“Down on the Farm” is your weekly update on all things Seattle Kraken prospects. This week we have an injury update on forward Julius Miettinen. Then we’ll analyze how Seattle’s pool of skater prospects measures up against “the field” by getting you a mid-season top-168 list of all NHL-affiliated players in our Data Score metric.
After that, we’ll check in on Ryan Winterton and Victor Ostman, get you scouting video on Justin Janicke, update you with data from the last week, and preview the week ahead. As always, if you have a prospect-related question you’d like to see featured in a future column, drop us a note below or on X or BlueSky @deepseahockey. Let’s dig in.
[Jan. 31, 2025, 3:30 p.m. PT edit: The AHL announced on Friday afternoon that Jani Nyman was named to the AHL All-Star Game as a replacement for Cale Fleury, who has been recalled to the NHL. The All-Star festivities are Sunday and Monday in Coachella Valley. More information on that below.]
Julius Miettinen injury update
Miettinen has not returned to the lineup for the Everett Silvertips since the World Junior Championship. Suspecting he may have suffered an injury, I watched back the gold-medal game between Finland and the United States before last week’s prospect update to see if I could identify anything. Nothing immediately stood out; to the contrary, he was taking shifts late in the third period and into overtime.
Yet, it seems Miettinen was toughing it out because, according to reporting from our WHL reporter Cameron Riggers, Miettinen did suffer a lower-body injury. Miettinen is in a boot currently, and, while it seems he will avoid surgery, the timeline for recovery is still a couple months out. Miettinen is targeting a return for the WHL playoffs.
It’s a tough development for an ascendant prospect (The Athletic/paywall). With luck, Everett will have a long playoff run that allows Miettinen to recoup some of that lost playing time. We’ll keep an eye out for his return to the lineup.
Stacking Seattle Kraken among NHL-affiliated prospects
I have been asked to put the performance of Seattle’s prospect pool in context a bit more, and also update my explanation of the “Data Score” metric I’ve been providing with these prospects each week. So, I thought I’d address both questions by taking a mid-season look at the scoring production of all NHL-affiliated skaters and stacking them by Data Score. This will give us an insight on how Seattle’s prospects are producing relative to their peers.
“Data Score” is a crude metric I developed to compare prospects across ages, leagues, and positions. It starts by applying an NHL equivalency (“NHLe”) to each player’s per-game scoring results. NHLe is a method to compare the scoring proficiency of players in the various professional and junior leagues across the globe. I used Thibaud Chatel’s model, which is the most up-to-date public research in the area. Check out Chatel’s Substack for an in-depth discussion of NHLe. For this project, I used Chatel’s newest model, which has been updated to account for 2023-24 season data.
For this list, I used data for all NHL-affiliated players who have played at least 10 games outside the NHL during the 2024-25 season. I eliminated players if they had played more than 30 games in the NHL this season, viewing those players as outside the scope of the “prospects” we’d benefit from analyzing.
After applying the NHLe multiplier to each player’s per-game scoring, I then made modest adjustments for height (shorter players penalized), age (older players penalized), and position (forwards penalized relative to defensemen). These factors relate to the likelihood of translating the production to the NHL. A 6-foot-2 defenseman producing .5 points per game in the AHL at 19 years old is more likely to translate to the NHL than a 5-foot-10 forward with the same production at 25 years old.
From looking at these numbers over the last couple years, I’ve generally found that I view a prospect as having a noteworthy season if they clear the 40-point threshold in Data Score. As of Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, 168 NHL-affiliated prospects meeting our criteria had a Data Score of 40 or greater. Here is the list:
With 168 players listed, an “average” number of prospects per organization would be five. The Seattle Kraken are tied with the Calgary Flames for the most in the league with 11 players listed. The Flames have the slight edge in total value of the listed players as indicated by aggregate Data Score.
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard (SHL/HV71) continues to pace the Kraken in Data Score. It is clear this method prefers the relative certainty associated with players playing in professional leagues like the AHL, KHL, or SHL. This pushes some notable junior prospects farther down the list than one might expect. But I’m not sure Data Score is “wrong” in doing that if the goal is to project who is likely to play NHL games.
