As Kraken fans turn the page to the offseason, they have questions about where 2022 first-round pick Shane Wright is going to play during the 2023-24 season and what his role will be. Turns out the team has questions about Wright’s status too. We learned this much during Kraken general manger Ron Francis’s May 18 end-of-season media availability.
Much remains to be determined, but here is what we know about how Shane Wright has performed so far, what he needs to work on, and his status moving forward, including why he may be at the center of a forthcoming negotiation between the Kraken, NHLPA, NHL, and CHL.
Shane Wright has little left to prove at the CHL level
In his draft year, Shane Wright played 74 games (63 regular season and 11 postseason) with the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL. He ranked ninth in points per game among OHL skaters with at least 10 games played (1.46) and was significantly younger than every player who ranked ahead of him. Justifiably, this made him a top prospect in the 2022 NHL Draft and the No. 4 overall pick to the Seattle Kraken.
Wright came to development camp with the Seattle Kraken and quickly signed his entry-level contract with the team. Wright then survived training camp and broke with the NHL team. That began a whirlwind tour that saw him in and out of the Kraken lineup, in the lineup for the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds, and leading Canada’s World Junior Championship team to a gold medal, all within the span of about four months. More on those stops in a moment.
After the World Junior Championship, Francis met with Wright and told him Seattle planned to reassign him back to the OHL. This reassignment was advantageous contractually for the Kraken because it would cause his entry-level contract to “slide” a year. (I wrote more on what that means here.) But, more importantly, Francis told Wright the team wanted the young forward to press his offensive game, control possession, and dominate in the offensive zone.
After a trade from Kingston that facilitated his return to the OHL, Shane Wright played 24 games (20 regular season and 4 postseason) with the Windsor Spitfires, and he was second in the league in points per game (1.85) during that span. This year again, the league’s only more prolific scorer, Brandt Clarke (1.97), is about a year older than Wright.
Whatever the flaws in Wright’s game may be, they do not manifest at the major junior level. Wright certainly has not reached Connor Bedard-level CHL domination, but there are few players at that level that consistently produce like he does. It was certainly disappointing that Wright couldn’t help the Spitfires avoid a first-round playoff sweep (for multiple reasons, as we will discuss below), but Wright has not faced individual adversity at the junior level, and I don’t expect he will.
Shane Wright has faced challenges at higher levels of play
Moving from the major junior level to the NHL, or even the AHL, is a huge leap in competition. The physicality, pace, skill, and enhanced emphasis on structure and scheme all pose considerable challenges to even the best CHL prospects. This is why very few prospects even attempt the leap into either level of pro hockey before their age 20 seasons. Shane Wright was attempting it as an 18-year-old (he turned 19 on Jan. 5, 2023) in his draft-plus-one season and at one of the most difficult positions on the ice, center. Over the last 10 NHL seasons, only 27 skaters have managed 20-plus NHL points in their 18-year-old seasons.
Coming out of training camp, the Kraken wanted Wright to join that list by sticking in the NHL and developing into a role. It became clear pretty quickly, though, that the coaching staff did not yet view him as a trusted piece: his minutes were limited when he did play, and he never saw the ice in critical situations. Wright looked intent on avoiding turnovers, gaffes, or getting trapped on the ice beyond his shift. This led to overly conservative play, particularly with the puck. He rarely held possession looking to create, instead deferring into (sometimes dangerous) passes almost immediately. He appeared tentative in all phases, giving the impression of a player who was trying to think his way through the game rather than just playing.
In the end, he played just eight NHL games, wrapping around a two-week conditioning stint with the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL. Wright averaged just 8:30 time on ice per game at the NHL level and produced just one point, a memorable goal against the Montreal Canadiens in the one game after his recall from the AHL.
At the AHL level, Wright initially seemed to take the challenge in stride. He poured in four goals in five games in late November and early December, 2022. Kraken GM Ron Francis spoke about how he thought the AHL was the proper level for Wright to develop his skills and implicitly lamented that the organization could not keep Wright there. “In a perfect world … you put [Wright] in the AHL, and that’s probably the best spot for him this past year,” Francis told reporters at the year-end press conference.
