Maybe it hasn’t quite gone as well as we hoped it would for the Seattle Kraken in their first year. They are not the 2017-18 Vegas Golden Knights—not even close, in fact—and it does look like there is at least a couple-year process that will need to be endured before Seattle can actually ice a contending team. We begrudgingly accept this reality now.
Compared with the lead-up to the season, there is now a lot more clarity about what the organization does and does not have in its grasp. With the All-Star break coming to a close for the Seattle Kraken and the rest of the NHL, this feels like a good time to take stock.
What the Seattle Kraken have
Goaltending
We know, we know! Put down your pitchforks and your torches, folks. We are fully aware that this position has been a massive concern and one of the primary reasons for the team’s struggles this season. But both Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger appear to have turned a corner after a miserable first few months.
Coming in, we expected the goal crease to be a strength for this team, and we still think this will be the case in the longer term. A relatively small sample size of improved play from both netminders over the last month has reinforced this belief, and the team has followed suit by playing well in front of its goalies.
Even if they haven’t turned a corner and regress to playing the way they were both playing earlier in the campaign, Seattle’s top two netminders are signed to significant deals, so this position feels relatively set. Grubauer is under contract through 2026-27 with an average annual cap hit of $5.9 million, while Driedger is signed through 2023-24 at $3.5 million per year.
Grubauer also has a no-trade clause for the first three years and a modified NTC for the next three, so he’s not going anywhere any time soon. Driedger has a modified NTC throughout his deal, so he too has some control over where he can theoretically be traded.
Joey Daccord’s waiver exemption runs out after this season. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
We expect that these are the two goalies for this team for the foreseeable future, but there is one wrinkle to consider. Joey Daccord has played well in the AHL and has filled in admirably on a couple of occasions at the NHL level. He’s been a nice insurance policy, because he is currently waiver exempt and can be shuttled back and forth between the Kraken and the Charlotte Checkers without fear of losing him to another NHL club.
The problem is that Daccord’s waiver exemption runs out after this season. So, he will have to pass through waivers if Seattle tries to put him in the AHL at any point during the 2022-23 season. Does general manager Ron Francis want to get ahead of that issue and try to get a return for Daccord? Or does Seattle think Daccord is ready to serve as a cheaper backup to Grubauer next season? If so, maybe Driedger is the guy that gets moved. Either way, put a pin in this one, because it is something that may need addressing by the front office.
A core of solid (but not dazzling) players
The foundation is there for the Kraken. They have a group of players that does things the right way, doesn’t cheat, and battles every night, despite Seattle’s firm footing in last place in the Pacific Division.
Since the early-January break due to COVID issues, the identity of the club has revealed itself, and now Seattle is playing the way we expected from the beginning. The group makes the opposition fight for every inch of ice and is in every game, win or lose.
Jared McCann has already tied his career high for goals. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
There are also forwards that can produce. Jared McCann has proven that he can put the puck in the net consistently and deserves a nice raise, while Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle have pitched in for stretches. The Kraken have gotten contributions from guys like Yanni Gourde, Brandon Tanev, Ryan Donato, and Calle Jarnkrok as well.
Worth noting, Donato (restricted free agent) and Jarnkrok (unrestricted free agent) are on expiring contracts, so whether they remain Kraken beyond 2021-22 is yet to be determined.
Also worth noting, we really like this group of forwards, but if they could play in lower roles, they would each bring Seattle even more value. We’ll talk more about that in a bit.
Defensive depth
Like goaltending, the Kraken entered the season expecting to have a practically impermeable blue line. It was downright leaky in the early going, though, with turnover after turnover ending up in the back of Seattle’s net.
But recent returns have been far more favorable, with Wednesday’s 3-0 shutout of the New York Islanders serving as a prime example. That night, there was almost nothing getting through to Grubauer that created much danger, and odd-man rushes were almost non-existent for New York. Of course, the Isles are a defensive team that has struggled mightily this season, but still, it was a solid defensive effort by the whole group.
In the first three months of the season, the Kraken owned just 47.53 percent of the expected goals for (xGF), meaning they were giving up more defensively than they were generating offensively. They were 24th in the league in this category during that period. Since the early-January break, however, they have generated 52.46 percent of the xGF, good for 13th in the league over that stretch.
From a personnel standpoint, the season-long rotation on the bottom pair, featuring Haydn Fleury, Will Borgen, Jeremy Lauzon, and—to a lesser extent—Carson Soucy has made for interesting storylines about who will and will not be in the lineup each game. Up until this last week, it had also meant that even as injuries and illnesses popped up for the Kraken, they hadn’t needed to look to the AHL for defensive stopgaps.
