Stars shine too bright for Kraken, Seattle drops third straight game
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – A rematch of the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken, just two days after a thrilling back and forth contest, was not due for a repeat of the prior outing as the visiting Stars handily defeated the Kraken, 5-2. Seattle had an obvious emphasis on getting bodies into the crease to create traffic in front of Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger, but a few tough bounces in favor of the Stars ultimately put this game away before we even got to the third frame. The Kraken drop their third straight, second in a row to Dallas, and need to be able to fix their issues quickly considering the state of the Pacific Division.
The Kraken come out for warmups in their Pride Night jerseys designed by Seattleite Simson Chantha (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Bad bounce precedes unfortunate events
The term bad bounce comes up when an unlucky play occurs to a team that otherwise was performing well. A “bad bounce” against the Kraken set the tone for the rest of this contest, when the Stars scored the first goal of the game. A puck clattered off Seattle defenseman Adam Larsson twice before careening towards net, where it clipped Stars forward Evgenii Dadanov and post Kraken goaltender Martin Jones. A truly unfortunate series of events set the stage for Seattle’s third straight loss, and this one should be a wakeup call as the regular season nears its end. The Kraken struggled heavily on their penalty kill, which had been strong for a good stretch recently, and their defensive play. Those two cannot happen, especially not in the same game, against this Dallas Stars team, in the month of March.
Things were tight in this game until the 6:30 left mark in the second period. At that point in the game, the Kraken had just pulled back within one goal as Eeli Tolvanen had tipped in a Vince Dunn puck from the wall to put the score at three goals to two. Immediately off of the faceoff to resume play, Dallas stormed right down the Seattle zone and scored a response goal to kill any momentum generated by Tolvanen’s score, all before public address announcer Chet Buchanan could even announce the goal. 40 seconds into the third period, Jason Robertson beat Martin Jones clean from the faceoff circle on a shot that was what ultimately sucked the life force out of Seattle. The Kraken failed to even really get the puck into the Dallas zone after that, with little to no clean zone entries and turnovers occuring quickly after Seattle had breached the zone, if they could.
“Obviously, it changed the game. They score three goals, it becomes a 5-2 game. They did their homework, but we have to be better on that. It was a really tight game, we had good minutes, we played good, but the special teams were different today.”
Some solid effort to get net front
A huge area of emphasis for Seattle that was noticeable in the first game against Dallas on Saturday, and one that was preached from the time that game ended until this one started, was the ability to create traffic in front of Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger. The Kraken stated that they needed to do a better job of not letting Oettinger see pucks, and it seemed like they were doing a solid job at that to begin the game. There were some hopeful signs of potential, but ultimately Seattle couldn’t convert on enough chances to hang with Dallas. The only goals of the night for the Kraken came on a Yanni Gourde shot that deflected off Joe Pavelski into the net, and an Eeli Tolvanen tip in goal with traffic in front, off a pass from Vince Dunn. Those goals showed what Seattle needed to do, but the Kraken just simply didn’t do it enough.
Seattle forward Yanni Gourde has a shot deflect off of Dallas forward Joe Pavelski and into the net for a goal (Photo by Liv Lyons)
The Kraken seem to have players that are able to produce chaos and accel off traffic in the crease, but the team just hasn’t been able to generate chances from that spot or even really assert themselves in that spot on the ice, especially as of late. Yanni Gourde has been able to do well in the high danger area, it’s been nice to see Oliver Bjorkstrand used in the bumper spot. but if Seattle wans to make a playoff run, their specialty teams will need to vastly improve and quickly.
“We were right there, we were creating chances, on the goals we scored we were right there in front of the crease like we were talking about, we just gotta be more consistent. Opportunities were there, we just gotta find a way to score goals and be a bit better from this point. ”
Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen celebrates his goal with his teammates (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Starlight was too bright for the Kraken, but now they must pivot forward
Saturday’s loss to Dallas showed reasons for hope that Seattle could regroup with the day off between games, and exploit areas of emphasis that they had discussed in the postgame. The Kraken were never able to materialize those areas of emphasis enough for this game to matter considering the immediate deficit they found themselves in, and poor defensive play and penalty killing saw that deficit grow bigger and bigger. This Stars team is damn good, with depth up and down their lines and one of the best in the league between the pipes in Oettinger. While that is true, so is the fact that the Kraken did have chances to make tonight a closer game than it ended up being and they arguably should have won Saturday’s meeting. Should have, could have, would have, whatever. Earlier in the season there may have been time for this sort of space to take the result and learn from it, but at this point of the season in one of the final months, that learning needs to be accelerated.
Seattle needs to be able to learn from losses like tonight AND like Saturday in order to push for their first playoff berth in only their second year. The Kraken are also in a solid position even if they do NOT make the playoffs in some unfortunate reality, due to the growth that they have seen and the pieces in place throughout the organization that will help the team succeed for years to come. Both of these things can be true, and the possibility that Seattle fails to make the postseason would not be a “failure.” It would be disappointing considering where they currently sit and the season that they have had, but a reminder that this franchise’s playing days are just two years old. There’s young talent in the wings, numerous draft picks to either use or trade as capital, and the sort of culture that is being created here could attract free agents in the future. Seattle is off to a great start, and while it’s okay to be frustrated about losses like tonight and losing streaks like the one the team is on, it isn’t the end of the world. This team still has a realistic chance at achieving a playoff berth. Take things a game at a time, and enjoy the ride.
“We’re confident in the guys that are in the room, whenever things go south, we’re confident that we can get the job done, we were just on the wrong side of things today... This team has done a good job all year to believe until the end. Tonight, they were just the better team. ”
Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn sends the puck up ice (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Quick notes
Vince Dunn earned an assist on Yanni Gourde’s goal to extend his point streak to 10 games. His 10-game point streak is both a personal best and a franchise record for consecutive games played with a point.
He is now the fourth defenseman in the NHL this season to have a point in 10 or more consecutive games and, as of tonight, holds the longest point streak in the league.
Dunn also extended his assist streak to eight games tonight, setting another franchise record for most consecutive games played with an assist. His assist streak is currently the longest in the NHL and he is just the eighth skater and fourth defenseman to do so this season.
With his two assists tonight, Dunn has 15 points (three goals, 12 assists) through the last 10 games. During his ten-game point streak, he has had multi-point performances in five games, including three in the last three games played.
This is his 14th multi-point game this season, which ranks second on the Kraken, trailing only Matty Beniers, who has 16.
Tonight marks Yanni Gourde's third point in as many games.
Jesper Froden set a career-high in points tonight, with his first-period assist on Gourde's goal.
The streak of killing penalties at home ends at 30. First power play the Kraken have allowed since December 30.
Defenseman Jaycob Megna came into the game tonight, replacing Carson Soucy who was healthy scratched (Photo by Liv Lyons)
What’s next?
Seattle will get a practice in during a few days off from games following their third straight loss, and second in as many outings against the Dallas Stars. The Kraken will return to action on Thursday, March 16th, when they head on a one-game road trip to battle the San Jose Sharks. Seattle will be looking to have a much better outing this time around than their last in San Jose, when they were shutout and allowed four goals to a lowly Sharks team. This three-game losing streak comes at a rough time for Seattle, although it’s against good teams, considering the state of the division and how the rest of them continue to win games. The Kraken get a good chance to bounce back, but that seems easier said than done. The opportunity for that bounce back on the 16th against the Sharks on the road has a puck drop of 7:30PM PST.