Three Takeaways – Kraken beat Predators 5-1 for fifth consecutive win

by Darren Brown | Nov 9, 2022 | Three takeaways

While most of the nation was anxiously watching and awaiting the results of the US mid-term elections Tuesday, the Seattle Kraken were busy knocking off the Nashville Predators, extending their franchise record win streak to five games. 

Seattle got off to a hot start in the first period and chased Nashville’s starting goalie, before sagging in the second. To their credit, though, the Kraken minimized the damage in the frame and regrouped before the third to seal another convincing win. 

“Good teams find a way to win, and that’s what we’re doing,” said Morgan Geekie.

Seems simple enough, but we’re still going to dig into Tuesday’s victory and try to understand what’s happening with the streaking Kraken. Here are our Three Takeaways from a 5-1 Kraken win over the Predators. 

Takeaway #1: The boys came out BUZZING

Seattle picked up right where it left off from its perfect road trip and wasted no time getting on the board against Nashville. After Andre Burakovsky caught an Oliver Bjorkstrand pass in the neutral zone, he looped back toward the Kraken end and found a streaking Jordan Eberle at the red line. Eberle dangled around Ryan McDonagh to gain the zone, then shot over the stick of former Kraken Jeremy Lauzon and past Juuse Saros. 

The goal came just 38 seconds into the first period, and just like that, the boys were once again off and rolling.  

“We started the game well,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We were opportunistic on some turnovers that we created. In reality, we picked up where we left off at home.”

Added Geekie, “We haven’t really used our crowd to our advantage [this season], and I think tonight, we made it a point to do that, obviously with the start we had.” Seattle hadn’t been as dominant at home as it had been on the road—the team is now 3-3-1 at home versus 5-1-1 away—but the Climate Pledge Arena crowd was raucous Tuesday and had plenty to cheer about throughout the night.

By the 16:25 mark of the first period, Eberle had already scored two goals and hit a post, and he was only part of the offensive picture in the opening 20 minutes. His second goal was Seattle’s fourth of the night and sent 2021-22 Vezina Trophy finalist Saros to the bench, replaced by Kevin Lankinen. 

Also scoring in the early going was Will Borgen, who sniped a shot over Saros’s shoulder to make it 2-0 at 7:29, and Burakovsky, who took an Alex Wennberg pass and toyed with Saros to extend the lead to three at 15:16. 

By the time the first horn sounded, Burakovksy had a goal and two assists, Eberle had two goals, and Geekie, Bjorkstrand, Wennberg, and Borgen each had a point. It was the first time the Kraken have ever scored four goals in a period. 

Takeaway #2: Martin Jones is locked in

Seattle sagged pretty dramatically in the second period, but Martin Jones stayed hot and bailed his mates out on several occasions. He stopped 10 of the 11 Predators shots he faced in the period and 24 of 25 on the night, improving to 6-3-1 on the season with a 2.61 goals against average and .901 save percentage. 

“Solid. He’s been a rock for us,” Morgan Geekie said of Jones. “Obviously, he’s a new dad and stuff, so he’s playing for a little extra out there. But, he’s been awesome for us, and I can’t say enough good things.”

Geekie may be onto something there. Since Jones’s first child was born, he has won four consecutive starts with a .966 save percentage and a 1.00 goals against average. Those are eye-popping numbers and a welcome sight for a team that struggled so mightily in the crease last season. 

There are simply no wasted movements for Jones these days, and that comes from him reading the play exceptionally well. He’s in position to make saves in advance of shots, and once he’s set in the right spot, it’s just a matter of dropping to the butterfly and closing down as much of the net as he can. Plus, he’s tracking the puck. When opposing teams avoid shooting into his pads or chest, Jones is easily steering pucks into the corner with his blocker or catching them for a whistle. 

“He’s a calm goaltender in there,” Hakstol said. “Tonight he made a couple saves where his movements were pretty quiet, but there were a lot of good saves. Pucks that are coming form the outside through traffic, he was in good spots on, and because of that he also was able to be in good spots for some of the in-tight battles.” 

Takeaway #3: That’s five! 

Not to toot our own horn, but we accurately predicted on Episode 211 of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast that the Kraken were on the verge of getting on a run. Fast forward a week and a half, and they look like world beaters.

The reason we thought Seattle was going in the right direction was because even when it was losing games—like against Vancouver and Chicago—it was the better team. But turnovers, bad bounces, and five-minute lapses were costing the Kraken. We thought if they could stop letting mistakes compound on each other, they would start getting the results consistently, and that is exactly what has happened. 

Tuesday was an odd game in that the Kraken jumped to a 4-0 lead before the end of the first, and Nashville predictably came out looking pissed in the second, while Seattle had predictably eased off. 

“When you get up that early, it’s tough to stay on the gas like that, and I think we faded in the second period,” Geekie said. 

“You don’t want to be lackadaisical, but a lot of times that’s what happens,” said Eberle. “The second period obviously wasn’t great.”

But even when Seattle’s game dropped off in the second, it minimized the damage to just one goal against and still cruised into the third period with a comfortable three-goal lead. That’s the difference between this five-game streak and those Vancouver and Chicago games; even when the Kraken give up a rare goal, they don’t let that build into any kind of real momentum for the opposition. 

So how do they keep this streak rolling? 

“I think the biggest thing for us right now is to not get too high here,” said Eberle. “I know we’ve won five in a row, but we have a big homestand with some really good teams that we’re about to play.”

—

Jamie Oleksiak left the game early with an injury. Hakstol did not have an update on Oleksiak’s status after the game. The Kraken will have a team day off Wednesday before returning to practice Thursday. They will welcome the Minnesota Wild to Climate Pledge Arena on Friday.

