Avalanche bury fast start from Kraken, Colorado beats Seattle 4-1
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Things are going downhill fast for the Seattle Kraken, quite similarly to that of what an actual Avalanche does. Colorado was able to withstand the regularly scheduled fast start that the Kraken had, getting over their horrible start in Saturday’s loss to Edmonton, but that was about all that Seattle could muster as the Avalanche pulled away in the second half of the game and helped further highlight the issues that the home side continues to struggle with. While there was the positive of getting Brandon Tanev back in the lineup tonight and he made an immediate impact as he scored the Kraken’s lone goal in the game, the energy seemed to be zapped from Seattle following that electric first period. The Kraken are falling fast, and they need to catch themselves quickly before this season gets too far away from them.
Pre-game sights and scenes from the Seattle Kraken November 13th, 2023 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Good and bad trends return for Kraken
There are notable positive and negatives with this Seattle team, and sadly more negative currently going in their play. A positive, that was missing from Saturday’s horrendous loss to the Edmonton Oilers, has been the fast starts that the Kraken have gotten in the first period of their games, usually at least getting a goal to go for them as they head to the locker room with some sort of advantage. The offensive pressure and attack generated shows the sort of energy, intensity, and shooting that this team needs to be a winner, and it always leaves fans wanting to see more of it in comparison to what is shown for the rest of the game. This trend returned in tonight’s game from the jump, as the returning Brandon Tanev had his first shot in his first shift hit the post loudly. The Kraken were sending shots through and getting pucks to the net, something that head coach Dave Hakstol had loudly emphasized (with an expletive) in yesterday’s practice, and it showed an immediate reward as just over six minutes in, Brandon Tanev took advantage of a rebound. Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn hammered a puck from the blue line that Colorado goaltender Alexandar Georgiev was able to make the initial save on despite the traffic in front but left a juicy rebound on the doorstep for Tanev to flip into the goal for the first score of the night.
The sequences from Seattle Kraken forward Brandon Tanev’s first period goal, and the eventually disallowed goal that Alex Wennberg scored also in the first period on November 13th, 2023 against the Colorado Avalanche at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
One of the numerous negative trends that Seattle has running for them currently seems to be their drop in quality once the second period or midway point of the game comes around, and that rang true in this contest. The Kraken should’ve had a second goal on the night had it not been for the phantom goaltender interference call that took Alex Wennberg’s first score of the season off the board, and even after that Seattle was able to generate. Even early into the second period, in a four-on-four situation, the Kraken got a breakaway where they had a two-on-one, but Oliver Bjorkstrand’s shot wasn’t able to beat Georgiev in net. Seattle, while not being able to get their shots to go, was still shooting the puck and doing the necessary action to eventually get a goal. Things changed two minutes later, as the Avalanche took advantage of a possession where the Kraken simply could not get the puck out of their own zone. Seattle didn’t actually concede in that moment, but the momentum was starting to swing in Colorado’s favor.
Just five ticks under the eight-minute mark is when the Avalanche finally broke through for their first goal of the night, as Nathan MacKinnon’s first shot attempt went off Daccord’s right leg pad and his second went off the side of the goal before Mikko Rantanen jammed it home on a wide open net as Joey had sprawled out to make the save. Their second goal of the night came just barely over two minutes later, as a Devon Toews clapper from the blue line came off the right leg pad of Daccord but right to Ross Colton, who was right in front of the Kraken goaltender, who tapped it home as Joey had come further out of his goal to make the save. Two goals, in just over two minutes, came as Colorado skaters had too much space in front of the Seattle goaltender. It wouldn’t get any better for the Kraken from there.
After struggling to score in recent form coming into this game, the Colorado Avalanche scored 5 goals against the Seattle Kraken on November 13th, 2023 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Torturous third period
While Seattle was able to keep the deficit at one goal going into the second intermission, the Kraken never got that close again. Goals from Cale Makar, Jonathan Drouin, and Valeri Nichushkin extended the Avalanche lead as Seattle floundered trying to do anything positive. It was a sloppy period filled with penalties, poor all around play, and the one shot on goal that wasn’t even a real attempt on goal. The Kraken had been totally dominated in the final period of the game, that at the beginning of the period was very much in reach, on their home ice. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising as that’s now happened multiple times this season, but it’s still frustrating that it’s occurred at all in the first place.
