Three Takeaways – Kraken blow late lead again, lose in OT to Flames

by Darren Brown | Nov 21, 2023 | Three takeaways

For some reason, this 4-3 Seattle Kraken loss to the Calgary Flames in overtime didn’t sting *quite* as badly as the loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 15. Trying to wrap our heads around why that is, we think it’s because Seattle was coming off a big 60-minute win against the Canucks on Saturday, and this was the fourth consecutive game in which the Kraken earned a point. Plus, this was a one-goal lead instead of the two-goal lead the Kraken held against the Oilers before Evander Kane took them to the woodshed that night.

Perhaps the Kraken have given fans just enough good feelings lately to be more tolerant of late-game slip-ups. Still, victory was again right there for Seattle, but Andrew Mangiapane—the guy who smashed Jared McCann’s face into the ice on Nov. 4—tied it at 15:53 of the third, and Rasmus Andersson won it in overtime.

Worth noting, the Kraken have still never beaten the Flames at home and are now 0-5-1 at Climate Pledge Arena.

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

Takeaway #1: Grubi down?

Philipp Grubauer didn’t have a great first period, allowing two goals on seven shots, including a Jonathan Huberdeau power-play wrister from beyond the top of the left circle that squeezed under his arm. Joey Daccord took the ice to start the second, and our initial thought was that coach Dave Hakstol had just given Grubi a quick hook because he didn’t seem to be tracking the puck.

But then Grubauer didn’t emerge from the tunnel for a few minutes, and that made it clear his exit from the game was out of necessity.

Hakstol confirmed the departure was due to injury but wouldn’t give any more specifics on what happened, other than saying a couple plays contributed to the goaltender’s injury. We’re thinking one of those may have been the negated goal by Martin Pospisil early in the first, when Pospisil ran over Grubauer. We heard there was a second shot that caused Grubauer to hunch over a bit, but we didn’t notice that one.

In any case, Grubauer stayed on the bench for the remainder of the game, so at first glance, the injury didn’t seem too serious. We shall see.

Daccord played well in relief, stopping the first 16 Calgary shots he faced before Mangiapane tied it. He did overcommit on the overtime goal, which led to Andersson going for the wraparound on the other side, but that was his only real mistake of the game (and to be fair, he recovered in time to make the initial save and got no help on the rebound).

Takeaway #2: Bad, good, bad

Seattle’s puck management was sloppy in the first period, and that led to a 2-1 deficit after 20 minutes. The team came out flying in the second period, though, and tilted the ice as much as we’ve seen all season, firing 17 pucks at Dan Vladar, scoring twice, and grabbing 80 percent of the shot quality in the frame.

Jordan Eberle tied it 2-2 for Seattle at 8:21 of the second with a backhander that somehow squeezed through the pads of Vladar. Then Jared McCann gave the Kraken a 3-2 lead at 10:25 with a great tip of an Adam Larsson shot out of the air.

The Kraken needed to get at least one more in that period. They were cooking, and the Flames were on their heels, but Seattle couldn’t get another one by Vladar and took a tenuous 3-2 lead to the third period.

As we’ve seen repeatedly this season, the Kraken got way too defensive in the third, letting the play come to them instead of keeping their foot on the gas pedal. The tables turned once again, and now Calgary was in the driver’s seat, peppering Daccord with 16 shots in the final 20. With the way the game was going at that point, everyone in the building knew the tying goal was coming.

“We played gritty,” McCann said. “But we’ve got to learn from our mistakes here and learn how to finish games off.”

We still can’t explain Seattle’s struggles at maintaining leads this season, other than there’s an obvious shift to defensive hockey once the team gets ahead. We don’t think this is an intentional change in tactics, but once the momentum shifts, they aren’t finding ways to get it back.

The good thing here is that as fixable trends have appeared for this team over the past two seasons, Hakstol and his staff have typically found ways to fix them. Protecting leads is an issue that’s continuously costing the Kraken standings points, so here’s hoping they can figure this one out.

