The Kraken had a big second period Monday against the Coyotes and glided through to their fifth consecutive win, 4-1. Four unanswered goals by Oliver Bjorkstrand, Justin Schultz, Matty Beniers, and Jared McCann made a first-period icebreaking goal by Arizona’s Jack McBain feel irrelevant in the end.
The Kraken beat the Coyotes three times in eight days by a combined score of 16-4, so we are confident Arizona’s players will be happy this season series is now over.
Here are our Three Takeaways from another convincing Kraken victory.
Takeaway #1: 40 goals for Jared McCann
Jared McCann has made general manager Ron Francis look like a genius over the past two seasons. The Penguins traded McCann to the Maple Leafs just before the 2021 Expansion Draft, and Toronto turned around and exposed him to Seattle. Francis and company snatched McCann up, and he has proven to be (arguably) the best selection the Kraken made in said Expansion Draft.
Coming into Seattle’s inaugural campaign, McCann had never scored more than 19 goals in a season, and that was split between Florida and Pittsburgh in 2018-19. He followed that up with two consecutive 14-goal seasons, playing down the lineup for the Penguins, before getting to the Kraken and lighting it up.
“I just needed a chance,” said McCann. “There’s a lot of guys in the NHL who don’t get the opportunity, not that they don’t deserve it. Sometimes it’s just the way it goes.”
With an elevated opportunity in Seattle’s top six and a spot on the power play, McCann notched 27 goals last season, which was then a career high by a long shot, earning himself a five-year, $25 million contract extension from Francis in the offseason.
McCann has smashed that career high to bits this season and hit an enormous milestone Monday by scoring his 40th goal on a play we’ve seen from him on many occasions.
Every practice, McCann spends time looping around at the top of the left circle, taking a pass, and firing a shot. He does it over and over again to close out each on-ice session. The practice has paid off repeatedly this season, as McCann has done significant damage in that exact way. Against the Coyotes, he did it again.
On the power play, McCann passed it up top to Justin Schultz, who walked the line, and then gave it back to McCann. The lateral movement from Schultz gave McCann just enough time to do his little loop and get in position for his lethal shot. McCann fired it through the legs of Josh Brown and under the glove of Ivan Prosvetov.
The goal was also McCann’s 70th point of the year, after he had assisted on Matty Beniers’ second-period marker with a slick little drop pass.
Boy, at $5 million per year, that new contract looks like a real bargain now.
Takeaway #2: 100 points for the Kraken
The magical second Kraken season continued Monday, as they hit 100 points in the standings. As our good friend, Curtis Isacke, pointed out, Seattle is just the third team ever to reach 100 points after earning 60 or fewer the season prior.
Coming into this season, a 40-point improvement seemed almost unimaginable, and yet here we are.
“Everybody knows that’s a nice marker for our group,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “We want them to be proud of that. That’s a hell of a number. A lot of these guys that were here through the year last year, to be here a year later, they need to take a lot of credit for that.”
This is a weird point in the season, though. The Kraken have clinched a postseason spot and—based on possible playoff matchups—their best bet for getting through the first round likely comes from the Central Division. But as Seattle has mowed down bottom dwellers over the last week, they’ve closed in on Los Angeles for the third spot in the Pacific Division. If the Kraken do jump the Kings, they would most likely face Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the Edmonton Oilers.
The Kraken did pass LA in the standings for a fleeting moment Monday, drawing level in points with a game in hand, but the Kings beat the Canucks 3-0 to go back up by two on Seattle.
It’s such an odd spot because fans should want Seattle riding high as they hit the postseason, but we at Sound Of Hockey would prefer not to face the Oilers right away. So, would it be better for Seattle to lose one or both of these next two games against Vegas? Or do they play to win to help on the mental side of things?
Takeaway #3: Perfect handling of the goaltenders
After Martin Jones got hurt Saturday, we got excited about the idea of Arizona State alumnus, Joey Daccord, potentially playing at ASU’s Mullett Arena. Daccord is the only ASU player ever to play in the NHL, and he was a huge part of bringing that program to life after it moved up to NCAA Division I. Daccord has such a love for the university, in fact, he still has a Sun Devil pitchfork on the back of his mask and a “Sparky” mascot hidden in the paint job.
Much to our chagrin, Hakstol opted to play Philipp Grubauer against the Coyotes, leaving Daccord and his cool mask on the bench.
We fully understand the decision, though, and we probably would have done the same thing. If it were us, and we were trying to prepare for the playoffs, we would want our starting goalie feeling as confident as possible at the conclusion of the regular season. Playing the first game of back-to-backs against a bad team gave Grubauer a much better chance of feeling good about himself than playing in the second game against the Golden Knights in Vegas (Seattle’s opponent on Tuesday).
Lo and behold, Grubauer looked sharp Monday and stopped 22 of 23 shots, surely a nice confidence booster for him.
And, in a classy move by Hakstol, Daccord was sent in to close the game in the last couple minutes. He got a standing ovation from the home crowd as he stepped onto the ice for a moment he will never forget.
“He didn’t get a chance to play in this building during his time here, but he had a huge role in growing this program and growing hockey in this community,” said Hakstol. “So, in an ideal world, maybe at a different time of year, it would have been nice to get Joey a start. We couldn’t— that wasn’t the right thing for our team, so we were able to get him a minute, minute and a half at the end of the game.”
We expect Daccord to get the start Tuesday in Vegas.
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.
With the Kraken now officially in the playoffs for the first time, John and Darren got together to record what they thought would be a half episode, but they got carried away and ended up recording a full episode. So, it’s kind of a “.5” episode, but there’s a lot of content here.
This one starts with plenty of Kraken talk and what the playoff berth means for Seattle. It then goes Down on the Farm, to the WHL, and eventually to Weekly One-Timers.
The guys then spend the remainder of the show answer questions from the Mailbag.
One key to the Seattle Kraken’s success in this second year has been the team’s ability to recognize its shortcomings and improve in season. While other examples certainly exist—like three-on-three overtime, for one—the best illustration of this self-improvement is Seattle’s marked amelioration of the penalty kill.
We can pinpoint when the turnaround began. It was Dec. 31. The Kraken took the ice for practice at Kraken Community Iceplex looking downtrodden. They had just gotten smoked by the Edmonton Oilers the night before, 7-2 on home ice. Two of the goals against had come on Edmonton power plays, and at that point in the season, it was painfully obvious that something needed to change in how the team was approaching these four-on-five situations. The Kraken PK had dropped to 31st in the league, succeeding just 67.9 percent of the time. Goals were coming almost at will for opposing teams.
At that New Year’s Eve practice, the penalty kill took on a new look, and since that day, a dramatic turnaround has taken place. For the season as a whole, Seattle’s PK is still just 22nd in the league, nothing to write home about. But it has improved by 8.3 percent to a 76.2 percent success rate through 79 games. And if you break that down to just the 2023 calendar year, Jan. 1 through April 10, Seattle has a 83.9 percent success rate, good for fifth in the NHL in that stretch.
“It’s a different look,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “The first half of the year, we were coming out with a lot of top-down pressure—there’s still a little bit of that—but this just fits the personnel that we’re using much better to their skill sets. And it’s been a good change.”
Sound Of Hockey talked to Morgan Geekie and Yanni Gourde, two key players in the penalty kill at different stages of the season, as well as Hakstol to take you inside the changes that have transpired for the Kraken.
The old system
The system Seattle was using to start the season was the aggressive “wedge plus one,” which typically looked something like this:
Image from Jack Han’s “Hockey Tactics 2023,” a must-buy for fans looking to understand more about the systems and tactics being used by teams across the NHL.
