Seattle Head Coach Dave Hakstol gave the start in goal to Chris Driedger with back-to-back games against the Canucks and New York Islanders.

Driedger barely had time to scrape up his crease before the Canucks took a 1–0 lead on a goal from Tyler Motte. The Kraken came back three minutes later and tied the game on a goal by Seattle’s leading goal scorer (and former Canuck) Jared McCann. Not only was McCann facing the team that drafted him, but he was also playing in his 400th NHL game.

in his 400th game – playing against the team that drafted him – and canner finds the back of the net.

we’re here for this. pic.twitter.com/yVQihGLKpd

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) February 22, 2022

Seattle wrapped up a successful first period with a shorthanded goal by captain Mark Giordano with 5:34 remaining. The Kraken were outshot 15–9, though, but Driedger found his footing.

If the first period was classified as a success, the second could certainly be labeled a failure. Vancouver outshot the Kraken 18–4 and added goals by Travis Hamonic and Vasily Podkolzin to give the home team a 3–2 lead heading into the second intermission.

The third period did not fare much better for the Kraken, as Vancouver forward Bo Horvat scored a power play goal 35 seconds into the period and Tanner Pearson scored an empty-net goal with just over 1:30 remaining in regulation. The Kraken did manage to attempt a comeback by outshooting Vancouver 14–13, but it was far too little and far too late once again for the expansion team.

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Driedger played good enough (41 saves) to keep the Kraken in the game, but when four goals against is a “good game,” there is a lot going wrong in other areas. He mentioned in his postgame media availability that he would have liked the fourth goal back, but even without that goal, the Kraken still lose the game.

Penalty kills were good and power plays were bad. That is a quick assessment of what happened out on that ice regarding special teams. The teams were a combined 1-for-8 with the man advantage and Seattle scored one of their goals while shorthanded.

Giordano, McCann, Vince Dunn, Jordan Eberle and Morgan Geekie were the only players that were not under water 5-on-5. The line of Ryan Donato, Joonas Donskoi and Alexander Wennberg were just crushed all night, giving up 12 shots while generating only one. On the other hand, the line of Eberle, Geekie and McCann played only 1:40 together, but had a remarkable 8–0 Corsi advantage.

As one might expect from a 5–2 loss where you are outshot 46–27, the possession heavily favored Vancouver.

5-on-5 Corsi (total shot attempts) 58%–42%
5-on-5 Fenwick (Unblocked shot attempts) 65%–35%
5-on-5 High-danger chances for 69%–31%
5-on-5 Expected goals for 72%–28%
Face-off percentage 52%–48%

Seattle will host the New York Islanders tonight at Climate Pledge Arena. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. PST.

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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.

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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

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The first period was relatively entertaining, and both goaltenders played well. Philipp Grubauer stopped all nine shots he faced, while Thatcher Demko stopped 11 of the 12 he faced. Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn waited until the final five seconds of the period to not only start the scoring but put his name in the record books as the first player (for either team) to score in Climate Pledge arena.

For one of the few times this season, the Kraken outplayed their opponent to begin the game.

Things began looking up, as the Kraken outplayed the Canucks in the second period, as well. Unfortunately for the home crowd, the Canucks tied the game shortly after the halfway point of the second period. Bo Horvat snapped the puck past Grubauer following a Mark Giordano turnover. This would take teams into the intermission tied at one goal.

The third period became the “tale of two periods”. Mark Giordano made amends for his gaffe in the second period by putting the Kraken up 2–1, five minutes into the final period.

This began to turn sour once the game reached the second half of the third period. The problems started when Kraken defenseman Carson Soucy took a penalty for tripping Canucks forward Juho Lammikko. On the resulting powerplay, Horvat shoveled a Quinn Hughes rebound into a wide-open net to tie the game.

Three minutes later, Connor Garland jumped on a missed Vince Dunn keep-in and raced in on Grubauer. Garland faked a shot, which froze Grubauer long enough to expose his five-hole. The Canucks agitator made no mistake, as Grubauer knew he was beaten. This would turn out to be the game-winner, with Justin Dowling scoring an empty-net goal in the final minute.

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 Grubauer (.880 sv%) played better than most of his previous games, but he had Garland at a bad angle and still got beaten. Demko, on the other hand, finished with a .935 sv%.

  The Kraken got stomped at the faceoff dot, losing 61% of their total faceoffs.

 As odd as it may seem, the Kraken possession numbers were really good in the second period (74.07% 5-on-5 Corsi) and rather terrible in the first (36.67% 5-on-5 Corsi) and third (44.74% 5-on-5 Corsi) periods. The Kraken out-chanced the Canucks in high-danger opportunities 11–2.

 After starting the season on a complete rampage, Brandon Tanev was one of the worst players on the ice, statistically. His 5-on-5 percentages (Corsi and Fenwick) were both under 35%.

 The Kraken are off today and tomorrow and host the Montreal Canadiens at Climate Pledge Arena, Tuesday evening. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. PT. 

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Vancouver was without several of their big names in their lineup. Brock Boeser, Travis Hamonic, Quinn Hughes, Conor Garland, Elias Pettersson and Brandon Sutter all sat this game out.