With Jamie Oleksiak, Soucy, and Borgen all out at the same time, Cale Fleury was the first AHL defenseman recalled and performed admirably alongside his brother in two games for the Kraken. The fact it took 44 games for the Kraken to use an AHL defenseman does speak to the team’s depth in that spot.
Again, one month of positive play is a relatively small sample size. It’s also possible that Mark Giordano gets moved prior to the trade deadline, which would put a serious dent in the blue line. Still, the xGF stat is a promising indicator that the early struggles were fixable and not necessarily a matter of personnel. With all that in mind, we maintain that the Kraken do, in fact, have defensive depth.
What the Seattle Kraken need
Top-end skill
Don’t get us wrong, we love the trio of Eberle, Schwartz, and McCann, and we’re hopeful that McCann’s contract extension will be a long one. But what if Schwartz and Eberle were wings on Seattle’s second line, with McCann skating on the top group with some combination of players that features Johnny Gaudreau, Filip Forsberg, and/or Tomas Hertl?
Filip Forsberg is expected to be an unrestricted free agent after this season. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Even one of those players would change the whole makeup of Seattle’s forward lineup and give Eberle and/or Schwartz more favorable matchups, while pushing players better suited for depth and checking roles into those positions.
We know, free agency is scary, and getting one (or two?) of the best unrestricted free agents on the market is both risky and costly. But Seattle has a lot going for it, from the cap space to the sparkling new facilities, so luring top talent is a legitimate possibility.
Recognizing the risks, landing a top free agent or two this offseason would be the fastest way to jumpstart this organization on its path to contention.
Organizational depth
The times that Seattle has had to call up help from the AHL this season have revealed just how shallow its current pool of players is. This should marginally improve next season, as the Kraken will have their own AHL affiliate with the inception of the Coachella Valley Firebirds. They’re likely going to have to sign a bunch of career AHLers and tweeners to fill out the inaugural roster, though, as they still won’t have much of a prospect cupboard from which to draw.
Building real organizational depth will take several years of drafting and developing players.
That brings us to the next obvious need for Seattle…
A prospect pool
Ryker Evans had an outstanding training camp for the Kraken. (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Seattle’s top-three picks in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft are all looking like good choices, based on early returns.
Matty Beniers is having another excellent season at Michigan with 36 points in 28 games and is now in China to compete in the Olympics.
Ryker Evans had a great training camp with the Kraken and has 43 points in 39 games on the blue line for the Regina Pats of the WHL. He scored a banger on Sunday, by the way.
Ryan Winterton has returned from a long injury hiatus and has 16 points in just eight games for the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.
So, there are some players there, but three guys under 20 years old is not a prospect pool. Getting another lottery pick in the 2022 draft would certainly help, but it may behoove the organization to acquire some young, waiver-exempt prospects that are further along in the development process.
The Kraken are in a decent spot
While there are some glaring holes in the existing NHL roster and throughout the organization, Seattle has done a good job of building a foundation for the future. There’s plenty of salary cap flexibility, and the current group is creating an identity as a team that is hard to play against and skates with every team in the NHL.
Sure, some more wins would be nice, but at this point, the best-case scenario for this inaugural season is to win enough to keep the fans interested down the stretch, while also losing enough to stay in contention for a top-three pick in the 2022 draft.
Regardless of if Seattle lands another top pick, there is a pathway to success in the relative near future for this fledgling franchise.
With the All-Star break upon us, we thought it would be a good time to check in on NHL attendance numbers across the league.
There are a few preconditions we need to call out before we start digging in.
The 2020-21 NHL season started with no fans, as it began in the middle of the pandemic and before vaccines were readily available. For that reason, we will be comparing the 2021-22 NHL attendance numbers to 2019-20 games.
In late December, 2021, the provincial governments in Canada put restrictions on large gatherings, and this included NHL games. The league also postponed several Canadian games to get through this Omicron wave. Games in Canada would eventually start up again with limited to no capacity, depending on the location. We have excluded limited-capacity games in certain visuals to illustrate a better comparable.
Average NHL Attendance by Season
The drop from 17,157 in 2019-20 to 15,780 in 2021-22 should not be surprising, as the pandemic is still surely impacting the willingness of fans to attend sporting events. We should also point out that the 15,780 includes reduced attendance figures from Canadian games in January.
Here is a look at a game-by-game moving average:
You can see the impact of the reduced capacity games over the last month with the drop in the most recent 50 games.
Here is how it looks with excluding the reduced capacity games.
Even with the reduced capacity games excluded from the data, the NHL attendance numbers are still off from 2019-20. This is mostly driven from the Omicron variant raging through North America and giving many fans pause.