Wright waits for a face-off. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Why wasn’t the AHL a full-season option this year? “Rules dictate that we can’t do that,” Francis said. Under the CHL-NHL Transfer Agreement, an 18- or 19-year-old CHL player typically cannot be assigned by the NHL club to the AHL, but there are three exceptions. The first exception is the one-time exception for a two-week conditioning assignment. (The Kraken exploited that exception to the full extent of the rule in November.) The second exception comes if the player has already played four CHL seasons. (More on this exception in a moment.) And, the third exception allows the player to rejoin the NHL roster or be assigned to the AHL after the player’s major junior season is completed.
This last exception meant that, following the abrupt and underwhelming conclusion of the Windsor Spitrfires season, Wright found himself eligible to rejoin the Firebirds on a full-time basis. Wright took advantage, getting into fourteen consecutive games for the Firebirds, three regular season and 11 postseason. But he could not carry over his momentum from his earlier AHL stint or his major junior run where the offense came easily. In those fourteen AHL games, Wright managed just one goal and five assists, played fourth-line-equivalent minutes, and again appeared tentative and unwilling or incapable of making aggressive possession plays.
This quiet stretch culminated in Wright being scratched from the lineup for the final two games of the playoff series against the Calgary Wranglers. It is possible that he is dealing with a nagging injury, but no particular blow seemed to knock him out of the last game he played. Rather, it appears Firebirds coach Dan Bylsma concluded that other players gave his team the better chance for success, particularly with the simultaneous returns of more-established AHL performers Andrew Poturalski and Jesper Froden and AHL rookie of the year Tye Kartye.
Coachella Valley advanced to the Western Conference Finals by defeating the Calgary Wranglers last Friday night. This will give Wright further opportunity to show he belongs in the lineup. But he seems to be hitting up against a development ceiling at the moment. “He’s a young kid. We forget these guys are 18, 19, and it takes time to understand and learn the league,” Francis explained. “There are parts of his game he needs to continue to work on and we’ll … continue to help him find his way.”
Where will Wright play during the 2023-24 season?
Could Shane Wright play in the NHL next season? Francis emphasized that the challenge is ahead of Shane Wright this summer: “This is not an easy league and we have got a good team. He’s going to have to earn it like everybody else has around here, and that includes having a big summer.”
One key to improvement may be strength training in the lower half to improve the explosion in Wright’s stride and his endurance. “He’s got the tools,” Francis told Ian Furness of KJR in an interview later on May 18. “The most important thing for him when this season is done is to get in the gym and get on the bike and do the things he needs to do and push as hard as he needs to push to give himself that best opportunity to come to training camp.”
Wright has not shown that he is ready to perform at the NHL level yet, so it is on him, with support from the team, to breakthrough. If he can, all involved would be ecstatic.
Failing that immediate breakthrough, Francis was asked if there was an opportunity for Wright to play a full AHL season next year. Francis gave the press pool a noncommittal answer: “There would be some discussions we’d have to have to get clarity. I haven’t had those discussions yet.” Later in the day, Francis told Furness: “There’s a few things we would need to work through to see if he could play in the American League or not, so we have to go through that process.”
What are the potential “conversations” and issues to “work through?” Wright will enter next season as a 19-year-old. As mentioned above, players of this age cannot be assigned to the AHL typically. (David Goyette, Jagger Firkus, and Ty Nelson, for example, are all but certain to return to the CHL as 19-year-olds.) But, as was also mentioned above, there is an exception if a player has already played four seasons in the CHL.
Shane Wright was granted “exceptional status” and made eligible to play in the CHL as a 15-year-old and therefore has been a CHLer for four years. Sounds good, right? He should be eligible to play in the AHL. What is there to talk about?
Unfortunately, there is some doubt about whether Wright’s CHL tenure would actually count as “four seasons.” Under the NHL-CHL Transfer agreement, a player is deemed to have played a season in the CHL if the skater plays 25 games, and it could be argued that one or two of Wright’s four seasons do not qualify.
First, the OHL never played a 2020-21 season due to COVID, so it could be argued that season does not count for Wright because he did not play 25 games. That may be unfair, and the CHL may not argue this position, but it’s at least something that would need to be “clarified” in Francis’s words.
Second, due to his late assignment, the World Junior Championship, an injury, and Windsor’s early elimination from the playoffs, Wright played in only 24 total games with the Sptitfires this season. Again, this leaves Wright, at least arguably, just short of being able to claim this year as a CHL “season” either.
