It wasn’t easy, but the Kraken did the damn thing Wednesday, earning a hard-fought, well-played, 60-minute, total-team victory, 3-2 over the Avalanche. Every player in the lineup, including just-called-up Tye Kartye, contributed to the win in some way.
The closing minutes pushed Kraken fans’ heart rates to unthinkable levels, as Colorado pulled within one goal with Alexandar Georgiev on the bench and skated six-on-five for what felt like an eternity. But the Kraken stayed with their structure, continued blocking shots, and regained the series lead 3-2.
Here are our Three Takeaways from another thrilling Kraken win over the Avalanche in Game 5.
Takeaway #1: The legend of Tye Kartye is born
After Jared McCann was ruled out of Game 5, speculation quickly began about how the Kraken would try to replace their irreplaceable 40-goal scorer in the lineup. We knew a call-up was coming from Coachella Valley, and the team had briefly brought up Tye Kartye and Max McCormick at different times during this series.
In the end it was Kartye who got the call, which didn’t totally surprise us. Then, he was slotted into McCann’s spot at morning skate, alongside Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle. That also didn’t surprise us, because in Game 3, when Morgan Geekie was unavailable due to the birth of his child, Jesper Froden looked like he was preparing to play in Geekie’s spot on the Alex Wennberg line. That night, Froden only played a handful of minutes, though, and with different line combinations, so we figured something similar was in store for Kartye in Game 5.
WRONG!
Well, mostly wrong. While Kartye’s minutes did get throttled back toward the end of the game, coach Dave Hakstol used him in a top-six winger role for a lot of the contest. Kartye, with his parents in attendance at Ball Arena, rewarded Hakstol for the gutsy lineup decision by scoring his first NHL goal on his first NHL shot in his first NHL game. Did we mention this was also in Game 5 of a Stanley Cup Playoff game?
Kartye’s parents, by the way, dropped everything and made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Kingston, ON, to Toronto, then jumped on the first flight to Denver to see their son make his NHL debut. They showed up a couple minutes late but were there in time to see their son’s magical moment.
“Great night for Tye,” said Hakstol with a smile. “We were able to get his parents in here. It’s quite a way to start your NHL career, jumping into Game 5 in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.” The Kraken coach raved about Kartye’s poise and apparent comfort with the situation and said those were factors in the team’s decision-making process about how to use him. “He’s ready to be here, and that’s why we felt comfortable putting him in.”
Kartye’s story over the last two seasons, leading up to his Wednesday heroics, would seem almost far-fetched if it weren’t true. Playing his junior hockey with the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds, he did not get drafted by an NHL team. He came to Kraken training camp as an invitee before the team’s inaugural season, impressed the brass there, had a solid 20-year-old season back in Sault Ste. Marie, and got signed by Seattle as a free agent. He then went to Coachella Valley for his first pro season and caught fire in the second half, ending up with 28 goals and 29 assists on the year and taking the AHL Rookie of the Year award.
“A year ago, a year and a half ago, this was my wildest dream,” said Kartye. “So, this day has been pretty special.”
The fact that the Kraken threw him right into his first NHL game in that spot, on that line, and that he delivered is truly remarkable.
“It’s pretty crazy,” added Kartye. “It was a whirlwind, but I’ve been working hard for a long time, and it feels pretty good.”
His goal was a banger, too. After Nathan MacKinnon and Will Borgen touched skate blades in the Kraken end, and while MacKinnon was busy blowing a gasket complaining to the referee about being tripped, the play came back the other way. Jordan Eberle carried the puck through the neutral zone, deep into the offensive zone, and circled the wagons before sliding a pass into Kartye’s wheelhouse. Kartye wasted no time in showing off his best offensive asset, a lethal shot that was off his blade and in the back of the net in an instant.
“I was just kind of driving to the net, and I saw he had the puck and tried to get open,” said Kartye. “Obviously, he made a pretty special pass there.”
The goal made it 2-1 and improved Kartye’s NHL shooting percentage to 100 percent.
People will remember the goal Kartye scored, but he was generally impressive on this night. He looked like he belonged in the NHL and even on a top-six line.
“[The goal] was awesome, but he was all over the place,” said Gourde. “He was in everyone’s grill, he was on the forecheck, on the backcheck, he was great in the D-zone, he finished every hit he had.”
Takeaway #2: Kraken are who we thought they were
With Kartye and Gourde scoring Wednesday, they became the 12th and 13th Kraken players to register goals in the five games of this series. That’s nothing new; depth scoring has been the story of this team all season. But aside from that, they’ve shown why we believed they would be a tough match for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
The Kraken play with good enough defensive structure to at least slow down Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and (when he’s not suspended) Cale Makar. They also go the extra mile to block shots, win battles low in the offensive zone, and—as of the beginning of the calendar year—kill penalties. When they are on their game, they truly can skate with any team in this league, something they proved throughout the regular season.
Game 5 was no different. Seattle got huge, timely shot blocks from guys like Matty Beniers, Jamie Oleksiak, and Jaden Schwartz, and the only goals they allowed were off a rim attempt by Philipp Grubauer that didn’t quite make it past Rantanen and off a bad-luck double deflection from two Kraken players at six-on-five.
“When you get to this time of year, the stage is a little bigger, it’s a little brighter, there’s a little bit more on the line, and everything means a little bit more,” said Hakstol. “But you still have to fall back on who you are.”
