The good, the bad, and the ugly: Notes from the Seattle Kraken loss at Florida Panthers October 28th, 2023
By Charles Hamaker
Sunrise, FL – It feels like playing a broken record at this point, yet it’s an unfortunate truth nonetheless: the Seattle Kraken have several positives to take away from their games early into their third season, but that isn’t translating into more wins than losses. Tonight, in Florida, playing a Panthers team that has a solid amount of the pieces from its Prince of Wales winning squad last year, the Kraken had a strong start, got solid goaltending from Joey Daccord in his third consecutive outing, and limited zone entries from the Panthers. On the other end of things, Seattle couldn’t get to the net enough after their second goal to add a third, had an unfortunate bounce result in their opponent’s third goal, and just didn’t do enough to deal with the swing of momentum that went in Florida’s favor after their two-goal in eleven second burst during the second frame.
The Good: Will Borgen, early effort to get to the net
Perhaps overshadowed by fellow defenseman and former pairing partner Jamie Oleksiak, who has had a great start to the season and solid game tonight outside of a poor penalty that led to a Florida goal, Will Borgen has played strong to begin his second full season as a starter with the Kraken. Tonight, Will was far and away the team's best player as suggested by the deeper analytics, and it showed throughout the basic stat sheet and the eye test on television. It’s encouraging to see the Seattle defenseman get involved on the offensive end of things, as their ability to do so played a factor into the team's success last year, and Borgen showed his skills tonight as he tallied two assists in the loss. My issue with this team defensively to begin the season is the occasional lapses that will happen that hang goaltending out to dry, but otherwise Borgen and the defenseman have been relatively solid to begin the year.
“Borgy made a good play to get the puck up quick, and we caught them kind of standing still. Gourdo made a good chip pass to me off the wall, and I just tried to get some speed to the net.”
The early effort that the Kraken made (or, in this case, two individual efforts) to get to the net rewarded them with their only two goals on the night. We should all hope that the team, coaching staff and players alike, take note of these efforts and make a point of them going forward as a potential means of helping to get the scoring moving forward. Jared McCann looked as though he was literally taking matters into his own hands, or gloves, as he carried a beautiful pass from Yanni Gourde straight to Bobrovsly and past a few Florida skaters, then letting his skills with the puck do the rest as he scored. Eeli Tolvanen displayed good IQ as after his shot initial effort on net went wide and back towards the neutral zone, he saw that a teammate had kept the possession alive and made his way towards the front of the net as to provide an option for that teammate. Schwartz saw this immediately and helped catch the Panthers off guard, as Tolvanen was wide open in front of Bobrovsky and perfectly redirected the puck.
The bad: A bad bounce is the game deciding goal
This is more of a tough thing to see as opposed to anything else. I understand your frustration with it, and hopefully that frustration lies more with the way that the goal was the game winner as opposed to with the player that will get blamed on this goal. Joey Daccord’s ability to play the puck is a benefit to this team, helping his defenseman even if the margin isn’t massive. Being able to play the puck can help keep things moving for the Kraken, ensure that his defenseman perhaps gets even the slightest bit of rest, and he has proven that the occasional down-ice pass is possible. That last part is a slight joke, but there are highlights to support that case, even if it is unlikely that Daccord attempts it in a regular season game. Daccord has played well to start the year, and he shouldn’t change things up because of a weird puck bounce in Florida.
“We thought we controlled the majority of the game, obviously their last goal there was very, very lucky. A bounce off the stanchion, and proud of the way we played night, especially Joel. Joel made some big, huge saves for us yet again. He deserved better.”
And the ugly: Blowing another two-goal lead
The two goal leads being blown is a real issue for Seattle, and at first, I thought that the lead blowing jokes and groans on twitter were somewhat annoying, but there are three main cases in losses this season for the Kraken where that margin played a factor. These are, in a somewhat cruel finding, all in the past three games that Seattle have played including tonight. Obviously, the Kraken were up two goals to none before the two-goals in eleven second swing in this game. The instance in the Carolina loss was similar, as Seattle had two goals to none lead before the Hurricanes scored the next three unanswered, with the lone difference being that the third one in that game came in overtime. In the win over Detroit, the Kraken had three goals to one lead before the Red Wings scored the next three goals answered, and lucky for Seattle they were able to force overtime before Jordan Eberle’s game winner in the extra period. The Kraken have to be better about maintaining their leads, and that can happen by getting bodies to the net as to keep the puck there and not outside where it can be sent for a counterattack, while also being better when other teams give you chances aka on the power play.
What’s next?
Following a second consecutive heartbreaking loss on this four-game road trip, this time in Florida, the Seattle Kraken will wrap up this trip when they head to Tampa Bay for a battle with a Lightning squad that may be entering a new era. Tampa Bay and Seattle will meet on Monday, October 30th, with a puck drop of 4PM PDT being broadcast locally on Root Sports while national viewers can find it on ESPN+. Tampa Bay struggled to begin the year, especially without star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, but have won three of their last four and are looking to remain as the only time that the Kraken have not beaten in their brief existence. As previously stated, Seattle has several aspects of their game going in the right direction, yet the offensive stagnancy in the latter half of games and power play struggles seem to be leaking into other areas and now those two problems are not the only things that head coach Dave Hakstol and the Kraken staff need to worry about.
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Cover photo by Jasen Vinlove
