The Seattle Kraken fell short of the ultimatum I set in last week’s Monday Musings of grabbing five out of a possible six points, but I can’t be upset at the effort. The boys came away with gutsy wins against the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins but fell short of gaining a point versus the Edmonton Oilers in a Saturday afternoon matinee.
This might have been the best three-game effort the Kraken have brought this season against some high-quality opponents. From top to bottom, the team is really bought in and showing the desperation to stay in the playoff hunt right now.
Unfortunately, the Kraken woke up on Monday nine points out of a wild card spot and again looking at a logjam of four teams they would need to climb over in the standings to get into the postseason. Getting in is looking less likely every day, but if the Kraken can play the rest of the season like this, I still think they have a shot.
Remaining schedule
The next four games will be the toughest four games remaining on the schedule. Even if they only manage four points of the eight available, the Kraken might be ok to stay in it as long as either the Los Angeles Kings or Nashville Predators start to lose a bit more than they win. Over the next four games, the Kraken have one game against the Calgary Flames, two against the Winnipeg Jets, and then one game against the Vegas Golden Knights. After those four games, the schedule gets easier with six out of the next eight games being against teams that are mostly eliminated from playoff contention.
Alex Wennberg
With the trade deadline this coming Friday, I worry this might be the last week we see Alex Wennberg wearing the Seattle Kraken jersey. Regular readers will know that I love Wennberg and what he has brought to this franchise. He was one of the first free agents to sign in Seattle before the team ever took the ice. I am always blown away with his play and patience with the puck, and I marvel at his footwork and board play.
I will never forget the below play during the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. A lot of the highlights won’t show his contributions to the goal, but the whole sequence doesn’t happen without his board work.
He had another great play on Monday that will go underappreciated, when he gained the zone, and as five Bruins set up to defend, Wennberg delivered a soft pass to empty ice that Will Borgen. Borgen swiftly stepped into it for a one-timer that Oliver Bjorkstrand tipped by Linus Ullmark.
🚨 CUE THE MAESTRO! 🚨
Bjorkstrand tips a Borgen shot in with 5 minutes left!
If this is truly his last week or even season with the Seattle Kraken, he will be missed. He currently leads all Kraken forwards in ice time, and he plays on the power play, penalty kill, and is often deployed in key defensive situations.
Hard sell, soft sell, or hold
What the Kraken do at the trade deadline is still anyone’s guess. I found Pierre LeBrun’s take on what the Kraken might do with their two biggest assets on expiring deals humorous. LeBrun’s take was the Kraken could re-sign Wennberg and Jordan Eberle, or they might re-sign one of them, or they might do nothing. So, they could do anything.
We published a story on the topic a couple weeks ago, in case you want to read up on that and hear what the players themselves said about the situation.
There are three trade deadline scenarios that could play out:
A hard sell would be if the Kraken trade either Alexander Wennberg and/or Jordan Eberle.
A soft sell would be if the team traded Justin Schultz and/or Tomas Tatar
Holding would be doing nothing or moving a depth piece in the system.
The fate of what they do might come down to the back-to-back games to start this week. Two wins, and they might hold. Two losses, and I think a hard sell will be kicked into motion. I do think there is a way this team could make the playoffs even with a “soft-sell,” where maybe it trades only Schultz and has Ryker Evans slot in for him the rest of the way (just as an example).
Other Musings
After a successful goalie interference challenge last Monday against the Bruins, the Kraken are two for two in goalie interference challenges this season. The success rate for goalie challenges league wide is 63 percent.
The Boston game was the 17th overtime game of the season for Seattle. That tied the full-season total from 2022-23, so the next overtime game this season will mean the most OT games in a single season for the Kraken. Here is how overtime games have broken down by seasons.
If the Kraken start the week with two regulation losses, the season is probably cooked, and I would appreciate people checking in on me on Wednesday morning.
Tuesday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets will be the first time the Kraken square off against the Jets this season. Winnipeg is the only team in the league the Kraken have not faced this season, but they will play two in a row against them this week.
The Kraken are still winless at home on Saturdays this season. The loss to Edmonton pushed their Saturday home record to 0-5-2. The Kraken have two more Saturday home games remaining this season.
It is great to see Philipp Grubauer getting in a groove. He has a .942 save percentage with a 4-1-0 record since coming back from injury. Outside of last season’s playoffs, this is probably his best stretch of games he has played with the Kraken.
Player performances
Morgan Geekie (BOS) – The former Seattle Kraken and Tri-City American had his first career hat-trick against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. We continue to root for Geekie as long as he isn’t playing against the Kraken.
Philipp Grubauer (SEA) – Grubauer had a .944 save percentage and a 2-1-0 record on the week including a shutout against the Penguins, his first of the season.
Jagger Firkus (MJW/SEA) and Carson Rehkopf (KIT/SEA) – Both players might be the most mentioned players in the Monday Musings for the season. Both Seattle Kraken prospects are having outstanding years for their respective clubs, and both eclipsed the 50-goal mark on Sunday.
For those that might have missed it, we had two outstanding guests on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast this week with Piper Shaw and Alison Lukan in studio. The episode was packed with tomfoolery and hijinks, but there was also plenty of Kraken insight, so give it a listen.
One thing Alison called out was Andre Burakovsky’s actions that helped with the Vince Dunn goal against Boston. The breakdown is in her below tweet.
2-2
Dunn with the equalizer but Burakovsky is so critical here – this comes right after a shift where he dangled right in front of Ullmark…BOS knows they have to defend him – he draws two and Dunn has plenty of space to send in the shot that gets in net. #SeaKrakenpic.twitter.com/exF4UYDOH0
Also, on the podcast we discussed a different framing of shots and shot attempts, called ‘shots on target.’ It’s just shots on goal, but in context of shot attempts, you could widen the lens to evaluate how many shot attempts actually get to the goalie. So, naturally, I investigated it.
I originally started just looking at percentage of shots on target, and that showed Seattle had the second-lowest percentage of shot attempts that are on target. When I saw Carolina below the Kraken, I felt it needed additional context since Carolina is one of the better teams in the league this season. I then added total shot attempts per game to help add more color to the story.
This was pulled together in about 30 minutes on Monday morning, so there is still a lot more to dig into here, but it is an interesting perspective to start evaluating some of the shooting performances across the NHL.
The week ahead
I have been implying the Kraken’s situation (in terms of making the playoffs) has been dire for a while. They have been staying afloat, but the Predators have really started to separate from the rest of the pack and currently have a nine-point advantage on the Kraken for the last playoff spot. Seattle still has two games in hand but will need to climb over a few teams, even if Nashville starts to falter. I am also ready to lock the Kings into a playoff spot at this point, which only leaves that Nashville spot.