In this system, the three players around the net stay relatively compact, while the player at the top, noted as F1, flies around the top of the zone, trying to disrupt passes. If he gets pulled too far to one side, he and F2 are supposed to quickly rotate to keep pressure on the power play quarterback at the top of the zone and to keep seams across the middle closed.
Geekie says the team called the old system the “toilet bowl.” Assuming the puck is at the top of the zone, F1 would go after the power play quarterback and push him to one side or the other. “If he’s a right-handed shot, he’ll be shaded to the left side. So the left-side guy will go and push him towards the wall, basically encouraging him to pass it to the half wall.”
From there, if the puck goes back up to the top, that’s when the rotation would happen, as F1 takes the spot F2 previously held, and now F2 is at the top. Or, as Geekie explained it: “If [the other team] somehow gets it back up to the top, the forward that pushed down will come underneath, and the other forward on the far side will just assume the first position and go back up to the top. And so it’s basically just spinning and spinning and spinning.”
Get it? It’s like a toilet bowl.
That sounds simple enough, so why didn’t it work for Seattle? Well, apparently there’s a lot of room for error in that system.
“Where you get mixed up is if one guy pushes, or the other guy pushes too early, it opens up the whole seam underneath,” said Geekie. “Or if you push too late, it opens up the high seam, and the guy on the half wall can walk down. And then if you push too far, then it goes back up to the top, you can walk all the way in.”
Geekie explained that killing penalties like that works well for some teams, but it depends on the personnel. He said that’s how his former team, the Carolina Hurricanes, killed penalties when he was there, and they did so successfully. But the Kraken just couldn’t ever seem to get the rhythm down.
Gourde put the challenges of the wedge-plus-one system in simpler terms. “There’s way more switches, there’s way more reads, I think, than [what we’re doing now]. If the puck’s in the middle of the ice, [and you get beat], the other guy flexes to the other two. If the pass stays on the outside, then the same guy attacks. So all those rotations, where you make reads, it’s a little bit harder.”
With so many moving parts, it was all too common for Kraken penalty killers to get crossed up in those earlier months of the season. And the second that happened, the puck seemed to end up in the back of the net almost every night. A change was desperately needed.
The new system
We thought we were pretty smart when we called for a simplified penalty kill on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, just days before the late-December change was implemented by the club. What Seattle switched to then, and is still using now, looks more like this:
Image from Jack Han’s “Hockey Tactics 2023,” a must-buy for fans looking to understand more about the systems and tactics being used by teams across the NHL.
It’s a more passive system that focuses on keeping the puck to the perimeter and blocking shots, as opposed to trying to disrupt passes before shots can even be taken.
“What we’re doing right now is more straight-line, always flexing back to the middle of the ice to prevent any seam,” said Gourde, who has been a mainstay on the PK all season. “You stay in your shooting lane more often, so if you get beat by one pass, there’s always one guy that kind of is in a good spot to help you out.”
Gourde explained that the penalty killers all keep their backs to the middle of the ice, and there are trigger points that tell them when to pressure the puck. Once those triggers happen—usually when the puck gets along the wall—they pounce to try to force mistakes.
The players still read off each other, and they may rotate slightly as a unit, but it’s rare to see players actually swap positions in the more traditional four-man box formation. This simplifies things compared to the previous system and minimizes the potential for missed assignments and misreads.
The change has worked wonders, and the numbers bear that out. On a 10-game rolling basis, the Kraken spent most of the first 45 games well below the league average, but they now sit among the best teams in the NHL as we approach the playoffs.
Jared McCann has been the x-factor
In addition to the systematic change, Seattle also adjusted the personnel it was using to kill penalties. The most obvious alteration was the inclusion of Jared McCann, who has become a lynchpin to Seattle’s success in this area, despite not having the traditional penalty killer profile.
Gourde, who has been partnered with McCann for most of the second half of the season, says its McCann’s speed, good stick, and ability to read the play that make him successful. He also says McCann’s offensive ability can keep opposing power plays honest, because they know if they turn the puck over to McCann, he can quickly make them pay.
“Every time we see a loose puck, we know he’s jumping, I know I’m jumping,” said Gourde. “So we create a little bit of something out there, and we’re super aggressive on those walls. When you’re aggressive, it’s an easier read for everybody.”
Improving is “what you’re supposed to do”
Hakstol gave credit for the successful changes to his assistant coach, Dave Lowry, who oversees the penalty kill for the Kraken, and to the players on the team.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do, right?” Hakstol said. “You have to evolve in the areas, you have to address areas that aren’t going well. And whether it’s a systems change or a change in the way the players are executing or a combination of the two really doesn’t matter. I mean, you address it honestly and look for a solution. In that case, it was a very good solution. Dave worked really hard on it, the players have worked really hard on it.”
But Hakstol isn’t satisfied with the improvement the team has made. As Seattle heads toward its first playoff appearance, he calls the penalty kill “an area we can still continue to keep building; we’re still working at it.”
For Saturday’s game between the Kraken and the Blackhawks, we found ourselves watching with a slightly different energy than we’ve had during games throughout the season. Now that the Kraken have clinched their first playoff appearance, the tension went down a notch, as Seattle cruised by a team that is actively trying to lose.
Still, it was a party-like atmosphere in Climate Pledge Arena, where fans continued to celebrate the home team and its remarkable turnaround from last season. With the win, the Kraken are now one win away from 100 points on the season after finishing last season at the bottom of the Pacific Division with a measly 60 points.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an imperfect—but ultimately easy—7-3 Kraken win over the Blackhawks.
Takeaway #1: Seven different goal scorers
There are only so many different ways we can write about Seattle’s depth scoring being its strength, but the team demonstrated this for the umpteenth time Saturday. Seven different players found the back of the net, 12 players had points, and four players had multi-point games.
The most notable scorers on the night were Jamie Oleksiak, who had three assists, Daniel Sprong (again), who had a goal and two assists, and Jared McCann, who scored his 39th goal of the season.
“That’s kind of been our strength all year,” said Jordan Eberle, who became the club’s fifth 20-goal scorer on the season. “Every line, it seems like we’re getting contributions each night from different guys, different lines, defense pairings, whatever it may be. So that’s obviously a big skill to have going into the playoffs.”
We can’t help thinking of everything now in that context of the postseason. How will this balanced approach work in playoff hockey? We *think* it should be an advantage, but until we see Seattle in playoff action, we just don’t know.
We think about a team like Edmonton, which effectively has the opposite makeup of the Seattle Kraken. The Oilers have two of the most talented players in the world, and they lead the Western Conference—by a long shot—in goals scored. But they also give up a lot, and they are very top-heavy. They can be beaten if a team figures out a way to limit the damage Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl can do.
On the other side of the coin, a team like the Kraken probably won’t have one guy put his mates on his back and carry them through a series. But it’s awfully difficult to check a team that has a 20-goal scorer even on its fourth line.
Thinking that way gives us hope the Kraken can surprise some folks in the coming weeks.
Takeaway #2: Adam Larsson has silky mitts, Dave Hakstol has jokes
With the Kraken killing a penalty midway through the second period, Adam Larsson, Yanni Gourde, and Alex Wennberg found themselves on a three-on-two rush into the offensive zone. Larsson passed it to Gourde, who gave it right back to the defenseman, but Larsson shot it off the outside of the net. He then blew a tire and crashed hard into the end boards, and then—from a prone position—extended his stick and tripped Seth Jones.