All of this creates a risk that the Kraken and Wright are stuck in no-man’s land again this season, with Wright unable to crack the NHL lineup but too good for the CHL. I expect that the Kraken will push hard for an interpretation of the NHL-CHL Transfer Agreement or a one-off exemption that allows Wright to play in the AHL if he does not make the NHL team. Given the unique circumstance, I have some hope the team would be successful in these “conversations.” But it is anything but a sure thing.
We’ll keep our eye on Wright through the AHL playoffs and into the summer. He remains a key piece of the team’s long-term future. His outlook in the short term, however, remains murky.
After two days off for the first time since the start of the postseason, the Kraken looked rejuvenated in Sunday’s Game 3 against the Stars and rolled to an easy 7-2 win.
“We hoped [the two days] would refuel us, recharge the batteries a little bit,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “We played a lot of hockey coming into Game 2, and we looked like a tired team.”
Indeed, the Kraken appeared to have a full tank Sunday, and they used the extra energy to snag a 2-1 series lead.
The seven goals for Seattle were unsurprisingly scored by seven different players—the team’s M.O. all season—and the bulk of the damage was done in a wild second period in which the Kraken hung five goals on Jake Oettinger and sent him to the bench.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a dominant 7-2 Kraken win over the Stars in Game 3.
Takeaway #1: That’s Kraken hockey, baby
If there’s one game that encapsulates the success of the Kraken this season, it might be Game 3 against the Stars. We’ve talked ad nauseam about the depth of the team and how anybody in the lineup can produce offensively on any given night. Well, pretty much everyone stepped up Sunday, with 12 different players registering at least a point and seven different players scoring goals.
The goals didn’t start flowing right away for Seattle, and most of the first period was tight checking. But the Kraken looked fast and physical and had a good push at the end of the frame to help set the tone for the second period.
“The first period, we liked our pace,” said Jordan Eberle. “We were skating, I think that’s the biggest thing. We just needed to keep going and find a way.”
Once the dam was broken 2:10 into the second, the goals flowed like wine, and the players instinctively flocked to the scoresheet like the salmon of Capistrano. The Kraken piled on four goals in just six minutes and 12 seconds, and—after Mason Marchment got the Stars on the board at 12:40—put the game well out of reach with a fifth goal by Eeli Tolvanen to close out the period at 5-1.
“That doesn’t happen very often,” said Hakstol. “That’s great momentum in the building. We were able to harness some of that energy in the building.”
Eberle got things started with a fortuitous bounce off Miro Heiskanen’s face, which could be a factor moving forward in this series. Tye Kartye took a hard shot from the top of the slot, which deflected up and bloodied Heiskanen. While Heiskanen was down on the ice, Eberle had all day to deke around Jake Oettinger.
EBERLE BREAKS THE ICE!🚨
Tye Kartye hits Miro Heiskanen in the face with a heavy shot, and while Heiskanen is down on the ice, Eberle has all day and scores.
Heiskanen left the game with a towel over his face and looking wobbly on his skates. If he misses more time moving forward, that could be a big factor in this series, as he is the Stars’ best defenseman.
Once that happened, Alex Wennberg, Carson Soucy, and Matty Beniers all scored in quick succession, and it was a comfortable stroll from there for Seattle.
This win felt way easier than the knock-down, drag-out victory varietals Seattle has experienced in these playoffs. Maybe the Kraken should try to score seven goals and only give up a couple every game?
Coming into this series, there was plenty of concern among Kraken fans about how Seattle would fare against world-class netminder Jake Oettinger. The 24-year-old goalie was stellar in the Stars’ first-round series against Minnesota to earn the win, and that came after he almost single-handedly beat the Flames in the first round last year.
In two of three games against the Kraken, Oettinger has allowed five goals, and in Game 3, he only played 40 minutes before being replaced by Scott Wedgewood in the third period.
All five goals scored against Oettinger Sunday came in the second period on just eight Kraken shots in the frame. In all, he stopped 12 of 17 on the night for a .706 save percentage, only a hair worse than Wedgewood’s .750 in the third period.