Finally, a word of caution. While it is fair to be encouraged by Seattle’s standing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the potential for confirmation bias in a scoring-data oriented study like this one. It is well-documented that the Kraken emphasize scoring data in the pre-draft process. It is unsurprising, then, that high-scoring junior players drafted by Seattle would continue to score in the junior ranks after they are drafted. Yet, some of these players “fall” in the draft relative to their scoring production for scouting reasons that led other teams to believe that scoring won’t translate at higher levels.
Consider the case of Clarke Caswell, for example. He fell to the fifth round last year despite posting more than a point per game in the WHL. This season Caswell has improved his scoring production even further, earning him a spot on the 168-prospect watchlist above. Will his scoring ultimately translate to the NHL? I tend to favor the view that scoring is the most reliable indicator we have, but that’s only relative to the alternative tools available; it’s far from infallible. Only time will tell.
Notes on three Kraken prospects
Justin Janicke | F | Univ. of Notre Dame Fighting Irish (NCAA)
The Kraken face a deadline of Aug. 15, 2025, to sign 2021 seventh-round pick Justin Janicke before losing his exclusive rights. The 6-foot forward has worked his way up the depth chart during four years at the University of Notre Dame, reaching the top line in this his senior season. His 24 points in 26 games rank second on the team. Check out his shifts from Notre Dame’s Jan. 10, 2025, game against the University of Michigan below.
Victor Östman | G | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
As part of the roster shuffling associated with Philipp Grubauer’s waiver, Seattle reassigned goalie Victor Östman from the ECHL to the AHL. With Grubauer and Nikke Kokko also in Coachella Valley it’s not yet clear that Östman will get time in net for the Firebirds. He may be insurance in the short run to allow Grubauer time to get his feet under him and acclimate. Still, it’s an “earned” promotion for Östman who posted two wins and a .958 save percentage this past week for the Mavericks and has been solid overall.
Ryan Winterton | F | Coachella Valley Firebirds (AHL)
Ryan Winterton is yourSound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week, with one goal and three assists across three games for Coachella Valley.
For a player so close to an NHL role, Winterton feels underestimated. At 6-foot-2 with strong skating skills and excellent athleticism, the physical tools are there. What’s more, his commitment to forechecking and backchecking will earn him the trust of any coaching staff, as will his ability to kill penalties and seize open ice in transition for counterattack goals.
Yet, there are two reasons Winterton isn’t discussed among a higher tier of prospects. The first is his injury history. He missed significant time during his junior career to injury (not to mention the COVID-related suspension of play). This delayed his development and likely raised some red flags for scouts. Yet, he has avoided injury setbacks since turning pro, racking up 85 total games between the NHL and AHL last season and 42 so far this year.
The second factor that has held him back is the perception that Winterton has limited upside, particularly offensively. He certainly doesn’t have the offensive ceiling of players like Shane Wright or Berkly Catton or even teammates Jani Nyman and Jagger Firkus; but, to my eyes, Winterton has proven adept at scoring off the rush and providing a support role in-zone that should drive results.
This is starting to show in the numbers. Winterton’s .765 point-per-game pace is only slightly behind Shane Wright’s .797 pace in the AHL last season. Of course, Winterton is older; he’s about 16 months older than Wright, to be exact. But when you account for the development time Winterton lost at the junior level, it’s not surprising he needed longer to get there offensively. I don’t envision Winterton as a stand-out offensive piece like Wright, but I do think we’re seeing a balanced, auxiliary-type player package with enough offense that should fit up and down an NHL lineup. That’s a very good prospect.
Kraken prospects data update
If Zeb Forsfjäll was dealing with an injury after the World Juniors, it appears it was not quite as severe as Miettinen’s injury. Forsfjäll returned to the lineup for his SHL club team Skellefteå on Thursday, playing 11 minutes.
“The show” goes on for Tyson Jugnauth, who had four points in two games last week. In contrast, Caden Price continues to struggle to find his offensive game since moving to Lethbridge in a trade. After scoring 1.2 points per game for the Kelowna Rockets, Price has only two assists in nine games so far with the Hurricanes.
Kim Saarinen continues to perform at the highest level of professional hockey in Finland. He posted a .938 save percentage in two starts this week. Saarinen is now tied for first in save percentage (.915) among all Liiga goaltenders. He’s 18 years old.
With Ales Stezka up in the NHL in the near term, I’m curious to see how the Firebirds split up time in goal given the many different agendas in play there.