It wasn’t the smoothest-looking play, and the penalty came 200 feet from Seattle’s net, an area in which coaches generally despise taking penalties. It put the Kraken down five-on-three for almost a full minute.
Jones scored his second goal of the game during the two-man advantage, and that brought Chicago back into the game at 3-2. The marker came before Morgan Geekie’s initial penalty had ended, so Larsson remained in the box, and the Kraken stayed on the penalty kill.
Larsson’s teammates did kill off the rest of his infraction, and when he came out of the box, he quickly made amends for taking the penalty that led to the goal against.
Oleksiak deflected a Chicago pass to McCann, and McCann quickly passed to the newly freed Larsson in the neutral zone. On a breakaway, Larsson showed off some silky moves and deked Peter Mrazek right out of his jock.
BIG CAT! 🐱 🚨
His penalty ends, so he gets out of the litter box just as McCann picks off a pass in the defensive zone. McCann sends him in, and he shows off his silky mitts again.
This isn’t the first time Larsson has made a move like that; he scored the overtime game-winning goal in Dallas on March 21 in similar fashion.
The goal led to some good chuckles in the dressing room after the game. Larsson was asked if he should be a candidate for future shootouts, and he said, “Yeah, I think so. But Hak probably doesn’t think so.”
Following that, Hakstol was then asked if he knew Larsson had that kind of move in his toolbox. Hakstol said, “Which, the one when we went down five-on-three, or the one after?”
That’s cold, coach. That’s cold.
Takeaway #3: First wild card clinched, new health concerns
Now that the Kraken have hit the first big postseason-related milestone, it’s our opinion here at Sound Of Hockey that the two best things Seattle can do are 1.) stay healthy, and 2.) stay right where they are in the standings.
On the health front, there are a couple new concerns after Saturday’s game. Martin Jones left after the second period and was not on the bench for the third period. Asked if it was injury or illness that forced Jones out of the game, Hakstol said, “[He was] just unavailable. I won’t comment, but it wasn’t illness.”
We expect Philipp Grubauer to be the starter throughout Seattle’s playoff run, but the team needs two goalies. You simply never know what can happen, and if the top guy falters, it’s always good to have a second guy that can potentially turn the tide in a series.
Joey Daccord has reportedly been recalled from Coachella Valley, so there’s obviously something going on with Jones. Daccord playing in the arena of his alma mater sure would add some intrigue to Seattle’s game against the Coyotes on Monday, though, wouldn’t it?
Also worth noting, Jaden Schwartz did not play Saturday. We would guess that’s more of a maintenance thing, but Hakstol did say he’s “day to day,” so we will keep an eye on that. Meanwhile, Andre Burakovsky, who skated with the team for the first time last week, hasn’t skated with his mates since then.
As for seeding for the playoffs, Seattle clinched the first wild card spot, so they can’t move backwards and can’t face the top seed in the Pacific Division. That’s a good thing. They are quickly closing in on Los Angeles for third place, though, and they currently sit just two points back with a game in hand on the Kings.
Meanwhile, Edmonton is two points behind the Golden Knights. If Seattle were to leapfrog the Kings, they would play either the Oilers or Golden Knights, whichever team finishes second in the division.
“You’re always looking at the standings,” said Oleksiak. “But, you know, you can only control what you can control, right? So I think we’re just going into games, getting as many points as we can, and see what happens here. I think at the start of the year, a lot of people probably didn’t see us where we’re at now.”
We like the Central Division matchups that would come with Seattle’s current position better than Vegas or Edmonton, so it may behoove Seattle to drop a game or two in these last few outings.
What a night that was. As the Kraken stepped onto the ice before their game against the Coyotes, and “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys blasted in Climate Pledge Arena, the crowd let out the type of cheer that only comes when a fanbase is truly proud of its team. It was one of those cheers that sent goosebumps up and down our arms and made us reflect on what an incredible journey the last two seasons have been.
That journey is far from over, but the Kraken hit a major milestone Thursday by qualifying for their first playoff appearance with a 4-2 win over Arizona.
“We’re new, right?” said coach Dave Hakstol. “Everybody in this room a year and 10 months ago was new, but we’ve grown a little bit. So that belief has shown itself, and we probably put just a little building block of tradition in place by solidifying a playoff spot tonight.”
To get Seattle over the line, the entire Jared McCann / Matty Beniers / Jordan Eberle line contributed in a big way, combining for eight points, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 27 shots.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a memorable night.
Takeaway #1: A huge night for the McCann/Beniers/Eberle line
Last game, we were raving about a Matty Beniers backcheck that thwarted a JT Miller breakaway. This game, we’re raving about the forechecking he did to create two goals for his linemates. Oh, and he scored a beautiful goal to boot on a night when his whole line was clicking.
Beniers’ first goal-producing attack came in the waning moments of the first period with the game tied 0-0. Jared McCann tried to center the puck, but it got deflected behind the net. Nick Schmaltz corralled it but couldn’t escape Beniers, who seemed to read Schmaltz’s mind and took the puck right off his stick. In a flash, Beniers had found Jordan Eberle in front, who got it back to McCann for McCann’s 38th goal of the season.
MCCANN CAN FOR THE 38TH TIME THIS SEASON! 🚨
Awesome forecheck by Matty Beniers, who gets it to Jordan Eberle, who gets it to Jared McCann.
The second goal Beniers created came six minutes into the second period, although Beniers actually did not get onto the scoresheet for this one. With the puck deep in Arizona’s zone, JJ Moser was first on the puck. His defense partner, Patrik Nemeth, slowed down to create a pick and fend off Beniers. That plan backfired, though, because Beniers checked Nemeth into Moser, who coughed up the puck to McCann. It was the old two-for-one special.
“Gotta try to do something,” Beniers said. “Just trying to push them in, trying to make them make a mistake, and it kind of popped to Canner, and Canner made a great play.”
McCann returned the favor to Eberle from earlier in the game, and Eberle had all day to wait out Karel Vejmelka and give Seattle a 3-0 lead.
THREE-GOAL EBERLEAD! 🚨
Another unbelievable forecheck by Beniers, who checks two Coyotes at once. They cough up the puck to McCann, who finds Jordan Eberle alone in front.
The two veteran forwards didn’t keep all the goal-scoring glory for themselves, though, as they worked together to send their rookie mate on a breakaway 3:37 into the third period. On that play, McCann made an elite defensive read to pick off a Juuso Valimaki pass in the Kraken zone. He spun and passed to Eberle, who then sprung Beniers. Beniers went in and sniped his 23rd goal of the season, then skated by the Coyotes bench and either shushed them or hit ’em with the Shooter McGavin finger gun.
MATTY MAGIC! 🚨
Jared McCann picks off a pass in the defensive zone, gets it to Eberle, and he springs Beniers. Beniers snipes inside the post.
“I don’t know if I did that, did I?” Beniers said with a massive grin. “Emotions run high, so I don’t know. I don’t even remember doing that, so… sorry.”
Takeaway #2: More late-game silliness from the Coyotes
It is a weird quirk in the NHL schedule that the Kraken and Coyotes are playing each other three times in a week, right at the end of the season. There must have been some carryover emotions from the Coyotes after the Kraken had embarrassed them 8-1 on Monday. In the most recent contest, the desert dogs embarrassed themselves, led by Liam O’Brien and Milos Kelemen.
In the third period, with the game out of reach, Will Borgen crushed Laurent Dauphin in the neutral zone with a clean hit. Kelemen quickly responded with a dirty hit from behind on Brandon Tanev. Tanev didn’t like that, and he got up punching.
