The Mayor overcomes the Senators: Kraken keep win streak rolling with strong showing over Ottawa
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The calendar year of 2024 continues to be a success, at least so far, for the Seattle Kraken as they kept stacking onto recent success with a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators in the final home game ahead of a six-game road trip. Coming off an emotional and action-packed Winter Classic just three days prior, there was some thought that the Kraken could come out flat against a Senators team that has struggled this season but still has a talented lineup, and thankfully that wasn’t the case. Seattle ensured that they were the one out on the front foot today, as Yanni Gourde opened the scoring with a rebound chance and the Kraken never looked back. Joey Daccord was once again excellent in net for Seattle, as his legend and candidacy to become the mayor of yet another city only grows by the day.
“We’re playing great, we’re sticking to our gameplan, we’re executing it well and it’s nice to see the results go our way.”
Prior to puck drop, Seattle Kraken forward Oliver Bjorkstrand was named as the teams representative for the 2024 NHL All-Star game. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
Rocky beginning, but getting on the board first
Thanks to three different penalties, the first on Ottawa and the following two on Seattle, this contest started out a bit bumpy and without any real rhythm too it. Both teams' penalty kill units stepped up, as the Kraken’s first power play opportunity on the night failed to get any real shot on goal against Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and the Seattle kill shut down back-to-back man advantage chances for the Senators which included 21 seconds of five-on-three play. Those two massive kills by the Kraken largely came from the continued strong play of Joey Daccord, who had to make a few remarkable saves and even cleared the puck twice in the hectic stretch, including a backhanded launch of the puck that helped get his team a fresh change. Without those two big kills early into this first period, Ottawa may have gone ahead and created a tough situation for Seattle, but instead it was the Kraken who had survived an early challenge and seemed poised to get back on the attack.
That attack was able to get the scoring started in this game behind the constant push and drive of the Tolvanen-Gourde-Bjorkstrand line, just as it had in the Winter Classic. Bjorkstrand, who was announced as the team's All-Star representative just hours before puck drop, created a turnover just before the Senators could enter the neutral zone, and Eeli Tolvanen was eventually able to get a shot off on goal after that initial steal found its way into the corner. Tolvanen’s attempt was stopped by Korpisalo, but the rebound came off the right part of his body and landed right in front of the crease, where Gourde had crashed towards the net and tapped home the rebound to create back-to-back games with a score for himself. The hard work and determination of that line, led by Gourde, has set the tone in numerous contests for Seattle dating back to last season and that appears to be showing up once again as the team is making a push to regain some of the lost ground from earlier in the year.
The Seattle Kraken celebrate Yanni Gourde’s first period goal, as they’d go on to defeat the Ottawa Senators by a score of 4-1, on January 4th, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
"Reinforcements” push the lead forward and Seattle can pull away
Following Gourde’s first period score, the Kraken didn’t sit back and allow for the Senators to get back into this game with a response, rather it was Seattle who remained at the ready to add a second goal to the scoreboard. Multiple shots on Korpisalo to finish out the first period kept the pressure on, and a power play opportunity for the Kraken early into the second period only continued that, but it was more of a broken play that got Seattle their second score of the night. After Joey Daccord had to make a highlight save with his glove to maintain the shutout at the time, the Kraken came through the neutral zone with speed as Vince Dunn found Jordan Eberle right at Ottawa’s blue line. From there, Tomas Tatar took advantage of the wide open ice that was essentially just the mid to low slot on a nice pass from Eberle, before getting Korpisalo to nearly come out of his skates on a nifty move and then easily scoring to double the Seattle lead. In the final minute of that middle frame, the Kraken got a premium scoring chance thanks to the excellent backchecking of Kailer Yamamoto. The strong defensive play by Yamamoto saw him gain quick and easy entry into the Ottawa zone, allowing for linemate Andre Burakovsky to enter the slot unbothered and receive a pass so that he could score his first goal of the season.
“It feels good to have some luck on your side... I’ve been having a lot of bad breaks this year and last year, so it was it was good to see one go in for sure.”
Seattle Kraken forward Tomas Tatar scores the second goal of the night, getting around Ottawa Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, in Seattle’s 4-1 win over Ottawa on January 4th, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
The Senators would eventually be able to break through and end the Seattle shutout in progress after a lengthy possession that had kept the Kraken hemmed into their own zone, wearing down their skaters even despite a few different quick changes. Ottawa’s Parker Kelly was able to redirect a point shot from Dominik Kubalik, being left all alone in front of Daccord in the crease to be able to change the route of that puck and despite the effort of Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn to poke it out, the goalless streak for Joey had come to an end. While the Senators made their push, down by two goals at that point, two try and get themselves back into the game, a Vince Dunn empty net goal put the final nail in the coffin in order to give the Kraken another two points as they pushed the point streak to ten games and the winning streak to six.
