There has been chatter about potential NHL attendance issues across the league early this season. Softness in Winnipeg, Buffalo, and Ottawa has been bantered about across Canadian hockey media outlets, but is it accurate? Is attendance actually a problem in those cities?
It is a little early to start sounding the alarms of potential attendance issues, and depending on how you look at the numbers, they can also be misleading. That said, we will dig into the attendance numbers through all October games to see if there are themes we might want to keep an eye on as the season progresses.
Overall attendance
Average attendance during the month of October across the league is up 2.3 percent from last season. That is good, but it is not back to the same level for the October games played in the 2019-20 season.
There are a few things to note here:
1) Arizona now plays its games at Mullett Arena with a capacity of 4,600 per game. Back in 2019-20, they played at Desert Diamond Arena (formerly Gila River Arena), and although they were not selling out, they still averaged 12,224 per game. So naturally, the shift to the smaller arena will bring the overall league average down.
2) The NHL is a high-sellout league where several teams sell all their tickets for all their games, so seeing growth from those teams is constrained by their capacity.
3) Since 2019-20, a few arenas have downsized their capacities slightly to clear room for more luxury seating and experiences.
4) The game count per arena can vary and therefore throw off the weight of a certain team’s attendance. i.e., The Chicago Blackhawks played eight home games in October of the 2019-20 season but have only played two October home games during the 2023-24 season. This is important because the Blackhawks play in one of the biggest arenas in the league, and the volume of games is thus not weighted as heavily in 2023-24 as it was in 2019-20.
Sellouts
To avoid some of the limitations and nuances of looking at average attendance, another way to evaluate these figures is to look at the percentage of games that sell out across the league. I consider a game a sellout if attendance is 99 percent of capacity.
Like the average attendance figure, this can be misleading due to the weighting of teams but still a good indicator of league-wide attendance.
Team-by-team detail
Looking at the change season over season you start to get a better read on some teams that might be struggling.
Here are a couple notes about the attendance changes season over season by team.
New Jersey is getting a pop in attendance after the team took major steps forward last season, including a first-round win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Chicago’s attendance increase can be attributed to Connor Bedard joining the team after he was selected first overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
Buffalo has been called out as a team with softness in attendance this season, but they have increased quite a bit off last season’s October attendance numbers.
Winnipeg’s 19 percent drop is significant considering they did make the playoffs last season. Teams tend to not see a drop in their attendance after making the playoffs in the prior season.
Arizona, Boston, Dallas, New York Rangers, Seattle, and Tampa Bay have sold out all their games in October over the last two seasons.
It’s not the easiest to read, but here is a game-by-game breakdown of all the teams’ games through October. I will be updating this throughout the season.
Seasonality and day of the week
When media people state variances in attendance, they often compare an impartial season to prior completed seasons. They are not wrong, and I am not implying they are being deceptive. I’m just saying it would be more accurate to look at the seasonality in attendance.
The disrupted three seasons of hockey between 2019-20 and 2021-22 made those unfair comps. There are no major takeaways from this graph other than attendance tends to climb a bit in December, January, and February, with a little pop in the low-volume month of April.
This might not come as a surprise to many of you, but the day of the week a game is played can also impact attendance.
The variances do not seem that significant when looking at the league as a whole, but when you look at a team with some more variability in its attendance, it can be significant.
Here are a few examples.
Attendance vs butts in seats
I specifically use the term attendance because that is what is used in NHL game reports. I am aware these numbers do not reflect actual attendance figures, but until teams and the league start sharing the actual butts in seats attendance numbers, this will have to suffice.
Teams’ on-ice success can be very cyclical, and as a fan, you should expect some low-attendance seasons; there was a time that the Coyotes had higher attendance than Boston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. This is all natural.
I hope you find this info informative, and if you have any specific questions feel free to ask me in the comments section below on twitter.
In the run-up to Halloween, watching the Kraken’s four road games against Detroit, Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay sometimes felt more like Groundhog Day. It was virtually the same script for each contest; the Kraken would jump out to a two-goal lead, then let it fade away at varying speeds, before the game would come down to the wire and become a 50-50 crapshoot.
Seattle came home with a 2-1-1 record and five standings points in the end, a successful result, especially considering the quality of competition the team faced. Still, there’s work to be done to keep those slip-ups from happening moving forward.
“I’ve been on many teams where it just feels like every game is going to come down to the wire,” Devin Shore said. “You’re scratching and clawing for every point. It’s great to get out to those leads, but all the other 31 teams in the league are getting paid a lot of money to beat us too, so they’re pretty darn good, and they have the ability to come back.”
What linked the four games together so closely was the fact that at some point in each one, Seattle led by the same pesky margin. Seattle isn’t the first team to blow two-goal leads, though, and it won’t be the last.