2024-25 Sound Of Hockey Prospect of the Week tracker
Clarke Caswell: 2
Berkly Catton: 2
Tyson Jugnauth: 2
Alexis Bernier: 1
Andrei Loshko: 1
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard: 1
Victor Östman: 1
Caden Price: 1
Kim Saarinen: 1
Nathan Villeneuve: 1
Ryan Winterton: 1
Semyon Vyazovoy: 1
Previewing the week ahead
If you have a FloHockey subscription to watch the Firebirds, you’ll also be able to watch Mølgaard this weekend, when his SHL team HV71 takes on Leksands IF at 9:00 a.m. PST on Saturday. Elsewhere, the Everett Silvertips and Kaden Hammell host the Spokane Chiefs and Berkly Catton on Saturday night. The Beanpot, an annual college hockey tournament among Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, and Northeastern University, kicks off on Monday. Harvard forward and Kraken prospect Ben MacDonald will take on Boston University that day.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds and Accrisure Arena will host the AHL All-Star Classic this weekend. The Skills Competition is Sunday, beginning at 6:00 pm PST. The All-Star Challenge (a four-team, 3-on-3, round-robin tournament) is Monday, beginning at 6:00 pm PST. Those events will be on FloHockey as well.
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
And just like that, all is right again in the world.
Sure, the opponent was the worst team in the league and came into the contest having lost nine of its last 11. Plus, that same opponent was completely decimated by injuries to its already feeble roster. But we’ve also seen this Seattle Kraken team lower its effort against fellow bottom-dwelling teams this season (including twice against this same Sharks team).
Thankfully, the Kraken responded well after an emotional 48 hours, piled on four goals in the second period, and cruised to a stress-free 6-2 result, finally giving their fans something to cheer about.
Here are Three Takeaways from a Kraken Sharks brouhaha.
Takeaway #1: A strong response
The mood in the Kraken dressing room after morning skate on Thursday was downtrodden and serious, a departure from the usual tone of the gameday routine. Adam Larsson spoke extensively about how disappointed he was for his friend, Philipp Grubauer, who was placed on waivers Wednesday and sent to the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds.
There’s no doubt the players feel some responsibility for Grubauer’s struggles. On a more personal level, they also felt the absence of a key teammate who had been there just 24 hours earlier.
“If you look past the hockey side of things, it’s a friend that’s not here with us now,” Larsson said. “I mean, it’s tough for him, it’s tough for us, it’s tough for everyone.”
Added Bylsma: “Seeing a teammate and a friend and seeing a guy who was an original part of the Kraken, and seeing a guy you’ve had success with and seen him play good hockey, it’s a difficult thing for obviously Grubi, but the rest of the guys as well. This is ultimately a team game, and we all bear responsibility of the results of the team.”
So, with all that somber sentiment floating around the rink in the morning, I couldn’t help wondering if that would be representative of the way Seattle played in the evening.
But they channeled that emotion into a strong effort that showed they are not in the same echelon as San Jose, despite relative proximity in the standings and two past losses this season. Once they took control in the second period, momentum snowballed, and the Kraken ran away from the Sharks.
“It’s a great response,” Bylsma said after the game. “I thought we stepped over the boards tonight with a purpose, and it showed. It was a really good start and carried over for the whole 60. And just even how the game was played, it was played with emotion in it, and we played it with some passion.”
Takeaway #2: A monster second period
We’ve seen the Kraken get pushed around at times in the second period over the last month, but in this game, they were the ones doing the pushing during that frame. Oliver Bjorkstrand got the scoring train started, making it 2-1 at 2:03 of the second by capitalizing on a fortunate bounce off Chandler Stephenson’s leg and batting the puck into an open net.
Then, 51 seconds later, Brandon Montour broke his slump with his first of two goals on the night, breaking a 20-game goalless drought that dated back to Dec. 14.
BJORK-JAM AND BOMBTOUR! 💣 🎯 🚨 🚨
Two goals in 51 seconds for the #SeaKraken, one by Oliver Bjorkstrand and one by Brandon Montour.
“Any time you can score some goals and see them going in, it’s nice,” Montour said. “It’s been a little cold the last… I don’t even know, 15, 20 games. But you keep creating. You get in cold spells, you try to find other ways to help the team. I like where my game’s at, but it’s nice to get a couple.”