Seattle Kraken forward Andre Burakovsky scored the third goal of the night, and his first of the season, in the teams 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on January 4th, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
This time is showing you why a “big move” wasn’t necessary
The rough start to the season, which includes that eight-game losing skid, was filled with efforts where the Kraken were unable to get the one necessary bounce that they had deserved considering the effort displayed in the game or they had one bad turn of fortune derail that same sort strong effort in a game that it appeared they were going to win. It was astonishing to watch this team but forth so many good efforts, play so many good games, all of which had come just short because of one area of issue that needed to be addressed or one instance of bad luck. Because of those strong efforts and bad luck displays, I didn’t think that it was time for the team to make a big and drastic move like firing Dave Hakstol or trading one of the team's established players. It didn’t make sense for them to do so, as there was no real obvious player that could get shipped out (Outside of perhaps Brian Dumoulin, but he’s been fine as of late) and it wasn’t like Hakstol was making bad decisions, despite what the local casual on social media will say.
I had my own doubts at the height of that eight-game losing streak, because it truly seemed as though Seattle couldn’t do anything to break their run of poor luck and it looked like this is how the season was going to go for them without any sign of change, and then they broke through. They’re getting players to return from injury and they’ve played really structured, smart hockey amidst the current point streak. You obviously don’t plan to have streaks such as this, because it’s impossible considering all of the outside factors to go into professional sports, but it’s pulled Seattle out of the hole that they were in. Bringing Tatar in with a late round pick, getting Burakovsky back from injury, Daccord’s remarkable play, and the team sticking to their belief in themselves had been what’s brought them back from such a low point. Remember that, then also consider that they’re without Jaden Schwartz and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and that some of their forwards aren’t quite firing on all cylinders, and you’ll see why I still feel good about this Kraken roster moving forward.
“It felt good to come here. Playing with Matty and Ebs helps a lot, they’re two great players... We’re playing good hockey, we’re working hard, we want to keep it going.”
The three stars of this 4-1 win for the Seattle Kraken over the Ottawa Senators were all Kraken players. In order, from third to first: Tomas Tatar, Andre Burakovsky, Joey Daccord. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
Quick notes
With the win, the Kraken now have a ten-game point streak, the longest point streak in franchise history.
The Kraken have only allowed 13 goals against during their current ten-game point streak.
Seattle's six consecutive wins is the longest winning streak since they won a franchise-best eight consecutive games from Jan. 1 to 14, 2023.
The Kraken are the ninth NHL team this season to have a winning streak of at least six games, joining Edmonton (2x), Anaheim, Boston, Colorado, Florida, Nashville, NY Rangers, Vegas.
During the teams current six-game winning streak, the Kraken have scored 16 goals from 12 different skaters.
17 different skaters have scored in Seattle’s previous nine games.
Joey Daccord set a franchise record for the longest shutout streak, not allowing a goal against in the last 158:35 of game play. He overcame the previous record of 115:18 set by Martin Jones from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5, 2022.
This is also the longest shutout streak in the NHL this season
Yanni Gourde's first-period goal was his sixth of the season, giving him goals in consecutive games. He now has three points (two goals, one assist) in his last three games.
Gourde is now two points shy of 300 career points and will become the seventh active, undrafted player to record 300 NHL points.
With the assist on Gourde's goal, Eeli Tolvanen set a career-high in assists with 14 this season.
Andre Burakovsky's second-period goal is his first of the season.
Vince Dunn recorded a goal and an assist tonight, notching his seventh multi-point game of the season, the most of all Kraken skaters.
He now has points in five consecutive games, his second five-game point streak of the season.
Dunn leads the team in points this season with 33 points in 39 games overall. His 0.85 points per game ranks ninth among NHL defensemen who have played at least two games this season.
With seven, Jamie Oleksiak set a career-high for blocked shots in a single game.
Some more detailed photos, of the Ottawa Senators, as taken by our photographer on assignment, Rio Giancarlo
What’s next?
Following the Seattle Kraken’s win over the Ottawa Senators to extend both their winning and point streaks, the team now begins a six-game road trip after this somewhat three-game homestand, if you fully count the Winter Classic on New Years Day as a home game. They’ll begin that road trip and seek to maintain their current streaks when they return to action on Tuesday, January 9th when they visit the Buffalo Sabres with a puck drop of 4PM PST at the KeyBank Center. While Buffalo has largely struggled through this season to this point, currently sitting at seventh in the Atlantic division, the team has won two of the last three games they’ve played and will have another test (Pittsburgh) before they battle the Kraken on Tuesday. That game will be broadcast on Root Sports Northwest within their market (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska) and on ESPN+/NHLPP nationwide.
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Check out our previous Seattle Kraken articles here
Cover photo and other photos in this article by Rio Giancarlo
Check out our previous articles with writing by Charles Hamaker here