The first half of March has the Kraken facing some quality opponents, and that kicks off this week with a game Monday against an equally desperate Calgary Flames team and two games against the Central Division leaders, the Winnipeg Jets. Anything less than four points and at least one against Calgary might sink these Kraken playoff dreams in season three. The team has been playing well and still shows a lot of compete that has me clinging to a few last shreds of hope.
As always, thank you for making it this far. If you have questions, thoughts, or reactions, feel free to leave a note in the comments and I will do my best to respond and engage.
Almost two months have passed since we first outlined the playoff chances for the Seattle Kraken. In that first iteration, we concluded the Kraken would need to hit 93 points to give themselves a 50-percent chance at making the playoffs. They fell three points behind the 93-point pace in January, so they needed to obtain 11 points in February to get back on track. They did just that.
It was a bumpy ride in February, but in the end, the Kraken finished the month 5-3-1 (exactly 11 points), capping it off with Philipp Grubauer’s first-ever shutout at Climate Pledge Area and first shutout of the season.
February review
List of games: LOSS – Sat, Feb. 10 @ Philadelphia 3 – 2 (Bubble) LOSS – Mon, Feb. 12 @ New Jersey 3 – 1 (Bubble) WIN – Tue, Feb. 13 @ NY Islanders 2 – 1 SO (Bubble) WIN – Thu, Feb. 15 @ Boston 4 – 1 (Playoff Bound) OT LOSS – Mon, Feb. 19 vs Detroit 4 – 3 (Bubble) WIN – Thu, Feb. 22 vs Vancouver 5 – 2 (Playoff Bound) LOSS – Sat, Feb. 24 vs Minnesota 5 – 2 (Bubble) WIN – Mon, Feb. 26 vs Boston 4 – 3 SO (Playoff Bound) WIN – Thu, Feb. 29 vs Pittsburgh 2 – 0 (Bubble)
Bubble teams:
Let us start with the lows of the month, which is how the Kraken fared against Bubble teams. After the NHL All-Star break, the Kraken came out flat and lost two straight games to the Flyers and Devils. That really put Seattle in a hole and increased the pressure to perform. Later in the month, the Kraken laid an egg, losing 5-2 to the Wild for their third loss to a Bubble team.
Goaltending:
Joey Daccord is showing signs of cooling off. He had one win during the month of February and four losses (three in regulation, one in overtime). He was also pulled in the Minnesota game, but on the positive side, he still held a respectable .904 save percentage for the month. The one win came against the Boston Bruins and was a bright spot for the Massachusetts native. Another player by the name of “Post, Clang” might have had a few saves in the Boston game as well.
On the flip side, as the team struggled with Daccord in net, they excelled with Grubauer and went 4-0-0 in his starts. The wins included Grubauer’s shutout of the Penguins, two shootout wins against the Islanders and Bruins, and another regulation win against the Canucks. The German Gentleman did not always need to be his best but looked solid in his return from injury. Grubauer posted a stingy .947 save percentage during the month of February.
Playoff-Bound teams:
The Kraken were a perfect 3-0 against Playoff-Bound teams, which highlights what this team is capable of achieving. Two wins against Boston and one win against Vancouver is something to build on with March now upon us. Continuing to succeed against top teams will be key to the Kraken’s chances of making the playoffs.
February overall:
In the original article on the playoff chances for the Seattle Kraken, 93 points was shown to give a team a 50-percent chance of making the playoffs. Things that were hard to watch:
The Loss to the Wild resulted in a four-point swing
The Predators going on an amazing 9-1-0 run through the month
Remember, neither of these items changes the math. The Kraken need 30 points out of a possible 46 points to hit the 93-point target for the rest of the season. This works out to a .652 points percentage.
Focusing on March:
March is a busy month with 14 games on the schedule and the trade deadline fast approaching on March 8. Of the 14 games, six are against Playoff-Bound teams, three are against Bubble teams, and five are against Tanker teams. The Arizona Coyotes have gone 0-8-2 in their last 10 games and have been relegated to the Tanker teams. No other changes to team categorizations were made. Here is a list of the team categorizations:
Trade Deadline:
There are three more games before the trade deadline, but the Seattle Kraken are probably not going to get all the answers to their playoff hopes from just those games. Eyes will be on the Predators who also have three games before the trade deadline. If the Predators are able to widen their wild card lead even more, the Kraken might turn to being sellers at the deadline.
It should be noted that the Predators have two games in hand, so the current seven-point (as of Feb. 29) lead over the Kraken could be as small as three points. But everything would need to go in the Kraken’s favor over the next week for that to be true.
Wrap up:
March could very well play out similarly to February, as the first seven games are against tough opponents, before Seattle finishes the month with five of its last seven games in the month against Tankers. Strap in for another bumpy ride, but we should know the Kraken’s playoff fate by the end of this month.
Philipp Grubauer has stated his case that he does not want to be the backup goalie for the Seattle Kraken anymore and earned an impressive 33-save shutout in a 2-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.
Seattle didn’t have much jump to start the game and allowed Grubauer to get peppered with 18 shots in the opening frame. But the team kept most of Pittsburgh’s offerings to the perimeter, and the German Gentleman stood tall to help the Kraken get to the intermission with a 1-0 lead.
“When you have that type of goaltending, it builds confidence because it erases mistakes,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “Mistakes happen all the time in this game, and when a goaltender takes one of those off the board, all of a sudden, it’s a little easier to focus on the positive things.”
At the other end of the ice, Seattle got a fortunate goal off a goofy bounce by Oliver Bjorkstrand and a tenacious power-play goal by Alex Wennberg. That was more than what Grubauer needed to help his team take the two points.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a big 2-0 Kraken win over the Penguins.
Takeaway #1: Grubauer is rolling
With the way Grubauer is playing right now, Hakstol almost has no choice but to continue leaning on him in the goal crease, even though Joey Daccord deserves a chance to get back in after a rough outing against the Minnesota Wild last Saturday.
Grubauer improved to 4-0-0 with a whopping .947 save percentage in five appearances (including his relief appearance in that Wild game, when the decision went against Joey’s record) since returning from the injury he suffered on Dec. 9.
Sometimes it’s nice for a goalie to face some outside shots to start the game and build some confidence, and that’s exactly what happened Thursday. But still, 18 in a period is a little much, and the Kraken needed their netminder to play very big in that opening frame.
Grubauer was tracking the puck as well as we’ve ever seen from him. There was a slap shot in the second period that got tipped and slowed down halfway to the net, and Grubauer simply kicked it away as if it was the easiest shot he had ever faced. Those types of deflected shots can and should fool any goalie, so when he handled that with ease, we knew he was really cooking.