Jaden Schwartz also continued his scoring ways, finishing a breakaway chance through Yaroslav Askarov’s wickets after Jamie Oleksiak found him with a stretch pass when he came out of the penalty box, ending Askarov’s night. And, heck, the power play even came through on a 5-on-3 with a nice tic-tac-toe passing play between Jared McCann and Stephenson that ended with a big Montour blast.
BRANDON BOMB-TWO-ER! 🚨
Great setup on the 5-on-3 by Stephenson and McCann, and Brandon Montour blasts home his second of the night.
“It starts with a face-off win, making plays, getting shooters in the right spots,” Montour said. “And then, obviously, it’s 5-on-3, so spread them out, and good plays by everyone.”
Eeli Tolvanen capped off the scoring in the game by cutting to the slot and rifling a snapper past Alexandar Georgiev at 12:18 of the third, extending his goal-scoring streak to four games.
Takeaway #3: Fisticuffs
This game had more feistiness than I would have expected between two of the worst teams in the Pacific Division (although it is worth noting the Kraken jumped back ahead of the Ducks for sixth place after temporarily falling behind them).
It started in the first period when Luke Kunin blindsided Oleksiak in front of the Sharks bench, and Tye Kartye immediately responded with a questionable hit from behind on Kunin. San Jose didn’t like that hit, but with the game still close, everyone eventually went their separate ways.
Luke Kunin lays a crushing hit on Jamie Oleksiak. Tye Kartye retaliates, and some behind-the-play silliness ensues.
But in the second period, when the game had fully tilted Seattle’s way, there was no longer a need for maintaining the peace. Kunin was in the middle of it again, poking at Joey Daccord after he had covered the puck. Montour gave Kunin a jab, Kunin shoved back, and all hell broke loose, with the Sharks forward temporarily facing a 1-on-5 battle.
It ended with Vince Dunn giving Henry Thrun a thorough whoopin’.
FISTICUFFS! 🥊
One of the bigger brouhahas we’ve seen in a #SeaKraken game.
Starts with Kunin and Montour, ends with Vince Dunn feeding Henry Thrun his lunch. pic.twitter.com/CZPTJIrm3V
“I think, obviously, our home record just overall has never been good enough, and we want to make this place a hard place to play,” Dunn said. “So that comes with attitude, and sometimes things happen like that. So I think everyone just came out, battled hard. We know, obviously, the tough situation with [Grubauer], and they kind of come after our goalie a little bit there, so we’ve got to stand up for him.”
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
That wasn’t the game we expected. In one of the most hyped games of the WHL season, a letdown ensued for the Everett Silvertips.
Plenty of future NHL talent was on display at Angel of the Winds Arena, but it was the Eastern Conference-leading Medicine Hat Tigers who came into Everett and blew the doors off the league-leading Silvertips, 7-3.
What could have been a preview of the WHL Finals saw both teams enter the game atop their respective conference standings. Everett, with 75 points, holds a 15-point lead over the next closest team and a nine-point lead over the Tigers despite the loss.
The main matchup of the evening, however, was that of Tigers winger Gavin McKenna, and Tips defenseman Landon DuPont, who are both pegged to be selected high atop their respective drafts, McKenna in 2026 and DuPont in 2027. McKenna is the league’s leader in assists with 58 and points with 83, while DuPont leads all WHL rookies with 35 assists and 46 points. This was their first-ever matchup, and DuPont was eager for the challenge.
“Knowing how skilled and fast he is, you just have to watch out,” DuPont said. “He’s a great player. He’s very skilled and makes some nice plays, so you’ve always just got to watch where he is. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
It would be McKenna, with a hat trick, an assist, and a goal where he took the puck away from DuPont, who would have the last laugh, however.
#WHL/#NHLDraft Gavin McKenna strips Landon DuPont of the puck and buries his 2nd of the night.
The first period took a while to get going. Neither team dominated shots or opportunities until Carter Bear scored 10 minutes in, extending his team lead to 33 goals on the season.
The Tigers turned up the pressure late in the period, though, flipping the game to 2-1 after the first with a pair of goals. Shots ended 11-9 in favor of the Tips.