Takeaway #3: Kraken in a “playoff” spot

There’s an old theory that Thanksgiving is an important marker for NHL teams, because statistically, those in playoff spots at the holiday make the postseason more often than not. Well, if the Kraken can beat the lowly 3-14-1 Sharks on Wednesday, they will officially be in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving, no matter what happens with other teams in the Western Conference.

There’s some voodoo accounting happening to get them into said spot, because as of the writing of this story, they’ve played two more games than the Ducks, Coyotes, and Flames, and those three teams are all within two points of Seattle.

Still, being this close should bring a small sigh of relief for Kraken fans. With the way the team started its season, this position by Thanksgiving seemed farfetched just a few weeks ago. Things continue to trend in the right direction, even if the results in games continue to be maddening at times.

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.

Read more from Darren

Three Takeaways – Kraken get 60-minute effort huge 4-3 win over Canucks

by Darren Brown | Nov 19, 2023 | Three takeaways

Good morning from Vancouver, where the Seattle Kraken defeated the Canucks 4-3 for a massive two points on Saturday. 

We’ve heard Seattle’s players and head coach talking about the need to find a full 60-minute effort, and they got that from everybody in the lineup, resulting in a signature win for this team.

Author’s note: This edition of Three Takeaways will be quicker than usual because I have limited time this morning and woke up too late to do a more in-depth version. Forgive me. 

Let’s get to it! 

Takeaway #1: Exactly the type of goal we were talking about

On the last full Sound Of Hockey Podcast episode (Episode 261), we discussed the many things we thought had been plaguing the Kraken through the early stages of the season. 

One of the things I identified is that we haven’t seen many of those plays off the rush where a Kraken forward either pulls up and finds a trailer or goes cross-ice to the player on the opposite wing and that guy finds the trailer for a prime opportunity from the slot. 

With Vancouver leading 1-0 after a squeaky J.T. Miller goal that barely crossed the line, Jamie Oleksiak got the Kraken on the board with the type of play I was talking about on that episode.

In this case, Jordan Eberle passed to Oleksiak at Seattle’s blue line, and the Kraken transitioned to offense quickly. The Big Rig sent a quick-up pass to Matty Beniers who rushed up the boards. Seattle did not have a numerical advantage on this play, as Beniers, Eberle, and Jared McCann faced three retreating Canucks defenders. 

But Matty slammed on the breaks and found Oleksiak coming over the line. Oleksiak took a big rip at it and launched it over Thatcher Demko’s shoulder. 

This play works, and it is a huge way Seattle generated offense at five-on-five last season. More of this, please! 

Takeaway #2: Eberle and Beniers came alive

This was an important night for Eberle and Beniers, who have both been snakebitten for most of the season. They showed real chemistry and got rewarded for their creativity and hard work. 

Beniers set up the goal we talked about in Takeaway #1, and Eberle had the second assist. Then Eberle got a fortunate bounce one second after a power play had ended after a high Oliver Bjorkstrand shot bounced off the shaft of his stick, got lost in Demko’s equipment, and eventually trickled over the line. 

“Sometimes it’s nice to get some bounces,” Eberle said.

Eberle’s best play proved to be the eventual game winner at 6:48 of the third period. After a puck got tipped deep into Vancouver’s zone, he sprinted in on the forecheck and stripped Tyler Myers. Then in one fell swoop, he swung around and found Beniers streaking down the slot.

Beniers was in a prime scoring position, but he still needed to perfectly place the shot, and he did that, beating Demko to the stick side. 

Getting these two players going offensively could be massive for the Kraken.  

Takeaway #3: Are the Kraken starting to cook? 

If you still had a bad taste in your mouth from Seattle’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Oilers on Wednesday, this game provided the cap of Listerine you needed. 