Wennberg was especially good Wednesday, his second starring performance of the series. In this one, he created the icebreaking goal at 6:35 of the second period by winning the race to a dumped-in puck, fighting off a Bowen Byram check, and making a perfect pass to Schwartz. Schwartz shot, and Papa Geekie cleaned up the rebound.
Then, with a minute left in the second period and the Kraken killing a crucial penalty, Wennberg—who had broken his stick—somehow managed to kick the puck past Byram, control it along the boards with his skates, and boot it again all the way below the Colorado goal line.
There were plenty of gritty, hard-working plays by just about every guy in the Kraken lineup, but Wennberg resorting to his soccer-playing past, doing everything he could to help kill that penalty, really stood out to us.
Takeaway #3: Kraken take a 3-2 lead
We won’t say anything here to jinx it, but it is bonkers that Seattle is even in this position, up 3-2 heading to Game 6 at home on Friday against the champs. Nobody in the greater hockey world gave the Kraken a chance coming in, and they have proven through every step of this series—even in the losses—that they can beat the Avalanche if they play their game.
So far, they’ve gotten contributions from everyone on their roster, and the result has given the group a rare opportunity to surprise everyone.
“That’s the situation you want to be in in a playoff series,” said Gourde, a grizzled veteran of the postseason. “You want to be up, but we all know in this league the fourth game is the hardest one to win, and it’s going to take everything out of everyone in this locker room to get that one.”
After experiencing the atmosphere in Game 4 on Monday, we truly cannot wait for Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena.
Are you experiencing the following symptoms? High blood pressure, elevated heart rate, wild mood swings, insomnia, fatigue, and general inexplicable sweatiness? Well, that, my friend is Stanley Cup Playoff hockey. The Kraken officially infected their fans with said disease by getting their first home playoff win against the Avalanche in heart-stopping 3-2 overtime fashion Monday. The victory tied the first-round series 2-2, meaning the home fans are guaranteed at least one more postseason game at Climate Pledge Arena.
After jumping out to a two-goal lead in the first period, only to then see Mikko Rantanen score twice in the second, the Kraken stuck with it and treated their fanbase to a magical moment. It was a night that will surely go down in Kraken lore.
“We were kind of joking around before the game that this is the biggest game in Kraken history,” said Jordan Eberle, who scored the deciding goal. “You kind of want to make this a hockey town and have people love going to Kraken games and enjoy the product of playoff hockey.”
After that experience Monday, it’s plain to see Seattle has embraced the Kraken, so mission accomplished, Jordan!
It was a big win, but also a costly one, as Jared McCann, the leading goal scorer for the Kraken in the regular season, was injured on a bad hit by Avalanche superstar Cale Makar. That seemed to ignite tempers and likely morphed this series into one with more hostility than before.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an unforgettable 3-2 overtime Kraken win over the Avalanche.
Takeaway #1: Eberle and Schwartz were the OT heroes
Two minutes into overtime, Jaden Schwartz stole the puck along the wall in the defensive zone and fired it across to Brandon Tanev, who carried it to center ice. Schwartz took off as soon as he passed it, and Tanev hit him in stride at the Colorado blue line, sending Schwartz in on a partial breakaway. He got a good shot off, as his legs were taken out from under him, and although Alexandar Georgiev made the save, Schwartz drew a penalty on Josh Manson.
“I threw it over to [Tanev], and then I just tried to get as much speed as I could,” said Schwartz. “He made an awesome sauce pass, kind of through a couple sticks, and right onto me with speed. So I had a step and was able to draw the penalty and get a decent shot there.”
On the power play, Daniel Sprong—who also sniped a nice power-play goal off the post to make it 2-0 in the first period—took a shot from distance that got partially blocked. The puck skittered to Jordan Eberle, who passed to Schwartz. Schwartz tried to shoot, but that too got blocked, and it again went right back to Eberle. This time, Eberle pulled the trigger and beat Georgiev.
“I was actually in a pretty good spot, and I think one of their players had a big block,” said Schwartz. “And then Eberle had a good, quick stick, good reaction, and it happened fast.”
“Any time you even a series up, it’s a big goal,” said Eberle. “I thought for the most part, we played well tonight. We had a lot of chances, and that’s a really good team over there. We’ve been kind of the underdog since day one, and we’re just trying to fight back into this series, so we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us.”
Coming into Game 4, the Kraken power play had been abysmal in this series and had been held off the board, except for a late, garbage-time goal by Schwartz in Game 3. We can’t help wondering if that meaningless marker may have given the power play a little confidence boost coming into Monday’s game.
The team also seemed to have a simplified approach that worked wonders. There were very few attempts to make—as John Forslund would call them—“fancy Dan passes.” Instead, Seattle was getting pucks to the top of the zone, sending traffic to the front of the net, and shooting. Simple.
When the team got a manpower advantage early in overtime, the group knew it had to convert.
“You’ve seen a lot of the OT goals in the playoffs, a lot of them, especially early on, have been on the power play,” said Eberle. “It’s kind of been a sore spot for us in the series so far, as far as producing with the man advantage. I know we got one late last game, and maybe that kickstarted us a bit. We get one early in the game, and then obviously the winner.”
