The Seattle Kraken hosted the red hot Vancouver Canucks at Climate Pledge Arena for their first games of 2022, but the results were much like the previous year. Vancouver took an early lead that they never relinquished, which both continued Seattle’s losing streak and gave Vancouver eight wins in their last nine games since the hiring of Bruce Boudreau.
As far as the COVID-19 protocol went for this game, Vancouver was without forward Brock Boeser, while Seattle was without defenseman Jeremy Lauzon.
From the drop of the puck, Seattle did not seem to have the steam behind them to take out the visiting Canucks. They managed only six shots on goal in the opening frame against Vancouver netminder Thatcher Demko while surrendering 14 shots. Young emerging forwards Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Hoglander gave Vancouver a comfortable 2–0 lead, which had the Canucks sitting pretty heading into the first intermission.
Seattle cut the lead to just one goal in the second period, as Calle Jarnkrok scored on a seeing-eye shot from downtown. This resulted in the only goal of the period, as the Kraken held the Canucks to only eight shots on Philipp Grubauer while sending nine shots the way of Demko. A one-goal game heading into the third period of a division game seemed promising, but Seattle watched their hopes slip away.
Tyler Motte gave Vancouver all the goals they would need just under five minutes into the third period, while Conor Garland and Tanner Pearson (empty-net goal) added a couple of insurance goals to pad the lead. Seattle did not get held scoreless in the final 20 minutes, though. Defenseman William Borgen made up for an earlier gaffe on Podkolzin’s goal by scoring his first of the season and of his career.
borgy lights the lamp for the first time! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/ejboyuEY7y
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 2, 2022
Sadly, that was all the excitement the team could provide for their home fans. When the final horn sounded, the Canucks were 5–2 winners despite being outshot 26–21 in the second and third periods.
Anchor points
⚓ Grubauer did not get much help from his teammates, at all. The Podkolzin, Motte and Garland goals were all egregious turnovers by his defenders. You cannot really place this loss on the goaltender.
⚓ There were just four total power plays in this game, and Vancouver had the only power play goal.
⚓ This turned out to be the tale of the top six vs. the bottom six. The lines of Jordan Eberle, Morgan Geekie and Jared McCann and Ryan Donato, Joonas Donskoi and Alex Wennberg were comfortably over the 50% mark in possession, but the Jarnkrok, Colin Blackwell and Yanni Gourde and Marcus Johansson, Max McCormick and Riley Sheahan lines were both under 35% 5-on-5.
⚓ With only one high danger chance all night at full strength, you are fighting an uphill battle.
⚓ Digging a little deeper into the possession metrics, Vancouver limited the Kraken to almost entirely perimeter shots
🔱 5-on-5 Corsi (total shot attempts) 
54%–46%
🔱 5-on-5 Fenwick (unblocked shot attempts) 51%–49%
🔱 5-on-5 High-danger chances For 89%–11%
🔱 5-on-5 Expected goals for 64%–36%
🔱 Face-off percentage 
51%–49%
⚓ The Kraken will be off until Thursday, when they are supposed to face the Ottawa Senators. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. PST. Tuesday’s scheduled game against the New York Islanders and Saturday’s scheduled game against the Winnipeg Jets have been postponed until a later date.
Take some time out of your day to watch this segment about a Seattle Kraken fan who helped save the life of the Canucks’ equipment manager. It is a really nice feel-good story for the new year.
On 10/23 #SeaKraken fan Nadia Popovici urgently banged on the glass to alert @Canucks Asst. Equipment Manager Brian Hamilton of an abnormal mole that turned out to be life-threatening.
Today, they reunited for the first time since she saved his life → https://t.co/ueSuAwoz6s pic.twitter.com/zd8d8Rn7PU
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 2, 2022