Three Takeaways – Joey Daccord gets first NHL shutout, Kraken snap skid

by Curtis Isacke | Dec 13, 2023 | Three takeaways

We got used to losing. We really did. We were numb to it, and we didn’t even know it. This Seattle Kraken win over the Florida Panthers reminded us that leaving Climate Pledge Arena after a victory can actually make us feel invigorated, despite knowing Seattle may have already shot itself in the tentacle and sunk its season. Victory songs were played, fish were yeeted (albeit poorly in Joey Daccord’s case), and a Davy Jones hat was distributed for the first time since Nov. 22.

From outside the Kraken dressing room, we could hear the players hooting and hollering, and when we were allowed to enter, we immediately felt a very different vibe than what we’ve experienced on the rest of this homestand.

“It’s still a kids game, right?” coach Dave Hakstol said. “You play hard. You want to work hard and have success together, and then you have fun and enjoy that. And our guys were able to finally do that tonight after a real tough stretch.”

Joey Daccord got his first NHL shutout, Ryker Evans got his first NHL point, and the fourth line chipped in with two huge goals.

Here are our Three Takeaways from a freeing 4-0 Kraken win over the Panthers.

Takeaway #1 (Darren): Joey’s big night

Sound Of Hockey readers/followers/listeners will know that I am unabashedly pro-Joey and really want to see him succeed. He is just the best guy to deal with, so witnessing him earn his first NHL shutout was something that will stick with me for a while.

I could tell he was dialed in from the drop of the puck. He was tested early and often in the first period and stood tall, especially when Aaron Ekblad came barreling down on a 3-on-1 rush about five minutes into the game.

With Brandon Tanev backchecking and Evans the lone defender, Ekblad elected to take the puck to the net and try to deke around Daccord, who was aggressively challenging at the top of the crease. At the last instant, Daccord flared out his right pad and stuffed the star defenseman before smothering the puck for a whistle.

“It’s always nice to make any save, especially when they get a good chance early to kind of get the ball rolling,” Daccord said. “And, to just feel good moving forward, that’s definitely always nice.”

It wasn’t just that save, though, that made me think he was especially sharp on this night. There was a high tip play that seemed like one of those that should cause problems for a goalie, because of the way that it changed both speeds and directions. But Daccord tracked it all the way in and calmly redirected it away from the net with his stick, making it look easy.

In the end, Daccord racked up 24 saves on 24 shots.

“It means the world, honestly,” Daccord said. “I’m super grateful for the opportunity to play in the NHL every single night, and for the coaching staff and the guys to trust me out there and to get a shutout in the NHL, especially against such a high-caliber team with a lot of good players … yeah, it hasn’t really sunk in yet, but it’s pretty special, for sure.”

Having said all that, with Festivus right around the corner, I must air two grievances toward Daccord. First, he disappointed me by electing *not* to shoot for the empty net when he had a chance below his own goal line, even though Seattle held a comfortable 3-0 lead, and Florida had pulled Sergei Bobrovsky with more than five minutes remaining.

“[Adam Larsson] skated down and like looked at me like…” Imagine Joey doing back-and-forth shifty eyes at the end of that statement, mimicking his defenseman’s facial expression. “He was almost more surprised that I didn’t shoot. I’ll shoot if I get a good chance. That one wasn’t really a great chance. It was kind of a bouncy puck, and I was stuck behind the net, so that would have taken a really high-skill-level play to make that one.”

Alright, fine, I’ll let that one slide. But the other grievance I must air was about Daccord’s very poor fish yeeting, in which he twirled his fish around to amp up the crowd, made it look like he was about to fire the fish deep into the stands, and somehow whipped it straight down into the ice.

“I tried to throw it so far, and it just didn’t work,” Daccord said. “Yeeting a fish is harder than you think, so don’t make fun of me until you try it.”

Ugh. Alright, fine, I retract both of my grievances. Good game, Joey.