We thought Grubauer’s best save of the night was the first one in the below clip on Sidney Crosby during a power play.
There were a couple tough factors on this play, with the first one being the read on the pass. Grubauer likely did not have a clean view of Kris Letang at the point, which is why it’s so common for goalies to be late getting across on plays like this. Yet he recognized the pass and got a good push from right to left, sliding blade-first into the far post. The second challenge was the screen created by Jamie Oleksiak trying to block the shot. The puck went right between Oleksiak’s skates, yet—again—Grubauer tracked it into his pads, which were firmly clamped down across the ice, leaving nowhere for that puck to go. It was a textbook handling of this play.
The shutout was Grubauer’s first since April 7, 2022.
“It’s been a while for myself, but obviously it’s more important to get those points than to get the shutout,” Grubauer said. “It’s huge for the team too, because everybody played their part.”
Takeaway #2: That’s how you close out a game
How many times have you seen this team—in its three-year existence—take a lead into the third period and then sit back for 20 minutes and either give up the tying goal or have a mad scramble to the finish?
That did not happen Thursday. The Kraken kept the pedal down and tilted the ice for much of the third, while avoiding taking risks that led to odd-man rushes. Instead, they allowed just five shots against Grubauer in the frame and fired 12 on Tristan Jarry.
“The group was really committed to the simple, basic things in the third period,” Hakstol said. “And I think we had an understanding coming out of the first that we really weren’t at our best. We lost a lot of the races in the first period, and we were a half-step slow in some areas. So we had to work through that and get better throughout the game, and we did that. In the second period, we were a little bit better. The third period was… it was a real good period for us.”
The Kraken were playing like they would not be denied of an insurance goal, and Wennberg’s power-play goal at 15:02 of the third was a great example of that. He took the puck hard to the net and got stopped, but then Kailer Yamamoto was right there to poke at it, and Wennberg kept swatting at the loose puck in the crease until it finally caromed off Jarry’s glove and popped up under the bar.
🚨 WENNY WILLS IT IN! 🚨
Wennberg would NOT be denied of his 100th point with the #SeaKraken and a HUGE insurance goal.
There was no sitting back in this third period and no mad scramble, because Seattle played one of the most structurally sound periods of hockey it has played and cruised through what we thought would be a highly stressful third period.
Takeaway #3: Just keep swimming
It has to be a tad frustrating for this group to look at the standings right now and see that—even as they’ve picked up points in six of their last seven and are 5-1-1 in that span—they STILL trail both the Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings by a whopping seven points.
Glass half full, the Preds are on a seven-game heater right now that won’t last forever, and the Kraken are doing well to keep pace with them. The Kings have slowly inched back within reach, and the Kraken did step over the Wild with their win last night. They are also now level in points with both the St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames (who also have won four in a row).
We’ve been saying all along that the toughest thing about Seattle’s position in the standings is the number of teams they have to jump over to get back into a wild card spot. They’re right on the cusp of putting themselves ahead of all the other chasers, though, so they should keep their eyes on the prize and keep winning a game at a time.
The gap to a wild card spot really hasn’t closed, but we’re back to believing Seattle can still do this.
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.
What happens when you put 30 goalies together on one sheet of ice? Pure and utter chaos, of course!
Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, and now residing in Oak Harbor, Wash., Kyle Sorenson, known as Salmon Nerd (@NerdSalmon) on X, had a simple yet oddly brilliant idea for a hockey game.
Calling it the “Oops, All Goalies” game, Sorenson, along with 32 other regional goalies from all different ages and levels of competition, migrated up to Bellingham Sportsplex in Bellingham, Wash., last Tuesday night to see his idea come to fruition.
The game went viral across social media platforms and was even featured on a ROOT Sports Kraken pre-game show.
I hosted "Oops! All Goalies" this week. 5 on 5 hockey. Goalies only. This is the opening face off and goal by me.
No skaters allowed. Full goalie gear required. Must be a goalie. We had 30 show up!
The rules were simple. The two teams played five goalies per side, but none were allowed to be in their native position in the crease. There would be no offside calls, and all penalties would result in penalty shots.
So, what was the motive to make this event even remotely possible? Sorenson explained himself…
—
Cameron Riggers: What led to this even being an idea?
Kyle Sorenson: I’ve done goalie games at points in the past, but it had never been a full-structured game like this was. The whole idea of it with rules and paying referees to come and manage the chaos, it was all my idea. And then it takes your friends to agree to a stupid idea like this.
CR: What was the main challenge of getting this event to work?
KS: Convincing all those goalies to come up here was the main challenge. There were only three from Bellingham proper, and then the rest of them were spread out along the I-5 corridor. A few were from Everett, someone from Oregon came up, a few from British Columbia, Canada, came down.
CR: How hard is it to move in all that gear goalies wear?
KS: It’s not as hard as you would think. I think there’s a lot of misconception that goalies are the worst skaters on the team, when in actuality I think goalies are some of your best skaters, they have some great edge work. If you give a goalie an opportunity to get out there, it’s kinda cool to see them shine. I know a couple of the goalies who joined us and were only hockey players for a few months were very nervous about getting out there and moving around. Sure, some of them were slower than others, but I think it’s impressive just how fast some of those guys were moving.
CR: What was the age range of everyone who was involved?
KS: Anyone over 18 could join, but most everyone was about 24-60 years of age.
CR: What was Bellingham Sportplex’s thoughts on being host to this event?
KS: I have a good relationship with Bellingham Sportsplex, and they were excited to host such a goofy event. When I told them about it, they were sold instantly.
CR: How much did it cost you put this together?
KS: Initially I had to pay around $700 after tax, but split evenly among everyone, it was only about $40 per person.
CR: This game gained a lot of traction online, going viral on numerous social media platforms. What have been some of the most positive outcomes you’ve seen from this?
KS: I think the main thing was that connecting all those people was really amazing. I really think that it’s generated a lot of attention to hockey in our area. A few of the goalies already made moves to join local leagues like in Everett or Bellingham. This event was a lot of the guys’ first times speaking with other goalies. Almost all those guys are friends now, and this really united a lot of people.
I knew it would be popular just because it’s a weird idea. I think I read about a thousand comments across all the platforms that it was posted on, and almost every single one was positive.
CR: Do you think goalies embody the other stereotype that they’re good at everything they do?
KS: I think so! One of the comments I kept seeing online was how good the positioning was by some of these goalies, and I was like, ‘I think this is because all these goalies are sick of yelling at skaters to get in the right position.’