In the second, McKenna added another goal, making it 3-1 with a cross-crease feed from Oasiz Wiesblatt. That goal extended his point streak to 24 games, and the Tigers’ physicality made it hard for the Tips to keep up.
89 DAYS – AND COUNTING.
The last time Gavin McKenna went pointless with the @tigershockey came nearly THREE months ago.
Dominik Rymon made it 3-2 early in the third, but former Seattle Thunderbird Bryce Pickford scored what would be the game-winner. The Tigers would add four unanswered goals, two of which came from McKenna, before the Tips got a garbage-time goal to finish 7-3.
Shots ended 30-22 in favor of the Tips, but many were low-percentage shots, which has been a recurring issue despite their top record. Everett couldn’t get much past Tigers goaltender Harrison Meneghin, who would wind up stopping 27 of 30 shots on the evening.
“We got a little bit steamrolled,” head coach Steve Hamilton said. “There were a couple stretches where things just got escalated and [the Tigers] capitalized. They had 22 shots and seven goals. That’s probably not very good [for us].”
Despite their lead over the Tigers in the standings, the Tips looked as though they may not be as battle-tested as other top teams. The Tigers were the better team in terms of physical play and quality offensive chances.
Hamilton acknowledged the strain down the middle, especially as Everett will continue to miss centers Austin Roest and Kraken prospect Julius Miettinen for an extended period.
“We’re on some lean times right now up the middle with our center situation,” Hamilton said. “Rust has come along for some guys, and it’s taxing.”
Hamilton isn’t concerned with the idea of facing the Tigers again in the finals if it comes to it. He’s focused on the short term and filling holes for now.
“We’re so far away from [possibly playing them again],” Hamilton said. “It’s one game. I’m not blowing it out of proportion. Collectively, though, it was not a very good effort. It was loose, and they capitalized.”
If you’re in the region and want to see McKenna before he likely turns pro two seasons from now, this Saturday, Feb. 1 in Kent might be your last chance, when the Tigers take on the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Header photo courtesy of Evan Morud, Everett Silvertips
The Seattle Kraken have finally pulled the plug on a difficult situation, placing their $5.9 million goalie, Philipp Grubauer, on waivers with the intention of assigning him to the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the American Hockey League.
The drastic move from Seattle’s front office comes the morning after Grubauer allowed five goals on 22 shots in a 6-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, a game in which Jackson Lacombe’s squeaker from distance torpedoed Seattle’s hopes of winning a game it absolutely had to have.
What led to this?
It’s been a rough road for Grubauer with the Kraken ever since he signed a six-year contract as a free agent before Seattle’s inaugural 2021-22 season. Coming off a year in Colorado that resulted in him being named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, hopes were high that the now-33-year-old German netminder could backstop the fledgling franchise into relevance quickly.
But aside from some positive flashes here and there, the consistency was never there for Grubauer after his move to the Pacific Northwest, and he seemed to allow a stinker in almost every game he played.
When we asked coach Dan Bylsma after the loss to Anaheim on Tuesday if defensive breakdowns happen more frequently with Joey Daccord in net than with Grubauer, Bylsma gave a definitive, “No,” a damning reply on how he viewed his two netminders.
While we were hopeful there would be a bounce back from Grubauer this season, it has instead been the worst campaign of his career. At 5-15-1 with a 3.83 goals-against average and an .866 save percentage, Grubauer has statistically fallen into “worst goalie in the NHL” territory.
Shocking, yet predictable
I have witnesses who can confirm I asked the question aloud on Tuesday, “Is this the last time we’ll see Philipp Grubauer play at Climate Pledge Arena?” So, I’m not altogether surprised that this happened. The situation had become untenable, given that the highly paid netminder could not even be relied upon to help the Kraken manage the occasional back-to-back. And something felt different after the game Tuesday. It took Bylsma longer than usual to come out to address media, which may or may not have been related to this move, and for some reason, the defeat seemed to take on a greater significance than others.
Although winning is no longer all that important, since Seattle is in contention for a lottery pick in the next NHL Draft, the team still has to play the remaining 35 games on the schedule and be semi-competitive. Bylsma clearly didn’t feel comfortable using Grubauer anymore, as signified by Daccord appearing in 10 consecutive games before he finally got a full night off on Tuesday. So, I did accurately predict that the loss to Anaheim would be the final straw before this move was made.