Once the ball got rolling in that middle period, Oettinger looked rattled. With the Kraken leading 2-0, Soucy made a shifty move around Mason Marchment, then had a clear lane to the net. He skated down to the left face-off dot and shot five-hole on Oettinger. who was very slow to react, allowing the puck to go through the wickets. When Beniers scored from distance 1:52 later, Oettinger’s demeanor was visibly sour.
THE SOUCE IS LOOSE! 🚨
Soucy sees a lane and takes it, then slips a shot right through the wickets on Oettinger.
Slow reaction by the Dallas goalie. Keep shooting while he’s shaking!
As the Kraken players were torching Oettinger at one end, Philipp Grubauer was continuing his outstanding play at the other end, stopping 16 of 17 Stars shots in the second. It’s hard to believe that in that period in which the Kraken outscored the Stars 5-1, they actually got outshot 17-8.
“The reality is, the second period, they had a lot of opportunities as well,” said Hakstol. “We gave up way too much off the transition and not taking care of the puck, but the positive is the things that we did offensively and executed and found a way to build that lead.”
When Seattle broke down, Grubauer was there to bail out his mates, as he has been throughout this run. Oettinger, meanwhile, did little to help his team on this night.
Takeaway #3: Marchment / Soucy battle heating up
Mason Marchment drew the ire of Kraken fans in Game 1 after he tripped Morgan Geekie, then cross checked and punched him while Geekie was down on the ice. In Game 2, he ran his face into Soucy’s shoulder to draw an interference penalty, then flopped to the ice and got called for embellishment. Soucy cost Seattle in that moment by going after Marchment and slashing him on the ankle, earning an extra penalty that led to a Dallas goal.
When Game 3 started, it was apparent that Soucy hadn’t forgotten about Marchment’s antics from Games 1 and 2. Early in the game, Soucy stepped up in the neutral zone and blasted Marchment with a high (but clean) hit that sent the Dallas forward flying.
Then, after Soucy walked around Marchment and made him look silly en route to scoring his first goal of the playoffs, Soucy skated by the Dallas bench and appeared to have some words for Marchment.
Marchment did answer with a goal of his own, but it was too little, too late for Dallas. Keep an eye on this ongoing quarrel as the series progresses.
—
Daniel Sprong left Sunday’s Game 3 in the second period and did not return. Hakstol didn’t have an update on the Kraken forward after the game. Signs seem to be pointing toward a Game 4 return for Jared McCann, though, so if Sprong is out moving forward, that could make lineup decisions relatively easy. Still, Sprong has been a big part of this team’s depth, so here’s hoping his injury is nothing serious.
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 second-round series between the Kraken and the Stars is now tied at 1-1 after a tired-looking performance by Seattle in Game 2. The Kraken hung in through 20 minutes, thanks in large part to Philipp Grubauer (again), but costly penalties got the snowball rolling downhill, and it couldn’t be stopped.
“It’s different when you make a team work for their power plays,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “That’s a pretty different scenario than the way it went tonight for us. That’s just black and white. That’s an easy factor for us to pinpoint.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-2 Game 2 Kraken loss to the Stars.
Takeaway #1: Costly penalties
The first period was a solid road period for the Kraken, up until an unfortunate delay-of-game penalty by Carson Soucy with four minutes left in the frame. That one was just bad luck, and although the Stars didn’t score on the power play, it gave them momentum as the period came to an end. Grubauer was forced to be outstanding in the closing minutes of the opening period, though he did get his teammates to the room tied 0-0.
In the second period, Soucy found himself in the box again, and this visit came after an undisciplined decision. Mason Marchment—who ironically got away with punching and cross checking Morgan Geekie in Game 1 when Geekie was down on the ice—ran his face into Soucy’s shoulder. Marchment flopped like a fish, drawing an interference call on Soucy, but also an embellishment call on himself.
Soucy should have left it at that, but he went back after Marchment and whacked him on the ankle, taking an extra two minutes and giving Dallas its second power play.
“Each of the first two power plays, they generated a ton of momentum off of those,” said Hakstol. “The puck goes in the stands, that’s a tough one, but we’ve got to take care of our discipline [on] the last two power plays. This is a team that came into the series at 37.5 percent and feeling pretty good.”