The reality of that loss in Edmonton is that the Kraken played really well for 53 minutes that night, before completely blowing it and only getting one point. But mix that with a hard-fought shootout win the following night over the Islanders and now this very complete effort in Vancouver, and it seems this team could be finding itself. 

The Kraken have earned five points out of a possible six in their past three games and have gone 5-3-2 in their past 10. We aren’t ready to say the Kraken are back to last season’s level and are firing on all cylinders, but we’re seeing some very positive signs. 

This next week of home games is critical. Seattle will face a mediocre Flames team Monday, a terrible Sharks team on Wednesday, and this same good Vancouver team on Black Friday.

Take care of business.

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.

Read more from Darren

Three Takeaways – Yamamoto stars for Kraken in shootout win over Islanders

by Curtis Isacke | Nov 17, 2023 | Three takeaways

…And a BIG exhale from the home faithful. The Seattle Kraken badly needed the two points they collected Thursday, getting a rare shootout victory over the New York Islanders for a 4-3 win. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for Seattle and eased the pain of a devastating overtime loss in Edmonton on Wednesday.

“Coming out of last night, that was a disappointing loss,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We felt like we did so many really good things there. But you know, true to the group in here, we addressed a couple of things that we felt like we could do better, and then we said, ‘Let’s turn the page.’”

Kailer Yamamoto was the star in this one, scoring the tying goal at 4:50 of the third period, assisting on Matty Beniers’s power-play goal, and scoring the deciding goal in an extended eight-round shootout.

It’s wild to think how thin the margin has been in both games of this back-to-back series against the Oilers and Islanders. A couple bounces in either direction, and the Kraken could have come out with any number of points between zero and four. They will gladly accept three out of four, considering the Wednesday stinger.

Here are our Three Takeaways from a 4-3 Kraken win over the Islanders, their first shootout win since April 16, 2022.

Takeaway #1 (Curtis): Yamamoto delivers two “one-point” plays

Yamamoto delivered the team a much-needed two points with two separate key plays late in the game. 

The first play came as Seattle was trailing 3-2 in third period. Yamamoto took the ice with his power play unit, and together they hemmed the Islanders in their zone for over a minute, escalating the pressure on tiring penalty killers. As a result, Jaden Schwartz was quicker to retrieve a deflected shot in the corner, scan the defense, and find Yamamoto open in the slot between defenders. 

“Their penalty kill was gassed because we were able to retrieve pucks and keep possession,” Hakstol said. “If you look at the play we scored on, it was a really good play by [Schwartz] getting it back inside on a retrieval with tired penalty killers trying to defend.”

Yamamoto took it from there, showing patience and skill to work to his backhand and elevate the shot past Varlamov.

Yamamoto didn’t get significant power-play time during his tenure with the Oilers given the depth of high-end skill in Edmonton, but we had a suspicion coming into the season that he had some untapped potential to help on the man advantage. That has proven true over Seattle’s first 18 games.

Yamamoto has carved out a crucial special-teams role as a zone-entry player and flexible net-front or bumper presence. When he’s on the ice, Seattle’s power play generates shot quality 22 percent better than league average–in particular creating a large volume of chances net front. When he’s not out there, the net-front play struggles, and Seattle’s power play generates shot quality 34 percent below league average.

This difference is not all attributable to Yamamoto, of course. HockeyViz isolates his personal power play value at approximately 4 percent better than league average. But the shot chart underscores the value he has delivered in stark fashion. In this one, Yamamoto’s score leveled the game and pushed it to overtime, earning Seattle a point.

Yamamoto’s second “one-point” play came in the shootout. As mentioned above, his score in the eighth round was the difference and handed Seattle the win. When asked what his approach was, Yamamoto stressed that he was trying to stay flexible: “I’m looking for anything, whichever way [the goalie is] cheating.” 

Yamamoto approached Varlamov from the right and drifted toward the middle of the ice. As he reached the slot, he sensed an opening glove side and shot back across the grain to beat the Islanders goaltender. In doing so, he delivered a huge win a night after perhaps Seattle’s toughest loss.