There has long been a theory that the two-goal lead is the hardest lead in hockey to maintain, but why is that? Shouldn’t a two-goal lead be easier to keep than a one-goal lead?
“It’s probably all mental”
The theory around the two-goal lead usually has to do with how the leading team plays when it gets that extra cushion between itself and its opponent. Whether it’s a shift in mentality or tactics and whether that shift is happening consciously or subconsciously are two topics that are open for debate.
“I think it’s just that you know you have a two-goal lead, and maybe the mind, in a sense, relaxes, I guess,” Oliver Bjorkstrand said. “Maybe you feel a little too comfortable with the lead, and that gives a little bit of an edge to another team to kind of come back. And they get the one, it’s only a one-goal lead. So, I don’t know, it’s probably all mental. I don’t try to think that way.”
From the Kraken perspective, Jamie Oleksiak believes Seattle can keep any lead, but the group needs to re-learn how to avoid letdowns, regardless of the margin on the scoreboard.
“You have to learn how to win as a team,” Oleksiak said. “I think last year, we got used to and comfortable playing with two-goal leads in playoffs, and that’s a big part of it. Because in playoffs you’re playing a lot of one-goal, two-goal games, and I think we definitely got over the hump last year with that.”
Oleksiak also reiterated that this was a positive trip for the team, and that the group made big strides toward finding its game consistently. “It’s still early in the season. I still think we’re kind of building the confidence and whatnot in our game.”
“I don’t buy it”
Not everyone believes in the two-goal lead hypothesis.
“I don’t really buy that, to be honest,” said Shore. “Like, I’ve heard it a lot before, but I’d rather [have] a two-goal lead than a one-goal lead.”
Instead, Shore thought letting two-goal leads slip is just a factor of momentum. He said that when a team is down two and scores to make it a one-goal game, then the momentum has shifted for that team. So, it’s not so much that the trailing team has an advantage when it gets down by two, it’s just that scoring a goal can turn the tide of a game.
“You don’t want that to become too much of a trend. But [comebacks are] gonna happen, and it’s more how you respond and how you stick to playing the right way and not letting it faze you.”
Avoiding the letdowns
Going through game scenarios like this early in the season should help the Kraken down the line. And considering they still managed to come home feeling good about themselves, despite the blown leads in all four games, makes it a relatively inexpensive lesson.
But how does the team avoid these letdowns moving forward?
We heard Jared McCann say during the trip that the Kraken need to keep playing offense in those situations, and Bjorkstrand shared similar sentiments.
“I think we just need to bear down a little bit more and not change the way we play,” Bjorkstrand said. “I mean, we know how we play best, and that’s skating, being aggressive, and battles, all that stuff. So if [we have] a two-goal lead, we’ve got to keep going.”
“Sometimes when you think defense too much, you’re kind of sitting back, and it gives too much space and time for another team.”
Coach Dave Hakstol also offered a simple remedy to the problem for his team. “For us, it’s keep playing the same way and try and make it a three-goal lead, plain and simple.”
Other tidbits: Shore finding a role
Shore, a veteran of 426 NHL games, did not break training camp with the Kraken. Instead, he was placed on waivers and assigned to AHL Coachella Valley to start the season. He wasn’t there long, though, before Brandon Tanev and Andre Burakovsky both went down with long-term injuries, creating a hole in Seattle’s forward corps. Shore got the first call-up of the season.
“It’s a privilege to be up here, and I’m enjoying every second,” Shore said.
After Tanev went down on opening night in Vegas, Tye Kartye slid into his spot after being a healthy scratch against the Golden Knights. Once Burakovsky got hurt, Kartye was elevated to a top-six role, and in came Shore to backfill on the fourth line. He played all four games of the road trip and averaged 8:17 of ice time per game.
“There are a ton of different ways to contribute in a hockey game,” Shore said. “A lot of them are doing the little things and stuff that might go unnoticed by others, but never the guys on the bench, which is really important. But if you can chip in on the score sheet, all the better.”
Shore did that in spectacular fashion against Carolina to get his first goal and point as a Kraken. Bjorkstrand hit him with a 100-foot, waist-high pass that Shore somehow batted down at the blue line, before he raced in, deked, and scored on a breakaway.
Where does that goal rank in terms of the prettiest goals Shore has scored in his career?
“It might be No. 1, for sure,” he said. “They all count as one, though, so I’ll take ’em any way I can get ’em. But it was nice to see that one go in.”
Ummmmmmmmm…. Ok, Devin Shore.
Wait for the third replay. He took Bjorkstrand's stretch pass right out of the air. Heckuva way to get your first goal with a new team.
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 boys recorded the latest episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast on Halloween night, so there’s a slightly spookier mood to this one than usual.
And while the mood in BarrDown Studios is spooky, the mood surrounding the Kraken has gotten a bit brighter after their 2-1-1 road trip.
John, Darren, and Curtis break down the games against Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay. They then head Down on the Farm before jumping into their regular segments.