Takeaway #2: The script was flipped from Games 2 and 3
After an outstanding first period by the Kraken, you knew the Avalanche and their stars would eventually get on the board. Sure enough, Rantanen potted two in the second period, including a power-play goal that felt like a backbreaker at the very end of the period.
After Rantanen had drawn a cheesy penalty (there were several of those against Seattle on this night) by skating into Borgen’s outstretched arm and grabbing on to make it look like Borgen had wrapped him up, the Kraken had an impressive kill going. They scrambled, blocked shots, and seemed to be giving everything they had to get back to five-on-five, and they almost did it. But Rantanen scored his second of the period with just two ticks left on the penalty and 49 seconds left in the period.
You could almost touch the “here we go again” vibes from the fans in the arena, as the teams went to the dressing rooms tied after 40 minutes for the third game in a row. To their credit, the Kraken didn’t let the results of the previous two contests affect their play late in Game 4. They stuck to their tight structure that allowed them to statistically dominate a lot of this game (Seattle outshot Colorado 43-22 and had 71 percent of the expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick) and pulled off a well-earned win.
“[We just stuck] with it,” said Schwartz. “Every game is back and forth, and we were doing a lot of good things. We know what our game looks like when we’re on, and we just [kept] wearing them down.”
The historic win cut the series down to a best of three now, with the Kraken riding high and heading back to Denver, where they’ve proven they can play with the defending Stanley Cup champs.
Takeaway #3: Jared McCann injured; Cale Makar the culprit
With the Kraken killing one of the several strange penalties called against them in this game—specifically the one where Bowen Byram pinned Yanni Gourde behind Colorado’s net for an extended period, then refused to drop the gloves, so only Gourde got a penalty—Jared McCann got a shorthanded breakaway opportunity. His shot was deflected by Georgiev up and over the glass.
Whistle blown, play dead. Right?
Wrong. Cale Makar blasted McCann into the end boards for seemingly no reason. McCann, who surely wasn’t expecting the hit, took an awkward fall and hit his head on the ice. He stayed down for some time, and after several minutes of attention from Seattle’s medical staff, glided to the tunnel, doubled over in distress. He unsurprisingly did not return.
“It’s never good to see a guy that battles super hard for us all year long go down like that,” said Gourde. “I don’t know what to say about that hit, but it’s tough to see Jared go down there.”
Makar was initially assessed a five-minute major for interference, but after reviewing the penalty, the officials bumped it down to a two-minute minor. For what it’s worth, Sprong’s goal did come on the ensuing power play to make it 2-0. Nonetheless, Hakstol was furious with the hit after the game.
“[It’s] a late hit, where the puck is out of play,” said Hakstol. “Canner shoots that puck, it goes immediately out of play, straight up into the netting, and I don’t know how many feet— I don’t really care about that. I believe the puck is being caught by a fan as Canner is being run into the end wall. So, late hit; really late. No puck in play… Our 40-goal scorer was not available for the rest of the game.”
The Kraken coach said McCann will also be unavailable for Game 5, at least, and likely longer.
Kraken fans did their part by voicing their displeasure with Makar for the rest of the game, aggressively booing him every time he touched the puck, and sometimes just for stepping onto the ice.
Through three games, this series was tame relative to others across the NHL. But after McCann was knocked out of Game 4, it took a feisty turn. There were scrums after seemingly every whistle, and the first period ended with all ten players on the ice splitting off and finding partners with which to skirmish.
Gourde, who has been such an impactful player for Seattle, was the last Kraken player still engaged with Manson when all others had been separated. For his grit, the home crowd saluted Gourde by chanting, “Yanni! Yanni!”
We asked Gourde if he had ever heard fans chanting his name before, and he said: “I think it happened before, yes. Sorry to kill the moment.” Ah, well. It was still pretty awesome. Gourde added, “The fans are so great. This building gets so loud, and they love this game, they love the team, and they’ve been supporting us the first two years. It’s so good to play in a playoff game in front of them.”
This series has surely pivoted into one with more vitriol than it had before.
“It’s playoffs,” said Hakstol. “You get into the middle part of a series here, that intensity continues to rise… It’s not going to go the other direction. It continues to move forward as we get into Game 5 here.”
Ah, yes, Game 5, Wednesday in Denver. Bring your armor.
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 lights went down in Climate Pledge Arena, and the first images of the pre-game show for the April 8 Kraken game against the Chicago Blackhawks appeared on the immense screens suspended over the ice. As fog was being pumped in from the rafters, the playing surface, with the help of carefully placed projectors, transformed into ominous ocean waves.
When the bone-rattling sound effects kicked in, Kraken Vice President of Game Experience and Production, Lamont Buford—from his perch atop section 117—noticed a split-second delay in the timing of the audio starting. “We were almost late on that one,” he said, before feverishly scribbling down a note on his 30-page show script.
The night before that Saturday game, Buford left team headquarters at Kraken Community Iceplex in the evening to have dinner with his wife. He then returned to the office and worked from 8 pm to 1 am, and was at Climate Pledge from from 10 am until 10:45 pm on gameday. And Buford’s team works just as hard as he does.
“Those who are crazy enough to be a part of the game presentation world, they get it, they have a passion for it, and they love it,” he said.