The Stars are lethal with the man advantage, and although they again didn’t score on the Soucy penalty, they did break through just seven seconds after the penalty had ended. Wyatt Johnston tipped a shot into Philipp Grubauer’s chest, and Grubauer—like on the third Joe Pavelski goal in Game 1—couldn’t corral it. Johnston got his own rebound and made it 1-0.
Later in the period, with Seattle down 2-1, Will Borgen got tangled up with Evgenii Dadonov behind Seattle’s net. Borgen had his lower hand off his stick, and Dadonov did a good job of getting in on Borgen’s hands to draw a holding call. This time, the dangerous power play unit of the Stars struck officially, as Pavelski scored his fifth goal in two games off a Johnston rebound.
Though Seattle only took the three penalties in the game, it was enough to turn the tide. It had shades of Game 6 against Colorado, when the tired Kraken got caught chasing the Avs in their own zone and were repeatedly forced to drag players down.
Takeaway #2: Face-offs remain an issue
The Kraken have often overcome poor performances in the face-off circle this season, but Thursday’s showing in that area was especially bad. The Kraken won just 31 percent of face-offs, and an abysmal 22 percent of defensive-zone draws.
That’s damaging to everyone on the ice, but especially your goalie, who is getting worn out by his teammates being stuck in the defensive zone. He gets a whistle for you, then you go out and lose the face-off, and the pressure continues.
Fans may not realize this, but even if shots aren’t getting through, it is taxing for a goalie when the puck gets hemmed in the defensive zone for extended periods. The goalie is crouching, pushing from post-to-post, and dropping down into the butterfly position and getting up repeatedly, and all that takes its toll on the body.
Mix in some Grade-A opportunities—Dallas got plenty of those Thursday—and you’ve cooked your netminder and yourselves by losing face-offs repeatedly.
The fourth goal by Dallas, which put the game fully out of reach, came immediately after a face-off in the defensive zone. Ryan Donato lost the draw to Tyler Seguin (Donato was just 1-for-7 on the night), then Seguin went right to the net and tipped a Thomas Harley shot through Grubauer.
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) May 5, 2023
There isn’t an easy fix for this problem. Centers don’t just get better at this overnight; it’s a skill that players have to improve upon over time. But that’s the reason a lot of us were hoping Seattle might make a trade for somebody at the deadline who could win a key face-off. It’s also the tradeoff you make by having Morgan Geekie on the wing in Andre Burakovsky’s spot.
Takeaway #3: A good time for some rest
The Kraken have played high-intensity playoff hockey every other day for two and a half weeks. They have shown signs of being tired at times during this run, and we thought Thursday was one of those nights.
Thanks to some scheduling challenges at Climate Pledge Arena, this series now takes a two-day hiatus, giving the group a chance to get home, see their families, and recharge. With two huge home games on the horizon and the series tied 1-1, the brief break couldn’t come at a better time.
“We’re comfortable on the road, I just think we were a little bit safe, and that’s where our team struggles,” said Vince Dunn. “We need to be more on our toes, more aggressive. We’re not the biggest, most physical team always, so we need to use our speed and our sticks and our ability to be tight together and aggressive to create offensive chances.”
Getting a couple days to rest the legs should help the Kraken get back to that kind of tenacious game we’ve seen from them in these playoffs.
The Kraken remain in a good spot after a road split to open the series, but they do also need to figure out how to win in their building, where they lost two out of three in Round 1.
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.
Holy cannoli! They did it! The Seattle Kraken beat the defending champion Colorado Avalanche in a deciding Game 7 on the road, creating a core sports memory that will stick with the team’s fledgling fanbase for decades.
“I think it’s huge for us, for the team, and for our confidence,” said Oliver Bjorkstrand. “As a group, bouncing back from last year, and then for the city of Seattle— you feel the excitement there and how much they want to back us up.”
Philipp Grubauer stood tall to keep the game scoreless in a dominant first period for Colorado, then Seattle turned on the jets in the second. The team’s video coaches came up with a gutsy offside challenge in the third to keep the Kraken ahead, and the team locked things down the rest of the way to skate off with a historic win in their first-ever playoff series.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Yanni Gourde. “I’m so proud of this group. We battled so hard, especially in our second year in this league, just making the playoffs is an accomplishment… Getting the win here in Game 7 shows how much character, how much care we have for one another.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a momentous 2-1 Kraken win in Game 7 over the Avalanche.