The boys recorded the latest episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast on Halloween night, so there’s a slightly spookier mood to this one than usual.
And while the mood in BarrDown Studios is spooky, the mood surrounding the Kraken has gotten a bit brighter after their 2-1-1 road trip.
John, Darren, and Curtis break down the games against Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay. They then head Down on the Farm before jumping into their regular segments.
The Kraken didn’t make it easy on themselves on this road trip, but in the end, they’re coming home with a positive 2-1-1 result after a four-game gauntlet that brought them meetings with a red-hot Red Wings team, then scary matchups against the Hurricanes, Panthers, and Lightning.
In a game that felt eerily familiar to the previous two losses, the Kraken again let a two-goal lead slip against Tampa Bay but this time found a way to get the second point in overtime.
“We’ve had kind of a similar theme to a couple of games on this road trip, and for the most part, we really liked the way we played in the third period,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We got through the next four or five minutes [after the tying goal], and then did a good job in the OT to execute on the power play.”
“It makes a six-hour plane ride [back to Seattle] a lot easier, for sure,” said Jared McCann.
Here are our Three Takeaways from an important Kraken win.
Takeaway #1: Schwartz and Yamamoto led the way
Two players really stood out for the Kraken in this one. One (Jaden Schwartz) was no surprise, based on how he has been performing this season and especially on the road trip. The other (Kailer Yamamoto) erupted for easily his best game with the club so far.
Schwartz has been Seattle’s most consistent player this season, bar none. He’s playing a fast, simple game, in which he just outworks his opponent at seemingly every turn. Monday, he was all over the top of the Lightning goal crease, and his presence there played a part in three of Seattle’s four goals.
He helped get the Kraken on the board first when he sprinted to retrieve a rebound, keeping the play alive for Brian Dumoulin to eventually net his first goal with Seattle.
DUMO DOES IT! 🚨
Great retrieval by Schwartz, big blast by Schultz, open net for Dumoulin, his first as a #SeaKraken.
He also was right there, whacking away to create a secondary rebound for Yamamoto’s goal, and he was in Jonas Johansson’s grill on McCann’s four-on-three power-play winner.
Yamamoto, meanwhile, looked dynamic and confident throughout the game, and he was rewarded with a goal and an assist. His marker came on the power play, again, after some hacking and whacking by Schwartz, and his assist was a beautiful backhand sauce to Yanni Gourde, who Yamamoto found streaking down the slot.
“I thought today was [Yamamoto’s] best game,” said Hakstol. “I mean, he had a ton of energy tonight, five-on-five, power play, everything. I thought he was involved in every part of the game.”
“I think I’m just using my speed around the net,” Yamamoto said. “Those guys are bigger, so I’m gonna use my speed around the net and try to beat them to the puck.”
After the Kraken lost a lot of fourth-line offensive firepower in the offseason, there was hope Yamamoto could replace some of that. He showed Monday he can be a key component for this team, so let’s see if he can continue to build as he gets more and more comfortable in his new surroundings.
Takeaway #2: Worst lead in hockey
An old adage says the two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey, and we do firmly believe this. There’s almost always a little slump in play that inherently happens from the team that’s up, because they start to feel subconsciously comfortable with their position in the game and might shift to a defensive posture. And the team that’s down tends to play looser and more aggressive, knowing they have ground to cover.
The Kraken all but proved the theory on this trip, watching two-goal leads vanish in all four of the games they played.
On Monday, they led by two on two separate occasions. Dumoulin and Gourde scored at 12:08 and 13:08 of the first period to make it 2-0, but Tanner Jeannot responded at 13:37 to make it 2-1. Then Yamamoto reinstated the two-goal lead at 15:52, and from there, things slowly started to shift toward another Seattle collapse.
“When you’re playing with a lead, sometimes you think about just sitting back on your heels and letting them skate into you and skate by you,” McCann said. “But I think we need to play a little bit more offense when we’re up, and we need to keep our feet moving, stay on their D.”
The Kraken aren’t the only team that has struggled at keeping two-goal leads; it really is an oddly difficult lead to keep in hockey. But maybe they should strive for more three-goal leads moving forward.
Takeaway #3: Just how they drew it up
McCann’s game-winner was a thing of beauty. You could tell it was the exact play Seattle’s coaching staff had drawn up during the timeout Hakstol called moments before the goal.
McCann walked the puck up the halfwall and switched spots with Oliver Bjorkstrand at the point, bringing the top defender in the triangle closer to the blue line. That opened the seam for Bjorkstrand to pass across to Vince Dunn. That pass drew the same top defender back down and created space for McCann to get rolling downhill (as he loves to do) and lean into his one-timer.
4-on-3 is a huge advantage, but this a beautiful setup by the #SeaKraken for the OT game winner.
Player movement, one-touch passing, and a perfect shot by McCann.