As fans, we tend to assume everything happening at a pro sporting event is done magically. We don’t think about the teams of people working tirelessly behind the scenes to put on a memorable spectacle, dictating what we see, hear, feel, and even smell during the course of the game.
So how does it all happen? Through diligent planning, careful orchestration of a highly skilled and driven team, and intense attention to detail.
Sound Of Hockey went behind the scenes with Buford and several members of the Kraken game experience team to get a feel for how all the pieces sync together.
Innumerable moving parts
Producing a sporting event is a unique challenge. “It’s a theater play, it’s a broadcast, and it’s a live event, all wrapped up in one,” said Buford. Producing a Kraken game at Climate Pledge Arena, one of the most technologically advanced arenas in the world, is even more demanding than doing so in older buildings.
Think about that pre-game show you’ve seen before Kraken games this season. Of course, there’s the cinematic hype video that plays on the two identical scoreboards, but that’s only part of the sensory experience for the audience. There’s also music, sound effects, lighting effects, on-ice projections, graphical displays on the LED ribbons that line the facades of the upper levels, and live public address announcements.
The producer and associate producer oversee the pre-game show from atop section 117. (Photo/Darren Brown)
Those elements have all become fairly standard in today’s NHL. But the Kraken pre-game show takes the presentation a couple steps farther with the arena’s added bells and whistles. A massive neon-embossed tentacle—which team staff have nicknamed “Stella” after Stella’s Deli, a commonly visited lunch spot for the organization in its infancy—descends from the rafters, while the curtains at the north end of the arena serve as a colossal movie screen for the mythical seafaring beast stirring from its slumber.
That is a lot of different components to monitor and cue for perfect timing, and this is just the pre-game show. There’s still a three-hour hockey game to produce, with in-game contests, intermission shows, a house band, a live organist, an ice crew, two DJ’s, and a mascot.
The show takes Buford, his team of 13 full-time employees, and a bevy of part-timers and contractors to execute.
A well-oiled machine
How it all gets managed starts with the structure of the department that Buford helped put in place during Seattle’s inaugural season. For each game, there’s a producer—either himself or Senior Manager of Entertainment Experience, Caitlin Salemi—“calling” the game. Then there’s an “associate” producer that serves as the right hand for the game caller and helps relay information between the off-ice officials and public address announcer, Chet Buchanan.
Kraken public address announcer Chet Buchanan announces Eeli Tolvanen’s goal against the Blackhawks. (Photo/Darren Brown)
The “associate” role is filled on any given night by either Salemi or Buford, whichever is not producing the game, or by Nicole “Shabz” Shabaz, who has expressed interest in one day becoming a producer. On games when Salemi is the producer and Shabaz is the associate producer, Buford is free to roam the building and check in on his staff to uncover any unforeseen challenges.
The producer, associate producer, and Buchanan all work from a platform above section 117, so they can see and hear all elements of the game presentation in real time and feel the atmosphere the same way the crowd feels it.
During a game, there is a lot for the producer to juggle, from managing the script to supervising communications between the various teams. Buford praised Salemi for the polished product she has consistently delivered under the pressure of that high-stakes role.
“One of the best things that we were able to do was hire Caitlin,” Buford said. “[She spent] 12 years in the minor leagues [with the Rochester Americans], but actually as the director calling games, calling shows, so she knows what she’s doing… She has been, honestly, just a rock for us.”
Inside the control room at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photo/Darren Brown)
The crew at the top of section 117 is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s also a team of up to five “stage managers,” who are in the trenches and executing more of the hands-on work. They’re the ones picking people out of the crowd for promotional games and telling participants and in-arena hosts when to walk, when to smile, and when to wave for the cameras.
Meanwhile, in the bowels of the building, there’s a full state-of-the-art control room that is outfitted and staffed like a television news station. It’s in that room that the video seen on the big screens comes to life. So, everything you see on the twin scoreboards—the live game footage, instant replays, and graphics—is cued from that room.
“This room here is beefed up way more than just about any arena in the country with the coverage that we have,” Buford proudly proclaimed, as he surveyed the control room.
High above the playing surface in the press bridge, there are also four rooms dedicated to the game presentation staff; one for the LED ribbon and on-ice projection operators, one for sound control, one for the lighting in the building, and one for DJ Trunks and DJ Cide, the two men responsible for elevating the atmosphere musically throughout the night.
Buford oversees it all but finds peace in knowing he has the right people in place to handle all of their highly specialized tasks.
Building from scratch
Drawing on his past experience with the Arizona Coyotes, St. Louis Blues, and Hershey Bears, Buford knew building the in-game show from scratch would require additional staffing and would present rare hurdles.
“It’s also COVID, so you don’t have that time to kind of come in and think about ‘Ok, this is the office setup, this is what I need to make sure I have,’” recalled Buford. “You’re doing everything off a piece of paper, a drawing. And you’re just trying to build the team. Most of the team is coming in from out of town, so it was one of those things that was very different in that regard.”
With the added complexity of the pandemic, the Kraken intentionally hired backups for as many roles as possible to make sure they always had coverage in areas that couldn’t be easily replaced on a given gameday.
“When I got [to Arizona], one of the things I was tasked with was revamping everything,” said Buford. “And the good thing was you already had established people in key areas, so change wasn’t very hard. Everybody was able to adjust and adapt easily. When you’re in another place that’s established, you know where the staplers are, you know where the Sharpies are. Here, we didn’t know where anything was. We had to bring all that in.”