Takeaway #2 (Curtis): Kraken take advantage of scoring first

You’re right, Darren. Daccord is the no-doubt headline in this one. In particular, his save on Ekblad’s chance was vital to the Kraken taking two points tonight. It’s very easy to imagine a different outcome in this one had that puck found the back of the net, particularly given how difficult it was for the Kraken to get through the neutral zone and set up offensively in the first period.

But Daccord did keep the team in it, and this bought the offense enough time to find the smallest opening in Florida’s neutral-zone defense. At 3:02 in the second period, Kraken defenseman Will Borgen launched a stretch pass from the defensive zone that hit Kailer Yamamoto’s stick on the tape at the Florida blue line, as Yamamoto ducked in behind the Florida defense. It was a clean breakaway chance, and the Man from Spokane™ roofed it to put Seattle up 1-0.

After Sunday’s eighth consecutive loss, Hakstol spoke about the importance of getting a lead and not always chasing the game. “We have to start better,” Hakstol said that night. “Early in the season, probably 10 of our first maybe dozen games, 10 of our first 15 games for sure, we scored first, and that’s something that’s… important.”

Playing from behind is difficult because the leading opponent can tighten up its defensive-zone coverage and turn down riskier plays to avoid the possibility of a counterstrike that catches them out of structure. When done effectively, this leaves the chasing team to fire pucks on the net from low-danger areas in desperation. The chasing team may pile up shots, but those may not be the types of shots that are likely to go in.

The Kraken saw this play out again and again over their eight-game losing streak. They actually generated the fourth-most shot attempts per 60 minutes in the NHL from Nov. 24 to Dec. 10, the dates of their losing streak. But the shot quality they produced was just 2.9 expected goals per 60 minutes, fifth-worst in the league. 

Taken on a per-shot basis, the Kraken’s shot quality was dead last in the league over that stretch. A lot of this had to do with the team’s offensive schematic and personnel struggles to create quality high-danger chances, as we have talked about on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast and in previous Three Takeaways. The “score effects” described above were part of the story too.

Scoring first made all the difference for the Kraken on Tuesday night. After Yamamoto’s goal went in, Florida had to start taking chances, and all of a sudden, the Panthers’ neutral-zone defense and defensive structure weren’t nearly as tight. Gaps opened for Kraken strikes all over the ice.

According to Natural Stat Trick, in the third period, the Kraken had 21 shot attempts, 11 scoring chances, and shot quality expected to create almost two goals–more than the first two periods combined. It was a breath of fresh air for the Kraken and their fans.

Takeaway #3 (Curtis): Kraken penalty kill steps up

In addition to Daccord, the Kraken penalty killers deserve plaudits for keeping Seattle in the game early until the offense could find its footing. Florida drew three penalties in the first half of the game while it was still very much in dispute, and the Panthers managed a grand total of zero shots on goal in those six minutes five-on-four. 

What makes this even more impressive is that two key penalty killers (Larsson and Brian Dumoulin) took two of the penalties, which forced Vince Dunn into rare action as a penalty killer. Even so, the Kraken special teams did not miss a beat. In particular, I thought Jamie Oleksiak made a number of impressive reads and physical closeouts to shut down low plays, and the forwards effectively created pressure and turned the puck over repeatedly.

The first penalty kill was crucial, since it came in the first period when the game was still scoreless. The Kraken effectively held Florida to the outside and blocked two shots. The only other shot attempt from distance missed the goal.

Don’t look now, but the maligned Kraken penalty kill unit has killed 10 straight penalties.

Bonus Takeaway (Curtis): Ryker Evans settling in

Evans’s transition to the NHL has not been perfect, although it seems that way sometimes. He has lost a few defensive-zone board battles, and it has been a mixed bag in front of his own net.

That said, everything else Evans has brought to the table has shown why he is unquestionably one of the six most talented (and NHL-ready) defensemen in the Kraken organization. He has a very good feel for when to push in transition or join a rush, and he has the mobility and puck skills to implement his reads.