Later, the game got out of hand when Valimaki blindsided Eeli Tolvanen away from the puck. Yanni Gourde went after Valimaki, both teams converged, and O’Brien picked a fight with Borgen.
The beautiful game.
This all started after a nasty hit by Valimaki on Tolvanen, well away from the play.
Kelemen and O’Brien each received 17 penalty minutes for their roles on those two separate plays.
This isn’t Seattle’s game, per se, but with the playoffs now officially on the horizon, we have been really impressed in these two games against the Coyotes with how the Kraken have handled themselves. They’re taking care of a bad team between the whistles, but after the whistle, they’re sticking up for each other when Arizona starts running around. Fighting isn’t a big part of the playoffs, but being willing to pay a physical price and stand up for your teammates certainly is. Seattle has shown this week that it is more than willing to pay that price.
Takeaway #3: The Kraken did the damn thing
Coming into this season, the team was consistent in its message that the goal was to make the playoffs. Recognizing the massive turnaround that was needed, we were quite guarded in our optimism and were just hoping to see meaningful hockey at the end of the regular season.
Seattle gave us that meaningful hockey and more, achieving its own goal and clinching its first playoff berth with four games left in the season.
“You look at the leap that we made, I mean, it’s special,” said Eberle. “We’ve got a special group here, and I think from Day 1, a lot of people have written us off. And to get to this point is obviously an accomplishment.”
It’s a remarkable jump after the Kraken finished in the basement last season. Give credit to general manager Ron Francis for his many shrewd offseason additions, and even his in-season ones, like claiming Eeli Tolvanen. Also give credit to coach Dave Hakstol, who has proven time and again his ability to diagnose problems for his group and quickly fix them. The result has been an entire regular season in which a second-year team has avoided anything more than three consecutive losses.
“We use the term and the word ‘belief,’ and that’s a really hard thing to establish,” said Hakstol. “But you establish it through working hard, you establish it through camaraderie, you establish it through going through some ups and downs together and coming out on the other side with a little bit of success. And this group did that throughout the season in small little increments.”
Now, staring down their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, can the Kraken make some noise?
“I think this group feels that we’re not done,” said Eberle. “You look at the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that’s why it’s the funnest thing to play in, everybody has a chance. So, this is only half the battle, and now it’s time when the real work begins.”
This is it, folks! The Seattle Kraken are on the precipice of history with an opportunity to clinch their first berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. All they need to do is beat the lowly Coyotes–the same team they dispatched 8-1 just a few days ago–and they are officially in.
We thought it was a great time to do a roundtable discussion on the season that has been for the Kraken, their chances in the playoffs, and more.
Our own Curtis Isacke, John Barr, Josh Horton, and Darren Brown (that’s me!) put our heads together for some fun banter.
Enjoy!
How can the Kraken elevate their game for the playoffs?
Darren Brown: A week ago, I would have said figuring out how to score on the power play, but the Kraken have been hot in that area recently, thanks in large part to Daniel Sprong, who is oozing confidence right now. Seattle has scored power-play goals in four straight games.
So, instead, I’ll say get Andre Burakovsky back. It’s not so much that Burakovsky is an irreplaceable superstar, but the Kraken specifically don’t have the horses to effectively replace a top-six forward. Plus, the trickle down effect of not having him in the lineup has been immense. He did participate with the team on Monday for the first time since his injury on Feb. 7.
John Barr: I think getting Burakovsky back would be huge for the Kraken as well. But aside from that, the Kraken will need to continue to snuff out the shooting opportunities for the opponent. No matter how you measure it, the Kraken have been extremely stingy over the last seven games allowing season lows in shots against, Corsi against, and Fenwick against. Part of this might be due to the weakness of the opponents in this stretch, but if they can maintain this stingy defense, they can raise their level in the playoffs.
Josh Horton: A hot hand. The Kraken have excelled offensively this year by committee, but I think if someone set the playoffs on fire, it would be a massive advantage for Seattle.
Will it be Jared McCann, who has bagged 37 goals this year? Or could it be wunderkind Matty Beniers? What about Jordan Eberle, a veteran with playoff experience? No matter who it is, I think getting a guy on a heater at the right time would be huge.
Curtis Isacke: Getting Burakovsky back will help, but the Kraken need to be brutally honest about what has and has not worked with their personnel groupings.
For much of the season while Burakovsky was healthy, the team deployed Burakovsky, Alex Wennberg, and a third linemate (most frequently Jaden Schwartz) to matchup against the top lines from the competition. The results were not good enough offensively. The Burakovsky-Wennberg-Schwartz line created just 2.12 expected goals per sixty minutes of even-strength ice time, while conceding 2.37 expected goals. And the actual on-ice results were worse; the team scored five goals with those three on the ice at even strength and allowed 12 goals against.
In contrast, the Beniers line and the Gourde line have dominated their matchups offensively and defensively, both in terms of goal differential and expected goal differential. Those lines have the defensive chops to hold up against stronger competition and have offensive tactics that could very well translate against top lines too.
I think the Beniers line should be trusted with the bulk of these tougher assignments during the run of play. The trio can finish on offense and stifles opponent shots. The Gourde line could then take defensive zone draws against top competition in crucial situations (due to Gourde’s superior production in the face-off circle). This would free up the Wennberg line to attack relatively weaker middle-six matchups and produce neutral or net-positive effects for the team.
The Kraken will not succeed in the playoffs if they consistently lose the premiere matchups. I understand pacing Matty Beniers through the regular season, but now is the time to take the training wheels off that line to see what they can do.
Which team do the Kraken have the best chance of beating in the opening round?
JB: I think all potential teams the Kraken could face in round one are beatable, but Dallas might be the most vulnerable to getting knocked off by the Kraken. The Kraken were 1-1-1 against the Stars this season, and the overtime loss could have easily gone the Kraken’s way if it weren’t for a goal by Dallas in the waning minutes to force OT. The one thing Seattle has done in those three games against Dallas is score goals. I think Jake Oettinger is a great, young goalie, but he doesn’t have the Kraken’s number like Marc-Andre Fleury does in Minnesota.
DB: You might be onto something with Dallas, John. Now that the Kraken have exorcized their demons and beaten that team, they do seem like a decent on-paper matchup. I obviously can’t agree with you here, though, so I’ll go in a different direction.
It is interesting to see three teams so incredibly close atop the Central Division standings at this point in the season. There are no truly dominant clubs in that division, which makes the crossover for the first round advantageous for the Kraken, as opposed to staying within the Pacific to face–most likely–Vegas. I’m uncomfortable saying this, but the way Seattle has matched up with Colorado this season may make them the preferred opponent.
Worth noting, the Avalanche have been much better recently than they were early in the season and are 8-2-0 in their last 10 games. So, they could be rolling at the right time, and this could end up being a terrible take.
JH: All three aren’t particularly appealing and would be tough outs, but I’m going to say Minnesota, and for two reasons. Betting markets and analytical models seem to like the Wild the least of that trio – FanDuel Sportsbook has the Avs at 7-to-1 to win the cup, the Stars at 15-to-1, and the Wild at 20-to-1; Dom Luszczyszyn at The Athletic has the Wild at a three percent chance of winning the Stanley Cup – and their lineup seemingly lacks the firepower of the other options.
CI: I come down on Josh’s side on this one. It seems like whistling past the graveyard to invite a matchup with Marc-Andre Fleury, and the Kraken are 1-2-0 against the Wild this season. But I can’t shake the feeling from the teams’ recent matchup in Minnesota that the Wild cannot catch the Kraken when Seattle brings its skating game. The breaks went Minnesota’s way that night, and Fleury dominated, but I liked a lot of what I saw from the boys in deep-sea blue. That matchup seems the most “winnable” of the three most realistic opponents, though I agree the team would have a puncher’s (goal scorer’s?) chance against Dallas as well.