With the framework in place for the team’s second season, and with the restrictions of COVID mostly lifted, things got a bit easier for Buford’s team to enhance the experience into something truly special for the fanbase.
One of the best shows in the league
A lot of the additional staffing remained in place during the 2022-23 season, and that has helped the Kraken’s in-game show become one of the best in the NHL. Buford, who says he is his team’s harshest critic, ranks Seattle’s show in the top three with Tampa Bay and Vegas.
When he wasn’t monitoring the show from the stands, Buford displayed an almost mayoral quality strolling around the CPA concourses that evening, fist bumping dozens of passersby; “I know just a few people here,” he deadpanned. During a Kraken game is when Buford actually gets to enjoy the fruits of his and his team’s labor, but it’s only a fraction of the work done each day by his department.
“Everybody knows about Vegas,” Buford said. “It’s always kind of that thing where everybody is like, ‘You gotta do better than Vegas.’ Vegas is so unique, you can’t take that show anywhere else.”
Knowing the local Seattle market, the Kraken intentionally went in a different direction from what the Golden Knights created, instead choosing to build their own unique identity. That approach has worked wonders, and what fans encounter inside Climate Pledge Arena is unlike anything else in sports.
Fans seem to have picked up the baton and run with it. The crowd itself is a key part of the experience, bringing a festive ambience every night, and Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke knows that’s an essential piece of the puzzle.
“We think there’s an upside, but the best thing we have in that building isn’t the bricks and mortar and lights or sound effects,” Leiweke said on a recent Zoom call. “It’s really our fans. And they have been awesome from day one, and they are loud. I think our players feel it, and I just can’t wait [for the playoffs].”
A new look for the playoffs?
For as good as the game experience is already, Buford and his team are just getting started. With the Kraken in the playoffs for the first time, they have big things planned, including a new pre-game show and a plaza party outside the arena.
“We’re pretty satisfied that we’ve got a great game experience going on now,” said Leiweke. “But I’m also really happy that our team doesn’t rest on any laurels here. We want to push it. We’re going to have a new open for the playoffs and we’re just going to keep pushing.”
Some of the additional promotional material that has been added to the outside of Climate Pledge Arena for the playoffs. (Photo/Darren Brown)
If you’re wondering whether the Kraken will host any gatherings on the north end of the building, where fans can see in through the windows, that is unlikely. The area on that side isn’t as large as it is on the west and south sides of the arena, it’s a bit disjointed with different levels, and it doesn’t get nearly as much foot traffic.
Plus, at this time of year, with the sun still out at the start of the game, the team feels the need to close the curtains anyway to avoid glare on the playing surface. Buford said they tried to keep the curtains open recently, and they immediately started getting complaints relayed to them from players. “Hockey players are very particular. If they get that extra beam of light, they’re like, ‘I can’t see a thing.’”
So, if you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of playoff hockey from outside Climate Pledge Arena, you may have to settle for watching it on a big screen with several hundred of your closest friends.
For fans who are lucky enough to be inside the building, the game presentation team should have a nice treat for you. They will be ready to show off their latest spectacle, after putting in hundreds of man-hours to build an experience that matches the intensity of the on-ice product of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
—
Editor’s Note: We would like to extend a sincere thank you to Lamont Buford and his team, as well as Kraken PR, for allowing Sound Of Hockey to shadow the game presentation department during the game on April 8.
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.
Welcome to Kraken Takeaways, a new video series hosted by our own John Barr and Darren Brown. Our plan for this series is to post new videos after each Kraken playoff game (assuming our schedules allow it), breaking down the previous contest with a rundown of topics.
We won’t post every video here on soundofhockey.com, so to ensure you see all of them, please subscribe on YouTube. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section on YouTube, or on this post.
Here’s our first installment, “Kraken Takeaways – Kraken versus Avalanche Game 1.”
This is the first story we’ve published on soundofhockey.com since the passing of our dear friend, Andy Eide, on Friday. There will be Kraken talk in this article—that’s what Andy would have wanted to see if he had clicked on it—but it feels important that we first touch on what Andy meant to us and to the Pacific Northwest hockey community.
The outpouring of love and support you’ve all shown for our pal has been heartwarming and unforgettable, and it is a testament to just how many lives Andy touched throughout his journey. He embodied hockey in the region and dedicated his life to a sport he loved more than anything. He helped it grow along the way simply by letting his passion and kindness shine through in his work and his relationships.
John Barr, Andy, and I have been doing the Sound Of Hockey Podcast together since 2018. In our latest episode, John and I did our best to verbalize how big of a loss this is, both for us as his friends and for the community, so we invite you to give that a listen. But I also wanted to share a memory that we didn’t mention on the episode.
At the 2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, I got to witness firsthand how much covering hockey meant to Andy. While John and I were there on “NHLtoSeattle” business, just hoping to get closer to the league in some way, Andy was there with a specific mission; to get the inside scoop on the Seattle Thunderbirds players that got selected by NHL teams.
From the AirBNB the three of us were sharing, Andy chatted on the phone with Henrik Rybinski, Matthew Wedman, and Roddy Ross, asking them about their big day for the story he was writing. He would ask a question, then feverishly scribble down their responses in his notebook. All the while, Andy was beaming with pride talking to the players, and we could hear in his voice that he had developed a real connection with these young men over the prior couple of seasons. He was overjoyed to see them achieve their dreams, and when you read the story he wrote that day, his deep understanding of their skillsets as players shines through.
