The good, the bad, and the ugly: Notes from the Seattle Kraken overtime loss at Carolina Hurricanes, October 26th, 2023

By Charles Hamaker 

Seattle, WA – While it isn’t a victory, an overtime loss in Carolina isn’t the worst thing in the world for the Seattle Kraken as they continue their second road trip of the season, a four-game effort against some of the better rosters in the NHL. Picking up three points through the first two games of this trip isn’t particularly a bad thing, but the frustration coming out of this loss to the Hurricanes will lie with how the overtime loss came about as opposed to it happening at all. Seattle had a two-goal lead early into this contest before having to cling to a singular score advantage for most of the contest, as the Kraken attack generated some pressure but not enough to beat Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen a third time.  

The Good: Joey Daccord 

Kraken backup goaltender Joey Daccord is seemingly answering any questions about whether he’ll be able to handle the NHL workload this season after he won the job over Chris Driedger in the preseason. Daccord, nicknamed “The Mayor,” has shown his ability before including last season when he helped to power the teams AHL affiliate Coachella Valley Firebirds to coming just short of winning the Calder Cup, but there were questions about him doing it consistently at the NHL level. In his second straight start, after recording the win in the teams Tuesday contest at the Detroit Red Wings, Daccord wasn’t only good for Seattle, he was historic as he set a franchise record with 42 saves on the night.  

It started for him early on, having to deal with a Seth Jarvis breakaway attempt in the first period. It didn’t get much better for the Kraken goaltender, as he dealt with heavy pressure from Carolina all night long. With some (notice I said some on purpose) help from his defenseman, Daccord had to deal with the type of onslaught that the Hurricanes can bring with their forwards and was able to largely hold up for the first three periods outside of Necas’ first period score and the end of the third that saw them tie things up. It’s tough that Carolina’s overtime winner saw Daccord screened so that he could hardly do anything about it, but if you need a positive to take away from this loss, it’s that Joey looks more than ready to be in this goaltender tandem for the Kraken.  

The bad: Defensive lapses 

This is tough to quantify, considering the number of chances that the Hurricanes generated in this game and the sheer pressure that Carolina registered. When looking at the heat map for this game (in terms of all situations), the Hurricanes were all over their offensive zone, putting chances on net from almost every inch of ice on their end of things offensively. The first goal against Seattle in this game wasn’t particularly the fault of the defenseman on a traditional breakdown, more on the fact that Dumoulin blew a tire and fell on his behind to give Carolina a golden possession and chance on Daccord. The second goal was more on the fault of the Kraken forwards, as none of them had gotten back on the Hurricanes rush and left their goaltender out to dry. On the overtime sequence, Matty Beniers lost his man in transition as he attempted to steal the puck, leaving Adam Larsson in a two-on-one situation near his own goal. Both forwards on the ice at the time, Beniers and Yanni Gourde, dropped down to help out, which left Necas wide open. The over aggressive play from Beniers gummed up any sort of structure that Seattle had, and results in this goal.  

And the ugly: Offense falling flat for the periods after the first and not converting in overtime 

This can be looked at in one lump, and it’s also somewhat difficult to take a look at. You can’t compare the Kraken’s offensive generation to the Hurricanes considering how different the teams are built, and the injuries that Seattle has recently had to deal with. With that being said, the Kraken really didn’t do much to test Andersen after the first period outside of late into the third period, and a few shoveled pucks in overtime. It’s once again an issue of Seattle failing to do the dirty work or do enough as a whole to get pucks into the net, whether that be clogging lanes, being faster on their power play (to their credit, they only had one attempt on the man advantage in this contest), or simply finding a way. It’s tough against a good squad like the Hurricanes, but playoff standings (unless it’s a tiebreaker) won’t care about how hard the schedule you faced was, it cares about the standings points you rack up. Seattle was good enough for one point tonight, but later on in the year they may be wishing they got both from this loss.  

What’s next? 

Following tonight’s overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in the team's second of its four game road trip, the Seattle Kraken will need to make some tune ups before they head down to Florida for the final aspect of said trip. Their next contest is on Saturday, October 28th with a puck drop of 3PM PST when they battle the Florida Panthers at the Amerant Bank Arena. The Panthers are coming off a win over the San Jose Sharks and have won three of their last four games including that victory. The Kraken still have some positives going with their game, but their offensive attack must continue throughout the course of all three frames and a jolt to their power play can continue to do good for them as their season continues.

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Cover photo by James Guillory