Team-by-team changes
The one bright spot in the team-by-team attendance figures is the New York Islanders. They opened UBS Arena this season, and the impact to their attendance is significant with a 36 percent boost compared to the 2019-20 season. In 2019-20 the Islanders split time between Barclays Center and NYCB Live/Nassau Coliseum, both of which had limited capacity and a less than ideal fan experience.
On the other side of the equation, the Sabres are down 50 percent compared to the 2019-20 season. There are plenty of reasons for the drop: team performance, the Jack Eichel situation, and the challenges for fans to cross the Canadian/US border for hockey fans living near Buffalo but in Canada.
Anaheim and San Jose are outperforming their 2019-20 performance and preseason expectation on the ice, but the fans are not turning out. It is common when teams fail to make the playoffs in multiple seasons that it takes a few seasons for fans to start filling up arenas again.
Here is a look at teams by game number of the season.
Outlook
Even with some encouraging news surfacing around COVID-19 case data, it is unrealistic to expect the numbers to turn around this season while the pandemic is still a thing. Best case scenario is that the league can start the Stanley Cup playoffs with full capacity in every building.
The boys are back in BarrDown Studios for Episode 173 of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, recording fresh off Philipp Grubauer pitching the first shutout in the history of the Kraken. Seattle had a decent road trip in general, and John, Andy, and Darren have full analysis of what went right and what went wrong.
They then move into general NHL news, including the All-Star Game and its festivities, the latest PR catastrophy for the Chicago Blackhawks, the Coyotes playing at the ASU arena next year, and Evander Kane becoming an Edmonton Oiler.
After all that, they move into segments, which this week include Goalie Gear Corner, You Don’t See That Every Day, Bad Boys, and Weekly One-Timers.
The boys are back in BarrDown Studios for Episode 173 of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, recording fresh off Philipp Grubauer pitching the first shutout in the history of the Kraken. Seattle had a decent road trip in general, and John, Andy, and Darren have full analysis of what went right and what went wrong.
They then move into general NHL news, including the All-Star Game and its festivities, the latest PR catastrophy for the Chicago Blackhawks, the Coyotes playing at the ASU arena next year, and Evander Kane becoming an Edmonton Oiler.
After all that, they move into segments, which this week include Goalie Gear Corner, You Don’t See That Every Day, Bad Boys, and Weekly One-Timers.
He did it! Philipp Grubauer accomplished what once seemed even more impossible than Joonas Donskoi scoring a goal for the Kraken by shutting out the New York Islanders on Wednesday for the first clean sheet in franchise history. And so, the Kraken proved on this four-game road trip that there is a first time for literally everything.
It was a tight-checking affair between two defense-first hockey teams, so Grubauer was not tested all that much. Still, considering how the early parts of this season went for the German Gentleman, it was nice for him and for Kraken fans that he continued his strong play and held the Islanders scoreless.
It was such a big deal that he got the shutout, even ESPN’s SportsCenter congratulated him via Twitter.
Congrats, Grubi! Now here's a photo of Chris Driedger to help you celebrate. https://t.co/GBtSLKZJ8K
Here are our Three Takeaways from a 3-0 Kraken win over the Islanders.
Takeaway #1: A result for Grubauer, but an impressive defensive effort in front of him
It was awesome to see Grubauer get the first shutout out of the way, but really this win belonged to the defense in front of him. The Kraken had excellent structure throughout and only allowed 1.51 expected goals, while generating 3.1 themselves. There were very few odd-man rushes against, and only 19 shots actually got through to Grubauer.
“Great, great game from everybody,” Grubauer said. “I don’t think they had too many great chances. When you compare this game to other games we’ve played, [there were] breakaways, two-on-one’s. Today was the least scoring chances we’ve given up in a long, long time. So without the guys in front of me, there’s no chance you can [get the shutout].”
Grubauer has been really good since a lengthy COVID-related break in early January and deserved this reward. In his last seven starts he is 5-2-0 with a .922 save percentage and 2.14 goals against average.
Takeaway #2: Vince Dunn has entered the chat
Jared McCann’s goal streak was snapped Tuesday in Boston, after he scored in three consecutive games before that 3-2 loss. In that defeat, he had a golden opportunity to tie the score in the closing minutes and extend his streak, but he shanked a shot from an angle with a wide-open net.
On Wednesday, he got a look from an even sharper angle after Jordan Eberle performed some sorcery behind the net and got Semyon Varlamov looking the wrong way. McCann banked it off Varlamov for his fourth goal in five games.
