McCann was taken by the Kraken in the expansion draft from the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom he had been traded to just three days previously, and quickly won fans’ hearts with his hard-nosed play and knack for finding the net.

In 51 games this season, the 25-year-old center has 33 points (21 goals, 12 assists). His 21 goals is a new career-high, and he is on track to beat his career-high of 35 points well before the season ends.

https://twitter.com/SeattleKraken/status/1501228431421362176

Bookending the McCann extension were games this weekend against the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes, then last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. These were the first three games of an East Coast road trip, which wraps up Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens.

Saturday at Washington

The Capitals hosted the Kraken for captain Mark Giordano’s 1,000th game on Saturday, but those were all the celebrations for Seattle. Alex Ovechkin scored his 764th goal, which left him just two shy of Jaromir Jagr for third overall on the all-time goal scoring list, a mark which he has since tied.

Washington took a 2–0 lead in the first period on goals by Tom Wilson and Dmitry Orlov, just 34 seconds apart. Seattle battled back on goals from Joonas Donskoi late in the first and Colin Blackwell just 58 seconds into the second period.

Blackwell never gives up & finds the back of the net! pic.twitter.com/Y0NFZIGJ5B

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) March 6, 2022

Washington got unanswered power play goals from Conor Sheary and Ovechkin before Sheary added a late empty-net goal to button up a 5–2 win. Goaltender Chris Driedger saved 20 of 24 shots for the Kraken.

Sunday at Carolina

The Kraken made the short trip from Washington D.C. to Raleigh, North Carolina, to face the Hurricanes on Sunday evening. Seattle jumped out to 1–0 and 2–1 leads in the second period before succumbing to the Canes on a power play goal by Teuvo Teravainen and a third-period game-winning goal from Martin Necas.

Pick up the phone! It’s answer time, baby!

Boi Boi with a *swede* response goal! pic.twitter.com/cI2u2TRavN

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) March 7, 2022

Seattle’s goals were from Alexander Wennberg and Calle Jarnkrok but, once again, the Kraken were unable to hold onto a lead. Goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped 30 of 33 shots and probably deserved a better fate.

Tuesday at Toronto

Continuing their road trip, the Kraken hopped the border to face the Maple Leafs last night. Star center Auston Matthews scored his 41st, 42nd and 43rd goals of the season to power the Leafs to a 6–4 win.

Matthews opened the scoring with his first goal just 3:18 into the game and completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal in the waning moments of the game. Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares also had goals for the Maple Leafs, while Blackwell, Jaden Schwartz, Carson Soucy and Wennberg all scored for the Kraken.

BLACKWELL IS ON FIRE!!

drop some 's if you agree pic.twitter.com/IlSciJuMA0

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) March 9, 2022

Three of Toronto’s six goals were on the power play with the Kraken taking six costly penalties that sealed their fate. Grubauer saved 26 of 31 shots on net.

  The Kraken take a short trip to face the Ottawa Senators tomorrow night. Puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. PST.

The post Kraken extend Jared McCann, drop games to Capitals, Hurricanes and Maple Leafs appeared first on The Rink.

The Carolina Hurricanes made their first visit to Seattle, Wednesday, to face the Kraken. Carolina was on the heels of an overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks two nights before, which ended a four game winning streak. Seattle was coming off a big home win against the Washington Capitals on Sunday night. Taking two out of three games from the Colorado Avalanche, Capitals or Hurricanes should be just what they need to get the train rolling in the right direction.

The Kraken and Canes played a pretty tight first period, which was nice to see if you are a “long-suffering” Kraken fan. Shots were 9–7 in favor of the visitors, and there was just one goal scored.

Late in the first, defenseman Brendan Smith beat Philipp Grubauer from long range on a perfect screen shot just under the crossbar. As we mentioned on last week’s Kraken Hostile Rinkcast, the Kraken netminder has really struggled this season to stop those shots he should but this was not necessarily the case. Hurricanes veteran center Jared Staal provided the screen in front which was enough to delay Grubauer’s reaction.

This resulted in a 1–0 Carolina lead after 20 minutes.

The Kraken fought back, as they did against the Capitals, with another power play goal from red-hot Jared McCann. The goal was their sixth in their last 12 opportunities and ran their streak of power play goals to five straight games.

Despite getting outshot 16–9, Grubauer and the Seattle defense held the Canes scoreless in the second, which set up a tight third period for the Kraken faithful.

Just when it seemed as though the game was headed to overtime, Kraken forward Marcus Johansson surprised Carolina goaltender Freddie Andersen (and everyone watching) with a shot that found its way through two Canes defenders and into the back of the net. The goal came with just over three minutes left in regulation and was all that Grubauer and the Kraken needed to pull off a second goalie win in a row.

things we’re thankful for:

– jojo giving us the lead pic.twitter.com/ImyAbdO75P

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) November 25, 2021

Anchor points

We pointed out the goalie win on Sunday which makes this game a second goalie win in a row. Could Grubauer finally be finding his footing? He has saved 51 of his last 54 shots faced and has a .944 overall save percentage. More importantly, he has saved all 16 high-danger chances he has seen in the last two games. This is the Philipp Grubauer we all expected.

The power play is on fire and has made its way up to 21st overall. We preached earlier this season about how the Kraken needed solid goaltending and power play production to win games and here we are, winning on the heels of a power play goal and strong performances in goal.

The possession and analytics metrics were a mess for the Kraken. The 5-on-5 in shot attempts (Corsi 63%-37%), unblocked shots (Fenwick 58%-42%), high danger chances for (HDCF% 69%–31%) and expected goal for (xGF% 69%-31%) were all heavily in favor of Carolina, which is not unexpected for one of the top teams in the league. Carolina also had a convincing lead in faceoff wins 61%-39%. This is a game that Seattle flat-out stole from the Hurricanes.

The Kraken have Thanksgiving off but are right back at it, facing the Tampa Bay Lightning, in Tampa on Friday. The puck drop is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. PST.

After seeing the players use a pirate hat, #SeaKraken investor Jerry Bruckheimer decided to create a one-of-a-kind surprise for the team’s Player of the Game award.

Introducing from the depths to the sea – the Davy Jones Hat. pic.twitter.com/KcjH46OLao

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) November 25, 2021

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