Which team would not be a good first-round matchup for the Kraken?
DB: Of the three options, Minnesota, Colorado, and Dallas, I do think the Wild might be the toughest option. To John’s point earlier, Fleury does have Seattle’s number, and there are some big, tough customers on that club that I worry could push the Kraken around. That said, I wouldn’t be terrified of this matchup either, especially considering Minnesota’s penchant for early playoff exits.
With my deep Minnesota roots, that would also be a tough matchup for me to stomach emotionally…
JH: Count me out on facing the Avs in the first round, even with the track record against Colorado. I know they aren’t playing at the same level as their Stanley Cup version last season, but you would have to think that playing relatively close to that level is well within the range of outcomes.
JB: Edmonton. The Oilers are hot right now, but this matchup is becoming less and less likely as the Kraken look firmly planted in the first wild card position. The Kraken beat the Oilers earlier in the season, but the last two matchups have not looked very competitive, with Edmonton outscoring the Kraken 11-6 with two wins.
CI: I’m with you, John. An improbable (though mathematically possible) matchup with the Edmonton Oilers is the matchup that I would project as most problematic. The Kraken rely on their defensive structure to reign in their opponents’ transition game and push shot chances to the outside. But all too often that structure has crumbled in face of Edmonton’s elite offensive skill. Among the three more likely Central Division playoff teams, Colorado is the most threatening now that they are getting (slightly) healthier. That said, it is also the matchup that I most would like to see.
How deep can the Kraken go in the postseason?
DB: With Seattle’s success on the road, I can see the boys pulling off an upset in the first round, especially if they close out the regular season on a roll. While they do have a nice, balanced attack, I don’t see them as Stanley Cup contenders yet. It would be borderline shocking to me to see them advance past the second round.
JB: It is easy to look at the last four Stanley Cup champions and say the Kraken don’t fit the mold. That is definitely a fair comparison, but I’ve also always said that anything can happen in the playoffs. If you go back the last six Stanley Cup Finals, there are a handful of darkhorse teams that at least made it to the Final:
2016 San Jose – 3rd in the Pacific 2017 Nashville – Wild Card team 2019 St. Louis – 3rd in the Central 2021 Montreal – 4th in the North 2022 Tampa Bay – 3rd in the Atlantic
The odds are low, but they are low for all the teams due to the nature of the Stanley Cup playoffs. To answer the question literally, they can make it to the Stanley Cup Final. I do think the Kraken match up better with the Central teams, so it will be an advantage for them to be crossing over in the first round. I think they can win a round or two, and after that, luck will need to play a more significant part in their success.
JH: It’s the NHL. They can win the whole damn thing if they catch lightning in a bottle.
I think the most realistic option is a first-round exit, but I don’t think a second-round or Western Conference Final appearance is far fetched. Especially with the Kraken likely playing the Central Division, which head-to-head appears to be the weakest route on paper, it’s in the realm of possibility.
CI: It is a cliché that the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is the hardest, but there is some logic to it; after the marathon regular season, 16 playoff teams all hit a higher, unsustainable gear at the same time and take it out on their first-round opponents. Seattle’s competition will play faster and could neutralize the team’s speed edge, while also upping the physical play on its relatively small forward group.
The team has never been able to overcome scoring problems through brute force at the net front, and this certainly won’t change in the postseason. Instead, the Kraken have survived so far on the strength of their perimeter finishing talent, but those goals may be harder to come by in the playoffs with more disciplined structure and gap control from opponents. Anything is possible in the chase for the Stanley Cup, but this year feels like a five-to-six-game run for the boys from the Pacific Northwest.
Which team wins the Stanley Cup?
DB: Boston is the obvious favorite, but something in my bones reminds me the team you expect to win the Stanley Cup almost never does. So, I’ll go with the club that seems like the second-most obvious favorite, the Carolina Hurricanes. I like the balance in their lineup, and Rod the Bod knows the right buttons to push. They’ve been too good for too long to not win one with their current group.
JH: My pragmatic brain says it’s the Bruins. My wallet hopes it’s the Oilers – that 15-to-1 bet to win the Stanley Cup is aging pretty nicely right now – and my gut is saying the same. It’s time for Connor McDavid to finally play, and win, a Stanley Cup Final.
CI: In my preseason post with Darren, I think I predicted the Colorado Avalanche and the New York Rangers in the final. Since that prediction remains technically possible, I’ll stick with it. Nathan MacKinnon and Igor Shesterkin are pretty decent players to gamble on, I guess. That said, my “hometown” heartstrings are telling me Boston.
DB: Ew. That last line almost made me throw up.
JB: Edmonton. I am not confident in this selection, but the Presidents’ Trophy winner rarely wins the Stanley Cup, so I needed to pick someone other than Boston. It seems like just about anyone can come out of the Eastern Conference and by the time that team makes it to the Stanley Cup Final, they will have been beaten to a pulp going through the Eastern Conference octagon. On the flip side, Edmonton seems to have the easiest path to the Stanley Cup Final.
Will the Kraken clinch their first playoff berth Thursday?
The Kraken came back from a 2-0 first period deficit to defeat the Canucks in Vancouver Tuesday night, 5-2. Seattle had been winless in its first six road meetings against its geographic rival to the north dating back to last year, but the Kraken have now won their first in Rogers Arena, taken two straight from the Canucks, and even “won” the 2022-23 season series with Vancouver, five standings points to four.
More importantly, the Kraken now have 94 standings points overall with five games remaining on the schedule. The team is now just one victory (or two standings points, however secured) away from earning its first ever berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (More on this below.) The stakes are clear for this team as it returns to Seattle Thursday for a second game in four days with the Arizona Coyotes.
Main Takeaway
The Kraken penalty kill wrote the narrative in Vancouver. The team was five-for-five killing penalties overall (including one in the first period and a double-minor in the third period), but it was how the team handled two overlapping penalties early in the second period that really changed this game.
The Kraken came into the second period down 2-1. They weathered a first Vancouver power play chance late in the first and into the second, but couldn’t convert that kill into any momentum because the team quickly took two more undisciplined stick infractions. First, Vince Dunn tripped Sheldon Dries at 2:17 in the second; and then, just over a minute later, Alex Wennberg’s stick caught J.T. Miller up high.
Facing an extended two-man disadvantage of almost a minute, the Seattle penalty killers did an admirable job winning the defensive zone draw, clearing the zone, and then denying controlled zone re-entries for much of that time. Yanni Gourde, in particular, stood out for his active work.
After killing the first penalty, Kraken defenseman Carson Soucy attempted a clear, but the puck ricocheted off Conor Garland and directly to Brandon Tanev who broke up the ice one-on-one with Vancouver defenseman Akito Hirose. Jared McCann jumped into the play as well, which held Hirose off, and Tanev snapped off a wicked wrist shot high blocker for a shorthanded goal at 5:07 in the second period.
NHL Video Highlight – Brandon Tanev scores a shorthanded goal against the Vancouver Canucks to make it 2-2. pic.twitter.com/UdEXSdmo1U
— Seattle Kraken Gamebot (@KrakenGameBot) April 5, 2023
Tanev’s score only tied the game at 2-2, but it effectively ended the night for Vancouver. The Canucks managed just six more shots on goal over the remaining 35 minutes of game action and never again looked like a team capable of beating Seattle. The Kraken, on the other hand, poured on 17 more shots on goal and lit the lamp three more times (including an empty netter). The penalty kill was the difference maker.