That was the approach Andy always took to his writing, his podcasting, and his TV and radio broadcasting. He cared deeply about his craft and the players he was covering—no matter the level or league—and even when nobody else in the market was consistently talking about hockey, he found a way to do that.
Andy was a kind, gentle soul who always greeted you with a smile and a story about a Thunderbirds player of yore or something funny he overheard in a press scrum at Climate Pledge Arena.
We’re so thankful for the time we got to spend with Andy and the knowledge he shared with us. We will miss our friend.
—
Kraktice
Andy loved calling Kraken practice “Kraktice,” so we too will be calling it that moving forward, as a subtle tribute to our buddy.
The atmosphere at Sunday’s Kraken practice—Kraktice, if you will—at Kraken Community Iceplex was quite different from that of Saturday’s on-ice session. That first skate of the weekend was jam packed with fans looking to catch a glimpse of their favorite players before the team jets off to Denver on Monday to start its first playoff adventure. On Sunday, the doors were closed to the public, and only a select few members of the local media were in attendance.
It made for a quieter, more focused approach to the practice, in which coach Dave Hakstol put his players through drills that seemed to center on activating defensemen off the rush and creating quick transitions.
“You can only do so much,” Hakstol said. “The biggest thing is to make sure we have pace. And then we’ve tried to pick a couple of different elements each day just to touch on.”
The team also walked through power play and penalty kill situations, but did so without Daniel Sprong, who missed both of the weekend’s practices. Hakstol said Sprong was day to day after Saturday’s skate.
Next up, the Kraken will have a morning skate at Ball Arena in Denver on Tuesday before taking on the Colorado Avalanche for Game 1 that evening.
“I think we’ve had a good couple days of practice here,” Jamie Oleksiak said. “I think everyone’s excited to get going and I think you feel energy around here.”
Drawing off past experience
While the Kraken have not made the playoffs before this season, it’s no secret there are plenty of players with deep postseason experience in the dressing room. Vince Dunn and Jaden Schwartz each won a Stanley Cup with St. Louis, Yanni Gourde won it twice with Tampa Bay, and Philipp Grubauer and Martin Jones have both been on Cup-winning teams as backup goalies.
Meanwhile, several other players have had extended playoff runs and have come close to winning hockey’s biggest prize.
Jordan Eberle went to the Eastern Conference Final with the Islanders in the bubble in 2020 and again in 2021, losing both times to Gourde’s Lightning. He said that team’s strength was its defensive structure and ability to frustrate opposing teams into making mistakes.
Eberle sees some similarities between the Kraken and his old team in New York, though their strengths are slightly different.
“The structure that we have and the way that we play [are similar],” Eberle said. “I wouldn’t say we’re as defensively minded, but I think we’re also a lot better probably offensively.”
During the 2020 bubble, Oleksiak was a key cog in the Dallas Stars defensive machine, helping them to a surprise appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. They too were defeated by Gourde and the Lightning.
That experience gave Oleksiak a good understand of the mindset Seattle needs as it enters the postseason.
“You have to accept the fact that you’re not gonna go 16-0,” Oleksiak said. “I mean, there’s going to be some ups and downs, there’s going to be times when somebody makes a mistake or you’re down a goal, and it’s really a matter of not losing that mentality and not losing that next-shift-up [approach] and having a really short memory.”
As a member of the Blue Jackets, Oliver Bjorkstrand never got “deep” into the playoffs, per se, but he was a part of the Columbus group that upset Tampa Bay with a four-game sweep in 2019. He said the biggest key to success for that team was the way it came together and didn’t waiver in its approach, even when it got behind.
“I think in Game 1, we got behind a few goals,” Bjorkstrand said. “And in the locker room, we stuck with it, kept going, and we got a goal. And we kind of fed off of it and never gave up.”
That led to four straight wins and an indelible series victory.
As Seattle heads off to face the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Kraken players know it is an uphill battle. Yet, Bjorkstrand and others in the room have proven on previous teams that even underdogs can win in the playoffs.
“We went in as underdogs,” Bjorkstrand said of that Tampa Bay series. “We knew that, but we didn’t really care. We just went out there and gave it our all, and that’s kind of what gave us success when I was there.”
A potential boost for Seattle hockey
Playoff hockey is unlike anything else in sports. Each series has a unique character and a level of intensity that starts with the drop of the puck in Game 1 and doesn’t subside until one team wins its fourth game and moves on. It’s the kind of thing that can really help the sport grow in popularity in a new market, especially if the team can have some success. Once fans start believing in their squad and hating the opposition, they will be hooked for life.
“You look at Seattle and the sports fans and how they support the Seahawks and Sounders and everything, I think they’re really invested in their teams,” Oleksiak said. “And we hope that we get the same atmosphere here. I think they’ve been great for us all year, and I think they definitely deserve a good playoff experience.”
Bjorkstrand recalls the fervor surrounding Columbus after the Blue Jackets took down the mighty Lightning in 2019.