Takeaway #1: What a series by Philipp Grubauer
Philipp Grubauer left us no choice but to start with his outstanding series as our first takeaway. He stepped up and played so well against his old team, with Sunday’s performance serving as the crown jewel in his impressive seven-game set.
“Colorado was great tonight,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “They pushed us in every way you can imagine, and our goaltender was the best player on the ice.”
You could tell from the jump that pucks were going to be hitting Grubauer again Sunday, as a shot hit the knob of his stick in the first period, and he turned away a Grade-A opportunity from the slot by Nathan MacKinnon with nine minutes left in the opening frame. Grubauer joked after the game that the shot that hit the shaft of his stick was off the net, so that one didn’t really matter.
“Sometimes you can’t see it, and it hits you; those are obviously great moments for a goalie,” Grubauer said. “Even Mikko [Rantanen] hit the post there in the second period. Obviously, we love the post; we like that.”
The Kraken got worked over in the first 20 minutes, yet Grubauer stopped all 16 shots fired at him and carried Seattle into the dressing room with a 0-0 tie.
The German Gentleman made another ten-bell save on MacKinnon at the seven-minute mark of the second period, sliding to his right and sealing off the angle just in time before one of the world’s two best players could slip the puck inside in the post.
But it wasn’t just those couple of key saves for the Kraken netminder. There were so many moments where we said to ourselves, Oh, boy, here comes a goal. Yet Grubauer would calmly make the stop and melt it down for a face-off, making dangerous shots from all-world players look harmless. He would get his team a whistle, Seattle would lose the next face-off (the Kraken won just 33 percent of defensive-zone face-offs), and Grubauer would do it over again. Rinse, repeat, all game long.
Grubauer took a lot of heat from Kraken fans last season, as things went sideways. He had a better regular season in 2022-23, but a group still gets on him whenever Seattle loses. This series had to have bought him a lot of goodwill from even the most curmudgeonly of fans, because without Grubauer, Seattle’s season would be over.
“Personally, I don’t know what to say,” Grubauer said. “It means a lot, ending their season and beating the defending Stanley Cup champions. So, lots more to come for our group, but that’s only series one.”
In all, Grubauer had 33 saves in Game 7 and improved to a .926 save percentage in the series.
By the way, we witnessed a heartwarming moment in the dressing room after the game. When Grubauer finished his media availability, he was asked by Kraken social media to take a picture with a stuffed fish, an ongoing bit they’ve been doing. He proudly posed for the photo, then asked if he could keep that fish for his own personal collection. This win was special for him, and he wanted a memento.
Takeaway #2: A heroic night for Oliver Bjorkstrand
Our good friend, Alison Lukan, likes to point out that Oliver Bjorkstrand has a history of rising to the occasion of the big game. He had the clinching goal for the Lake Erie Monsters in the Calder Cup Final in 2016 and for Columbus against Tampa Bay in 2019. He also came through in a big way in Game 7 of this series.
Oliver Bjorkstrand is the moment
✅ Calder Cup winning goal (2016) ✅ Series Clinching goal (CBJ sweep TBL, 2019) ✅ Series Clinching goal (#SeaKraken over COL, 2023)
“I’m obviously excited to play those games,” Bjorkstrand said. “You want to give it your best and— I don’t know, I feel like I’ve just kind of been fortunate to have some key moments, and it’s been fun.”
After being held to just two assists and no goals through Game 6, Bjorkstrand played like a man possessed Sunday. He got rewarded with a good bounce off Ben Meyers’ hand, a goal that was initially awarded to Brandon Tanev, to open the scoring at 3:24 of the second period. Four minutes later, Yanni Gourde shoveled a puck around the end boards in the Seattle end to Eeli Tolvanen, who poked it past a pinching Devon Toews at the blue line. That sent Bjorkstrand on a partial breakaway, and he sniped it off the post and in to make it 2-0.
OLIVER SAYS “PLEASE SIR CAN I GAVE SOME MORE?!” 🚨
After lots of pressure in Seattle’s end, Tolvanen pokes it ahead and sends Bjorkstrand on a partial breakaway. Snipe! 🎯
That play, which went from Seattle being on defense to being on the attack in a flash, would ultimately prove to be the game-winner, another notch in Bjorkstrand’s big-game belt. He could have had four more goals in addition to the two he scored in Game 7, as he also hit three posts and got robbed by Alexandar Georgiev off a three-on-one in the third period.