CR: Which NHL goalies could you see getting on the ice in an event like this?
KS: I think Jeremy Swayman would be all over this, and obviously Joey Daccord if he saw this would be all about it. Maybe in the offseason we could convince him to come out. Henrik Lundqvist made note of this event too, which I thought was awesome.
CR: Seeing the amount of turn out for this special event, as well as what the Kraken have done for growing the game of hockey in this region, how do you think interest has grown in your eyes?
KS: Seeing the growth of hockey here is awesome. There’s been a passionate hockey community in Washington for a long time, but to see it be so high on people’s minds, especially for the kids of this region, has been fantastic.
—
Expanding beyond the game, Sorenson believes that this event and the arrival of the Seattle Kraken to the Pacific Northwest are just a few of the ways that hockey is piquing interest in this region with the ways it continues to evolve. He is hopeful to have the event return in the coming years, and that events like this will continue to inspire young kids to give playing hockey a chance.
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CR: With events like this, how do you think we could get more people involved in this game?
KS: It’s goofy stuff like that where it’s interesting to people that have never seen anything like it before. But as far as getting more people playing, it’s access. We need more sheets of ice, especially with hockey not being an inexpensive activity. Providing more access to kids, like the Kraken’s One Roof Foundation… If I were to do an event like this again it would be to raise money for kids in youth hockey in some way, whether it be ice-time or a gear drive, to increase kids’ ability to access hockey.
CR: Do you think if someone who’s new to hockey and wants to play sees you out there in a game like this, do you think they would want to give being a goalie a try, or would they stay away from it?
KS: I think they would want to try it, if they see how fun it is. Goalies are particularly goofy, as the stereotypes go, and seeing us out there in a 5-on-5… A bunch of the people who participated mentioned going to learn-to-play events that lead into playing adult hockey, and talking to people who are interested in goalie. Right now, most learn-to-play’s don’t teach goalies, so if you’re an adult starting out, there’s not many current goalies who teach hockey for adults. I think this is something we’re going to start doing.
CR: Could you see yourself doing an event like this and involving the Kraken somehow?
KS: If the Kraken wanted to do something where it was actually at a game, I would love it if it would be all kids. If the Kraken Community Iceplex and the Kraken Hockey League wanted to do it where it involved raising money for kids to access hockey, I’d be all about it.
“Just when I thought I was out… They pull me… BACK IN!” Ok, but seriously, we don’t know what to make of this Seattle Kraken team right now. After sweeping the season series against the Boston Bruins by fighting tooth and nail for a 4-3 shootout victory, the Kraken are back to five points from a playoff spot. That’s still a huge mountain to climb, though, and the NHL trade deadline is looming ever closer.
The players aren’t doing a great job of giving clarity to their general manager on what he should do in advance of that March 8 deadline. They handily knocked off the high-flying Canucks, followed that up by laying an egg against the Wild, and then rebounded for a thrilling come-from-behind win over another of the best teams in the league, the Boston Bruins, on Monday.
“Our level never really changed throughout the game,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We competed very hard, the confidence level was good… [We got] timely saves, timely plays, collectively and individually. That gets it done for a big two points.”
We’ll pause our What should this team do at the deadline? questions here, and instead just talk about what happened Monday. Here are our Three Takeaways from a thrilling 4-3 Kraken shootout win over the Bruins.
Takeaway #1: A big night for Grubi
If this team stays in the playoff race beyond the deadline, it will be interesting to see how Hakstol’s goalie usage evolves. There have been interesting twists and turns in this saga throughout the season, with Daccord rising to near-star levels during Grubauer’s injury absence, then Grubauer returning and not getting many opportunities to play with Joey having seized the net.
Now, Daccord has had a couple of his less-stellar outings of the season in a row, and Grubauer has been playing like he wants the crease back.
“[Grubauer was] solid all the way through,” Hakstol said. “Really solid, some big saves at the right times, three for three in the shootout. I mean, there’s not much more we can ask for from Grubi tonight.”
32 shots against isn’t a massive volume, and his .31 goals saved above expected isn’t all that dazzling of a number. But Grubauer came up with some gigantic stops at critical junctures in the game, and he also shut down both of Boston’s Charlies (Coyle and McAvoy) and sealed the win by kicking away David Pastrnak’s second cheeky chip shot of the game.
Pastrnak scored the game’s first goal with almost the exact same move he made in the shootout, pulling the puck behind him and then sending a soft wrist shot meant to deceive the netminder.
“He came in way slower than in the game,” Grubauer said of the shootout attempt. “So [he had] a little bit more time to make a move in the shootout. But this guy has so many tricks in the bag. You don’t expect him to do the same thing twice.”
Grubauer’s biggest saves came A.) with the game tied 2-2 in the third period, when he slid to his left and robbed the face-licking Brad Marchand twice (seen below), and B.) when he confidently waffleboarded away a Jake DeBrusk breakaway opportunity.
Hakstol tends to lean heavily on one goalie at a time. Early in the season, it was Grubauer. Then Grubauer went out, and Daccord took the net and helped save the season. Now Grubi seems to be heating up.
What happens next?
Takeaway #2: Burakovsky has to score soon
On a night when Oliver Bjorkstrand and Andre Burakovsky swapped places in the lineup (with Bjorkstrand making a rare departure from his usual line with Eeli Tolvanen and Yanni Gourde), Bjorkstrand broke a nine-game goalless drought, and Burakovsky notched his third assist in four games.
Bjorkstrand’s goal came at a huge moment and looked for a fleeting few minutes like it would be the game-winner.
🚨 CUE THE MAESTRO! 🚨
Bjorkstrand tips a Borgen shot in with 5 minutes left!
“It’s nice,” Bjorkstrand said. “I think I’ve been struggling a little bit, so sometimes it’s just getting that goal, and it kind of gives you a boost. I felt like I was able to create some chances today and build momentum off that, and good things happened.”
Bjorkstrand’s goal didn’t hold up as the winner because Coyle deflected a Pastrnak shot in with 2:52 left, comically tricking Boston fans into throwing their hats on the ice. But Seattle recovered from that letdown quickly and looked awesome through much of an exciting OT period.
Meanwhile, Burakovsky has perhaps been Seattle’s second-best forward (behind Jared McCann) since the All-Star break/bye week, and yet he still remains mired with ONE GOAL in 27 games on the season.
The good news is that he’s started to chip in with assists, and we believe the floodgates are going to open soon. He’s getting so many looks, one is bound to go in sooner or later.
“About 10 minutes ago, we just said we’re going to bring a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in, I think, maybe for practice on Tuesday,” Hakstol joked, referencing a mix-up between Pedro Cerrano and Jake Taylor in the movie Major League.