Even so, thinking of the big picture, it is difficult to grasp that it came to this. When Grubauer was signed, I thought it was such a brilliant move by general manager Ron Francis. But for whatever reason, Grubauer just never found his game on a consistent enough basis with the Kraken, and the entire organization and its fanbase felt the impact of his continuous struggles.
Disappointing from a human perspective
I’m really bummed the Grubauer Era has played out this way. Aside from what happened on the ice, he is a good human who went far above and beyond the call of duty of a professional athlete to connect with the fanbase. Think about all the different types of outreach and marketing activations you’ve seen Grubauer participating in over the past four years. He didn’t have to do all that, but he did it to further ingrain himself in the local community and help the organization establish its roots.
He also quickly attached himself to the Pacific Northwest and made the area his true home. I remember interviewing him for an episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast and asking him about that. He told me Seattle didn’t feel like his home; rather, it is his home.
Plus, I know he’s a better goalie than what he’s shown during much of his time here. I don’t know what went wrong on the ice, but some of the glimpses we saw were reminders of just how talented he is, including the dazzling glove save he made on Trevor Zegras on Tuesday.
And let’s not forget, his mother traveled all the way from Germany to see him play that game against the Ducks as part of the Kraken moms trip, and it could very well end up being the last game he plays in the NHL; I really hope that’s not the case.
Worth noting, Bylsma was on 93.3 KJR Wednesday and indicated this isn’t the end of the road for Grubauer with the Kraken, and that he can play his way back to the NHL club.
Financial implications and what’s next
One of the reasons Grubauer lasted this long on the NHL roster is because he is on a massive contract that runs for two more seasons after the current one. Assuming he clears waivers (he will), he will be expected to report to Coachella Valley. This does not mean that his full $5.9 million cap hit comes off Seattle’s books, though.
A team can only “bury” up to $1.15 million in the AHL, so the Kraken will likely still carry $4.75 million of Grubauer’s cap hit, and they will need to add in the dollars of Ales Stezka, who is on his way to Seattle to back up Daccord.
Bylsma said there wasn't going to be playing time available with schedule ahead and 4 Nations Face-Off break. Move of Grubauer to Coachella Valley gives him a chance to play to try and get his game back on track.
Also, barring some unforeseen circumstance like a trade or the team and Grubauer mutually agreeing to part ways (both unlikely), Seattle could end up buying out Grubauer’s contract after this season.
By buying him out, he will no longer be on the roster and will become a free agent after this season. However, Seattle will still carry a discounted cap hit of $1.983 million next season, then $3.083 million in 2026-27. The Kraken also get further penalized for the early buyout, as they will continue to have a cap hit for two more seasons after that (even though his contract ends after 2026-27) of $1.683 million in 2027-28 and 2028-29. (Buyout numbers come from Puckpedia.)
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The last 48 hours have been brutal for the Seattle Kraken and the few shreds of hope they had left for making the playoffs. The coach and the players had talked coming into this stretch—nine of their final 10 games at home before the 4 Nations Face-Off break—about how crucial it would be to get consistent results.
Things got off to a pretty good start, too, with wins against the Kings and the Sabres. But Seattle has lost three of its last four and was passed in the standings by the Anaheim Ducks with an embarrassing 6-4 defeat by that same feathered foe on Tuesday.
When you think about how this stretch has gone, you can realistically imagine the Kraken being back in the playoff conversation had things gone differently in the last two days. If they had capitalized on their strong start and golden opportunity to beat the superior Edmonton Oilers on Monday, and had gotten even a semblance of defense and goaltending against a weak Ducks team on Tuesday, they would be just four points behind the Calgary Flames for the last wild-card spot—with two games against those Flames coming in the next week.
Alas, the Kraken were dreadful in their own end against Anaheim and didn’t get bailed out by their netminder, and now they have gone the wrong direction, dropping to seventh place in the Pacific Division.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 6-4 Kraken loss to the Ducks.
Takeaway #1: Bad defense
The Kraken had every opportunity to win this game. Even after things unraveled in the second period, with the Ducks torching Philipp Grubauer for three goals on six shots, it felt like Seattle still could come back from two goals down in the third with how equally bad Anaheim was in its zone. And the Kraken did come out hot in the third, cutting the deficit to 5-4 with a nice power-play goal by Shane Wright at 6:15.
