Kraken get back on track with 6-2 victory over the Blackhawks, as team looks to start getting healthier
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t necessarily dominant, but the result was exactly what the Seattle Kraken hoped for as they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks by a score of 6-2. The victory gave the Kraken the season series victory over the Blackhawks, snapped Seattle’s four-game losing streak, and was even more satisfying considering that the team left this game without any (known) injuries as they got Vince Dunn back in this contest. The win saw a few odd bounces for goals, a few mistakes by Seattle that conceded goals, and good moments as well that got Climate Pledge Arena on their feet, and there’s certainly more than a few aspects of this game that fans of the Kraken can be happy about.
A solid start, that gets potentially overshadowed?
Coming into this game, there was some assumption to be made that this Chicago team might not be able to put up a real fight against this Kraken team, even as Seattle was without Beniers and Gourde. While that did end up being the case in the end of things, it wasn’t necessarily apparent in the early going as the Blackhawks were able to generate some chances in the high danger area, forcing Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord to make a few stops to ensure that his opponent didn’t start the game with the first score. Thankfully with Joey doing his thing, it allowed for Seattle to take advantage and find some zone time on the other end, as Jordan Eberle found Jared McCann left with plenty of space for a swift shot that got past Chicago goaltender Arvid Söderblom before he could really react to put the first goal of the game on the board.
The Seattle Kraken scored the first two goals of the night, as Jared McCann scored on a nice shot and Jaden Schwartz had a goal go off his upper leg. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
The McCann goal seemed to wake up Seattle’s offensive attack, as the Kraken began to push further and generate more and more chances, specifically with traffic net front. That effort in front of the crease got rewarded, in unique fashion, as Andre Burakovsky’s shot towards the net ended up hitting off Jaden Schwartz’s knee and going into the goal as he was crossing out in front of the net. The Kraken had gone up by two goals, and even though it looked as though they were primed to continue putting shots on net and generating chances, it was Chicago who was the more dangerous team after Schwartz’s goal that came just over seven minutes into the game. Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones sent a shot from the blue line that was redirected by Joey Anderson and in as Chicago had two men in front of Daccord. There was some stress in the building heading into the first intermission, but that would soon be washed away, at least to an extent.
“We got ahead there, and then we stopped playing in the first. They came back, but we found a way to get ahead, so we still have little details that we need to fix. ”
Because of the odd nature of the goal, the Seattle Kraken were unsure who actually was going to be credited with their third score of the night. Forward Andre Burakovsky believed he had it when the play happened on the ice. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Some puck luck, and pulling away
As previously mentioned, this victory for the Kraken had its own odd moments in it along the way, and some of them resulted in goals for Seattle, so they might not complain too much about them. Just 16 seconds into the second period, Seattle added their third goal of the game, credited to Alex Wennberg and unassisted. While that was the case, this goal came as Chicago defenseman Alex Vlasic had the puck sent off his right skate as teammate Seth Jones was trying to get it out of his own zone, and the redirect went off his goaltender’s skate into the goal. The Kraken had regained their lead, in the weirdest of ways. The rest of that middle frame saw a few different good chances for Seattle but was relatively quiet until there was just two minutes and thirty seconds left, as Brian Dumoulin sent a cross-zone pass to Brandon Tanev, who didn’t have to hit the puck past Söderblom too hard as he’d been screened in front and couldn’t see where the pass was going.
The Kraken and their fans certainly could’ve felt confident as they went into the second intermission and began the third period, but that ended somewhat quickly. A Chicago power play brought this game back within two goals, as Nick Foligno was left wide open backdoor as Joey Daccord could do nothing thanks to a perfect pass teammate Philipp Kurashev and a screen in front of him. The Blackhawks had things going in their favor, and a former Kraken looked to keep the momentum pushing in Chicago’s favor when Ryan Donato had a breakaway opportunity just under six minutes into the final period following a Seattle turnover. Joey Daccord was able to get his left leg pad back to block Donato’s attempt, which then saw Justin Schultz clear the puck out to Jordan Eberle. Eberle came through the neutral zone and found a streaking Tomas Tatar, who made the most of his breakaway opportunity to beat Söderblom and push the Kraken lead back to three goals. Tatar ended up finding a second goal of the night, and the final dagger in this game, with a little over three and a half minutes left as he buried a rebounded chance that came off the right leg pad of Söderblom. The four-game losing streak had been snapped for the Kraken, and they were able to leave this game without a visible injury.