Despite the 15–8 shot totals in favor of Vancouver and the several goal posts that were hit, neither team was able to break the scoreless tie in the first period. The Canucks were unsuccessful on their lone power play opportunities, while the Kraken were 0–2 on the power play in the frame, including a double-minor high sticking call just a minute and a half into the contest.

The second period became the Vince Dunn show, as the defenseman scored two goals less than three minutes apart, giving the Kraken all the scoring they would need. Dunn’s first goal was on the power play, with Jack Rathbone in the penalty box, on a one-time feed from Calle Jarnkrok, which beat Thatcher Demko high to the glove side.

Just a few minutes later, Dunn swerved in behind a weaving Jared McCann and Jaden Schwartz, who fed the trailing defenseman with a nice pass and a solid look at the net. Dunn snapped another shot past Demko, giving the visitors a 2–0 lead. Later in the period, Ryan Donato cleaned up a Jarnkrok rebound on the power play to give the Kraken a 3–0 heading into the second intermission.

Nathan Bastian put the exclamation point on the game late in the third period with a last-minute goal to send the Kraken home to Seattle with another huge win, this time 4–0, against their rivals over the border.

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Philipp Grubauer was completely dialed in. There was no wasted effort in his performance, and he was in perfect position for just about every shot he faced. If this team is going to be a contender, Grubauer will need to continue to be one of their best players night in and night out.

Speaking of best players, Vince Dunn will be counted on heavily by head coach Dave Hakstol. If this is any indication of how he will be running the power play, the Kraken will be dangerous. With three goals in the preseason, Dunn looks like he will be in a race with McCann for the biggest breakout player on the team.

It would have been easy to brush off the Ryan Donato signing, but he has become another very useful player for Hakstol. He is not the type of player to “wow” you with highlight-reel plays, but he will go to the dirty areas and come out with the puck more often than not. His goal was nothing pretty, but it all looks the same on the scoresheet and will be crucial for the Kraken power play. He made the most of his 14:54 of ice time, getting five shots on net, four hits and the aforementioned power play tally.

One area where Seattle dominated was the face-off dots. Kraken centers won 59% of their draws.

The Kraken are off for the next week while they transition to regular-season mode. They faceoff Tuesday, Oct. 12, for the season opener against the Vegas Golden Knights. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. PDT.

The post RECAP: Kraken wrap up preseason with 4–0 shutout over Canucks appeared first on The Rink.

In the first period, Seattle controlled most of the play, but two strange plays put them down 2–0 as they went into the intermission. First, fresh out of the penalty box, Canucks defenseman Jack Rathbone picked up a loose puck at center ice and beat a rather untested Philipp Grubauer at the halfway point of the opening period, breaking the ice at 1–0.

Just over a minute after the Rathbone goal, Brock Boeser took advantage of an unfortunate Kraken deflection and found the back of the net on the power play, assisted by Rathbone and Nic Petan. The one-timer hit the foot of defenseman Carson Soucy and dribbled into the net for a 2–0 Vancouver advantage.

Despite being outshot 13–5 in the opening period, the Canucks a had a two-goal lead. That would only last slightly past the first intermission.

The Kraken fourth line of Nathan Bastian, Riley Sheahan and Brandon Tanev capitalized on some physical pressure to break the scoring open and tally the first-ever Seattle Kraken goal.

With momentum on their side, the Kraken tied the game six minutes later on the power play. Jared McCann roofed a beautiful shot over the blocker of 20-year-old Vancouver goalie Arturs Silovs to knot the game at 2–2.

Seattle took their first lead of the night, on the power play once again, at the 11-minute mark of the middle period. Ryan Donato took a beautiful pass from Jordan Eberle and beat a helpless Silovs. McCann was also credited with an assist on the play, but that lead did not last long.

Just a minute and a half after Donato grabbed the lead, Vancouver forward Nils Hoglander tied the game back up, beating freshly swapped Chris Driedger with a long-range deflection. As Dreidger tried to track a long shot from defenseman Kyle Burroughs, Hoglander redirected it, which totally fooled the Kraken netminder.

This brought the teams to a 3–3 second intermission tie, even though the Canucks were getting outshot 27–8, which set up an exciting final period.

In the third period, the shots were closer, but the Kraken (more specifically Morgan Geekie) took control for a convincing 5–3 win.

Geekie scored unassisted just 50 seconds into the third, and then scored the insurance goal on the power play with just over five minutes remaining.

The tall 23-year-old center pushed a puck right off the faceoff past new Vancouver goalie Spencer Martin for a soft, but game-winning goal nonetheless. His second goal was more of the highlight quality, snapping a wicked wrist shot past Martin to put a bow on the win.

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•Fans are going to love Brandon Tanev. The guy is everywhere, which can cause chaos for opponents. His quick feet and knack for getting his nose dirty are just what the Kraken need.

•While this was a nice win, both teams were missing significant players off their rosters. The Kraken were missing Vince Dunn, Yanni Gourde and Alex Wennberg. Vancouver was missing a whole host of top players such as Thatcher Demko, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Travis Hamonic, Bo Horvat, Vasily Podkolzin and Brandon Sutter, as well as unsigned young stars Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson.

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