said Hakstol on Tuesday, “[Fleury] came in and I thought he skated really well tonight. I thought he was moving with the puck and getting up ice and most importantly on our half of the red line, he played a pretty clean hockey game. That’s a real positive. That’s what we need out of our guys on the back end. You gotta defend well, get us out of the zone, and everything from there is a bonus, and I thought he was good tonight.”
Minnesota Wild
The breaking news from Wild practice on Wednesday was that… there was no Wild practice on Wednesday. That’s because there had been a few cases of COVID among members of Minnesota’s staff, and after tests were performed on the team, players are now being impacted. The Wild announced on Thursday morning that Mats Zuccarello and Rem Pitlick had been placed into protocol.
NEWS: The #mnwild has recalled Connor Dewar, Kyle Rau and Jon Lizotte from the @IAWild.
Additionally, Rem Pitlick and Mats Zuccarello are in the NHL’s COVID-19 Protocol.
Kyle Rau, Jon Lizotte, and former Everett Silvertip Connor Dewar were being recalled from AHL Iowa. Dewar is expected to make his NHL debut just a few miles down I-5 from where he was beloved while playing in the WHL. It will certainly be a big moment for him and his billets, who will be in attendance.
The Wild have evolved dramatically over the past couple of seasons. Gone are Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, and here are Kirill Kaprizov, Kevin Fiala, and Joel Eriksson Ek. They’re a faster, more exciting team than in years past, and in the early stages of this campaign, they have been comeback kids on several occasions, which has helped them to their impressive start.
Budding superstar Kaprizov is the centerpiece for this team, but word around the Wild campfire is that he has gotten off to a slow start. Though he doesn’t have any goals, he does have five assists in six games. Meanwhile fellow skilled winger Fiala has a goal and two assists so far, but has been noticeable every night.
For the Kraken’s sake, Seattle fans should hope that Kaprizov and Fiala do not choose Thursday as their night to get rolling statistically.
The Wild are coming off of a 3-2 victory in Vancouver on Tuesday.