It’s time to worry, even considering they were playing the Avs
Things are bad for the Seattle Kraken. There is no more “it’s early, they’ll figure it out,” even if this is only 16 games into the season. Some of the same issues continue to plague this team, more mistakes are showing up in their game than previously appeared, they haven’t been able to string together victories, and their effort has come into question far too often. While head coach Dave Hakstol preached continuing to work at their game in the postgame press conference, there’s real concern that something is wrong with this team and that there is need for change. It isn’t necessarily all bad with the Kraken, considering once again that we have seen just how good this team can be when their effort and execution are there. One of this teams' faults is that they don’t have either of those things consistently, which is frustrating on multiple levels. We’re getting to the team of the year where it matters where your team sits in the standings in relation to how good of a chance they have of making the playoffs, at least looking at how things have trended historically. Seattle getting Tanev back and potentially Eberle next game is key, but even when this team was mostly healthy (Either the time in the season opener before Tanev got hurt or game two where he was the only one hurt), they didn’t click and showed struggles getting the puck on the net. Since that, and the power play, seemed to be the only issue at the time, the Kraken have had numerous other holes in their game pop up which has led us to where we are now.
“There were stretches of some good hockey from our group, and then there were times where we were not in the game. We gave them way too much time and space, and when you give great players time and space, the game looks easy for them. We’ll regroup here and we look forward to the next one, but there’s some things that we have to adjust as a team.”
“In this game in Saturday’s game a very different game for me Our effort out of the gates was very good. We worked, our pace was pretty good through most of the first 40 minutes, our PK battled hard. The third PK they get, they find one at the back half... Up until that point in time our PK had done a real nice job, that puck is actually going wide, but when there’s numbers at the net, they pound it through there and they found the rebound on it. I don’t find very many similarities.”
Quick notes
The Kraken opened the scoring for the 11th time this season, the most of any team in the league this year.
Dating back to their first-round playoff series last season, the Kraken have scored first in the last 10 games they have played against the Avalanche.
Brandon Tanev's goal tonight was his first of the season and his second in as many regular-season games against the Avalanche.
With an assist on Tanev's goal, Vince Dunn now has seven points (one goal, six assists) in his last seven games and extended his assist streak to three games.
The assist also gives Dunn points in his last four games against the Avalanche, totaling five assists during that span.
Dunn's 12 assists and 14 points are both tied for fifth among all NHL defensemen this season.
What’s next?
Following tonight’s ugly loss to the Colorado Avalanche, their second loss in a row following last week's win over this Avs team, the Seattle Kraken will head out on the road for one game which is also the first of a back-to-back. Seattle will have to battle two teams that played each other tonight in their back-to-back, first the Edmonton Oilers team that won on Wednesday on the road before coming back to play the New York Islanders team that lost, at home. That game against the Oilers in Edmonton is on Wednesday, November 15th with a puck drop of 5:30PM PST being broadcast on Root Sports locally and ESPN+ nationally. The Oilers dealt this Kraken team one of the uglier, more frustrating losses of their season so far back on Saturday the eleventh, so Seattle will be looking to get back at Edmonton for that and to bounce back from tonight’s game.
Instagram: @CirclingSeattleSports Twitter: @CirclingSports Threads: @CirclingSeattleSports Tiktok: @CirclingSeattleSports Facebook: Circling Seattle Sports
〰️
Instagram: @CirclingSeattleSports Twitter: @CirclingSports Threads: @CirclingSeattleSports Tiktok: @CirclingSeattleSports Facebook: Circling Seattle Sports 〰️
Check out our previous Seattle Kraken articles here
Check out our previous articles with photos by Liz Wolter here, and her portfolio here
Check out our previous articles with writing by Charles Hamaker here