For folks like Sound Of Hockey’s John Barr, who hates funny things, the bit in the movie is this: power hitter Cerrano can’t hit a curveball, so he requests a live chicken to sacrifice to the god Jobu, who he believes can help him break his slump. But Taylor misunderstands the request and gets him a bucket of Colonel Sanders’ finest instead. Needless to say, the KFC offering does not break Cerrano’s slump.
With the way Burakovsky has been struggling to score, Seattle may want to jump right to the live chicken.
“He’s just got to keep doing the things that he’s doing right,” Hakstol said, more seriously. “The puck’s not going in, he’s hitting posts, he’s hitting bodies at net front. The big thing for him is continue possessing the puck, attack the net, get inside a little bit more, and keep shooting the puck. And good things will happen for him.”
Personally, I would recommend that Burakovsky simply says, “F*** you, Jobu! I do it myself.” That’s what ultimately worked for Cerrano in the fictional film about a totally different sport, so surely it would work for Burakovsky.
Takeaway #3: A successful goalie interference challenge!
I haven’t kept stats on this (I feel like Alison has?), but anecdotally, it sure feels like the Kraken lose goalie interference challenges wayyyyyyy more than they win them. After former Kraken Morgan Geekie appeared to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead (in what could have made for an incredible storyline if it had stood and gone as the winning goal), Hakstol asked the officials to take another look at the play.
On a partial breakaway, Geekie deked and shot, slammed into Grubauer, then pushed the puck over the line as he was falling to the ice.
Apparently you CAN out-pizza the hut.
Geekie thinks he's scored the go-ahead goal, but Hakstol challenges and gets it negated for goalie interference.
Grubauer was surprised after the game when we told him it was his former teammate, Geekie, who had run into him.
“Was that Geeks?” Grubauer inquired. “I mean, you never know these days what the call is going to be, if it’s called interference or not. I didn’t even see or notice that he touched the puck a second time. I think that was a great call by Toronto. It could have been a turning point of the game here.”
By the way, it was something of a rough night for Geekie, who took a tripping penalty, had a goal negated, was a minus-one, and got hit in the face with a shot from Kevin Shattenkirk.
OUCH!
Geekie takes a friendly fire shot from Shattenkirk off the face.
— rachel 🦀 – charlie coyle weymouth??? (@HAPPILYSMYTHE) February 27, 2024
He did get a nice tribute video from the Kraken, though, so perhaps that was a consolation prize. We always liked that guy.
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.
This is Part II of a two-part series looking at the best players at each position group for every team in the WHL’s U.S. Division. Part I looked at the goalies. In Part II, we are coupling forwards and defensemen, as teams gear up for playoff pushes.
This is not a ranking of players, nor how they project as NHLers, rather which players are helping to lead their respective teams this season. We’ve listed them in order of their team’s place in the standings simply to point out which individuals you should keep an eye on down the stretch.
Forwards
Portland Winterhawks: Gabe Klassen
55 GP: 31 G – 61 A — 91 PTS, 1.67 PTS/G
Portland is stacked at almost every position, especially in the forward corps, which is lush with players who have the knack to score almost at will. But this season, Gabe Klassen has shown that he is the most seasoned of the bunch. Klassen, at 61 assists, is second among all overagers, but he can also shoot from almost anywhere in the attacking zone. And frequently, his shots find twine, as he sports an above-average 14.0 shooting percentage.
Honorable mention: James Stefan
Everett Silvertips: Ben Hemmerling
57 GP: 26 G – 52 A — 78 PTS, 1.37 PTS/G
The Everett Silvertips are no strangers to finding goals this year themselves, being are tied for second for total goals scored at 254 on the year. Contributing to over 30 percent of their goals this season has been center Ben Hemmerling.
Vegas was lucky to grab Hemmerling in the third round of the 2022 NHL Draft, a player with as much skill in open ice as any player in the Western Hockey League. Despite only having 26 goals on the year, he shoots like crazy, leading the entire WHL in shots on goal with 283. Hemmerling signed an entry-level contract with Vegas early this season.
HM: Dominik Rymon
Wenatchee Wild: Kenta Isogai
52 GP: 25 G – 49 A — 74 PTS, 1.42 PTS/G
With Conor Geekie and Matthew Savoie gone (traded at the WHL trade deadline), Kenta Isogai is left to help pick up the pieces and carry the Wild towards the playoffs. He groups together speed, quick hands, and shot accuracy to make up for his size (5-foot-10, 158 pounds). He has taken games into his own hands with his offensive prowess and currently leads Wenatchee forwards in goals, assists, and points.
A larger feature on Berkly Catton was done last week, but to sum it up, he’s been sensational for the Chiefs this season. Catton will be eligible for selection at the 2024 NHL Draft.
HM: Connor Roulette
Tri-City Americans: Jordan Gavin
56 GP: 21 G – 35 A — 56 PTS, 1.00 PTS/G
Jordan Gavin has solid awareness of his surroundings and creates space by using his quick feet, and more often than not makes the correct decision on whether to pass or shoot. At just 17 years old, Gavin leads all Tri-City forwards with 36 assists on the year. He will be NHL Draft eligible in the summer of 2025.
HM: Jake Sloan (24-32–56)
Seattle Thunderbirds: Eric Alarie
51 GP: 16 G – 21 A — 37 PTS, 0.73 PTS/G
There aren’t too many currently outstanding forwards to choose from, given the status of the rebuilding Thunderbirds. So we’ll go with 20-year-old Eric Alarie here, who despite the slowed offensive production from his team all around, has put together a solid season to cap off his time in the WHL. Alarie, acquired from Moose Jaw in a trade on Oct. 4, 2023, leads T-Birds forwards in goals, assists, and points.
Defensemen
Portland: Lucas Cagnoni (SJS)
58 GP: 13 G – 58 A — 71 PTS, 1.34 PTS/G
Lucas Cagnoni is an excellent defender that can be an assist machine on the blue line for the Winterhawks, and he leads all WHL defensemen in helpers with 58. He leads all D-men in points, as well, with 71. Cagnoni makes the right reads at the right times and finds guys open in high-danger areas of the ice. Cagnoni was selected in the fourth round by the San Jose Sharks in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Everett: Parker Berge
58 GP: 12 G – 43 A — 55 PTS, 0.95 PTS/G
Acquired before the trade deadline from the Regina Pats, Parker Berge helped to beef up the Silvertips on the back end. As much as the Silvertips were getting scoring from their forwards, they needed more scoring from their defensemen, and adding a veteran leader like Berge was too good of a fit to pass up. Playing a disciplined game at only 18 penalty minutes on the season, the overager already leads the Silvertips in points by a defenseman at 56.