After the game, Kraken coach Dave Hakstol noted the importance of this stretch. “The kills in the second, the five-on-three, and then finding a [short-handed goal] to tie the game up, that really energized the bench,” Hakstol said.
Stock Up
Penalty Kill. As mentioned above, Seattle went five-or-five on the penalty kill. Since January 16, 2023, the Kraken rank second in the NHL in fewest opponent power play goals allowed, with just twelve allowed. The Carolina Hurricanes are first in this stretch with just eight allowed goals. Similarly, the Kraken are second overall in net goals while at a manpower disadvantage in this time period. The Kraken have scored four shorthanded goals, for a net negative eight goals overall; again only the Hurricanes are better, at net negative five. Good stuff from this group, which has found its footing since going to a diamond scheme and incorporating Jared McCann as a forward penalty killer.
Matty Beniers. Some of the talk coming into this one was about payback for Vancouver defenseman Tyler Myers for his hit on Beniers during the last meeting between these two teams. Kraken coach Dave Hakstol conceded before the game that the team hadn’t forgotten that hit, but insisted the team’s focus was on two points and the drive for the playoffs. Beniers did not disappoint in this regard. After Brandon Tanev leveled the score at two goals apiece, Beniers’ line went to work at even strength, and the young forward ground away on the boards, won the puck battle, and centered for Jordan Eberle for a beautiful go-ahead, game-winning goal.
NHL Video Highlight – Jordan Eberle scores against the Vancouver Canucks to make it 3-2. pic.twitter.com/WzV5V05jpI
— Seattle Kraken Gamebot (@KrakenGameBot) April 5, 2023
This is the type of play the Kraken will need to see from the young Calder Trophy candidate if the team is going to make any noise in postseason play.
Later in the second period, a ferocious backcheck from Beniers foiled a J.T. Miller shorthanded scoring chance. Hakstol called it a “huge” play that “erased what could have been a game-changing mistake.” Kraken fans have come to expect this kind of defensive play from Beniers, but it is worth taking a moment to note just how incredible Beniers’s defensive contributions have been this year. On-ice shot effect models characterize his defensive zone play as somewhere between very good and elite. And all of this is coming at a young age, before we would expect Beniers’s defensive play to peak. The sky is the limit for him on the defensive end, particularly if he can add some more strength to his game and improve his face-offs.
Defensive structure in the second half of the game. As mentioned above, the Vancouver Canucks managed just a half-dozen shots on goal over the second half of the game. The Kraken suffocated Vancouver’s transition game through the middle of the ice and shut down the dangerous scoring areas in the zone. In the third period, Natural Stat Trick credited Vancouver for generating shot quality worth just about one-third of an expected goal. This was great work by the Kraken protecting a lead—something the team has struggled to do in the past.
The Bjorkstrands. Oliver Bjorkstrand was a late scratch and did not play in this one because he was needed back in Seattle for the imminent birth of his first child. Congratulations to the Bjorkstrand family.
Stock Down
Some poor defensive coverage in the first period. A few lackadaisical plays in coverage through the middle of the ice and in the defensive zone cost the team in the early going. First, certified Kraken killer Elias Pettersson tipped in a goal when Will Borgen failed to neutralize him in front of the net. Later, Anthony Beauvillier finished off a cross-seam pass—read poorly by Martin Jones and the Kraken defense—into an open net. Fortunately, from Seattle’s perspective, Yanni Gourde found the back of the net on a screened long-distance wrister to give the team some momentum at the end of the first frame.
Alex Wennberg’s stick control. Wennberg took six minutes worth of penalties for getting his stick up into the faces of his opponents. Generally, Wennberg is a disciplined player who does not take many penalties, but he should be thankful his teammates picked him up in this one.
Jesper Froden and line shuffling. With Bjorkstrand out, Jesper Froden drew in on Yanni Gourde’s wing. Froden did not skate a normal compliment of shifts, however. Indeed, he ended with just 4:55 in total ice time. The coaching staff likely did not trust Froden to jump back in at full speed after such a long layoff. This led to some line juggling throughout the game and some sequences where the forward lines seemed out of sync.
Parting thoughts
Kraken prospect has a big night. Here’s a fun one: Jagger Firkus scored three straight goals for the Moose Jaw Warriors Tuesday in the first round of the WHL Playoffs. Moose Jaw is on the brink of eliminating Lethbridge, so it seems we will likely get to keep seeing the Firkus Circus for a while longer. We’ll be watching.
This Kraken team is built differently. This Kraken team generates offense in a fashion unlike any team the NHL has recently seen. According to the ROOT Sports broadcast, this Kraken team is the first since the 2005-06 season to have 13 different skaters record 30 or more points. And ROOT Sports’s Scott Malone noted on Twitter that the Kraken are the first team in more than 30 years to have 13 different players score 12 or more goals.
The depth of scoring has powered this team to within striking distance of the playoffs. “That’s been a part of our group’s success all of the way through and it’s going to have to continue for us to be in [the playoffs] and for us to have success once we get in,” Hakstol said after the game. Will it translate if and when the Kraken qualify for the postseason? That is the question.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are in sight. The Kraken now have 94 standings points and sit in the first of two wild card positions in the Western Conference. Seattle is competing with the Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, and Nashville Predators for these two playoff spots. If Winnipeg wins out its remaining games, the Jets would end up with 99 standings points. If Nashville wins out, it will get 96 standings points. If Calgary wins out its remaining games, it will end with 95 standings points. Since the Kraken already hold the regulation win tie-breaker on Nashville, regardless of the remaining games, this means the Kraken need to match Nashville’s maximum point total (96) to clinch one of the two wild card spots in the playoffs. In other words, the Kraken need just two more standings points from their remaining five games to clinch the postseason. They’ll have a chance to get those two points at home on Thursday night against the Arizona Coyotes.
Here’s @DarrenFunBrown’s post-game Walk and Talk after a gigantic 5-2 #SeaKraken win over the Canucks.
The Kraken took another big step toward their first playoff berth with a dominant 8-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes Monday at Climate Pledge Arena. After letting inferior teams hang around for a little too long in recent victories, Seattle put this one out of reach in the second period and left no doubt in the end.
Jared McCann had two goals, and Daniel Sprong, Vince Dunn, Carson Soucy, Morgan Geekie, Ryan Donato, and Justin Schultz each had two points. Meanwhile, Philipp Grubauer stopped 21 of 22 shots and had an assist of his own.
With the easy win, the Kraken got themselves off on the right tentacle for what figures to be a series of winnable games over the next week. It put them back to five points up on Calgary with a game in hand, and with Nashville losing Monday, the Predators are almost cooked. Now, by our math, if the Kraken can win three of their last six games, they are guaranteed a playoff spot, regardless of what happens elsewhere. Losses by Nashville and Calgary would shrink that number even more.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a big 8-1 Kraken win over the Coyotes, which earned the home squad two enormous points in the standings.
Takeaway #1: Jared McCann is so good
If Jared McCann ends up scoring 40 goals this season, he may go down as the 40-goal scorer with the least national press attention in history.
After potting two Monday against Arizona in his 500th career game, he needs just three more to hit the 40-goal milestone, a number typically reserved for the top echelon of players in the NHL. Yet, nobody seems to talk about him outside of Seattle.
