Kraken can’t clean up sloppy play, watch as Oilers pull away late in crucial contest
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In a key divisional matchup for the Seattle Kraken as they are aiming to secure their first playoff berth in franchise history, in just their second season, Seattle battled hard and kept the game within reach until the third period when everything fell apart. The Kraken would fall to the visiting Edmonton Oilers by a score of 6-4, as the Oilers were able to pull away on Seattle mistakes. As every game and point matters in these critical last two months of the season, the Kraken showed flashes of good play that could have pushed them over the edge but ultimately poor showings from both goaltenders on Seattle’s active roster and defensive miscues doomed this game for the home team.
Seattle’s John Hayden and Edmonton’s Klim Kostin threw fists in the game, leading to Hayden heading to the locker-room with a limp (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Hanging in the fight
Unlike two of the last three games in where the Kraken have played against the Oilers, Seattle was able to hang in this game against Edmonton with their offensive attack. In those two games, on December 30th and January 17th, Seattle’s defensive mistakes were especially highlighted because of the fact that the Kraken offensive units could not keep up with at all, getting meaningless goals towards the end of the game or by the time that Edmonton had already built an unclimbable lead. In today’s afternoon contest, with only one standings point separating these two teams in an intense Western Conference battle, Seattle sustained offensive pressure on the Oilers throughout the course of the game and their power play units showed solid signs of life as well. The Kraken didn’t necessarily put up outstanding chance out of outstanding chance on goal, but they did make Stuart Skinner work hard in net for Edmonton and looked solid up and down their forward lines.
There was clear, visible fight and battle back from the Kraken throughout this game. When Edmonton went up by two goals (which was on a few occasions), Seattle continued to apply pressure and found goals that brought them back within a score thanks to Jordan Eberle and Oliver Bjorkstrand. That fight, that resiliency is a positive to take away from this game if you’re looking for one. Seeing Seattle remain in this game mentally on the offensive end, despite the mistakes that were being made on the other end of the ice, shows what this team can do if the entire gameplan is clicking. Just gotta do that first, get all facets (including specialty teams) clicking. A note from the Dallas losses came into play here, as the Kraken continue to find spots in the game where they are able to take advantage of traffic in the crease to help them score goals. Continuing that and making it a habit, especially as the season progresses in this tight playoff race, adds another layer to the Seattle attack.
“I thought we had some good O-zone shifts, we sustained some pressure and created some chances. We had some looks and need to look for some secondary ones... we swapped too many chances with them, a good high offensive team like that is not a team you wanna do that against.”
Seattle celebrates two of their goals (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Mistakes were made
I don’t need to introduce Seattle’s trademark defensive mistakes to you or give you any background on them considering that they’ve been synonymous with the team since they played their first game. In order to beat teams like Dallas, Edmonton, and Los Angeles down the stretch, the Kraken must tighten things up and fully lock in defensively. That means being mindful as a defensemen of where you are on the ice, doing your best to keep net front clean, not overcommitting, and not puck watching. Those sorts of things were shown to an extent in this contest, but not nearly enough against an Oilers team that has scoring power up and down their lineup. While the Kraken don’t play the Oilers again this regular season, contests against the Stars, Kings, and Golden Knights are key matchups where you have to be on your best game defensively to have a chance at taking two points away from those opponents.
Things went bad from the early going, as Oilers forward Evander Kane hucked a puck on goal that glanced off of Philipp Grubauer and in to the net. A soft goal allowed by Grubauer was just the first of the issues for the Kraken, as well as Grubauer himself. On the following goals for Edmonton, Seattle: allowed an Oilers skater free right in the crease, left an Oiler open back door for an easy one-timer, left an Oiler wide open in the high slot for an easy one-timer, and that doesn’t even mention the final two goals they scored. Today was another example of a Kraken disaster class defensively, including soft goals let up by Martin Jones after he came in for an injured Philipp Grubauer.
“I think we gave them too many high quality chances, obviously they’ve got some really good players over there who are going to bear down. We had our chances, I thought for the most part we were skating with them and creating plays. We felt like we had a lot of the offensive zone chances, but you give them high quality chances, they’re gonna score.”