That line with Gourde, Tolvanen, and Bjorkstrand was so, so good in this game. All series, they were tasked with defending against Nathan MacKinnon and—often—Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar.
“The biggest thing is they never went away,” Hakstol said. “Their confidence never wavered, their compete level never wavered, their willingness to go back and play in that role never changed. Tonight they did a hell of a job.”
In Sunday’s game, the Gourde line had its best effort of the whole series, and its relentless forecheck slowed Colorado’s superstars almost to a halt. The result was that line scoring two goals at five-on-five and allowing zero at the other end.
“[MacKinnon] is an unbelievable player,” Gourde said. “The way he skates up the ice, you’ve got to respect that every time he takes a stride, he’s taking five feet off of you. It’s crazy, but we defended as a unit of five. Everyone knew where he was; we had a little bit of a game plan against him that we executed.”
Takeaway #3: A video challenge for the ages
MacKinnon and Rantanen did break through once on the only power play of the game for either team, and that goal came with just 28 seconds left in the second period. It put the Avs back within one goal of Seattle heading to the third and gave life to the home fans.
You could sense a second goal coming for Colorado to even the score, and the Avs appeared to have gotten it at 3:37 of the third when MacKinnon blasted a one-timer from the top of the slot that beat Grubauer.
BUT…
Have no fear, Kraken fans; video analysts Tim Ohashi and Brady Morgan were there!
“They nailed it,” Hakstol said. “That is not an easy task.”
Just when we thought the lead had slipped away, the officials announced Seattle was challenging for offside. Ohashi and Morgan noticed Artturi Lehkonen entered Seattle’s zone about a foot ahead of the puck 17 seconds earlier. That negated the goal, sending the Ball Arena crowd into a frenzy.
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) May 1, 2023
It was the second successful offside challenge in as many games for the Kraken, and it was such a bold call. If they had gotten that wrong, the game would have been tied, and the Kraken would have been back on the penalty kill.
Hakstol said the video team had communicated to the bench even before the shot that they had flagged it for possible offside. When the time came to challenge, they expressed full confidence to Hakstol that the goal would be overturned.
“Oh, I knew before he scored it was offside,” Grubauer quipped with a side-eyed glance to show that he—in fact—had no idea it was offside. “No, that’s obviously a huge turning point in the game, right? If they tied it up, it’s 2-2, it’s maybe a different game.”
Seattle did a great job locking things down the rest of the way, relieving some of the pressure off Grubauer and only allowing six shots in the final frame.
—
Let’s go start a whole new series in Dallas, shall we? From Denver, the Kraken planned to hop on their plane Monday and—instead of flying home—heading south to the Lone Star State, where they now set their sights on the Dallas Stars.
Here’s @DarrenFunBrown’s post-game Walk and Talk after the biggest win in the #SeaKraken’s short history.
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.
Before Game 4 at Climate Pledge Arena, with the Kraken trailing the Avalanche 2-1 in their first-round playoff series, players joked with one another that it was, in the words of Jordan Eberle, “the biggest game in Kraken history.” Well, as Seattle continues its first postseason journey, the stakes will get higher and higher with every passing game.
Now leading 3-2 and coming home for Game 6 with a chance to close out the Stanley Cup champions, it is safe to say Friday’s game is significantly bigger than any of Games 1 through 5.
“It’s huge,” said Yanni Gourde. “Game 6 at home, Friday night in Seattle. I mean, I think the crowd is going to be super excited.”
Gourde—a grizzled veteran of playoff hockey and a winner of two Stanley Cups in Tampa Bay—says the fourth win of a series is always the hardest one to get. “I think we still have more [to give], and I think we can still take steps and we can still build. But like I said, this game tonight is a big one. It’s going to be the hardest one of the series.”
Gourde also reminded us that several players in the Kraken dressing room have been in this situation before, and they know what it takes to close out a series.
Harnessing the excitement
If there is an added level of excitement for Kraken players, you couldn’t sense it in their dressing room Friday morning at Kraken Community Iceplex. Across the board, they seemed quietly confident and ready to go to work against a Colorado team that will be desperate to bring its best game.
