Kraken drubbed by Blues in 5-0 loss
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The St. Louis Blues laid the smack down on the Seattle Kraken with a resounding five to zero result at Climate Pledge Arena. Seattle would make their characteristic defensive miscues against a good Blues team, resulting in the blowout loss at home. Five different St. Louis skaters would net goals, and the Kraken would be shutout for the third time this season. Seattle’s win streak would end at two games.
Defensive miscues would rear their ugly head in a big way in this loss, as turnovers, defensive breakdowns, and poor passing all were apparent throughout this game. After an early rush of energy from Seattle that saw the Kraken almost push for a chance on goal, St. Louis would net a short-handed goal to set the tone for the night. Five minutes later, the Blues would add a power play goal to create a quick two goal deficit. Alternate captain Jordan Eberle would reflect on the loss, and how the group needs to move forward.
“Power play didn’t do anything, made some bad turnovers, myself giving up the penalty shot. There’s just a lot of plays that ended up in the back of our net, and it is frustrating. We’ve had games where we’ve grown, and we have had games we haven’t. Nobody said that this was going to be easy, you get a new expansion team, you have high expectations for yourselves but you just want to get better every day. We want to grow an identity, get better as a team over these final 40 games,” Jordan Eberle would remark.
Perhaps the only positive from this game would be the play of goaltender Joey Daccord. This game was a case of the stats not telling the full story, as you simply cannot pin any of the five goals on the goaltender. Daccord made several miraculous saves, and if he had a defensive unit that played a half way decent game, we are more than likely looking at least at a close game. His teammates would share that viewpoint, speaking about the young goaltender after the game.
Jordan Eberle would speak on his goaltenders play, saying “The goalies have played really well the last little bit… Joey played well tonight. We hung him out to dry on quite a few plays.”
“Joey played a good hockey game. One thing Joey does is that he moves the puck well, he helps his defenseman there. There were some really good saves throughout this game, really timely saves. He was seeing the puck well. There were a couple lessons he can build on, but he battled hard,” head coach Dave Hakstol recounted.
What Jordan Eberle said embodies exactly how Seattle needs to approach the rest of this season: finding their identity and improving gradually. It is far too late to try and right the ship in a week, or a month. The Kraken will miss the playoffs, but the season can be saved if the team shows steady improvement over the remaining slate of the season. An expansion side will always have its issues in the inaugural season, but to ensure that those issues do not carry over into next year, steady and consistent improvement need to start as soon as possible.
The Kraken will play the fifth game of their six game homestand on Sunday, January 23rd against the Florida Panthers with a 6PM PST puck drop.