Head Coach Dave Hakstol gave Chris Driedger the rare start in goal and it proved to be the right move. Driedger made 19 saves in a fairly light workload.

The game began in the same fashion as so many before, with the Predators taking the lead on a goal from Philip Tomasino, which was the only goal of the period. Nashville held a slim 9–8 lead in shots, but they made up for the lack of action in the second period.

The Predators took a 2–0 lead on an early second-period power-play goal from Matt Duchene, but the Kraken fought back just 29 seconds later on a goal by Alexander Wennberg. Seattle added two more goals in the next 2:30 from Calle Jarnkrok (#RevengeEffects) and Yanni Gourde, which gave them a brief 3–2 lead until Duchene struck again to take a 3–3 tie into the second intermission.

The Kraken dominated the third period, outshooting the Predators 15–3, and got the only goal of the period from Blackwell, with Ryan Donato in the penalty box no less, to send Nashville away with the loss.

a shorty for our short king! pic.twitter.com/aFcfexQKET

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) March 3, 2022

Anchor points

The former Preds players really killed them with three points on the evening,

The Seattle penalty kill has been on fire lately with shorthanded goals in three of their last five games.

Even though he did not score, Kole Lind led the Kraken with five shots on goal and had an assist on Wennberg’s goal. He also led the team in 5-on-5 Corsi with 86%.

The Kraken put together a solid possession game after starting a bit slow:

5-on-5 Corsi (total shot attempts) 57%–43%
5-on-5 Fenwick (Unblocked shot attempts) 54%–46%
5-on-5 High-danger chances for 58%–42%
5-on-5 Expected goals for 59%–41%
Face-off percentage 63%–37%

The Kraken travel to Washington D.C. to face Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Saturday. The puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. PST.

The post RECAP: Kraken end losing streak in comeback win over Nashville appeared first on The Rink.

Head Coach Dave Hakstol rode his hot goaltender in Philipp Grubauer. Grubauer played in all three home wins, with Chris Driedger and Joey Daccord playing in losses against the Loa Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues.

Seattle began this game with some momentum, which has been rare for this Kraken team. They outshot the Predators 12–11 and scored the opening goal on a two-man advantage at the 8:59 mark of the game. Leading goal scorer Jared McCann took a one-time feed from captain Mark Giordano and beat Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros to give the Kraken a 1–0 lead. Seattle had the opportunity to really open up the game with three straight power plays and a Yanni Gourde breakaway, but Saros held the Predators within one.

Sweet 16 for number 16!

McCann nets his 16th goal of the season! pic.twitter.com/Ww1VQv0u8B

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 26, 2022

Eventually, Nashville’s Luke Kunin followed up with a game-tying goal with just 21 seconds left in the first period to deadlock the score heading into the first intermission.

The Kraken had momentum in the second period as well, with defenseman Adam Larsson scoring his third goal of the season just over halfway through the period. Nashville followed up once again, though, but this time they took the lead into the second intermission with goals from Filip Forsberg (15:15) and Mattias Ekholm (16:31) just 1:16 apart. The Kraken led in shots, once again, 13–11.

Nashville took advantage of a late third period power play for too many men, on one of only five third-period shots, to secure their 4–2 win. The Kraken doubled up Nashville in shots with 10 in the frame, but were unable to tie the game on a shorthanded Alexander Wennberg-Calle Jarnkrok 2-on-1 just before Matt Duchene gave Nashville a two-goal cushion to put the game away.

Anchor points

Grubauer had been playing so well lately that we had to expect things would trend back to average. He played a really good first period, but he is going to want Forsberg’s goal back. Giordano played it well and left Forsberg with a long perimeter shot that Grubauer needs to stop.

COAST TO COAST pic.twitter.com/VKIcprk2Zz

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) January 26, 2022

On special teams, the Kraken both “giveth” and “taketh away.” They opened up scoring on the two-man advantage, but had the opportunity to take a two-goal lead and failed. A third period stop on the penalty kill would have kept it a one-goal game heading into the final minutes and given the Kraken a much better opportunity to send the game into overtime.