That eventual game winner was McCann’s 19th goal of the season, tying his career high for an entire campaign with a whopping 36 games left to play. How many can he score as he prepares to negotiate for a contract extension?
Vince Dunn stole the show from McCann on Wednesday, though, burying an absolute beauty of a backhander. The shot was nice, but it was the little dipsy-doodle backhand toe drag around Anders Lee that got John Forslund to shout, “That’s hockey, baby!”
What a goal by Dunn, who is so shifty on the back end. We’re excited for his future with the Kraken.
Takeaway #3: The road trip was better than Seattle’s record indicated
We’ve thought for a long time that the Kraken are a better team than their record shows. This road trip was a great example of that. They played really good hockey on this east coast swing with consistent efforts all the way through. They beat an outstanding Pittsburgh team, were tied in the last minute with the Rangers, gave up a fluky power-play goal and went 0-for-6 themselves against Boston, and were the better team for most of the night against the Islanders.
In all, that’s a 2-2-0 record after going 3-3-0 on the homestand prior to this trip. So, it’s not the most inspiring outcome, but the boys really did play well and probably deserved better in terms of standings points than what they actually brought home.
“At this time of year, these are the kinds of games that everybody’s going to be involved in,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “You know, really, we had four in a row on this road trip. We knew that was the kind of road trip it was going to be. For the guys, it’s a good reward.”
“It started after that little COVID break we had,” Grubauer added. “We had time to work on some stuff systematically. We worked on a lot of things, which—game, day off, game, day off—you don’t usually have time to work on. So I think since that game it’s been really consistent.”
A win to close out this stretch does feel nice, and now Seattle slides into the All-Star break feeling good about the way it’s playing.
The Kraken get another week off to clear their heads and hopefully hit the ground running when they return to Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday.
The Seattle Kraken fell 3-2 to the Boston Bruins Tuesday at TD Garden in a game that was the tale of two power play units. One was Seattle’s that ended the game 0-for-6 while the Bruins cashed in twice giving them the edge in a one-goal game.
David Pastrnak scored both the goals on the Bruins (26-14-3) power play, which is one of the best in the NHL and Linus Ullmark made 25 saves.
Joonas Donskoi scored his first of the year, Mason Appleton scored, and Chris Driedger returned to the net and kicked out 23 shots. The Kraken (14-27-4) outshot Boston 27-26.
“It’s a relief,” Donskoi said about finally scoring. “It’s been obviously a tough year and mentally it’s not easy. Nothing’s going your way and we’re losing a lot of games and I just want to help the team, and I feel like I haven’t been able to do a lot of that this year. So, it was nice to get that out of the way, but another one-goal loss, tight game… it’s frustrating.”
Seattle had six power-play chances but failed on all of them. That included a short, 38-second 5-on-3 opportunity in the second period, and overall, the Kraken managed eight shots with the man advantage.
“It was a tight game, five on five, and comes down to special teams,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We had some opportunities on the power play that could change that. In terms of scoring earlier in the game, we weren’t able to do that.”
The loss dampened what had been a good comeback by Seattle.
Trailing 2-0 entering the third period, Donskoi cut the lead with a wrist shot through traffic 42 seconds into the period. Seattle rode that momentum and Appleton scored his fourth of the year at 7:30 of the period when he fired a loose puck through traffic to make it 2-2.
Pastrnak got the game winner on the power play at 10:49 of the third when his innocent looking shot was going wide before it hit Driedger’s glove and rebounded into the goal to make it 3-2.
“I’m just not really happy with the third I let in there, it’s pretty deflating,” Driedger said. “That one’s on me. Especially when we come back to tie in the third like that, and you know obviously, we want to get that third one.
“I honestly thought he was passing it back door there. Puck was lying up on its edge a little bit so I’m not sure if he was trying to [pass]… but whenever it hits off your glove and kind of flows back I’m never really happy with those. Obviously, he’s an elite player but there’s a lot of elite players in this league and you’ve got to stop them if you want to be good yourself.”
The Kraken had looks during a desperate 6-on-5 stretch late in the third, but Jared McCann rushed a shot where it appeared he had a wide-open net to shoot at.
Bruins goals forced Kraken to chase game
Boston got on the board first with a Pastrnak one-time clapper from the circle. It came on a Bruins power play after they worked the puck low to high and Taylor Hall spotted Pastrnak open.
Seattle fumbled the puck away at 16:09 when Cale Fleury and Riley Sheahan suffered a miscommunication and left the puck in front of their own goal. Hall cleaned it up and scored to make it 2-0.
Kraken’s offensive woes continue
It doesn’t help that they’re missing Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Tanev, but the Kraken are not scoring enough. It’s not just the power play, they aren’t scoring at 5-on-5 either and have scored two or fewer goals in the last three games.