Wenatchee: Graham Sward (NSH)
54 GP: 13 G – 53 A — 66 PTS, 1.22 PTS/G
Graham Sward has been a consistent force within the Wild organization for the past few seasons. Captaining the Wild in their inaugural campaign, Sward serves as a role model for some of the younger guys on Wenatchee currently. He uses his size to his advantage, as Sward, over his 239-game WHL career, has collected 168 points. He was selected by the Nashville Predators in the fifth round of the 2022 NHL Draft.
Spokane: Saige Weinstein (COL)
51 GP: 8 G – 14 A — 22 PTS, 0.43 PTS/G
This might be more of a projection pick as opposed to current production, but Saige Weinstein could be ready to take the next step into becoming a really solid No. 1 D-man next season. Despite being smaller in size for defensemen at 6-foot-0, 190lbs, 18-year-old Weinstein makes up for it with his defensive positioning and isn’t afraid of the dirtier areas of the ice. It would not surprise me if Spokane eventually names him captain.
Weinstein shared with me what he does to make up for his smaller stature at a defenseman. “I don’t really let my size bring me down,” Weinstein, who has 231 penalty minutes across 173 career WHL games, said. “I play like I’m 6-foot-4. I’m pretty physical, and that’s just my game that I look to bring to the table every night for this team.”
Weinstein signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Colorado Avalanche in October, 2023.
Tri-City: Lukas Dragicevic (SEA)
53 GP: 12 G – 29 A — 41 PTS, 0.77 PTS/G
We’ve already said quite a bit about Lukas Dragicevic and what he could mean for the Seattle Kraken one day, selected in the third round of the 2023 NHL Draft. But right now, he means a lot to the blue line of the Americans, as they vie for one of the final wild card spots in the Western Conference.
Dragicevic has elite offensive awareness that he uses to his advantage when the Americans go on the man advantage. He is in the top 10 in power-play assists by league defensemen with 16. We will have more on him in the weeks ahead.
Seattle: Jeremy Hanzel (COL)
52 GP: 11 G – 36 A — 47 PTS, 0.90 PTS/G
Jeremy Hanzel has arguably been the Thunderbirds’ best skater during this campaign, a returning member of the team that won the WHL championship in 2022-23 and made it all the way to the Memorial Cup Finals. Hanzel learned from graduated T-Birds on what it takes to succeed at this level. With 47 points currently, he will soon pass his 48-point total from last season. This is quite impressive considering the Thunderbirds offense ranks last in the entire WHL in goals for at 144 on the year. Hanzel was selected in the sixth round of the 2023 NHL Draft by the Colorado Avalanche.
Header photo: Kenta Isogai battles for a puck with Jordan Gustafson. (Photo/Brian Liesse, Seattle Thunderbirds).
In last week’s Monday Musings, I mentioned that the Seattle Kraken would need at least four out of six available points against Detroit, Vancouver, and Minnesota, with at least one point coming against the Wild. That did not happen.
It was looking good heading into Saturday night’s matchup against the Wild. The Kraken were coming off one of their more impressive games of the season with a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks, and it seemed like this team was starting to play with the type of purpose that would be required to contend for one of the last playoff spots.
Heading into Saturday night, the Kraken were also 9-1-0 in the last 10 games in which they scored first, so when Vince Dunn made it 1-0 just 36 seconds in, there was a reason to feel confident. Alas, the Wild went on to score the next five goals and cruise to a 5-2 win over the Kraken.
It was not the effort you wanted to see for a very important game in the race for one of the wild card spots. On top of that, the Kings, Predators, and Flames all won to either extend their leads on the Kraken or, in the case of Calgary, jump over the Kraken in the standings.
I’ve said it before, and Darren said it in Three Takeaways: the challenge is not necessarily the point gap between the Kraken and the last wild card spot, it is the number of teams ahead of them. The Kraken are now seven points back of the Nashville Predators with a game in hand for that last playoff spot, but there are also three more teams (St. Louis, Minnesota, and Calgary) they would need to jump over to get back in. That is a tall task.
Despite the poor showing on Saturday night, the Kraken are currently sitting with about a 20-percent chance of making the playoffs. That is better than I would have expected their chances to be, but if a week from now, they are still sitting on a 20-percent chance, it is highly likely they will sell off some of their pending UFA’s at the March 8 trade deadline.
Power play pressure
The Kraken had a season-high five power play opportunities on Saturday and came up empty on all five. The power play has been playing well of late with a goal in each of the prior three games. Despite coming away with no goals against the Wild, there were several power-play opportunities where the Kraken maintained offensive-zone possession, and that created shot opportunities, so I’m not terribly concerned about this particular area.
I don’t have the data, but there were a couple opportunities where the Kraken maintained offensive possession for the first 90 or so seconds of the respective power plays. If the Kraken can maintain this type of pressure in the upcoming games, the goals will eventually follow. Sustained offensive pressure can force the opposing penalty-killing unit to fatigue, leading to defensive breakdowns and increased vulnerability to scoring chances.
Shot quantity and locations for top line
One thing that has been going well is the play and production of the reunited Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle, and Jared McCann line. Coach Dave Hakstol reunited the trio after the loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 10. That trio has at least one goal in each of the last five games and has a combined for 10 goals over that span.
Hakstol mentioned that they were struggling to get inside shot opportunities at the beginning of the season but are having much more success lately.
The rink map shows a lot more shot attempts inside over the last six games from that group compared to how they started the season.
That top line is also generating more shot attempts over the last six games compared to the start of the season, averaging over three more shot attempts per game.
Other Musings:
Marc-Andre Fleury is now 5-1-1 against the Seattle Kraken. Only Stuart Skinner has more wins against the Kraken in their franchise history. Edmonton comes to town Saturday. 😐
The Kraken are now 0-4-2 on Saturday games at Climate Pledge Arena this season. They have three more home Saturday games for the rest of the season.
The Kraken were shorthanded six times on Saturday night against the Wild, which was tied for second as the most times they have been shorthanded in a single game in franchise history. The Wild converted on two of the six opportunities. This was out of character for the Kraken, as they are generally one of the more disciplined teams in the league.
Saturday night’s game against the Wild is the 14th time the Seattle Kraken have been down by three goals in a game this season. They have lost all 63 games in franchise history when they have fallen behind by three goals. I keep telling myself that one day, a three-goal comeback will happen, and it will be epic when it does.
Somehow the Kraken have a 2-2-1 all-time record against Boston.