The Gourde, Mason Appleton, Calle Jarnkrok line was pinned in their own end most of the night, getting only three shots for while surrendering seven against. Luckily, four of those seven against were blocked. Hakstol seems to be relying on Giordano far too much. He was on the ice for 17 chances against and only nine for at 5-on-5.

When you outshoot your opponent on home ice, and lead in almost all relevant analytical categories, you need to win said game. This is why the Kraken currently sit at 29th overall.

5-on-5 Corsi (total shot attempts) 57%–43%
5-on-5 Fenwick (Unblocked shot attempts) 55%–45%
5-on-5 High-danger chances for 60%–40%
5-on-5 Expected goals for 54%–46%
Face-off percentage 55%–45%

The Kraken travel to Pittsburgh today, where they will face the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night. The puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. PST.

The post RECAP: Predators score three unanswered goals to beat Kraken 4–2 appeared first on The Rink.

The Kraken once again surrendered a goal early in the first period to put themselves in a hole when Predators forward Eeli Tolvanen snapped a shot past Kraken netminder Philipp Grubauer following a chaotic faceoff scramble.

Outside of Tolvanen’s goal, the first period was largely controlled by the Kraken, as they had 12 shots on net to the Predators’ four.

As a result, the visitors got late powerplay goals by Jared McCann and Brandon Tanev to carry them into the first intermission leading 2–1.

In what will be a season full of “firsts”, the long-range McCann goal was their first franchise power-play goal.

Nashville was much more engaged in the second period, tying the Kraken in shots on goal 13–13, which resulted in a goal for each team.

Predators captain Roman Josi tallied a long-range powerplay goal of his own, just under five minutes into the middle period, on a feed from Filip Forsberg.  Nashville was on a two-man advantage at the time.

Seattle grabbed the lead back at the mid-way point of the period, as Alex Wennberg took a feed from new Kraken forward Alex Barré-Boulet on the back door and easily swept the puck into a gaping net.

Barré-Boulet was claimed on waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning earlier in the week and made his Kraken debut in the game.

The Kraken carried a one-goal lead into the third period and struggled mightily to keep the Predators from tying the game. Nashville outshot the Kraken 13–1 in the final 20 minutes of regulation, but Grubauer was stellar.

Late in the game, with the Nashville goalie pulled for the extra attacker, Brandon Tanev put the only third period Kraken shot on goal into the back of the net, for the insurance goal.

Nashville put pressure heavy on, in the final minutes of the game, and a wide-open Mikael Granlund was able to cut the Kraken lead in half with 40 seconds remaining in regulation.

Fortunately, the Kraken defenders were able to hold off Nashville in the final seconds of play to secure their first regulation win in franchise history.

Anchor points:
Clearly, getting outshot 13–1 in any period is bad, but in the third period with a one-goal lead is playing with fire. This is obviously something that needs to be tuned up.

The Kraken were basically victimized at the faceoff dot, as well, winning only 44%. Jared McCann (33%) and Morgan Geekie (40%) were the worst while Alex Wennberg (52%) and Riley Sheahan (50%) won at least half of the draws they took.

The Kraken were the more physical team on the ice, as they were credited with 22 hits to 16 Nashville hits. Tanev had four hits and four penalty minutes to go with his two goals.

Barré-Boulet made the most of his team-low 9:05 of time on ice, with his first NHL assist.

Possession numbers pretty heavily favored Nashville, as they had a 53% 5v5 Corsi and 53% 5v5 Fenwick. Shot heat maps show that Seattle mostly shot from the perimeter while Nashville focussed on shots in the lower slot.

Vince Dunn became the first Kraken player to get into a regular-season fight when he squared off against Yakov Trenin.

The Kraken are off today. They will faceoff Saturday, in Columbus, against the Blue Jackets The puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. PT.

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