The lack of scoring cost them in New York and Tuesday in Boston.
To add to the misery, Seattle’s power play is mired in a 3-for-38 slide over its past 10 games.
“They did a real good job killing,” Hakstol said. “We couldn’t find shooting lanes. Several shots blocked and on a couple of our good opportunities on the power play we missed by a couple inches. We’ve got to try to take advantage of those opportunities.”
Tentacle Tales
+ Cale Fleury came off the taxi squad and started Tuesday. He played on a defensive pairing with his brother Haydn to become the third pair of brothers to play on the same team this season joining Chicago’s Caleb and Seth Jones and Tampa’s Darren and Taylor Raddysh.
+ Defenseman Will Borgen was placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol Tuesday morning.
+ Forward Calle Jarnkrok returned to the lineup Tuesday after missing Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers.
+ Seattle wraps up its road trip Wednesday evening against the New York Islanders at 4 PM, Pacific.
Say this five times fast: “The Kraken are back in Back Bay.” How did it go? Ok, technically, TD Garden isn’t quite in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, but it is pretty close. And technically, the Kraken have never played in Boston before, so we aren’t sure if that tongue twister really applies here, but it sounded fun, so here we are. Back Bay or not, the Kraken are in Boston to take on the Bruins for the first time on Tuesday.
We are expecting a couple of lineup changes Tuesday for Seattle. Will Borgen has entered COVID protocol, so he joins injured defensemen Jamie Oleksiak and Carson Soucy on the shelf. That means that for the first time this season, the Kraken will officially dip into their AHL defense pool, and Cale Fleury will make his Kraken debut alongside his brother, Haydn. How neat is that?!
The younger of the Fleury brothers, Cale, has one goal in 41 career NHL games. Those games all came during the 2019-20 season with the Montreal Canadiens before Alexander Romanov arrived and took Fleury’s job. In 36 games with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers this season, Fleury has five goals and 12 assists.
Get to know Cale with this Sound Of Hockey Podcast interview from August.
Another injury for the Kraken
Karson Kuhlman—acquired recently off waivers from these very same Bruins—has been placed on injured reserve after going hard into the boards Sunday against the Rangers. He appeared to hurt either his left arm or shoulder and immediately left that game.
It’s a bummer for Kuhlman, who seemed to be getting his legs under him with the Kraken and showed well in five games. Here’s hoping it isn’t too lengthy of an absence.
With that additional injury to the already battered forward corps, the Kraken also recalled Kole Lind and Max McCormick. Calle Jarnkrok is a game-time decision, but if he is available, Lind or McCormick would not be used.
Jarnkrok was a last-minute scratch Sunday with an upper-body injury. Coach Dave Hakstol indicated the injury was sustained Thursday against the Penguins. Jarnkrok was trying to play through it but decided he couldn’t go during warm-ups, so Morgan Geekie took Jarnkrok’s spot in the lineup. Now that Kuhlman is out, we expect both Geekie and Jarnkrok will play for the Kraken against the Bruins (again, assuming Jarnkrok can go).
Driedger gets engaged, gets a start
When the Kraken started this road trip, they expected to play back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday. But the winter storm that walloped the east coast caused Saturday’s game against the Islanders to get postponed until Wednesday. So, the Kraken now have back-to-backs in Boston and Long Island on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In Tuesday’s game, Chris Driedger will get his first start since a Jan. 15 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings. He had started to play very consistently before landing on COVID protocol for a lengthy stretch, so after this long of a layoff, it will be interesting to see if he can pick up where he left off.
It’s been a tough season for Driedger, who has been injured multiple times, then had to miss more games with COVID. But hey! He got engaged on Monday!
Projected lineup
First period highlights
Apparently Driedger was ready to play after the long layoff, and looked very… engaged (get it?!)… in the early stages of the game. He made three outstanding saves in a span of less than a minute, with the last of the three, a sprawling split save, being the most impressive.
Those stops by Driedger were the most exciting plays of the first period, which ended 0-0 with Seattle leading 9-7 in shots on goal.
The power play had two opportunities but continued its unimpressive run. In the last eight games, the only times Seattle has scored with the man advantage came during a five-on-three against Nashville and a six-on-four against the Rangers. Everything has been on the perimeter with the power play of late.
Second period highlights
The game took a feisty turn when Yanni Gourde crushed Urho Vaakaneinen behind the Boston net. Vaakanainen was twisted around in an awkward position and hit his face on the glass. The official called a five-minute major on the ice, but reviewed it and reduced the penalty to a two-minute minor for boarding.