The vibes from the team were “Normal,” according to the always even-keeled Adam Larsson. “Just another day,” he said. “We know what’s at stake, and we’ve played good so far. I don’t think we should overthink the situation and just go out and play the game.”
Larsson added the team knows the fans are on their side, so he hopes that will fuel the effort in Game 6. “They’ve done a tremendous job so far. I mean, now we know what to expect. I thought the first home game, we got caught up in the moment a little bit. We came home after a roadie, 1-1, pretty good spot, and we kind of came out flat that game. The second home game, I thought, was much better.”
The Swedish defenseman also said that even as of Friday, with the Avalanche pushed to the brink, the Kraken still do not sense any pressure, an advantage for any playoff team.
Jamie Oleksiak—who went to a Stanley Cup Final with Dallas—said the Kraken have handled the ups and downs well so far. “This is our first time in the playoffs together, so I think we’ve learned a lot as a group about identifying those momentum swings.”
Laying it all out there
One thing that stuck with us from Game 5 was just how good of a job Seattle did at blocking shots at crucial moments in the game. Jaden Schwartz, Oleksiak, and Matty Beniers all got body parts in the way of blasts from Avalanche players, then hobbled to the bench at different stages in the game.
Aside from that, Alex Wennberg showed off his impressive soccer skills (he does have a background in soccer from his youth) when he managed to corral a puck up the wall with only his feet and kick it deep in the Colorado zone in the final minute of the second period. “That was a huge play,” Gourde recalled.
It’s those kinds of extra individual efforts that help a team win in the postseason.
“I mean, that’s playoffs, right?” said Jamie Oleksiak, who played the last 2:27 of the game Wednesday with Seattle facing an extended six-on-five attack. “That’s kind of the desperation, and you got to get bounces once in a while, and you’ve got to put yourself on the line. I think we’ve done a great job of that.”
Oleksiak said it’s not just a few players stepping into lanes; even guys you wouldn’t typically associate with making those kinds of painful blocks have been throwing themselves in harm’s way. “Whenever you see a guy go down and put their body on the line, it’s special for everybody.”
Larsson occasionally skating with Oleksiak
We’ve noticed the Kraken coaching staff has deployed Larsson and Oleksiak together at times during this series, especially against Nathan MacKinnon. While we didn’t get much insight on the reasoning—coach Dave Hakstol played that close to the vest when we asked—we have a theory that the Kraken simply view those two as their best defensive defensemen. So, to shut down the elite skill of players like MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar, Hakstol and defensive coach Jay Leach have occasionally paired the two together for key moments in games to make sure they hold the Avs off the board.
“Yeah, it’s a matchup thing; that’s all, nothing more, nothing less,” said Hakstol. “I mean, it’s as well as I can describe it… The other piece that comes into play there is who’s fresh and ready to go over the boards.”
It’s been an interesting periodic shift, though, after Larsson and Vince Dunn spent almost the entire regular season together. It’s a fine example of how little strategic changes can be made in a playoff series, as you get the benefit of facing the same team for multiple games in a row.
“I’m playing with [Oleksiak] on the PK and end of a power play, or whatever it might be,” said Larsson. “So, I’ve had a couple shifts with him during the season, too, and it’s working fine. Whatever name is called, we’re all just sitting there, patiently waiting for our next shift, so that’s just how it is.”
No news on Jared McCann; Tye Kartye ready to play in his spot
Unsurprisingly, Jared McCann was still missing from morning skate, and we do not expect him in the lineup Friday. Hakstol did not give an update on his status, which tells us there is no change to his availability from Game 5.
Tye Kartye was the biggest story of Game 5 for playing in McCann’s spot on the top line and contributing with a pivotal goal, his first in the NHL. Now, the 21-year-old Kartye is preparing for his first home game as a Kraken. “I’m fired up,” Kartye said. “I heard the crowd is really good here, so I’m excited to see what it’s all about.”
Kartye scored on his lone shot on goal Wednesday to make it 2-1, but he was also physical and looked comfortable on his line with Eberle and Beniers. He called the last few days a “whirlwind,” and said he hasn’t had too much time to think about everything that has been going on for him. “I’m kind of just taking it as it comes.”
Based on what we saw and heard at morning skate, we do not expect any changes to the Kraken lineup from Game 5.
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.