The boys needed that one. It wasn't always pretty, but that's an enormous win. pic.twitter.com/56NuOVaTIG
It was beautifully designed and beautifully executed. We also love the reaction from Hakstol on the bench.
Bonus Takeaway: Thank you, goalposts
The Kraken got some terrible puck luck against the Panthers, losing on a bounce off a stanchion. In this game against the Lightning, they again had an unfortunate carom on the tying goal in the third period when a Brandon Hagel pass deflected off Alex Wennberg’s skate and through Philipp Grubauer’s pads.
But Seattle had the lion’s share of good breaks in this game, as the Lightning had to have hit the post five times throughout the night, including two that looked like sure goals.
How did Jeannot miss with 29 seconds left in the third period?
The hockey gods taketh, the hockey gods giveth back.
Then Nikita Kucherov had what looked like a sure goal with 3:17 left in overtime, when Brayden Point found him off a two-on-one rush for an easy tap-in. Yet, Kucherov somehow shoveled it off the iron.
Grubauer was very good and deserved his first win of the season. But he also had a little bit of luck on his side, and sometimes that’s what you need to get a monkey off your back.
Historically, it has been hard to get a good read on a team until about the 10-game mark of the NHL season. Well, the 10th game of the 2023-24 Seattle Kraken campaign will be played Monday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team the Kraken have never beaten before.
I have been preaching patience through the first several weeks of the season, and I have liked what I have seen over the last week of games. But the team has only locked up three out of a possible six points on this trip and six out of a possible 18 on the season. That is a lower point total than they had at this spot during the inaugural season (seven points).
Of course, the optimist in me could still say, Well, they are only two points off where they were last season (eight points), so stop freaking out.
We are all guilty of human biases in our day-to-day lives, and analyzing hockey teams is no different. I often need to ask myself if I am being critical enough about the team this season, and do I have a fair and accurate read of the current Kraken expectations? To answer that question, I am going to do my best to be more objective in this week’s Monday Musings to analyze the team’s performance to date and project if this group can make the playoffs again.
Shooting and scoring
One area the team has obviously struggled with over the season is scoring. Seattle is ranked 28th in the league with 2.22 goals per game, and they had 3.33 goals per game at this point last season. The easy thing to point out is their low shooting percentage of 7.2 percent which is also 28th in the league. This has been turning around a bit, with Seattle clocking in at 11.3 percent over the last five games, and if you isolate the high-danger shooting percentage, that is also showing signs of a turnaround.
I looked at some of the volume metrics such as shot attempts and high-danger shots over the last five games, and the Kraken are at or above league average in most categories.
So, what is the issue? In my opinion, the Kraken are still feeling the impact of the first four games of the season. The team was ice cold at shooting the puck, and it made analysts and fans alike latch onto what was being said coming into the season that we should expect a regression out of this Kraken team. It still may be true that the Kraken are regressing, but if those first four games hadn’t played out so poorly for Seattle, we would be having a different conversation right now, even with the mixed results on this road trip. Despite their record, I feel confident that the Kraken are at least an average hockey team.
The goalie situation
Both Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord have been playing fine between the pipes this season. I was a little surprised to see Joey get the call three games in a row, but I liked coach Dave Hakstol’s explanation after the Florida game. “Both our guys are playing well, so [Joey’s] had a little bit of momentum here, and that’s why I went back with him tonight. And he gave us every opportunity to win the game.”
Over the last two seasons, Daccord has done everything he could in the AHL and just needed some regular reps in the NHL to see if he can truly be an everyday NHL goalie. Although it is early, you can see his confidence growing every game. I think he is on his way.
Grubauer has been mostly good in his outings, but he has gotten almost no goal support. More on that in a bit.
Other hockey thoughts from around the Northwest
It is easy to look at some of the goals scored against the Kraken over the last few games and just blame it on bad luck, but good teams do not put themselves in a position to be beaten by a bad bounce or two. It is part of playing the games, and you can’t expect to get all the breaks. Seattle had some good bounce against Florida too, so it’s hard to hang the entire loss on a ricochet off a stanchion.
The Kraken have scored first in six of their first nine games of the season. They have only won one of those games.
He has not scored a goal yet, but Will Borgen has played great this season.
Matty Beniers has looked good at times this season, but I would really like to see him find the back of the net. He is also dead last in the league in +/- with a -12. +/- is a stat that isn’t widely used anymore, but still, you never want to see one of your top players ranking last in anything. Let’s get Matty going.
Both Ryan Winterton and Jacob Melanson scored their first career professional goals on Saturday in an 8-2 victory for the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Chris Driedger started the first four games this season for the Firebirds and has a save percentage of .948 and a goals-against average of 1.52 per game. If he was disappointed to be sent down to the AHL after training camp, he isn’t showing it with his play.