Brandon Carlo blew a tire trying to escape Marcus Johansson at 8:49 of the second. Johansson was right on him, and in real time, it looked like he had tripped Carlo. Replay showed that Carlo had clearly fallen on his own, but a tripping call had already been made.
Predictably, just 17 seconds into the power play, David Pastrnak blasted a one-timer from the left circle that glanced off Joonas Donskoi and beat Driedger to make it 1-0 Bruins.
The Bruins extended their lead to 2-0 at 16:09 when a loose puck wobbled onto Riley Sheahan’s stick in the slot right in front of Driedger. It looked like Sheahan had a chance to clear, but the slightly bouncing puck eluded him. Taylor Hall jumped on it and in one motion put the puck in the back of the net.
In Seattle’s 45th game of the season, Donskoi finally got his first goal 42 seconds into the third period. On a broken play, Donskoi picked up a loose puck in the slot and rifled it through traffic.
Donskoi has been doing all the right things in his play and finally gets on the scoresheet.
— Did Joonas Donskoi Score Today? (@DidDonskoi) February 2, 2022
Goodness, did he ever deserve that.
Mason Appleton drew a Brad Marchand penalty at 4:47. With the Kraken PP continuing to stink as if it had just eaten a whole boatload of asparagus (get it?), Boston quickly killed that off. But soon after it ended, Appleton deflected an Adam Larsson shot past Linus Ullmark and tied the game at 2-2.
The tie was short-lived, however. With Mark Giordano off serving a tripping penalty, the Bruins got back on top with another power-play goal by Pastrnak. It was a weird one. The shot came from just outside the face-off dot and may have missed the net, but Driedger got his glove on it and somehow redirected it into the net behind him.
With Driedger off for an extra skater, Jared McCann had a look at a wide-open net in the closing minutes of the game. He shanked the shot and missed the net completely for what should have been his fourth goal in as many games.
Incredible late chances for #SeaKraken but they fall 2-3 to Boston after a hard fought 60 minutes.
The Seattle Kraken are in Boston Tuesday to face the world-famous Bruins, an original-six team, if you’re into those kinds of things.
Boston has the history and the tradition, which of course has no impact on the game, but Seattle will have its hands full in this one. For starters, the Bruins enter the game with a 25-14-3 record and in fourth place of the tough Atlantic Division.
They are coming off a 6-1 drubbing Sunday at the hands of the Dallas Stars so should be in a sour mood when the Kraken show up. Offensively, Boston is 15th in the league with 3.02 goals per game but only have a plus-ten goal differential. The Bruins are not invincible and are 14-8-1 at home.
Is the Perfection Line still perfect?
The Bruins still feature one of the more dangerous top lines in the NHL. Led by the all-popular Brad Marchand (21g, 26a, 47p), Dunkin Donut enthusiast David Pastrnak (20-20=40), and the ageless Patrice Bergeron (12-21=33) the so-called ‘Perfection Line’ is still kind of perfect.
Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin continue their competition over who's the last guy off the ice during warmups: pic.twitter.com/z4LGs9FbxZ
There’s a bit of a fall-off after that top line, however. They’re getting scoring from Taylor Hall (27 points) and Charlie McAvoy (28 points) on the back end but not much from anyone else.
It doesn’t take a hockey expert to see that the Kraken will have to try and contain the Perfection Line if they want points. Easier said than done, but must be a key to victory.
Who’s stopping the puck for the Bruins?
Former Buffalo Sabres sort-of-good goalie Linus Ullmark will start in net against the Kraken. Overall, Ullmark is having a decent season with a 15-6-0 record and .912 save percentage. He’s allowed four goals twice over his last three starts, including that loss to Dallas, so if you are the Kraken… shots, shots, shots.
Ullmark was a pupil of Kraken goalie coach Andrew Allen when the two were in Buffalo. Has Allen spilled all Ullmark’s secrets to the team this week? We will find out.
Bruins odds and ends
Boston is 16-0-0 when leading after one period while Seattle has trailed after the first period 21 times this season – and ended up winning three of those games.
On the power play, the Bruins are sixth in the NHL with a 25.4 percent success rate. At home, it’s even better where they are at 28.6 percent and second best in the NHL. So, don’t take penalties.
Killing penalties, Boston is ninth best at home with an 84.7 percent success rate.
From the Northwest to Boston
There are a couple of local connections with the Bruins. One is obvious while the other may fly under the radar.
The latter is Tuesday’s backup goalie Jeremy Swayman who grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. After Alaska, Swayman played his college hockey for the University of Maine which means he was once a Black Bear and is now a Bruin.