“Just to be able to contribute to the team and the team’s success, it feels really good,” Yamamoto said.

Where does this game rank in his career? “Pretty high, honestly.”

Takeaway #2 (Darren): A big night for the power play

The Kraken tied a franchise record for power-play goals in a game by converting three times with the manpower advantage Thursday. They also gave up two to New York’s power play, but hey… that’s a plus-one on the night for the special teams!

“I think both units are finding that groove,” said Vince Dunn. “I think we have really good key pieces on [my] unit, and everyone brings a different element.”

Things are definitely clicking for the power play, and a good sign that the Kraken can keep it going is that they’re scoring power-play goals in a variety of ways. Matty Beniers scored the first PPG of the night on a “Jared McCann special,” taking a pass from Dunn at the top of the left circle, rolling toward Varlamov, and ripping it over his shoulder.

That “Jared McCann special” became way too predictable last season, so it was good to see Wennberg finish off a great pass by Bjorkstrand at the net front, then Schwartz setting up Yamamoto with one of his classic puck retrievals (we’re starting to think we should call goals like that the “Jaden Schwartz special”).

After finishing 18th in the league in power-play percentage last season, the Kraken have climbed to seventh this season, converting 26.8 percent of the time.

Takeaway #3 (Darren): Grubauer’s nice read

It wasn’t a perfect outing by Philipp Grubauer, and at .870, he registered his fourth game in a row with a save percentage below .900. He came up big in the overtime period, though, and stuffed Noah Dobson to close out the shootout in the eighth round.

Interestingly, Grubauer’s best “play” of the night didn’t technically earn him a save. With the Kraken running around like chickens without heads for a lot of the OT period (Hakstol said they may want to “burn the tape” from that extra frame), they appeared to have hung their goalie out to dry around the 1:40 mark.

Mathew Barzal was dancing around in the corner to Grubauer’s left. McCann and Schwartz both drifted toward him, leaving Bjorkstrand as the lone soldier available to cover Sebastian Aho. But Bjorkstrand fell down, leaving Aho all alone in the slot for what looked like a sure goal.

Grubauer read the play perfectly and fired his stick out into the passing lane, breaking up the opportunity before it got to Aho.

“Kudos to Grubi on that,” Hakstol said. “There wasn’t a lot going either way, but they had a couple looks.”

We think Hakstol downplayed that a little. When we watched it live, we saw Aho breaking in, Barzal twirling, and Bjorkstrand falling down, and we started gathering our belongings to head to the exit with another painful defeat in tow.

Instead, it became an innocuous play in the end, and Grubauer held on just long enough to get the second point.

Worth noting, he also got a piece of an Adam Pelech howitzer early in the extra frame and stopped a Bo Horvat breakaway offering in the closing minutes for good measure.

Three Takeaways – Kraken blow late lead, lose again in painful fashion to Oilers

by Darren Brown | Nov 15, 2023 | Three takeaways

Welp… Wednesday’s 4-3 Kraken overtime loss to the Oilers had Nov. 6, 2021 vibes to it. If you’re not sure what happened on Nov. 6, 2021, that was the night when the Seattle Kraken—in their inaugural campaign—limped into Gila River Arena with their season veering in a miserable direction. They desperately needed a victory against a still winless Arizona team. The Kraken tied that game 4-4 with 1:18 left on a Mark Giordano shot from the point, but then they handed the game winner to Lawson Crouse just 13 seconds later. 

That was arguably the lowest low point of 2021-22, a season filled with low points. 

Wednesday’s game played out in a very different manner, and the Kraken did take a standings point. But with Seattle again badly needing a win, blowing a 3-1 lead late in the third is going to sting players, coaches, and fans alike. 

“Giving up that second [goal] obviously gives them a little bit of juice and a little bit of momentum,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “It comes down to the tying goal. Our centerman gets bulldogged on that, so we’re not able to pressure that on the half wall, and that puts us a little bit in the soup down low. So it’s disappointing, no question, because of how hard our players worked.” 