The Seattle Thunderbirds are retiring Patrick Marleau’s jersey on Friday. It reminds me how often the late great Andy Eide and I used to argue about who was the greatest Seattle Thunderbird of all time. I was on Team Marleau, Andy always went to bat for Glen Goodall. Andy was always right, since he saw them both play for the T-Birds. I just chose Marleau since I was once a Sharks fan.
Speaking of the Thunderbirds, I had Gracyn Sawchyn on my radar for one of the best player performances of the week. Sawchyn had two goals and three assists in the T-Birds’ 5-2 win against the Red Deer Rebels on Tuesday. Sawychn missed two games over the weekend due to a lower-body injury.
Player performance
Jagger Firkus (Moose Jaw Warriors, WHL) – This is not a mistake. Firkus was on top of our list last week and continues his blistering pace in the WHL this season. After six points in three games two weeks ago, Firkus had nine points over four games in the last week, including a hat-trick on Sunday. Firkus now has 29 points in 14 games for Moose Jaw this season. The Warriors will come through the US division in late February and March.
Jaden Schwartz (SEA) – Schwartz had two goals and two assists over the last three games this past week for the Kraken. The points are great, but he has also been impressing me in the face-off circle during the power play. He only took five face-offs on the power play over the last week, but he won four of them. That goes a long way to help the Kraken improve their possession time on the manpower advantage.
Joey Daccord (SEA) – He went 1-1-1 for the Kraken over the last week and set a franchise record and a career high on Thursday when he made 45 saves.
Chart of the week
A Sound Of Hockey Patreon member asked us on a Mailbag podcast episode last week if we had any thoughts on the lack of goal support for Grubauer over the last few seasons. We believe it is too early to confirm if this is actually a trend this season, but it is stunning to see the difference in support, even if it is just nine games.
Goal of the week
This was easy. The Devin Shore sequence and goal from the Carolina game was incredible.
Ummmmmmmmm…. Ok, Devin Shore.
Wait for the third replay. He took Bjorkstrand's stretch pass right out of the air. Heckuva way to get your first goal with a new team.
I’m using a deeper cut for this honorable mention goal of the week, but Seattle Kraken seventh-round selection from the 2023 NHL Draft, Zaccharya Wisdom, scored his third goal of the season for Colorado College with this nifty backhander.
It would be an exaggeration to call this week a critical week for the Kraken, but I think this week will go a long way in determining how good this team could be. They have the game on Monday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, then have two home games against the Nashville Predators – a team that beat them in the second game of the season – and then finish this week with a game against the Calgary Flames.
Any points against Tampa Bay will be a pleasant surprise. Andrei Vasilevskiy has been out all season, but backup goaltender Jonas Johansson has back-to-back shutouts over his last two games, so getting a point is looking challenging. Although Nashville is better than a lot of people expected this season, they are beatable, and the Kraken have been playing better since the Kraken lost 3-0 in Nashville in the last meeting between those teams.
The big game might be Saturday against the Calgary Flames. Before the season started, I circled the Flames game as a game of note. I thought Calgary would be a team contending with the Kraken for a playoff spot in the Pacific Division this season. Neither the Kraken nor the Flames have looked like playoff teams so far, but Saturday could be devastating for either team to lose in regulation.
This is not a do-or-die scenario for the Kraken this week, but the hole they’re digging is getting deeper and deeper, so showing some resemblance of a playoff team would go a long way right now. Ideally, this means the Kraken get four out of a possible six points this week.
If you thought Thursday’s overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes was painful, just wait! We have a doozy for you in this one.
The Kraken had a two-goal lead against the Florida Panthers in the second period Saturday and seemed to be in complete control after Eeli Tolvanen scored his first goal of the year. But 1:19 after Tolvanen’s goal, Gustav Forsling got the Panthers on the board with a power-play goal, and just 11 seconds after that, the game was tied.
Florida’s game winner in the third was downright miserable for Kraken fans. We’ll talk about that in a bit.
Here are our Three Takeaways from the Kraken’s 3-2 loss to the Florida Meow Meows.
Takeaway #1: Awful way to lose
You never want to see a game decided on a lucky or unlucky bounce. Well… actually, maybe lucky bounces are ok when they happen in your team’s favor. But you definitely never want an unlucky bounce to cost you valuable standings points, and that’s exactly what happened Saturday.
With the game tied 2-2 with under seven minutes left to play, Josh Mahura dumped a puck into Seattle’s zone, an innocuous-looking play. Joey Daccord drifted behind the net to field it, as goalies normally do, but the puck never got to him. Instead, it hit a stanchion and took a hard right turn, meeting Nick Cousins at the top of the goal crease for perhaps the easiest goal he has ever scored.
Daccord fell on the sword after the game. “That one’s on me. I just should have stayed in the net. Late in the game, tie game, the stanchions here are pretty bouncy, and they stick out a lot. Just an unfortunate bounce.”