Defenseman Brandon Carlo has spent some time in Washington State with the Tri-City Americans. Carlo, a physical defenseman, spent three seasons in Kennewick with the Americans from 2013 to 2016. The Bruins selected him with the 37th pick during the 2015 NHL Draft.
Tied at 2-2 with 34 seconds left in regulation, the New York Rangers won a faceoff back to the point and onto the stick of defenseman K’Andre Miller. Seattle Kraken forward Riley Sheahan raced out to cover Miller but was hit square in the chest by New York’s Chris Kreider. There was no interference call, and Miller fired a shot that found the net to give the Rangers a 3-2 win at Madison Square Garden Sunday.
The goal spoiled what was a dramatic comeback by Seattle.
“’I’m gonna stay away,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said after the game about the goal. “I’m not going to waste time on that play or how I feel about it. I think that would take away from the spotlight of how well I think our team played and how hard our team played today.”
After heavily outshooting the Rangers to the tune of 42-24, Yanni Gourde’s one-timer at 18:52 of the third period on a 6-on-4 power play tied the game at 2-2 and appeared to give the Kraken a shot at winning in overtime for the second straight game.
“Honestly, the game was right there,” Gourde said. “At least getting out of here with a point. Very unfortunate. We battled, you gotta be proud of the guys there because they battled for 60 and unfortunately, we weren’t able to come up with any points tonight, but we had the right mentality.”
Like on Oct. 31 at Climate Pledge Arena, Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin was too much for the Kraken. In that first game between these teams, he made 31 saves to win 3-1. On Sunday, he kicked away 40 shots to win 3-2.
Jared McCann scored for the third straight game and Philipp Grubauer was sharp, making 21 saves. The Kraken were 1-for-5 on the power play.
“I thought we played a really good game throughout, and I thought we generated a lot,” Mark Giordano said. “I don’t know what the shots ended up, but we got a lot of pucks toward [Shesterkin]. You’re not gonna get more than two or three on that guy most nights, he’s a top goaltender in the league for a reason. Made a lot of big saves tonight but we executed pretty well there.”
How it played out for the Kraken
The Rangers opened the scoring at 11:46 of the first period. After quick passing on the power play they worked it to Mika Zibanejad who scored on a one-timer from the circle to the right of Grubauer.
A Zibanejad shot at 4:23 of the second period would extend the lead after the puck hit the post and was tapped in by Alexis Lafrenière to make it 2-0.
Seattle got one back from McCann at 7:17 when he finished a quick passing play with Marcus Johansson and Jordan Eberle to cut the lead to 2-1.
“It’s just a tough way to lose,” Giordano, who had an assist, said. “It was a fun game to play in. I always loved coming to this rink and playing in New York and I feel like we’ve been on the wrong end of those way too many times this year. So hopefully in the next 40 it’ll change the other way.”
The Kraken outshot New York 25-12 over the first two periods but found themselves trailing 2-1.
Injury bug bites Kraken before and during game
Calle Jarnkrok, who has been hot for Seattle, was a late scratch Sunday after taking warmups. He reportedly had an upper body injury that prevented him from playing. Morgan Geekie was inserted into the lineup without warming up and played 9:54 of the game with five shots on goal and won three of four faceoffs that he took.
In the first period, Karson Kuhlman slammed into the side boards hard, left the game, and did not return.
“This group is growing together, and I say it every day, we’ve still got a ways to go, but the signs and the results of what we’re doing are improving,” Hakstol said. “Today we played like a pretty tight hockey team, and we had some injury issues before the game, during the game, and guys just stepped forward and continue working. We’re still working towards exactly who we want to be, but again, we played a pretty good game tonight.”
Tentacle Tales
+ McCann’s goal was his 18th of the season, and he is one away from his career high, set during the 2018-2019 season playing with both Florida and Pittsburgh.
+ Seattle had 42 shots on goal Sunday which is a franchise record.
+ Miller’s go-ahead goal with 34 seconds left is the second go-ahead goal the Rangers have scored in the final minute of a game, which is the most in the NHL this season.
+ The Kraken will next be in action Tuesday when they play the Boston Bruins.
Sunday is one of those days when sports watching on the west coast proves to be far superior to other timezones. Yes, there are two championship NFL games on, but for those of us in Seattle, we get the rare pleasure of rolling out of bed and jumping right into a Seattle Kraken game, as they take on the New York Rangers at 10 a.m. Pacific.
In an already bizarre season that has had starts and stops and an ever-changing schedule, another surprise was thrown at the Kraken this weekend. Their game against the New York Islanders, which was scheduled for Saturday, got pushed back to Wednesday due to the snowstorm battering the east coast.