At 5:52 of the second period, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare won an offensive-zone draw, which Yamamoto dove in to recover and tap back to Evans. While some defensemen may have stayed stapled to the point and shot the puck low around the boards, Evans saw Yamamoto (and the Panther covering Yamamoto) had vacated the wing. That left room for Evans to push down the wall with possession.

Once he got below the goal line, Bobrovsky most likely expected him to continue around the other side of the net. But the moment he cleared the goal, Evans skillfully centered the puck before anyone could react, finding an open Bellemare in the slot. 

Bellemare converted the goal and deserves credit himself, but Evans made the play and earned every bit of his first NHL point.

“Obviously, this kid is going to be here a long enough time,” Bellemare said of Evans. “So, it was fun to see him [get a point], and he thanked me [for putting it] in, which was a funny thing.”

Evans has made offensive opportunities for his teammates like this each game he has played in the NHL so far. As long as he keeps doing it, he’ll stay right where he is–in the Kraken lineup.

Three Takeaways – Losing streak at eight after Kraken fall to Wild 3-0

by Curtis Isacke | Dec 11, 2023 | Three takeaways

With a 3-0  loss to the Minnesota Wild Sunday night, the Kraken pushed their losing streak to eight games. This winless stretch is the second longest in team history, just one short of the record set during the team’s inaugural season from Dec. 15, 2021, though Jan. 15, 2022.

Sunday’s game followed a pattern now painfully familiar to Kraken fans over the last few weeks. The Kraken allowed the opponent to score first and started chasing the game. They looked competitive in stretches but ultimately couldn’t squeeze out enough offense to come back and win.

“We have to start better, and… once again, we came out tonight, chasing the game, even down by one,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “Early in the season, probably 10 of our first maybe dozen games, 10 of our first 15 games for sure, we scored first and that’s something that’s… important.”

Forward Oliver Bjorkstrand agreed: “I think it’s just the starts to the games. [We need to] come out hot and maybe get that first goal. Obviously, we struggle a bit in that area, so try to get the first one.”

Seattle’s 23 standings points through 29 games is 12 points behind the 29-game total of last year’s playoff team. And, perhaps even more revealing, it is the same exact total the team had through 29 games in its inaugural campaign.

Here are our Three Takeaways from another frustrating night for the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.

Takeaway #1: Kraken scoring woes continue

The Kraken were shutout at Climate Pledge Arena for the first time in more than a year. The last opponent to blank the Kraken in Seattle? The Wild. 

This is not necessarily a coincidence. When the Wild are going well, which they are right now (5-2-0 in their last seven under new coach John Hynes), the team chokes off high-danger chances in the center of the ice and forces their opponents into low-danger outside looks. Minnesota’s scoring defense has been pedestrian so far this season, but shot quality metrics suggest the Wild have deserved a better fate. According to Evolving Hockey, the Wild are third best in the league in expected goals against at five-on-five (2.37 xGA/60 minutes).

The Wild defense frustrated the Kraken’s game plan, particularly through the neutral zone. And Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson played very well.

“Credit to them, they are a good box-out team,” Adam Larsson said. “They’ve got big [defensemen] and block a lot of shots, and that’s what you have to do to win.”

Good defense or not, the Kraken offense is wandering in the darkness right now and can’t seem to find its way back to the light. Seattle has scored just six goals in its last five games, including two shutouts.

On Sunday, Seattle struggled to generate any sustained pressure five-on-five. The Kraken had just 15 shots and four high-danger shot attempts all night at even strength. 

The team managed to create a push on the power play against the Wild’s league-worst penalty kill unit. In particular, the Kraken repeatedly exploited soft coverage on the goal line to generate high-danger shots and cross-slot passes. But they couldn’t get one across the line, and that may have been the decisive point in the game.