“Hanging around, to be honest, back there. I was just hoping Joey was gonna make the save, and he did. I had full trust in him, and we broke the puck. I was just there Ebs made a nice pass to me, and I had a breakaway. It’s just the way it is, I was very fortunate.”
The Seattle Kraken surround starting goaltender Joey Daccord and celebrate their 6-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Getting healthier, but must continue the hard work
It’s a good day for the Kraken on multiple levels, whether it’s getting Vince Dunn back from the injury that held him out of the last four games (Which happened to coincide with the teams losing streak, huh), Philipp Grubauer being healthy enough to back up Joey Daccord tonight, taking care of business offensively, heck you could even point to their AHL affiliate winning tonight too. It might not be the biggest news or update on his status, but forward Matty Beniers went from wearing a red non-contact jersey yesterday to a normal practice jersey this morning during the optional morning skate. Forward and alternate captain Yanni Gourde is now eligible to return from his two-game suspension. In totality, help is on the way for a Kraken team that slipped into a skid there and was at risk of erasing any sort of progress that they had made with that nine-game winning streak.
When this Seattle Kraken team has been “fully healthy,” which hasn’t been very often at all unfortunately this season, they’ve shown the same sort of forward depth to an extent that we saw last season. The fourth line that the Kraken have had when it’s “fully healthy” has been essentially like a team's second line, yet Seattle just hasn’t been able to have that yet. If they’re able to get to the all-star break without more injury issues, the all-star break should be great for this Kraken team to be able to get some rest and really settle down quite a bit considering how they’ve been dealing with some sort of ailment by a player, two, or more throughout the course of the season. They must continue to take care of business with these three games left before the all-star break, but it does appear that there will be some positive outlook for this team here in the near future.
“We know when we’re a healthy team, we’ve got four lines, we’re a tough team. We had things rolling there for a bit and things kind of hit the stop button but we can get back to that.”
The three stars of tonight’s game were all Seattle Kraken players. In order: 1) Joey Daccord, G 2) Tomas Tatar, F 3) Jordan Eberle, F. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Quick notes
Tonight's win against the Blackhawks gives the Kraken their first series win this season.
Seattle's victory is also their sixth win against Chicago since the start of the 2021-22 season, which ties San Jose for their most wins against a single opponent.
With two assists tonight, Jordan Eberle has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his last six games played.
With a goal tonight, Jared McCann has totaled nine points (five goals, four assists) in his last seven games dating back to Jan. 11 at Washington, and his first four-game point streak of the season.
He now has 16 points (11 goals, five assists) in 17 career games against Chicago and is riding a six-game point streak against the Blackhawks.
Tomas Tatar's two goals tonight mark his first multi-goal game and fifth multi-point game of the season.
Eberle and Tatar have played 178:55 together at 5-on-5 since Tatar was acquired from Colorado on Dec. 15. When the duo has been on the ice at 5-on-5 during that span, the Kraken have outscored their opponents 13-1 according to Natural Stat Trick.
With an assist tonight, Tye Kartye has a point in all three career games he has played against the Blackhawks.
What’s next?
Following tonight’s four-goal win over the Chicago Blackhawks, the Seattle Kraken will get a day of practice (or potentially a day off, as sometimes these things change overnight) before their next contest. On Friday, January 26th, the Kraken will host the St. Louis Blues for a 7PM PST puck drop matchup that will be broadcast on Root Sports Northwest within their market (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska) and on ESPN+/NHLPP nationwide. St. Louis comes into town having won their last three games, most recently defeating the Vancouver Canucks in overtime, after having lost three games in a row. Seattle aims to build off the positive momentum of this win and getting somewhat healthier, as they’ll now have three games left before the All-Star break.
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