Kraken don’t show Flyers any brotherly love in 6-2 blowout
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Kraken sent the home crowd at Climate Pledge Arena home happy, as they easily glided to a blowout victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. The win gives Seattle a season sweep over the physical Flyers team that they had faced just days ago and puts Seattle back in the win column at home for first time in 18 days. The Kraken scored in several different ways, including power play goals, a shorthanded goal, and a score on an advanced penalty in addition to some five-on-five. The win pushes Seattle back to second in the Pacific Division, as the Kraken fight their way through a thick playoff race.
Seattle Kraken minority stakes owner Macklemore performed a single off of his upcoming album “Ben” as his daughter Sloan recorded, which will be used in the songs music video (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Canner creates the chaos
Seattle forward Jared McCann had an impressive shift in tonight’s game that very well may have set the tone for how the rest of the contest was going to go between the Flyers and Kraken. Around 17 minutes left in the first period and on the penalty kill, McCann blocked a shot, and then shortly later pickpocketed Flyers forward Kevin Hayes. McCann brought the puck down the ice with teammate Yanni Gourde trailing, hesitating as if he was going to pass before rocketing a short side stinger past Flyers goaltender Carter Hart. It was all Kraken from there, as Seattle was able to get the ball (or puck, rather) rolling in essentially every facet of their game. McCann is now riding a four game point streak, and contributes on all ends of the ice as seen tonight. While he’s known for his wicked shot, McCann has been able to nurture his all-around game as a member of the Kraken, contributing in multiple facets as displayed with his work on tonight’s penalty kill.
“Big goal by Canner, a huge block and then he goes down and scores a goal. That’s obviously a huge momentum shift in the game when anyone scores on the penalty kill, that got us going. We kinda got a jump start and started to play really well.”
Kraken forward Jared McCann’s penalty kill shift in the first period may have been the early turning point of the game (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Yanni gets to yeet (the fish) again
While Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol declined when asked to highlight an individual performance, forward Yanni Gourde played an excellent game on both ends of the ice. Gourde is the definition of an all gas, no brakes player, consistently outworking teammates and opponents on the ice. While that doesn’t always necessarily translate to points on the stat sheet, Gourde was able to find success tonight as he tallied three points (two goals and an assist) in the win over the Flyers. It all started with Gourde’s tip in goal, tallying the second of the night for the Kraken. With a little under five and a half minutes left to play in the opening period, as Gourde acted as a screen in front of Philadelphia’s carter Hart. Because of a delayed penalty called against the Flyers, the Kraken had an extra skater on the ice. That extra skater, Justin Schultz, launched the puck to the net from the blue line and Gourde was able to get the end of his stick to deflect the puck between Hart’s arm and right leg pad, squeaking into the inside pipe.
Gourde’s net front play came into light a second time, with a little over 14 minutes to go in the second frame and while Seattle was on the power play. As the bumper on the man advantage, Gourde again placed himself right in front of Carter Hart. Justin Schultz, just as he had on the last goal for the Kraken, launched the puck from the blue line. Gourde obstructed Hart until the very last moment, and by then the puck had already bounced off the back netting of the goal. Despite already contributing to two goals and snapping his seven-game goal drought, Gourde remained persistent in bringing the attack. At the 8:38 mark left in the second period, the Gourde and the Kraken forced a takeaway in their own defensive zone. Gourde looked up the ice immediately as the puck hit his stick, finding a streaking Oliver Bjorkstrand up ice, and just like their old days from when 22 was a Winterhawk and Hart was a Silvertip, Bjorkstrand scored top shelf. Almost as if it were a treat, Gourde was able to score a satisfying slap shot goal on the power play with a little over five minutes left to cap off his three point night.
“I just go out there and try to be the best version of myself. Sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don’t. During the game, sometimes the puck doesn’t get to you, and sometimes it does get to you. When it does, I thought that I was ready.”
“He’s awesome, every night. No matter whether he’s scoring two goals or no goals. Everyone sees that he’s just as effective and plays every single night. He’s been playing great.”