“We weren’t able to capitalize on some outstanding opportunities on the power play,” Hakstol said. “Each one of the power plays, we had some great opportunities. It felt like that kind of a night [where we needed that] against a team that defends really well five-on-five. So the opportunities five-on-five are hard to come by.”

Takeaway #2: The Kraken don’t have an answer for top Wild line

The Wild top line of Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Kirill Kaprizov carved up the Kraken defense all night, generating 11 high-danger scoring chances and driving a Wild offense that generated 71.39 percent of the total shot quality when that line was on the ice.

The line’s most important contribution came at 7:14 in the first period. Boldy won a puck battle with Jared McCann in the Wild defensive zone, scanned the ice, and fed Kaprizov. Kaprizov navigated through center ice and into the Kraken zone, drew the defense to him in the middle, and fed a trailing Boldy on the left wing. Boldy walked in unchecked and beat Daccord with an elite finish.

On this night, one goal was all the Wild needed. Boldy’s highlight was the game-winner.

Takeaway #3: Mistake-riddled set breakout ices the game

Midway through the third period, Seattle was still trailing by only one goal. The Kraken needed just one bounce to go their way, and they’d find themselves in a new game.

At 12:19 in the final frame, Adam Larsson had unchallenged possession behind the Seattle net. While he paused for a moment, the Kraken orchestrated a set breakout. Unfortunately, he was not on the same page with his teammates when he launched a long pass in the direction of Yanni Gourde. 

Marco Rossi pressured Larsson while Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Johansson loomed at the Kraken blue line. Gourde and linemate Eeli Tolvanen streaked up ice and past these two Minnesota forwards, leaving the Kraken outnumbered in their own end and making a stretch pass a high-risk proposition. Perhaps they expected Larsson to use the support of his defense partner Vince Dunn to advance the puck toward the neutral zone. But Larsson was looking to pass all the way, and likely expected Gourde to stop short of the forechecking pressure.

As it turns out, Larsson’s pass was easy pickings for the Wild. The turnover allowed an easy controlled zone entry and a sequence of offensive pressure the Kraken never broke. Bjorkstrand gained possession momentarily but quickly turned it over, leading to a scramble of disputed possession at the net front. Rossi corralled the puck in the slot and sent it into an empty side of the cage behind Joey Daccord at 12:34 in the third period. 

“Their second goal, we made two mistakes on the breakout,” Hakstol said. “The first one was a mistake, the second one, we were under pressure and turned it over.”

These mistakes sealed Seattle’s eighth straight loss.

Curtis Isacke

Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.

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Three Takeaways – Grubauer hurt, Kraken lose seventh straight to Lightning in OT

by Darren Brown | Dec 10, 2023 | Three takeaways

We really thought Saturday was going to end up being the night the Seattle Kraken snapped their losing streak, but instead, they got topsy-turvied in the third period and overtime and fell 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

For the first time since Seattle’s 7-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 22, the Kraken held a fleeting 3-2 lead in the third period. But Nick Paul tied the game 3-3 at 7:09 of the third, and the NHL’s leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov, scored his second goal of the game in overtime to extend Seattle’s skid to seven games. 

“We got ourselves into a 2-0 hole,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s all kinds of things that are not going our way, but through all of that, there was nothing but push from our guys [tonight].”

It was yet another bad first period for the Kraken, but to their credit, they did fight back and gave themselves every chance to win. Still, they came up short, and the bad feelings continued. Oh, and Philipp Grubauer got hurt, and it frankly didn’t look good. 

Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-3 overtime Kraken loss to the Lightning. 

Takeaway #1: Power play scores, still lets Kraken down

Seattle’s power play has statistically been ok this season, clicking at 21.1 percent of the time, good for 14th in the league. But for some reason, when Seattle gets manpower advantage opportunities late in games and so badly needs to find a clutch goal, it just never comes. 

It was the power play that gave Seattle it’s lead just 14 seconds into the third period, when Jared McCann dropped a bomb from the top of the left circle that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy. So, that’s some success. 