But coach Dave Hakstol defended his netminder. “He plays the puck really well,” Hakstol said. “The dangerous ones up in the glass, you can get a bad bounce like we got there, unfortunately. So, no, that’s a bad bounce at a tough time for us. That’s all.”
We would agree with Hakstol. Going after pucks off the glass is a little riskier than ones around the boards, but 95 percent of those behave the way they’re supposed to. Daccord was not doing anything out of the ordinary by going back to stop that one.
For as unlucky as the bounce was on the winning goal, the Kraken had some equally lucky breaks to keep the game 2-2 in the second period. Ryan Lomberg had a wide-open net on a rebound chance but rang it off the post, and Sam Reinhart scored with 10 seconds left in the period, before a successful offside challenge from Hakstol negated the goal.
Still, that’s a tough way to lose a hockey game.
Takeaway #2: Kraken put themselves in that position
Having said all that, Seattle had this game in its grasp and let the momentum swing wildly in Florida’s favor in the second half of the second period. Things were going swimmingly, and after the first period and first few minutes of the second (especially after Tolvanen pushed it to 2-0), we thought Seattle was marching toward its best all-around performance of the season.
And then—suddenly—it was a brand new, tie game, putting the Kraken in a situation where one bad bounce could sink them.
The first goal against came on Florida’s only power play of the entire game, a blast through traffic by Gustav Forsling that eluded Daccord. Then, just a couple blinks later, Matty Beniers lost a defensive-zone face-off and tried to block Dmitry Kulikov’s point shot, but it bounced off him and then Matthew Tkachuk before floating past Daccord.
This game was a classic example of Seattle needing to play the full 60 minutes to win. We heard the team and its coach talk about this ad nauseam after losses in 2022-23, and this is a prime example of what happens when the tentacle comes off the gas.
Letting down even for a few minutes can cost you games in the NHL, and the Kraken learned that lesson for the umpteenth time Saturday.
Takeaway #3: Joey Daccord got the nod again
It was interesting to see Daccord get the nod again in this game, his third consecutive start and fourth in five games. He was coming off an overtime loss to the Hurricanes, but he set a franchise record in that game with 42 saves.
Clearly, Hakstol has confidence in him right now and is trying to ride the hot hand, and he surely recognized that Seattle has racked up all its standings points on nights when Daccord has been in net.
“Both our guys are playing well,” Hakstol said. “[Daccord] has had a little bit of momentum here and that’s why we went back with him tonight, and he gave us every opportunity to win the game.”
It’s akin to when Philipp Grubauer went out with an injury last season, Martin Jones came in, and suddenly the Kraken got red hot. We’re not saying the lack of points on Grubauer nights has been because of Grubauer (he’s had some very good performances this season), but going back to Daccord Saturday is clearly a Which goalie gives my team the best chance to win? type of decision by Hakstol.
We’ve generally liked Daccord’s game this season. The way he gloves down almost every unscreened shot is very promising, and he is looking more and more like a true NHL goalie, rather than an AHL goalie filling in. He made 35 saves again Saturday and holds a .912 save percentage and 2.88 goals-against average in five starts.
We would guess Hakstol turns back to Grubauer for Monday’s road trip finale in Tampa Bay, but it will be worth monitoring how the goalie usage plays out moving forward.
Welp, that was one of those losses that stung a bit for Kraken fans. Seattle had the lead for most of the game against the Hurricanes, but then bent, bent… bent some more, and finally broke in the last few minutes of the game, before losing 3-2 in overtime.
If you just look at it statistically, getting a point out of that one should be a nice consolation. Seattle was outshot 45-25, and Carolina had 63 percent of the shot quality in the game. Still, the game script playing out in that manner left a bitter taste.
“[Carolina] played exactly the way we thought they would,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “They generate zone time, they generate shots on goal, but we didn’t make a whole lot of mistakes other than some of the pressure plays that stayed in our zone… Obviously, we made the big mistake on the tying goal.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a smarting 3-2 Kraken overtime loss to the Hurricanes.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): One big, costly mistake
The mistake Hakstol was referencing came from Seattle’s top forward line of Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle, and Tye Kartye, deep in the third period. The Kraken were nursing an ever-so-tenuous 2-1 lead with under five minutes to play, and they had been bunkered in their zone for most of the period at that point.
There seemed to be an offensive opportunity brewing, so Adam Larsson jumped into a four-on-four rush with the three aforementioned forwards. Hurricanes defenseman Brady Skjei made a diving play to break up an Eberle pass, and Carolina transitioned quickly.
Kotkaniemi ties it late. Terrible backcheck by Eberle and Kartye, who both looked like they were out of gas and completely stopped skating.
“Our eyes got a little bit too big there, trying to do a little too much offensively,” Hakstol said. “We ended up with four guys probably below the tops of the circles.”