Edmonton’s first goal of the game slips past Philipp Grubauer (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Reasons for worry
If you tune into our recaps often, you’re aware I often find the positives to take from games (whether they be victories or defeats) and how to even apply losses to the greater plan moving forward. Today, that isn’t the case as there are a few items to worry about that were highlighted in this contest. We’re now over halfway through the month of March, and getting towards the end of Seattle’s regular season schedule. With the loss to the Oilers today and the Winnipeg Jets overtime victory over the Nashville Predators, the Kraken only sit two points above the Jets for the first Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. While there is a “favorable” stretch that will be coming in the middle of the month of April, Seattle needs to make it matter. They’re going to face the Kings and Golden Knights multiple times, with a long shot at potentially passing one of those teams in the standings. It’s a tough situation for the Kraken, who have actually been playing well over the last ten games, but so has the rest of the entire Pacific Division that is in playoff contention.
Kraken backup goaltender Martin Jones has looked increasingly bad over the last few months. It has become apparent that the first few months of the season where Martin Jones was very serviceable are long gone, and Jones has regressed to the goaltender that he’s been at the end of his time in San Jose and Philadelphia. He has been bad and it’s been getting worse, allowing soft goals on numerous occasions including today. Any thought that Jones was or should stay with the Kraken past this season were delusional then, and they look extra delusional now. With Philipp Grubauer leaving the game with a “Non-Covid Illness” that was originally designated as a lower body injury, it potentially presents a bad situation. With it being called an illness, there shouldn’t be need for it, but we may see Martin Jones be leaned on to start in goal. Even in Grubauer isn’t hurt, he’s played in 15 of the last 19 games for Seattle and likely is experiencing some fatigue.
“I think the biggest thing is sticking with it. Going into this season, a lot of people would have already counted us out. To be in the position we are, we’ve gotta get a little bit of confidence. We’ve earned it to be here, and this is ours to lose. We know the game and style that we can play, we just gotta try to put it together for 60 minutes.”
Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner lets Seattle’s Jordan Eberle’s shot slip past him and into the net (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Quick notes
Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer left the game with a Non-Covid Illness, while forward John Hayden left the game with a lower body injury
Vince Dunn’s goal extended his point streak to 12 games, making him the 11th skater and second defenseman this season to have a point in 12 or more consecutive games.
Dunn’s point streak remains both a franchise and personal best and is the longest active streak in the NHL.
His streak makes him the ninth defenseman in the past 20 years to record a run of at least a dozen games according to NHL PR.
Jaden Schwartz's goal gives him six points (three goals, three assists) in his last five games against the Oilers dating back to last season.
He now has 33 career points against Edmonton (15 goals, 18 assists) in 26 games played, along with a +18 rating for those games. His 32 points are his most against a single opponent.
With Jared McCann's assist on Jordan Eberle's goal, he now has 18 points (10 goals, eight assists) in his last 18 games played and has recorded at least a point in 14 of those 18 games.
Oliver Bjorkstrand tallied his fifth point (three goals, two assists) in his last five games played with his second-period goal.
Yanni Gourde's assist on Bjorkstrand's goal gives him five points (three goals, two assists) in his last five games played dating back to March 9 vs. Ottawa.
With his two assists tonight, Jamie Oleksiak recorded his second multi-point game of the season and third as a member of the Kraken.
Brandon Tanev's six hits tonight mark the second-highest total he has had this season (reached on two other occasions)
Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen sneaks a puck through traffic for Seattle’s fourth goal of the game (Photo by Liv Lyons)
What’s next?
Seattle will get a few days off, hopefully enough to get Philipp Grubauer and John Hayden healthy, before they continue this critically important month of March. The Kraken will not see a potential “road to the playoffs” get any easier for them, as their next matchup is against the same Dallas Stars team that Seattle only took one point from over the course of back-to-back contests. When the Kraken and Stars do battle this time, it’ll be in Dallas on Tuesday, March 21st with a puck drop at 5:30PM PST. At their current state, Seattle sits only two points ahead of the Winnipeg Jets for the Western Conference’s first Wild Card spot.