“That was huge,” he said. “I mean, we never won one playoff series in Columbus, so I could feel the excitement, and it was the most fun I’ve had in the NHL, winning that series. I wish [our playoff run] could have gone longer. We gave it a good push in the next round, but I felt it in the city. So it was definitely a special moment.”
Will there be a “special moment” or two over these next few weeks? If so, the Kraken fanbase could grow astronomically.
Can the Kraken beat the Avalanche?
We know the odds are stacked high against Seattle in this series against the Avs. That said, there is a path to victory for this team in the opening round. This is an interesting matchup on paper, because Colorado boasts some elite, high-end players at the top of their lineup, both at forward and defense. Seattle, on the other hand, rolls four dangerous lines that come at you in waves and can produce goals from anywhere.
So how can Seattle win?
“We have to try and get to our four-line-rolling mentality and winning those matchups,” Eberle said. “I think obviously you want to try and shut down their big key players. They have a couple 100-point guys there that are pretty dangerous, so we have to try and limit the chances that they create and then create offense out of that.”
Added Oleksiak, “We’re obviously a team that has some good depth, and we play well when we play structured and we don’t give up too many chances. And I think we just have to focus on that, and I think the results will come.”
It will be a tough series against a great team. Can Seattle do the damn thing?
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.
Seattle Kraken prospect and Moose Jaw Warriors forward Jagger Firkus has a lot of tools in his bag. The diminutive but electrifying winger scores goals and creates chances with his skill and creativity.
But when it comes to Jagger, it’s more of his swagger that differentiates him.
“He’s an infectious guy,” Moose Jaw head coach Mark O’Leary said. “He’s loud, he’s energetic, he’s a positive person, and it brings out the best in his teammates and makes him a popular teammate.
“Guys flock to him because of that positivity. He’s a cheerleader, whether it’s in the gym or we’re practicing or if guys are playing soccer or ping pong around the room. Jagger is encouraging, and he’s usually fired up about it. He’s trying to win, but he’s trying to cheer on his teammates as well. I think that over the course of a long season, guys like that.”
Firkus’ presence has been felt by O’Leary and Moose Jaw’s players since Firkus first joined the Western Hockey League, which is not an easy feat for a rookie entering a dressing room full of 19- and 20-year-olds.
“Even when he was called up as a 15-year-old, he was buzzing around the room,” O’Leary recalls. “He wasn’t that quiet kid sitting in the corner not saying anything; he was a little guy with the big red hair and a missing front tooth that wanted to play hockey and contribute.”
That confidence is what makes Firkus, the 35th-overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, the player he is on the ice. The 18-year-old forward is on pace for back-to-back 80-point seasons in the Western Hockey League, the first of which postured him as one of the most intriguing forwards in his draft year and a top prospect in the Kraken system.
Part of his uniqueness comes from his creativity on the ice, his ability to maneuver through tight spaces, and the quick release on his shot. But his size — Firkus is listed at just 5-foot-10, 156 pounds — is what makes him a curious case as a prospect.
Most pundits agree Firkus has the tools to be an NHL contributor, but his size sprinkles mystery into his case for playing at that level.
However, while he’s well aware of his perceived limitations, it’s not something that bothers Firkus.
“I just embrace it,” Firkus said. “People are going to ask you about that, and I have an answer for it. So it doesn’t really worry me. I can’t change my size, so I can’t worry about that. It doesn’t really change me.”
One thing that’s working in Firkus’ favor: the stigma around smaller hockey players is slowly fading away as players like Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who Firkus said he likes to watch and incorporate details he sees into his own game, excel at the NHL level.
Another diminutive forward with experience in Moose Jaw comes to mind for O’Leary.
“He’s not necessarily Brayden Point, but he has a lot of Brayden Point in him,” said O’Leary, who was an assistant coach for the Warriors during Point’s career in Moose Jaw. “One of the things that made (Point) special was his ability to put pucks in places around his body and around his feet where he protects it and be hard on it … there are things as a smaller guy you can do to play heavy and I think Jagger does that.”
“He’s also a slippery guy. He plays with his head up, and like Brayden Point, he seems to be very good at being evasive of hard and heavy contact.”
Firkus’ durability backs up O’Leary’s claim, as he’s only missed four games in the last two WHL seasons.
The Irma, Alberta native also said he has tacked on a couple of pounds during the season and plans to be more aggressive with gaining weight during the upcoming offseason.
But right now, Firkus’ focus is more on the ice, in particular on rounding out his game, something the Kraken have worked with him on in video sessions during the season.
“There’s one specific thing they want me to work on and that’s just spacing with the puck,” Firkus said. “For a smaller guy, you need to find open ice so you can give yourself room and that’s one big thing that they’ve been helping me.”
O’Leary also called out that Firkus’ defensive game has expanded this season, which earned him a spot on Moose Jaw’s penalty kill.
But make no mistake, Firkus still is imbued with the freedom to make plays offensively. This season in particular, he’s played primarily on a line centered by Brayden Yager, who is projected to be a first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
The two have been “attached at the hip” since they both entered the WHL and showcase good chemistry with each other on and off the ice.
“He’s a fun guy to play with and just an unreal guy off the ice, too,” Firkus said.
Others would likely say the same thing about Firkus, whose aforementioned creative play style earned him the “Firkus Circus” nickname, which has an unknown origin but started in Moose Jaw and has spread to the rest of the hockey universe.
“I embrace it, I think it’s funny someone came up with that,” Firkus said.