Here are our Three Takeaways from a painful 4-3 Kraken OT loss to the Oilers.

Takeaway #1: They had it

The Kraken played about 53 very good minutes of hockey on Wednesday. They didn’t score in the first period, but they had the better of the play and the looks, with 63 percent of the shot quality in the frame. Brandon Tanev even slid one behind Stuart Skinner, through the crease, and out the other side. The chances were there. 

They conceded the first goal of the game when Adam Larsson tried to force a Leon Draisaitl turnover at the blue line, but Draisaitl made an elite play to get the puck to Connor McDavid. Forgetting about McDavid is generally not recommended and unsurprisingly resulted in a goal, but Seattle bounced back from the gaffe. 

Jared McCann, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, and Alex Wennberg each scored in that middle frame, and Seattle went to the dressing room in complete control after the second. 

Things were still going fine for most of the third period, and the Oilers were even showing signs of frustration. But Evander Kane redirected an Evan Bouchard pass by Joey Daccord at 13:28, and suddenly Edmonton had life. 

That thud you heard with 46 seconds left was the sound of every Kraken fan on the planet slumping to the ground when Kane scored again to tie it and send it to overtime. The whimpering you heard at 2:57 of the extra frame was Kraken fans gently weeping after Kane completed the hat trick to give Edmonton the win. 

“We played a great road game for 56 minutes, and even in the last five, six minutes, I didn’t think we played poorly,” Daccord said. “They just found a way to score. It’s frustrating, but it is what it is. You know, at the end of the day, I think we probably deserved to win tonight, but it just didn’t go our way.”

It was a miserable, miserable night. 

Takeaway #2: Another two-goal lead wasted

During Seattle’s road trip to Detroit, Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay earlier this season, the team blew two-goal leads in all four games but managed to come home with a 2-1-1 record. We talked to several players after that trip about why two-goal leads are so hard to keep, so give that a read if you’re perplexed. 

We hoped it was just a phase this team was going through, but the two-goal struggle keeps rearing its ugly head, and it did so in the ugliest fashion Wednesday. 

There is just something about that two-goal lead where the opponent finds one and then starts getting momentum. As the team that’s leading, you can’t help but sit back and try to play defense, and then all of a sudden, you’ve blown the lead. 

Still, what’s been happening with this Kraken team this season isn’t normal. They have to start closing out games when they have the opportunity.

Takeaway #3: Where do they go from here? 

When a team is struggling, we look for little positives that indicate it’s getting close to re-entering the win column. If this game hadn’t played out in the manner that it did, with the late tying goal and subsequent overtime loss, we would have been able to take a whole bunch of positives from it. 

Here are a few positives we could have taken: Tanev has been awesome since his return from injury, and his line with Jaden Schwartz and Wennberg is clicking. Joey Daccord had another solid night in net. Wennberg scored his first goal of the season. McCann scored for the first time since Nov. 2, and we know he tends to score in bunches once he gets going. 

Those could have been some positives to take away, but instead, we’re left feeling like this team will never win again. Of course, that’s an overreaction, but for as well as Seattle played for most of this game, there’s still a sense that it was yet another step in the wrong direction. 

“Obviously, it’s a tough way to end it,” Wennberg said. “And there’s a lot of good things out there, but I mean we just can’t lose this game. This is one of those games you’ve just got to fight through and just find a way to win. But, unfortunately, we didn’t today.”

What the team needs to do is look at how it played for the first 53 minutes and—somehow, someway, for the love of Joey—figure out how to extend that effort for a full 60 minutes. 

Sometimes, it’s good to not have much time to dwell on a painful loss, and the Kraken will need to quickly shake this off to get ready for a home tilt against the Islanders on Thursday.

The Kraken have lost three in a row and five of their last six. They need a win.

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.

Read more from Darren