Kraken fight hard, but Rangers capitalize on mistakes to win 3-1
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Kraken fell to the New York Rangers on Halloween night by a score of 3-1. The transition play of the Rangers,
as well as goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s masterclass in goal, would be
the downfall for the Kraken. This snapped their two-game win streak
and ended the first homestand in franchise history with two wins, two
losses over four games.
Winger Jordan Eberle would net the lone goal for Seattle on a spinning backhand shot in the second period, assisted by Winger Jaden Schwartz. Seattle would battle hard all game long after giving up a goal a little under four minutes into the game, mounting shots on Shesterkin, but continued power play woes and an inability to finish would doom the Kraken.
Max McCormick tries to chip a puck away from Igor Shesterkin (Photo by Melissa Levin)
As mentioned, Seattle battled hard. This game easily could have gone
to an overtime period, as the tying goal was mere inches away from
crossing the line, but the puck didn’t slide in favor of the Kraken
tonight.
When asked about getting so many opportunities and ending
up with this result, Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer stated “You’re
going to win some games you should lose, you’re going to lose some
games you should win, and I think that this is one of them.”
The Kraken played a good game, outshooting the Rangers 32-18, and
keeping this game close until late in the final period. Seattle got tricked
instead of receiving a treat, and this trick was a tough loss at home
that easily could have gone in their favor.
Seattle Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz looks for a pass, behind the net (Photo by Melissa Levin)
A key phrase that comes to mind is that quality is better than quantity,
and that rang true at Climate Pledge Arena tonight. While outshooting
the Rangers by 14 is great, New York used their great transition game
to take advantage of the quality opportunities they created, that would
ultimately get them the victory. Something that would have greatly
helped Seattle would be their power plays, which the team had four of.
None of those resulted in goals, and it was something both Jordan
Eberle and HC Dave Hakstol spoke about in the post-game press
conference.
“We gotta find a way to get our power play going,” said Eberle about ways that this team needs to improve, also citing more timely goals as an area of growth.
“Tonight was a nice step for our power plays, we made some
changes on both units… overall our possession was good, our
opportunities were good, we just weren’t able to finish one,” said Hakstol.
Joonas Donskoi looks at a puck as a swarm of Rangers surround him (Photo by Melissa Levin)
The power play will be a step that the Kraken need to make going
forward if they want to flip the switch to being a certified good team.
Seattle has had success after returning home from their season
opening road trip, and you could say that this homestand helped them
get their bearings, allowing strides to be made. That being said, the
Kraken have not scored a power play goal since their October 14th
game over the Nashville Predators, the first win in franchise history.
Those opportunities have been presented; they just need to be
capitalized upon.
With the loss, the Kraken record drops to 3-5-1 and moves them to
seventh in the Pacific division. Their next contest comes on November
1st, on the road against the Edmonton Oilers with a 6:30PM PST puck
drop.
Seattle’s starters look on as the national anthem is played (Photo by Melissa Levin)