But Lukas Dostal was just good enough, and Seattle was just docile enough to fall short of an equalizer.
Let’s talk about how the Kraken got themselves into that position, though, down two goals heading into the final frame. Three of the first four goals conceded came off wide-open one-timers, with the first—a Troy Terry banger—coming just 1:23 into the contest.
I personally thought the most egregious defensive lapse came on Robby Fabbri’s goal at 5:39 of the second. Vince Dunn, who has played a starring role on too many goals against lately, tried to make an ill-advised breakout pass through the slot to Wright. In doing so, he put it right onto the tape of the red-hot Mason McTavish, who also scored in the contest for his fifth goal in his last three games. In the blink of an eye, the play turned the other way, and Fabbri had made it 4-3.
…Aaaaaand 4-3 Ducks. Fabbri. Bad turnover by Vince Dunn.
Brandon Montour said, “Every time we make a mistake, it seems like it’s in the back of the net, or our goalies have to make a big-time save. Any time you let up five, six goals, it’s tough to win those games.”
Takeaway #2: Bad goaltending
Hey, at least Philipp Grubauer got all the way through this game without getting pulled (although he may have been yanked yet again if the circumstances were different). The last time Grubauer had finished a game before Tuesday was in a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 6. Since then, he started twice—once in Columbus and once in Detroit—getting an early hook from both after allowing four goals in the second period against the Blue Jackets and three goals on four shots against the Red Wings.
There was a lot of discussion about Grubauer with Seattle coach Dan Bylsma both before and after this Ducks matchup. In his pregame availability, Bylsma defended the netminder’s most recent outings, saying that the Detroit game was not on him and that his getting pulled was more of a statement to the team than to Grubauer.
After this Kraken loss to the Ducks, Bylsma said, “We hung him out to dry. The first three goals are all seams, one-timers. It was great to see him get the [sprawling glove] save in the first period on the penalty kill [against Trevor Zegras]. It’s a huge, huge sequence for us, huge sequence for him. He made an outstanding save for us, and that one should have snapped us into the game.”
BUT… but… For as good as that stop was, Jackson Lacombe’s goal to make it 5-3 at 7:58 of the second was equally bad, and that one proved to be the eventual game-winner.
At the end of the night, Grubauer had 17 saves on 22 shots, but Lacombe’s fateful innocuous-looking wrister from just inside the blue line that beat the goalie clean (I know, there was a partial screen from Josh Mahura) was Anaheim’s 12th shot of the game. So his final save percentage of .772 was actually a significant improvement from the .583 he had put up through the first half of this game.
It’s worth noting, I followed up on Bylsma’s “We hung him out to dry” statement by asking if the coach thinks those defensive breakdowns happen disproportionately more when Grubauer is in the game compared to Daccord.
Bylsma responded to that question with one word: “No.”
Without saying much, that response says a lot about how Bylsma views his team’s goaltending.
Takeaway #3: Kraken loss to Ducks felt oddly significant
There’s something about losing to fellow bottom-dwelling teams like the Sharks and Ducks that feels even more significant than the many losses this season to middling and good teams.
Postgame moods in the dressing room vary; sometimes the players and coach remain level-headed about defeats, perhaps recognizing that hockey is a chaotic game and that putting forth a strong effort can still end in a loss.
After this one, Montour, Eeli Tolvanen (who scored for the third game in a row, by the way), and Bylsma all seemed downright pissed to not get a result. The usually affable Montour repeated himself several times, reverting back to words and phrases like “awareness” and “clean some stuff up.” When I asked Tolvanen what led to the defensive breakdowns, he responded with a terse, “I really don’t know.”
Hear from Eeli Tolvanen on the sting of these two straight losses and what led to the defensive breakdowns tonight. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/2ffYpumEi7
Finally, when Bylsma was asked about the pain of this particular loss, he said, “Well, it’s the one in the moment, so it hurts a lot… The whole duration of the game, I think, we knew we needed to make it a hard game. We knew we needed to grind one out, back-to-back, and we just played too loose with our execution, too loose with the puck, and created a rush game, a high-event game. That was one we knew we’d have a tough time winning, and so that is the biggest disappointment.”
This was a bad one.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