Oliver Bjorkstrand has not scored a goal in nine games, his longest drought of the season.
The Moose Jaw Warriors come though the Puget Sound over the weekend, which brings opportunities to see Kraken prospect Jagger Firkus. He will be in Everett on Friday night, and on Saturday, you can do the double-header with the Edmonton Oilers at the Kraken at 1 pm, then Moose Jaw at the Seattle Thunderbirds down in Kent at 7 pm.
Speaking of prospects, Scott Wheeler from The Athletic published the Seattle Kraken’s prospect rankings a little over a week ago. There weren’t a lot of surprises. Shane Wright was ranked No. 1, Carson Rehkopf No. 2, and Jagger Firkus was No. 3. If you have a subscription, it’s a fun read; just remember prospects are like chips on a roulette table. Most prospects face long odds, and there are probably only a couple of real winners in there.
Player performances
David Goyette (SBY) – Goyette has an active 14-game point streak and has four goals and three assists over his last three games.
Carson Rehkopf (KIT) – Rehkopf continues to score in bunches in the OHL. He had nine points over three games, including the below six-point game on Saturday.
Andrei Loshko (ROU) – I’ve mentioned Andrei Loshko before, but the fourth-round pick from the 2023 NHL Draft tends to fly under the radar. He had three goals in two games for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the QMJHL.
You don’t see that everyday
I saw the stick break at the game on Saturday, but I didn’t see McCann’s ninja like skills until the next day.
With the NHL trade deadline fast approaching, the Kraken find themselves at a pivotal juncture in their season. This feels like a do-or-die type week. To remain in contention for a playoff spot, they must secure at least five out of the six points available in their three games this week. Failure to do so will realistically eliminate any postseason hopes and could trigger selling assets at the deadline. It will not be easy, as the Kraken face Boston on Monday, Pittsburgh on Thursday, and Edmonton on Saturday.
Here is a look at the rest of the wild card contenders schedule this week:
There are several games around the league with wild card contenders facing off against each other. That further illustrates why it is so challenging to jump over multiple teams, as one of the two will get two points, and there’s always the chance of an OT loser point.
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Not good. The Seattle Kraken needed those points more than they’ve needed two points all season. And after coming out like gangbusters in the opening minutes, the Kraken let things snowball out of control in the second period and got smoked 5-2 by a Minnesota Wild team that entered the game one point ahead of them in the wild card standings.
Minnesota’s best players were their best players, and once Seattle got into penalty trouble, the Kraken simply had no answer.
“I don’t think we should be frustrated, I think we should be pretty upset with ourselves,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s moments in the game that are game-changing moments that two nights ago [in a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks], we met every one of those moments. Tonight, we didn’t meet very many of them.”
Joey Daccord got yanked for the first time this season, the power play went 0-for-5, and the penalty kill allowed two crucial goals.
Here are our Three Takeaways from a bad 5-2 Kraken loss to the Wild.
Takeaway #1: Tough night for Joey
We are such big Joey fans, so it was tough to see him get torched for four goals on 13 shots and replaced by Philipp Grubauer two minutes into the second period. He simply hasn’t been as sharp this week (he was getting scored on left and right at practice on Friday), and we fear the overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Monday may have stung his confidence.
Now, will this outing—in which Daccord registered a season-low .692 save percentage—destroy that confidence that has been so high for most of his time as Seattle’s starter?
“That’s part of being a pro, right?” Hakstol said. “At this time of year, we can either walk the walk here and have a short memory and find confidence in ourselves, make the corrections that we need to and move forward two nights from now. Or we’re just talking to talk, and it doesn’t mean anything. And Joey is no different. He’s a confident pro, he works really hard at his game.”
Daccord may have been partially screened by Tomas Tatar on Marcus Johansson’s first-period goal that sapped Seattle’s early momentum, but it squeezed through his arm in a way we haven’t seen many pucks beating him this season.
Then, on a 5-on-3, Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov toyed with Daccord behind his net until they got him looking the wrong way, and Kaprizov stuffed it in the short side.
Cheeky little set passing play between Zuccarello and Kaprizov, and Kaprizov dunks it home on the 5-on-3.
That one is certainly not Daccord’s fault (it’s the fault of the two guys in the penalty box), and Kaprizov has scored that exact goal multiple times this season. But that put things in motion, and the wheels came off for Daccord and the Kraken in the second period.
Matt Boldy made an elite play to start the second (also on the power play), and beat Daccord with a backhander, then Kaprizov sniped his second off the bar and in, and that was it for Joey on the night.
“To be honest with you, I had that instinct [to change goalies] one goal earlier,” Hakstol said. “But Joey has been really good for us. He’s fought hard, he’s battled. Tonight wasn’t his night. This is not on him. But he, just like everybody else, is going to have to address his own performance, shake it off, and be ready to go for the next one.”
Hopefully for the Kraken’s sake, Daccord will remember that he is reason No. 1 that Seattle is even in the playoff conversation right now and forget about this tough night quickly.
Takeaway #2: Penalties, penalties, penalties
Special teams were the biggest deciding factor in this game, and Seattle gave the Wild’s lethal top players plenty of opportunities on this night, especially through the first half of the game. Meanwhile, the Kraken got five chances with the man advantage themselves and failed to cash in.
“I didn’t like our early power play when we had an opportunity to turn the game in the first period,” Hakstol said, referencing an advantage opportunity after Alex Wennberg drew a hooking call on Jonas Brodin at 16:40 of the first. “We come out in the second on another penalty that I don’t like that we took at the end of the first, but we have an opportunity again to get that kill to push momentum our direction.
“We failed to clear the puck four or five times before the goal was scored. So, it’s things like that… Those are clear points in the hockey game, and things unraveled pretty quickly for us over the next five, six minutes at the start of the second period.”
Adam Larsson took the elbowing call that started Seattle down a man to start the second. On the ensuing power play, the Wild got the Kraken running around, and eventually this happened:
What a goal by Matt Boldy. Two PPG's for Minnesota so far. #SeaKraken are shooting themselves in the tentacle with penalties. pic.twitter.com/YcNQIpQicc
The standings are almost like smoke and mirrors when a team gets to this point in the season and is fighting for its playoff life. As the Kraken won three out of four games before this one and took points in all four, they didn’t seem to gain much ground on a wild card spot. Yet, they drop one game to one of the teams in the same area as them on the table, and suddenly they look miles out of the race.
“It’s not the time of the year to be showing up for half the game or losing five minutes of momentum and panicking as a team,” Vince Dunn said.
There are six teams with a real claim at a wild card spot, from Los Angeles—currently in the top spot with 68 points—down to the Kraken, who now bring up the rear of that group with 59.