Kraken forward Yanni Gourde celebrates a goal (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Defensive clinic on display, at least through two periods
A key aspect to tonight’s victory for the Kraken was their defensive effort throughout the first two periods. While they sagged a bit in the final 20 minutes, allowing two goals and multiple sloppy turnovers, the first two frames were a clinic in disrupting the Flyers attack. Seattle’s stout defensive presence and shot blocking resulted in only one shot on goal for the Flyers after the first period, a franchise record for fewest shots allowed in a period. The Kraken blueliners stayed focused and sacrificed their bodies to ensure that the Flyers didn’t get off to the start that happened in their prior meeting on the 12th of the month, when Philadelphia was able to score a power play goal in the early minutes of the first period. Seattle made sure to stay clean on the penalty kill as well, only sending the unit out once and remaining perfect in their last eight games on the man disadvantage. In those past eight games, the Kraken have killed 17 power plays in a row.
“They were huge. I think that Will Borgen was our best player tonight, he was phenomenal out there. Skating with the puck, making plays in the D-Zone, finding the middle of the ice, blocking shots, keeping pucks in, every little detail of the game, I think he was phenomenal. Like I said, everybody has been contributing, it’s fun to see our blueline get rewarded.”
“Everybody was in lanes, we were blocking shots, we were making them miss the net when they had to. I feel like that speaks to our character in the room, guys stepping into lanes and blocking shots.”
Outside of the sloppy play in the third period, the Kraken defensive units were able to make goaltender Philipp Grubauer’s job a little easier (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Quick notes
The Kraken held Philadelphia to one shot on goal in the first period, which sets a franchise record for fewest shots on goal allowed in one period. According to NHL PR, the Hurricanes (1 SA in P1 on Nov. 23, 2022) are the only other team to allow one shot or fewer through the first period of a game this season.
With tonight's win, the Kraken attained their third sweep of the season, having previously swept the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins.
With his two goals and an assist tonight, Yanni Gourde ties a season-high for most points in a game. He last scored three points in a game on Nov. 5 at Pittsburgh (one goal, two assists). Tonight also marks his tenth career multi-goal game and second as a Kraken (first was March 19, 2022 against Detroit).
He now has five points in his last four games played against Philadelphia (three goals, two assists).
Jared McCann's first-period goal is his first shorthanded goal of the season and the first shorthanded goal for the Kraken at home this season.
His six career shorthanded goals are tied with Dylan Larkin for fourth-most of the 2014 draft class.
McCann now has points in four consecutive games for the third time this season.
With a goal and assist tonight, Matty Beniers notched his 18th goal of the season and 37th point, which continue to lead all rookies.
He now has eleven multi-point games this season, which leads all rookies. Mason McTavish has the second most with eight.
With his assist on Yanni Gourde's goal, Eeli Tolvanen has a point (one goal, two assists) in each of the Kraken’s last three games. He now has points in four consecutive games for the first time since he had a goal in four consecutive games from Dec. 4 to 10, 2021.
According to NHL PR, with tonight's power-play goal, Justin Schultz scored the 29th goal by a Kraken defenseman this season. Only four teams have more tallies from their defense: Florida (37), Carolina (35), New Jersey (33) and NY Islanders (30).
He now has five points in his last six games against Philadelphia (one goal, five assists).
Oliver Bjorkstrand's goal gives him four points (two goals, two assists) in his last four games played.
Jordan Eberle's assist tonight gets him three points in his last two games against Philadelphia. He had one goal and one assist when the Kraken played the Flyers last week. This is his 25th career point against the Flyers.
This is the most goal support (6) the Kraken have ever given Philipp Grubauer in a game.
For context, they've given Martin Jones 6+ goals of goal support 5 times (in 39 fewer games).
Chris Driedger had 2 games of 6+ goal support last season too.
Tonight say Kraken D-man Jamie Oleksiak and Flyers forward Nicolas Deslauriers fight for the fourth time (that we know of.
The two have fought in the years 2015, 2020, 2021, and now 2023
Jamie Oleksiak and Nicolas Deslauriers drop the gloves (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
What’s next?
The Kraken will have a day off tomorrow before their Saturday, February 18th matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. The Kraken will be celebrating “Black hockey history” that day, donning specially designed warmup jerseys for the “Hockey is for everyone” night that will be auctioned off for charity. Puck drop is at 7:30PM PST for the battle between the Red Wings and Kraken, the first time that the two teams have faced each other this season. Despite a mediocre overall record, Detroit is on a five game win streak and have won seven of their last ten, coming off of a win over the Calgary Flames tonight.