Will the circus ever make its way to Seattle? That’s the burning question with any prospect, but especially one like Firkus, who harnesses more upside than most with his ability to put the puck in the back of the net and function as a playmaker for others.
He certainly has his supporters, including O’Leary, who is adamant that Firkus will crack the NHL.
“He’s got too much to offer,” O’Leary said. “He’ll find a way.”
The loss of Andrew Poturalski for the season and Jesper Froden to NHL callup have hurt the Firebirds’ depth, but Cameron Hughes and Tye Kartye have been integral in filling the void. Hughes has 15 points in his last 10 games and Kartye is nearly scoring at a goal-per-game pace with eight in that same stretch.
Kokko excelling on loan
Kraken goaltender Niklas Kokko, who was loaned to SaiPa in Finland’s top league last month, has been red hot for his new squad, posting a .949 save percentage in his last four starts.
It’s been an encouraging stretch for Kokko, who was selected by the Kraken 58th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. Not only has the 18-year-old netminder posted encouraging numbers in Finland’s top league, Kokko shined for Finland’s U19 squad in an international tournament last month.
Wright healthy once again
After missing eight games with a lower-body injury, Shane Wright returned to the Windsor Spitfire’s lineup on Feb. 23. The No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 draft has two goals and three assists in five games since his return.
The prized prospect started off sweltering hot for the Spitfires with over two points per game before his prolonged absence. We certainly aren’t sounding the alarm due to his drop in production, but we’re keeping an eye on it.
The Spitfires certainly could use more out of Wright. Windsor, which has dropped four of its five games since Wright re-entered the lineup, is trailing the Ontario Hockey League Western Conference leading London Knights, which feature Kraken prospect Ryan Winterton, by two points. The Spitfires have eight games remaining in the regular season, with the Knights holding a game in hand. Windsor ends the season with back-to-back matchups with London.
Playoff update
OHL
Ty Nelson (third-round pick in 2022) and Kyle Jackson (seventh-round pick in 2022) of the North Bay Battalion have clinched a playoff spot and are currently the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. North Bay is 10 points off Ottawa for the top seed and unlikely to catch the 67s, but it is fending off the Barrie Colts for home ice in the second round. The Battalion is three points up on the Colts with eight games remaining, none of which are against each other.
Tucker Robertson (fourth-round pick in 2022) and the Peterborough Petes are still vying to secure their spot in the playoffs, but are more than likely to make it. The Petes are jockeying with the Hamilton Bulldogs, Mississauga Steelheads, and Sudbury Wolves, who feature Kraken forward prospect David Goyette, for home ice in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Petes have the inside track, with 65 points to Hamilton’s 64, Mississauga’s 62, and Sudbury’s 60, and have a game in hand on the Bulldogs.
WHL
Firkus and the Moose Jaw Warriors are likely locked into the 4-5 matchup in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Warriors lead Lethbridge by five points, with the Hurricanes holding a game in hand, for home ice in the first round. But watch out for Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats. They likely can’t catch Moose Jaw, but they are only five back of Lethbridge with a game in hand. A first-round matchup pitting Firkus and Bedard against each other would be highly entertaining.
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Jacob Melanson (fifth-round pick in 2021) and the Sherbrooke Phoenix are currently in a tight battle for the top spot in the Western Conference. The Phoenix lead with 89 points, but the Gatineau Olympiques are hot on their tail with 88. Two of Sherbrooke’s nine remaining games are against Gatineau.
Liiga
Jani Nyman (second-round pick in 2022) and Ilves are in a dead heat with Tappara for the league’s top seed, with both teams boasting 110 points and Ilves having a game in hand. With three games remaining in the regular season, it may come down to the two teams clashing on Sunday in Ilves’ penultimate game of the campaign.
Kokko and SaiPa and Ville Ottavainen (fourth-round pick in 2021) of JYP will both miss the playoffs.
British Columbia Hockey League
Ben McDonald (third-round pick in 2022) and the West Kelowna Warriors are third in the Interior Division standings but are fending off Salmon Arm and Prince George, who is one point and four points back, respectively, with six games remaining. Salmon Arm holds a game in hand.
United States Hockey League
Barrett Hall (sixth-round pick in 2022) and the Green Bay Gamblers are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference with 55 points. There’s plenty of runway, however, with 16 games remaining in the regular season.
NCAA
Justin Janicke (seventh-round pick in 2021) and Notre Dame fell to Michigan State in the first round of the Big Ten tournament in a best-of-three series. The fourth-seeded Fighting Irish won Game 1 but failed to advance after dropping the next two to the Spartans, the No. 5 seed, and seriously jeopardized their chances of making it to the NCAA tournament. Janicke recorded one assist in the series.
Tyson Jugnauth (fourth-round pick in 2022) and seventh-seeded Wisconsin were swept by second-seeded Michigan in their first-round series. Jugnauth recorded two assists in the final two games of his freshman season. Also noteworthy: Wisconsin fired head coach Tony Granato, who ran the program for seven seasons.
Josh Horton
Josh Horton is a freelance writer, former newspaper journalist, and erstwhile Western Hockey League writer for the Everett Herald and The Spokesman-Review (Spokane). He is NOT a juggler, nor is he a former professional baseball player. Follow him on Twitter @byjoshhorton.