“I’m not a guy that’s really focused on numbers,” McCann said. “I want to win a Stanley Cup. That’s the main thing, right? Your time in the NHL goes by so quickly, ask anybody on our team that’s been in the league [for a while], Jordan, Jaden, even some of those guys that have won a Cup. You have to work so hard for it, and if you get in the playoffs, it’s special and you need to take advantage of it.”
Ok, fine, but still, for a guy that says he’s had to “grind it out” in his career, we think it’s pretty special that he’s closing in on 40 goals after never hitting 20 before arriving in Seattle.
McCann’s first goal of the night came shorthanded after Matty Beniers broke up an Arizona zone entry, then quickly turned the puck north. Facing even numbers, Beniers and McCann did a simple cross-and-drop play, and McCann quickly snapped off his lethal shot, getting some help from an Arizona deflection.
McCann’s second goal of the night and 37th of the year was an absolute banger, and one that he created almost entirely on his own. He, Soucy, and Travis Boyd were all whacking away at a bouncing puck, just inside the Seattle blue line. McCann came away with it, and he and Jordan Eberle were off to the races on a two-on-one rush. Eberle went hard to the far post, and McCann did the rest.
The star scorer tried to toe drag the puck around the outstretched stick of Juuso Valimaki. Valimaki got a piece of it, but not enough to fully dislodge it, so McCann carried on with his drive to the slot and fired the puck against the grain. It was a perfect shot, off the inside of the post and in behind Ivan Prosvetov.
MCCANN CAN AGAIN! 🚨 He’s so good.
He gets a steal in the defensive zone, races in, toe drags, and snipes. Second of the night, 37th of the year.
“He had a great year last year here, and this year… he’s coming up big for us,” said Sprong. “He’s a threat offensively, he has the shot, and he’s dangerous every time he’s on the ice. And, you know, it’s [his] 500th game, so it’s good to see that he had a night like that. He deserved it.”
McCann’s pace had slowed of late—he had two goals in his previous 10 games before scoring twice against Arizona—so it was encouraging to see him get back on the horse in a big way.
Takeaway #2: The power play is suddenly cooking
We were chatting with Sprong this week about the power play, and he told us he thought the units had been getting good looks recently, so he felt like it was only a matter of time before they started clicking again. He has been a big part of the recent success, from his position on the left half wall on Seattle’s second unit, which is where he scored his crucial goal from against the Ducks on Thursday.
Sprong may have used that goal in the Anaheim game to the Kraken’s advantage Monday, as Coyotes defenders—who surely had seen the goal in their pre-scout—seemed to shift toward him once he got the puck. Instead of letting his wicked shot go this time, he whipped a shot-pass into the slot, where Jordan Eberle was waiting for the redirect.
EBERLE GETS ’EM ON THE BOARD! 🚨
Nice little shot-pass by Sprong, and Eberle deflects it by Prosvetov. Power-play goal.
The power-play goal got Seattle on the board, marking the third game in a row the Kraken have converted with the man advantage.
“We’re moving the puck, we’re getting pucks on net, we’re playing with confidence on the power play,” said Sprong. “And we’re taking the chances we need, the looks are there, and we’re capitalizing on it. So it’s good momentum for us, especially near the end of the year.”
Takeaway #3: That was the killer instinct Seattle needs this week
The second of back-to-backs Tuesday in Vancouver could be a tough game for the Kraken, but even so, it’s fair to say Seattle faces a weak schedule this week. The Kraken need to win a few more before they officially qualify for the playoffs, though, so taking care of business against these bad teams is critical.
The Kraken did just that against the Coyotes, and they left no doubt in this one, something we couldn’t say about their March 30 win against Anaheim. In that game, Seattle had chances to put a weaker opposing team away in the second period, but failed to do so, letting the Ducks hang around and giving a generally nervy feeling.
Monday against the Coyotes, the Kraken ended the second up 4-1 and gave themselves a good, comfortable third period to cruise through to victory.
“I think we just said in the dressing room, ‘We gotta stay on ’em,'” said McCann. “We can’t let up. We have a tendency to kind of back up a little more and kind of play defensive, and that kind of puts us in the soup sometimes. So we did a good job of staying on ’em tonight.”
As an aside, we love that phrase, “It puts us in the soup.”
What we saw in this one is exactly what we would love to see in Seattle’s next four games against Vancouver, Arizona again, Chicago, and… Arizona… again. Keep playing like that and closing bad teams out early, and clinching a playoff spot will be a breeze.
Bonus Takeaway: Unnecessary Roughness
Things got feisty at the end of this one. At 12:19 of the third period, Liam O’Brien gave Jamie Oleksiak no choice other than to fight him, a challenge Oleksiak accepted. O’Brien—who is much smaller than the 6-foot-7 Oleksiak—got the worst of it, but hey, at least O’Brien had his name called by the radio and TV broadcasters for his trouble.
Moments later, Soucy delivered a textbook reverse hit on Lawson Crouse, who then wanted to fight Soucy for some reason. The linesmen broke them up, but had they been allowed to drop the gloves, Soucy would have gotten a Gordie Howe hat trick.
Finally—and this is where things got out of hand—when Ryan Donato scored to make it 8-1, Sprong was going hard to the net. A second after the goal, Connor Mackey blew up Sprong with a completely unnecessary hit. Donato saw it and immediately went after Mackey, who dropped his gloves and punched Donato several times.
The hit by Mackey was an apparent retaliation for a hit Sprong had on Mackey earlier in the game, which earned Sprong an obvious interference penalty.
Worth noting again, these teams play each other two more times in the next week.
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.
About halfway through the Kraken-Ducks game on Thursday night, I leaned over to the guy next to me and said, “The Kraken could score ten tonight.” It was not that the Kraken looked that good, but more the Ducks looked that bad. I know there were a few players out, but the Ducks looked brutal in the first period. Needless to say, I was a little nervous while the Kraken hung onto a one-goal lead deep into the period. I let out a huge sigh of relief when Daniel Sprong potted his 20th of the season to give the Kraken a two-goal lead with less than five minutes remaining in the game.
The Kings game on Saturday night was a completely different story. This was one of those tough-sledding games where neither team wanted to give up an inch. It was probably the soundest defensive game I have seen the Kraken play in a while, which is crazy to think about compared to the last time these two teams played, when there was a collective 17 goals scored in the wildest game of the year. According to Natural Stat Trick, there were only 10 ‘high-danger’ chances in Saturday’s game, a season low for a Kraken game.
The first goal didn’t come until halfway through the second period when Jared McCann blocked a shot that deflected right to Sean Durzi on the side of the net, who had a wide open tap-in goal. The Kraken looked determined to tie it up in the third when they logged six out of the first seven scoring chances.
Carl Grundstrom would eventually steal the puck from an unsuspecting Brandon Tanev in the Kraken zone and immediately bury it for the Kings second goal. At the time, it felt like that would be all the Kings would need, but to the Kraken’s credit, they battled back to get it within one on an Oliver Bjorkstrand power-play goal. In the end, the Kraken could not find the equalizer and the Kings would go on to add an empty netter.
Other Kraken musings:
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Kraken had 68.3 percent of the scoring chances against the Ducks on Thursday night. That was the fourth-highest percentage for the Kraken this season.
Although he was not significantly tested in either game, Martin Jones has looked much better in his two starts this week compared to his prior string of starts.
I know I have called this stat out before but, Oliver Bjorkstrand has a shooting percentage of 14 percent since Jan. 1. He was 5.4 percent prior to the turn of the calendar year.
Morgan Geekie has been getting more ice time and generating more shots since moving to second-line wing. He is due for a two-plus goal night.