Beniers and Larsson sprinted to get back in the play defensively, and for a fleeting moment, it seemed Seattle had plenty of numbers back, as the Hurricanes broke in two against three. But the players that were following up the rush—Michael Bunting and Jesperi Kotkaniemi—were left completely unmarked by Eberle and Kartye, who both uncharacteristically stopped skating. Martin Necas spun and passed to Kotkaniemi, and Joey Daccord was hung out to dry.
To Seattle’s credit, the team didn’t let Kotkaniemi’s goal at 15:36 of the third period sink the ship completely. The Kraken got the game to overtime, where they again showed patience and control and earned several good looks. But the ’Canes got the last laugh when Necas fired a shot around a screen to beat Daccord.
Sometimes, all it takes is one little screwup.
Takeaway #2 (Darren): Joey’s big night spoiled
We aren’t giving him a full takeaway, but we need to call out Devin Shore for his stunning demonstration of hand-eye coordination to corral a waist-high stretch pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand and an impressive finish on the breakaway for his first goal as a Kraken.
Ummmmmmmmm…. Ok, Devin Shore.
Wait for the third replay. He took Bjorkstrand's stretch pass right out of the air. Heckuva way to get your first goal with a new team.
We are, however, giving a full takeaway to netminder Joey Daccord, who was fantastic and frankly deserved a win on this night. Daccord made 42 saves on 45 shots, setting a franchise record for most saves in a game. And while—as John will point out—most of his saves came on shots from the outside, Daccord looked very much in control throughout, gloving down seemingly every shot from distance with no rebound.
“It’s a frustrating loss, being up late in the game and ending up losing in overtime,” Daccord said. “But I think we’re still early on in the year, and I think we can keep building on this.”
The only regulation goals allowed by Daccord came after big booboos by his mates in front of him, including Brian Dumoulin catching an edge and coughing up the puck in a dangerous spot in the first period, and two players being left completely alone in the third.
Daccord is now 2-0-2 and has been in net for every standings point the Kraken have earned so far this season.
Takeaway #3 (John): Limiting shot quality
For as well as Daccord played in this game, the skaters did a great job at keeping most of the shots to the perimeter throughout the game. Only 29.6 percent of the Hurricanes’ shots were considered “high” or “medium” danger.
The Hurricanes managed to muster 45 shots on net, which was good enough for a season high, but their 29.6 percent medium- and high-danger percentage was a season low.
Hakstol called out in his post-game presser that the team really only made the one glaring mistake late in the third, and we would agree with that sentiment. Many of the shots Daccord faced came from the point without traffic in front. The Kraken will take those shots against all day, and that’s exactly what happened Thursday.
Stifling shot quality has been a steady theme for the Kraken in his young 2023-24 NHL season. If they can get some more consistency in the scoring category, and it looks like that is starting to come, they could be heading toward a solid run.
What a roller coaster of emotions that game was for the Seattle Kraken, as they snuck by the Detroit Red Wings to earn their second win of the season Tuesday. It also put Seattle off on the right foot to start this current four-game road trip, which will now take them to face three teams that were in the playoffs last season in Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay.
The Kraken had a two-goal lead heading into the third period, but they let it slip away on three goals from Detroit’s highly lethal power play. Seattle scored a late power-play goal of its own to tie it, then won it in with a hair under 5 ticks left on the overtime clock.
EBERLEEEEEEEEE! 🚨 #SEAKRAKEN WIN WITH 4 SECONDS LEFT IN OVERTIME!
Raymond hits the post, then McCann (eventually) sets up Eberle for the game-winner at the other end.
“Obviously that hurt a little bit with the power plays,” Jaden Schwartz said. “But we stayed with it, got back on the hunt, back on the forecheck, continued to work. And it paid off. Wins aren’t coming easy right now, so we’ve got to dig in and play the full 60 is probably the bottom line right now.”
Here are our Three Takeaways from a thrilling 5-4 Kraken overtime win against the Red Wings.
Takeaway #1 (Darren): What a night for Jaden Schwartz
While most Kraken players have struggled to score so far this season, Schwartz has gotten himself off to a pretty solid start. He was outstanding Tuesday, with two goals (including one on the power play), bringing him to four goals in seven games this season.
Schwartz has been something of a fixer of lines for coach Dave Hakstol during his tenure with the Kraken, often moving up and down to help players start producing. That’s because he brings a hard, tenacious style of play, and he’s willing to get into the net-front area; it’s a style that also plays nicely with the manpower advantage.
“Just trying to be competitive in there,” said Schwartz. “Every game is a little bit different. Sometimes you’re fighting for space, sometimes pucks find you.”
One thing that’s been interesting about the way he’s been deployed on the power play, Schwartz is often seen taking draws for his unit, though he isn’t a true center. On the team’s first power-play goal at 5:16 of the second period, he took the draw and partially won it to his left. With the puck contested against the wall, he hustled over to support the board battle. As soon as he saw Matty Beniers pull the puck back to Vince Dunn at the point, Schwartz turned and sprinted to the blue paint.