The latest shift in the calendar means the Kraken come into this game against the Rangers rested, as opposed to being on the second of back-to-backs, as was previously planned. It also means Philipp Grubauer will get the nod again, coming off an outstanding performance to help steal an overtime win from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.
New York Rangers have rebuilt quickly
The expedited rebuild in Manhattan is apparently done. The process for the Rangers was sped up dramatically with the uncovering of a young defenseman primed to be a perennial Norris Trophy candidate in Adam Fox (he did win the prestigious award last season). Fox was traded to the Rangers by the Carolina Hurricanes when he was still in college, a small deal at the time that has paid off in spades for New York. Fortunately for the Kraken, Fox is out Sunday with an injury.
Perhaps even more impactful, the Blueshirts appear to have found their long-term replacement for the legendary Henrik Lundqvist. Igor Shesterkin, a 26-year-old Russian in his third NHL season, very well could end up the Vezina winner this year. Shesterkin has been dominant all season long, posting a 20-5-2 record with a 2.10 goals against average and .936 save percentage.
His skills were on full display when the Rangers visited the Kraken on Halloween. That night, Shesterkin stopped 31 of 32 shots and earned a 3-1 win.
Also on display that night at Climate Pledge Arena was Chris Kreider, who scored in the first four minutes of the game with a top-shelf snipe on Grubauer. That goal was one of a whopping 31 (!!!) on the season for Kreider, which ties him for the NHL goal-scoring lead with Leon Draisaitl. It would be an understatement to say that this has been a career year for the 30-year-old Kreider. His previous high in goals for an entire season is 28, so he has already eclipsed that mark just halfway through the season.
With the rebuild happening so quickly, the Rangers are back in contention this season, currently holding down the third spot in the Metropolitan Division with a 28-13-4 record. They trail Carolina for the top spot by just two points, though the Hurricanes have four games in hand.
Lundqvist’s jersey retirement was spoiled by the Minnesota Wild on Friday. New York jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, then gave up three unanswered goals. The Rangers appeared to tie the game with :01 left on the clock, but it was waived off due to Cam Talbot’s pad being pushed into the net. That was New York’s second loss in a row, so the Blueshirts will be hungry on Sunday.
Lineup
Calle Jarnkrok was a very late scratch and was replaced in the lineup by Morgan Geekie. Here’s how the lines shaped up after that change.
First period highlights
The Rangers drew first blood with a beautiful power-play goal. Alex Wennberg was in the penalty box after a very soft tripping call. Artemi Panarin made a perfect pass through the seam to Mika Zibanejad, who fired it past Grubauer for his 17th of the season.
Karson Kuhlman laid a big hit on Libor Hajek at center ice, but went hard into the boards and came up in a lot of pain. He sprinted to the bench with his left arm pinned to his side and quickly left the game.
Forward Calle Jarnkrok missed today’s game with an upper-body injury.
Karson Kuhlman will not return to today’s game due to an upper-body injury.
Seattle had the better of the possession and outshot New York 13-5 in the opening frame, but the power-play goal by Zibanejad was the lone tally.
Second period highlights
The Rangers extended their lead to 2-0 4:23 into the second period. Zibanejad blasted from the left hash and hit the post. The puck dropped right into the crease behind Grubauer and onto the stick of Alexis Lafreniere who scored one of the easiest goals of his young career.
The Kraken answered three minutes later when Jared McCann got his third goal in three games and brought Seattle back within one of the Rangers. On a pretty passing play off a three-on-two rush, Marcus Johansson dropped to McCann, who passed outside to Jordan Eberle. Eberle went right back to McCann in the slot, who buried it.
Seattle continued to dominate most possession metrics through two periods and had registered 25 shots against Shesterkin by the time the second horn sounded. But we saw in the Kraken game against the Predators recently that Seattle can outshoot a team while not really testing the opposing goalie. That was how it felt through 40 minutes, as Shesterkin didn’t seam to be under much duress.
Third period highlights
The third period escalated quickly. It went from not much happening to a LOT happening in the closing minutes. With a late Kraken power play winding down and Grubauer off for an extra skater, Mark Giordano walked across the blue line to drag some Rangers defenders with him. He dished the other way to Yanni Gourde, who fired a rocket into the top corner, tying the game at 2-2 with just 1:07 left.
Riley Sheahan was the victim of a missed interference penalty just before Miller’s shot, but with 33 seconds left in the game, we weren’t surprised it didn’t get called.
It was a hard-luck loss for the Kraken, who probably deserved better. In all, they put 42 shots on Shesterkin, but he showed why he’s been such a star this season and got the win for New York.