But the Lightning went down a man at 12:24 of the third period when Tanner Jeannot high sticked Matty Beniers. Nothing doing on that opportunity. More crucially, though, Anthony Cirelli tripped Tye Kartye with just 16 seconds left in the third period, meaning the Kraken started the overtime period with 1:44 of 4-on-3 time. 

In that 4-on-3 stretch, Seattle got just one point shot through to Vasilevskiy, and the Lightning defenders blocked three other shots. Tampa Bay’s defenders compressed into a tight formation in front of their netminder, and the Kraken kept the puck on the perimeter for the entirety of the power play without ever really looking dangerous.

You just have to score in that scenario. The Kraken did not do so, and 1:27 after the penalty ended, Brandon Hagel sprinted up the ice and set up Kucherov for the game-winner. 

Takeaway #2: What’s up with these starts? 

When a team is trying to break out of a long losing streak, a good way to do that would be to do everything it can to come out of the gates flying. Even if the players are struggling to find crisp passing (Seattle’s passing was not crisp in the opening 20 minutes), they can still fly around and play a hard-nosed physical game until they find a higher level of execution. 

The Kraken spent most of the first period in their zone, and if it weren’t for Grubauer making several dandy saves, the game would have been out of reach by the first horn.  

Cirelli scored with a beautifully done high-tip play halfway through the period.

Just before the end of the frame, Kucherov got his first of the night. On that one, the Kraken had control of the puck in their own zone, but Eeli Tolvanen got crossed up with Jamie Oleksiak and gave Kucherov a chance to pry it free. Then Kucherov intelligently went right to the net, and Cirelli found him for an easy tap-in. 

“The second goal is the one that is frustrating for you, right?” Hakstol said. “We’ve got half a line change, a couple of tired bodies still out there. We defend the play, and we kind of skate over the puck, right? And so you go from having five guys inside to it ends up in a tap-in at the backdoor.” 

The Lightning really dominated that opening period with a 14-4 shots-on-goal advantage and 86 percent of the shot quality in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick. 

The start against the Devils on Thursday wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t like Seattle tilted the ice, and it again came out of that opening stanza trailing 1-0. And we’re still just one game removed from arguably the team’s worst start of the year in Montreal. Why can’t they get themselves going in the first period?

Give the guys credit, they did push back and managed to find a standings point. But when you chase the game every single night, you’re simply not going to win very often. Lo and behold, Seattle has now lost seven straight. 

Takeaway #3: The injury bug bites again

With how things have been going for this team, on a night when Grubauer was playing very well, it was melancholically fitting to see him hunched over and limping to the dressing room at the end of the second period. 

We had just finished saying, “Hey, Grubi’s finally over a .900 save percentage tonight!” after 10 consecutive starts in the .800’s or .700’s. But he lunged for a Cirelli shot off a 2-on-1 with under a minute remaining and then slumped over in a heap. 

“I mean I hate to see it for [Grubauer], and obviously for our team,” Hakstol said. “He played very well in net tonight. He was outstanding.”

Hakstol said it would take a day or two to get more information about Grubauer’s status, but we think it’s pretty safe to rule him out for Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Wild (Joey Daccord would have played that one anyway, being that it’s a back-to-back, but Chris Driedger is likely on his way to Seattle to back him up). 

Justin Schultz also took a puck to the face in the second period and had to leave the game. Again, there was no update on his availability for Sunday, though we would guess that injury will be shorter-term than that of Grubauer. 

The two latest injuries come on the heels of Andre Burakovsky returning from a 20-game hiatus, only to be placed right back on injured reserve after a high hit in the Devils game on Thursday. It’s also been fewer than two weeks since Jaden Schwartz exited the lineup. 

When it rains, it pours. 

“Obviously, we’ve had injuries and guys playing hurt,” Jordan Eberle said. “But our depth has been our key, and we need to bear down. These times are tough. We’ve got to find a way to get out of it and flip the script from a losing streak to a winning streak.” 

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.

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