A missed Dunn pass to Kailer Yamamoto caromed fortuitously off the end wall and right to Schwartz, who got good wood on a backhander to chip it over Ville Husso. That got Seattle level in the game at 1-1.
SCHWARTZ! 🚨
And it's a power-play goal!
Schwartz wins the face-off, then hustles right to the front of the net. Dunn intentionally fires it off the end boards, and it pops out to Schwartz, who whacks it past Husso. #SeaKraken
Schwartz followed that up with just a big, old fashioned clapper off a rush at 17:54 of the second, beating Husso again and giving the Kraken a 2-1 lead.
Schwartz’s biggest play of the game came with time ticking down on Seattle, which had a late power play and a 6-on-4 advantage with goalie Joey Daccord off for an extra skater. Schwartz didn’t get a point for it, but when Jared McCann tied the game with 1:22 left in regulation, it was Schwartz that was right in front of Husso, wreaking havoc.
Oh, and we can’t forget Schwartz also got away with a fairly blatant stick throw to break up a scoring opportunity late in the second period, and Tye Kartye scored soon after that to make it 3-1 Kraken.
A theme for me in this game was (once again) special teams. The Red Wings power play unit came into the game white hot, with a 39 percent power-play success rate on the season. Meanwhile, the Kraken had one of the top five penalty kill units in the league with a 93.8 percent kill rate.
Something had to give, and it did. Detroit scored three goals on six power-play opportunities with all three goals coming in the third period. It was a tough period for the penalty kill unit who, in my opinion, actually looked solid and played better than the data shows. There were no glaring mistakes on the PK, and the failures on this night looked more like a combination of a lethal Detroit power play unit clicking and no lucky breaks for the Seattle killers. I don’t see a big cause for concern, even though the three goals against did raise eyebrows.
On the other side of the special teams equation is the Kraken power play, which has struggled this season. Objectively, it has been better as of late. Coming into the Detroit game, Seattle had three power-play goals over 12 opportunities in the last four games. That is a 25 percent power-play conversion rate, which would be close to the top 10 in the league if the Kraken did not go zero for six in the first two games of the season.
The Kraken potted two power-play goals against Detroit, including McCann’s dart to tie the game with less than 90 seconds remaining in regulation.
MCCANN CAN! 🚨 TIE GAME!!!
McCann with the rocket, but look who is right there in front, taking away Husso's vision… What a game by Jaden Schwartz.
The Kraken are now 13th in the league with a 21.7 percent conversion rate.
Even so, I still think the Kraken are struggling at getting set up off their offensive-zone entries, so I wanted to check that with data. A proxy I’ve been using for power-play offensive-zone time is shot attempts per two minutes of power-play time.
The Kraken still rank relatively low, but this might not be the best metric, considering Washington is first in this category and has the second-lowest power-play conversion in the league. On the other hand, Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Dallas all rank in the bottom five in power-play conversion rate on the season, so that does align with this metric. It is something we will continue to monitor.
Takeaway #3 (Curtis): After falling behind late, Kraken were resilient
The Kraken very easily could have let this game get away from them at the end of the third period. The pendulum of emotion had swung and swung hard against them. Entering the third with a 3-1 lead, the team saw three consecutive Detroit power-play goals put them at a one-goal disadvantage just over half way through the final period.
“It’s important to get results, and we felt like we played a real good first two periods,” Hakstol said. “And even on specialty teams, we did a nice job in those first two periods. And all of a sudden, it was kind of a wave of power plays. They’ve been rolling on their power play, and they made good on them. So to be able to push back– we’ve done it a couple of times now. We haven’t gotten rattled, we haven’t gone away after giving up a lead, so we did that again tonight.”
Instead of lamenting the calls against them–including a soft holding goal on Alex Wennberg that created the power-play opportunity Detroit used to go ahead–or conceding to their misfortune after a tough opening stretch in which they had lost five of six games, the Kraken got to work.
From 10:26 in the third onward, Seattle outshot Detroit 10-2. The team’s tenacious effort generated two third-period power plays as well. McCann drew the second call and then capitalized on the opportunity himself with a pinpoint wrist shot from the top of the right circle. McCann also set up Jordan Eberle for the game-winning goal with just five seconds left in overtime, after the Kraken again had the puck for most of the five minutes (and got some puck luck with a post hit by Lucas Raymond).
McCann spoke after the game about composure and a consistent mindset as the key to overcoming adversity in the third period: “It was a grind. We stuck with it–didn’t change a thing.”
The team’s goal moving forward is to build on the confidence a win like this can deliver. “We need to play with a little bit more swagger like we had last year, toward the end of the year,” McCann said. “We need to find that.”