Three Takeaways – Kraken rolling with good goaltending, different players contributing

by Darren Brown | Nov 5, 2022 | Three takeaways

The Seattle Kraken knocked off the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second time in a week Saturday, sweeping the season series and sweeping a difficult three-game road trip. Backed by another awesome performance by netminder Martin Jones, the Kraken came away with a confident 3-2 win. 

Jordan Eberle had said after morning skate on Saturday that another win against the Penguins could be a turning point for the franchise in terms of developing a winning culture. Is that what this is? Are the Kraken winners now? 

Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-2 Kraken win over the Penguins. 

Takeaway #1: Seattle is rolling, sweeps road trip 

Thinking back to last season, on the rare occasion the Kraken would get wins, it almost always looked like they were giving everything they had to get to the final horn. Players would sell out to block shots, and as contests came down to the wire, you always felt like Seattle was on the brink of collapse.

When the Kraken have won this season, that has not been the case. They are playing with a certain swagger, where they seem to believe that even when they’re being outshot and out-chanced—as they were on Saturday—a positive result will come, so long as they stick to their structure. Desperation never seems to really set in, because this year’s Kraken rarely are desperate. 

“There were pieces here that weren’t all that pretty,” coach Dave Hakstol said of Saturday’s game. “But there was never a point in the hockey game where you felt like our group was rattled or coming apart in any way, shape, or form. Guys are calm, guys are looking what they can do next shift.”

Get ahead? Great. Seattle will shut the opposition down. Fall behind? Fine. Seattle will find clutch goals to tie and eventually lead. That’s what this team is right now.

“We’re playing as a team, and it’s really fun to play that way,” Yanni Gourde said. “All four lines, all [six defensemen], [Martin Jones] has been unbelievable in net, so it’s been really team wins since the beginning of the year.” 

While the first win of this three-game road trip, a 5-4 result over the Calgary Flames, required some serious tenacity, most of Seattle’s seven victories this season have felt like calm, confident wins that were well deserved. Though Seattle was outshot 37-28 in Pittsburgh, it never looked under duress, even in stretches when the Penguins were pushing. 

“That’s the mindset and the goal we had setting out to this road trip,” Brandon Tanev said. “In the three games we played, we beat three good teams, and that’s the idea we wanted to do.”

The Kraken have won four games in a row for the first time in franchise history, and they just swept a tough three-game road trip that spanned three time zones and the entire North American continent. With the latest victory, Seattle improved to 7-4-2 and took sole possession of second place in the Pacific Division from the Edmonton Oilers. 

Takeaway #2: Brandon Tanev and Yanni Gourde come up big

You know a team is playing with confidence when every night it seems like it’s winning in different ways with different guys stepping up and contributing. On Saturday, it was Gourde and former Penguin Tanev who made the difference. 

With 12:12 left to play and the game tied 1-1, Tanev redirected an errant Morgan Geekie pass with his shinguard, right onto the tape of Gourde at the top of the crease. Gourde wasted no time in swatting the puck by an unprepared Tristan Jarry to give the Kraken a 2-1 lead. 

Then, after Matty Beniers had inadvertently deflected a Jake Guentzel pass into Seattle’s net to make it 2-2, Gourde returned the favor to Tanev, who showed his finishing abilities to give Seattle the win. 

“Personally, that’s great for me, but I think it’s more important that the team got all six points on this road trip,” Tanev said. Turbo finished the night with a goal and an assist, while Gourde had a goal and two assists.

Morgan Geekie got elevated to play with Tanev and Gourde late in the game and assisted on both of their goals, bringing him to seven points in his last seven games.

Takeaway #3: The Kraken have good goaltending

A big piece of the swagger we mentioned in Takeaway #1 comes from the team’s confidence in its goaltending. Hakstol’s defensive systems revolve around keeping shots to the outside and allowing the netminder to make the saves he’s supposed to make. Martin Jones has done that and then some in the last three games.

Jones has returned to the form we saw from him in his earlier San Jose Sharks days, when he arrived and immediately demanded the starter role. After stopping 22 shots to earn a shutout in Minnesota on Thursday, Jones was razor sharp against the Penguins Saturday and stopped 35 of 37 shots. He has a .968 save percentage and 1.00 goals against average in his last three games. 

Tanev called the goaltenders on this road trip—Jones and Joey Daccord—the “backbone” for the team. “We fed off them and we got some timely goals, and I think as a group we played and understood what we needed to do,” he said. 

“Our goaltending has been really good throughout this road trip,” Hakstol added. “It started with Joey in Calgary, and Jonesy picked up right where he left off from his home performance a week ago. You have to have that in order to have success on the road, especially in a game like this. His performance is critical for us.” 

What’s remarkable about Jones is how unremarkable he makes most saves look. Even on Pittsburgh’s best chances Saturday, Jones was always in position, wasting no movement, and simply closing off any holes from Penguins shooters. 

Not only that, his rebound control was impeccable.

On nights when Jones hasn’t been at his best—the Oct. 27 game against Vancouver comes to mind—Jones has still looked calm and in position, but he hasn’t tracked the puck as well. Both Thursday and Saturday, you could tell he was dialed in by how pucks were hitting off of him and bouncing out of dangerous areas.

Jones hasn’t allowed many second chances lately, as he has been kicking pucks into corners or swallowing them up for face-offs. 

Having Seattle’s No. 2 goalie playing the way Jones is playing right now is encouraging. Whenever Philipp Grubauer returns from his injury, if he too can pick up where he left off, Seattle’s goaltending will finally be where we hoped it would be a year ago.