With the damaging loss Saturday, Seattle is now five points behind Nashville, which has won four games in a row, and will have to leapfrog four teams (the Flames, Wild, Blues, and Predators) to get back in the playoff bubble. The Kraken are now down to a measly 18.3-percent chance of making the playoffs, according to Money Puck. So, it’s not impossible, but it sure is improbable that this team will make the postseason.
“It hurts, especially against a group where we know we’re competing against them to get in the playoffs,” Yanni Gourde said. “Those are big games, and as a group, we didn’t respond well to the pushback they had after we scored the first goal. They came back, and we just didn’t have an answer after.”
With every loss since the All-Star break, the Kraken have inched closer toward the “sell” end of the seesaw. This one felt like a big lunge toward the front office having no choice but to wave the white flag before the March 8 trade deadline.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The Seattle Kraken are playing like they don’t want general manager Ron Francis to throw in the towel at the March 8 trade deadline. With points in four straight games (3-0-1), they’ve kept themselves in the playoff hunt and earned another “signature” win Thursday, their second victory in that category during this stretch of improved play (we consider the 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Feb. 15 to be the other one). This one came against the usually high-flying Vancouver Canucks in 5-2 fashion at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.
“That was a solid performance all the way through,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We got good contributions from everybody. Our play with the puck drives a lot of our success tonight as far as moving the puck, taking care of it, making good, hard plays, and getting through the neutral zone. We played fast, and that’s the way we looked tonight for most of the night.”
Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle led the way with seven points between them, and Philipp Grubauer improved to 2-0-0 since his return from injured reserve on Jan. 23 (yes, he has only played two games in a month since being activated).
Here are our Three Takeaways from an impressive 5-2 Kraken win over the Canucks.
Takeaway #1: Jared McCann is cooking
McCann has quietly been on a heater for the last 15 games, in which he’s racked up 22 points (11-10—21), and Thursday marked his first career four-point game. He exudes confidence right now, and as the game went on against Vancouver, you could sense more and more that he was really feeling it.
“I’ve never been a guy to focus on points,” McCann said. “Sometimes, they come, sometimes they don’t. [I just] try to control what I can control, and that’s just my effort.”
Well, his effort has been outstanding ever since he got temporarily “demoted” to a de-facto fourth line for a couple games, and since returning to the top line with Matty Beniers and Eberle, he has been almost unstoppable.
“I think from Day 1, I’m just trying to get him out of his own head,” Eberle said. “He’s very skilled, he has one of the best shots I’ve ever seen. If you can get him to play with some confidence like he is now, he’s a dangerous, dangerous player.”
McCann’s power-play goal got the second period off on the right track for Seattle. The Kraken had temporarily lost the puck in the corner, but Alex Wennberg, Andre Burakovsky, and Jaden Schwartz swarmed Ian Cole and forced him to cough it up. In a desperate attempt to escape the pressure, Cole handed it to the wrong guy in the wrong spot.
McCann was standing all alone in the slot and had time to spin, pick his spot, and wire a perfect shot off the post and in.
That marker put Seattle in the driver’s seat for the first time in the game, and although Vancouver got a lucky goal that pinballed off Justin Schultz and Sam Lafferty and floated over Grubauer, the Kraken deserved everything they got in this contest. So too did McCann, who also set up Vince Dunn and Eberle for goals of their own.
Takeaway #2: Gourde line was humming
After wins, we usually dedicate our Takeaways to players that scored goals or made big saves, but on this night, we were impressed by the Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde, and Eeli Tolvanen line. The trio came up empty on the scoresheet, but every time they were on the ice, they wreaked havoc on Vancouver’s defenders.
“They did what they do,” Hakstol said. ”They go out, they play hard, they take on any different matchup that you want. I mean honestly, they’re coming off of a game [Monday against Detroit] where they weren’t at their best. So we knew tonight that they would have a great effort.”
Most notably, there was a stretch that started with 4:10 left in the first period in which the Canucks could not get out of their zone for about 1:45 of game time. It started with the McCann/Beniers/Eberle line, but they swapped out for a fresh Gourde line, and then Vancouver was stuck.
Every time a Canucks player touched the puck, they were immediately met by one of those three forwards and forced to turn it over. They were buzzing, cycling the puck, and getting shots and tips through to Thatcher Demko. Bjorkstrand even hit the crossbar during the sequence.
So, it did’t result in a goal, but the shift got the ice tilted in Seattle’s favor and set the tone for the rest of the game.
“They’ve grown over time, right?” Hakstol said. “We put them together… I think it was right around Christmastime last year when Tolvy came into the lineup. That line has pretty much stayed together throughout. We’ve moved around a little bit, but they continue to grow with chemistry. And that’s important, and the bigger factor with those guys is their competitiveness, and like I said, when you come off of a night that maybe isn’t your best— those guys are competitive guys, and you saw their contributions tonight and the way they played.”
Takeaway #3: No ground gained
It does feel like the Kraken have gotten themselves onto a pretty good roll over the last four games, in which they’ve knocked off the Islanders, Bruins, and Canucks, and lost in overtime to the Red Wings. And yet, at 59 points in the standings, they remain three behind the Blues for the last wild card spot, while the Predators are now level in points with St. Louis at 62.
Nashville won its third game in a row, 4-1, over the Los Angeles Kings Thursday, and St. Louis took down the Isles 4-0.
Meanwhile, Calgary won 3-2 in overtime over Boston, keeping the Flames level with Seattle, and Minnesota—the Kraken’s next opponent—was idle and will play Friday in Edmonton.
This is exactly why it’s so hard to gain ground at this time of year. Three points sounds like nothing, but when you have multiple teams that are playing for their playoff lives, it turns into a dogfight that’s less about “Which team can win the most?” and more about “Which team can lose the least?”
Seattle is doing its part right now, but it will need to keep rolling for much longer to get back into the playoff picture. The rest of this regular season could be very stressful.
Bonus Takeaway: Canucks weren’t happy
Not to take anything away from the Kraken’s performance, but it’s probably worth noting the Canucks were not happy with the way they played in this game. They’ve had a rough stretch of games lately, and the loss was their fourth in a row, their longest skid of the season.
“I don’t have much to say,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “Not much compete from the guys, and that’s on me. I’ve got to take the blame for that. I didn’t get the guys to compete hard enough, so I’ll take the heat on this one. A lot of no-shows tonight.”
That’s a hilarious quote, by the way. It’s like Tocchet is saying, Hey, everybody, please blame me for the players not showing up to play. It’s my fault. They stunk. But blame me. But they stunk.
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.