Chris Driedger posted his first shutout for Coachella Valley on Friday since being assigned there by the Kraken to continue his rehabilitation. If the Kraken can lock up their playoff spot over the weekend, I would not be surprised to see Driedger get a call-up to get in an NHL game before the end of the season.
The Kraken have now improved their points in the standings by 30 points compared to last season. Only 20 teams have done that since the NHL expanded to an 82-game schedule in the 1995-96 season.
With five games remaining, the max number of points the Flames can get is 97. Nashville has seven games remaining and could get a max of 98 points. Getting six out of eight possible points would be huge for the Kraken this week, as that would give them 96 points with three games remaining.
The top-seeded Windsor Spitfires find themselves down two games to zero in the opening round of the OHL playoffs. If the Spitfires get bounced early from the playoffs, we should expect Shane Wright to join the Kraken as a black ace.
Kraken themes for the week ahead
Statistically, this is the easiest stretch of games the Kraken have faced all season. They have two games against the Coyotes, one road game against the Canucks, and a Saturday-night game at CPA against the Blackhawks. The minimum they need this week is four points, but the expected points should probably be six. Arizona’s points percentage on the road is just .295, and they have just seven wins out of 39 road games this season.
The Coyotes will also be coming into Seattle with seven losses in a row. Meanwhile, the Chicago Blackhawks have currently lost eight games in a row. Although out of the playoffs, the Canucks have been playing better over the last few weeks and could be a tough team to play as the Kraken will be on the second night of a back-to-back on Tuesday. If they manage to get all eight points available this week, the Kraken would clinch a playoff spot without worrying what other teams do in their games.
Player Performance / Stick Taps
Dylan Guenther (ARI/Seattle Thunderbirds) – The Arizona Coyotes prospect had three goals in the Seattle Thunderbirds’ two playoff games over the weekend including two in the thrilling come-from-behind victory at accesso ShoWare Center on Friday.
Jagger Firkus (SEA/Moose Jaw) – The Kraken’s second-round selection from the 2022 NHL Entry Draft had five points in his two WHL playoff games over the weekend.
Daniel Sprong (SEA) – Four goals over his last six games including a nice goal against the Ducks to give the Kraken some breathing room late in the third period. Sprong’s 20 goals ranks third on the Kraken despite averaging 11 minutes a game and playing only 59 of the team’s 75 games.
Goal of the week
Double-overtime winner for Seattle Kraken prospect Jagger Firkus in Moose Jaw’s Game 1 victory over Lethbridge in the opening round of the WHL playoffs.
— x – Moose Jaw Warriors (@MJWARRIORS) April 1, 2023
Chart of the week
Luckily it was not a theme this week, but there has been chatter about the Kraken allowing a lot of response goals this season. The one goal that stands out as the prime example is the Wyatt Johnson goal scored just 14 seconds after the Kraken pulled within one in the March 13 game against the Stars.
Allowing a response goal is not as common as we might have thought this season. If you want to learn a bit more about response goals, check out this piece from Alison Lukan last season when response goals were a bigger issue.
Buckle up for a critical week
As easy as the schedule appears, this will be the most important week of hockey in Kraken franchise history. The boys are in a good position to punch their ticket to the playoffs, but it will be critical that they take care of the teams they need to take care of this week to stay in that position.
When the Kraken played the Kings on Nov. 29 in Los Angeles, Seattle skated to a mind-bending 9-8 victory in a game that featured oodles of offense and zero defense. Saturday’s game at Climate Pledge Arena was the exact opposite, perhaps the tightest-checking game we’ve ever seen Seattle play.
Through 40 minutes, there was almost nothing happening offensively at either end of the ice. Both clubs did a great job of clogging up the neutral zone, and once it got into either offensive zone, there was just no room to work the puck inside. Shots either came from the perimeter or got blocked or deflected.
In the end, the game came down to one bad bounce and one bad mistake. Here are our Three Takeaways from a hard-fought 3-1 Kraken loss to the Kings.
Takeaway #1: A bad bounce
This game had the feel that the first team to score would have an enormous advantage. That came to fruition after Sean Durzi got a fortuitous bounce and found himself all alone on the doorstep next to Martin Jones.
Late in the second period, with the score still 0-0, Durzi—a defenseman—was the first forechecker into the Kraken zone. Behind the net, he managed to poke the puck around the wall, but when he did so, he blew a tire and crashed hard into the end wall. Kraken defenders seemed to assume he was neutralized, so they let him be.
The puck swung around to Alex Iafallo, who loaded up at the top of the slot. McCann did exactly what he was supposed to do, lunging and deflecting the shot. But rather than ramping up over the net, as deflected shots often do, it skittered right to Durzi, who had recovered just in time for an easy tap-in goal.
Kings break the ice. McCann deflected an Iafallo shot, but it skittered right to Durzi on the doorstep for an easy tap-in.
“There’s a bounce of a puck on that play, but you always look at what you can do a little bit better,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “We can close a little bit quicker, and we can be in a little bit better spots.”
That’s a tough break. You’re defending so well, and even on a play that your forward blocks a shot, the outcome is an easy goal against.
Takeaway #2: A costly mistake
Considering how difficult it was for either team to get on the board with one goal, a second goal against made Seattle’s climb to get back in the game monumental.
Five minutes into the third period, the Kraken had shifted their approach a bit. Down 1-0, they were getting extended offensive zone time at five-on-five for the first time all game, and it felt like an equalizer could be on the horizon.
But Brandon Tanev, playing in career game No. 400, took a rim-around pass from Jones and started to skate the puck out of the zone. He slowed down ever so slightly as he prepared to make a stretch pass and didn’t sense the back-pressure coming from Carl Grundstrom.
The sneaky Grundstrom picked Tanev’s pocket and turned the play around in an instant, sniping a nice shot into the corner of the net.
D’oh! Tanev gets his pocket picked by Grundstrom, and Grundstrom snipes.
“Mistakes are part of the game, right?” said Hakstol. “Each of the goals that were scored tonight, there was a good play on one side probably a mistake on the other.”
To Seattle’s credit, the group didn’t give up and finally got on the board at 8:25 of the third with a power-play goal. The red-hot Daniel Sprong fired a hard shot that bounced off goalie Pheonix Copley and just missed going in. But LA’s clearing attempt went onto Oliver Bjorkstrand’s tape in the slot, and he had an easy goal.
That got Seattle back within one, but sure enough, the deficit proved to be too much to overcome against the air-tight Los Angeles defense and strong performance of Copley.
“There’s going to be games like that,” said Bjorkstrand. “You’ve gotta be comfortable playing those types of games. So, yeah, be patient, and when you get the chances, you just have to bury them.”
Takeaway #3: Tough sledding, but lots to like
The outcome is disappointing for the Kraken, who still have work to do to clinch their first playoff berth. One thing to consider, though, is that as they head down this final stretch, Seattle has a weak schedule remaining, with the exception of the last two games against Vegas.
Offensively, the Kraken didn’t do enough Saturday, but defensively they were excellent. That style of hockey wins you a lot of games in the NHL, especially if you’re playing weaker opponents. So, if they can replicate that effort every night the rest of the way, they should cruise easily into a playoff berth.
“We’re not going to break this one down into little bits and pieces,” said Hakstol. “We’re going to take some— two or three of the obvious takeaways and get going moving forward.”
Three Takeaways, you say?! We digress.
After the loss, Seattle’s lead is three points over Winnipeg for the top wild card spot, five points over Calgary for the last playoff spot, and six points over Nashville. The Kraken also have a game in hand over Winnipeg and Calgary and have seven games left to play.
