The good, the bad, and the ugly: Notes from the Seattle Kraken loss against the Colorado Avalanche, November 13th, 2023
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – When will this Seattle Kraken team be able to put together a full 60-minute performance, or perhaps the better question to ask is do they want to? The effort of this team, a group (Still largely intact) that showed great resilience and relentless attack last season, has come into question numerous times already this season and especially so in the last few days when looking back on the loss to Edmonton, yesterday’s fiery practice led by head coach Dave Hakstol telling his team to shoot the “f******” puck, and this game where Seattle continued to make simple mistakes that allowed for a talented Avalanche team to pull away. While the fanbase calls for firings and trades, it certainly seems like those are exaggerations, but for how long will that be the case? Here’s to hoping that we don’t have to find out.
Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord’s game action during the teams November 13th, 2023 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
The good: First period start, most of Joey Daccord
After Saturday’s horrid start to the game that saw Edmonton stack up four goals in the first period, the Kraken could have had nearly that amount in tonight’s first frame against the Avalanche. Seattle was back to their regularly scheduled quick starts, as a returning Brandon Tanev hit the pipe in his first shift. Tanev eventually did score the first goal of the game and his first of the season in his return from injury that kept him out for over a month, coming just over six minutes into the frame. The Kraken should’ve had a second goal at minimum in the period as Alex Wennberg was able to jam a puck home against Colorado netminder Alexandar Georgiev, but a phantom goaltender interference call took that off the board. Seattle maintained their strong pressure for the rest of the first 20 minutes, it’s just a shame they didn’t continue that for the remainer of the game.
Getting the start tonight against the Avalanche was Seattle’s backup netminder, Joey Daccord. While some more casual fans pinned Saturday night's loss against the Oilers on Philipp Grubauer, they’d be foolish to do so considering the fact that the Kraken had given Edmonton numerous net front opportunities, making it nearly impossible on Grubauer to do anything, let alone against the talent that the Oilers have. Regardless of what those fans said, Daccord has played well this season and has been able to fill into that backup role in this tandem, continuing that tonight to the best of his own ability. Edmonton’s first two goals were net front opportunities, as the Oilers got down into the low slot and had Joey all to themselves. No real criticism for Daccord tonight, perhaps someday those same fans will come to understand that it isn’t always the fault of the goaltender, and that fault should be looked at earlier into the play.
The bad: Continued poor performance at home and “goaltender interference”
For a team like the Kraken that talk so often about how much they appreciate the support of the fan base and rave about how loud this building can be, they really don’t show that in their actions when it comes to winning on home ice. This isn’t even just this year issue, as even last season when Seattle made their impressive push to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time, they struggled at home and almost looked like a better team on the road. Some of the games that the Kraken have played at home have been their worst this season, including this loss, the Edmonton one just two days ago, and the defeat against the New York Rangers with the bizarre lighting issue. It’s incredibly disappointing to see Seattle continue to show so poorly in front of their home fans, and it’s showing in the attendance and how long they’re staying at the games.
Do we truly know what goaltender interference is quiet yet? No? Does the National Hockey League themselves have the precise definition? We may never know, and that sort of wonder and amazement (Not the good kind either) continued tonight as the Kraken had a goal taken off the board as Colorado head coach Jared Bednar challenged Alex Wennberg’s first period score and had it taken off the board as the ruling as goaltender interference. Both Wennberg and Brandon Tanev had gotten to the net and were the only skaters there in front of Avalanche netminder Alexandar Georgiev, as Wennberg was able to jam the puck home to score, but Tanev was called on the interference for somehow impacting Georgiev’s moments. Now, there may be a better angle that shows where the actual offense occurred, but at least in the arena and on the broadcast, we weren’t shown one that clearly distinguished a legitimate offense.
And the ugly: One shot* in the third period, giving up net front opportunities
It went somewhat viral amongst the Seattle fan base yesterday when media (Sorry, I wasn’t there) reported that Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol paused practice to tear into his team during a drill, criticizing them about identity and telling them to “Shoot the F******” puck. Considering the lack of shots in the Oilers loss, he isn’t wrong to criticize his team for that. For the first period tonight, it looked like his team had actually paid attention to what was said during that practice as they attacked the net against an Alexandar Georgiev who didn’t particularly look fully on his game, but that was washed away as the second half of this game came along. The Kraken only recorded one shot on goal during the third period, and there’s an asterisk next to it for a reason. It was a dump in by Seattle.
The Kraken have struggled with preventing net front opportunities for opponents for their three years of existence. It was a prevalent issue last season, notably coming up in the team's second round Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Dallas Stars as Joe Pavelski had a field day in front of the night against Seattle, but perhaps less of a concern considering the Kraken could outscore teams last season with their relentless effort on offense. Obviously considering the lack of offensive production, and sometimes effort, from Seattle this season, their issues stick out more than they did last season, and the net front goals that the Kraken are surrendering are glaringly alarming. Edmonton’s first two goals on Saturday were net front opportunities, and the Avalanche were able to get two of their goals in a similar way tonight. Seattle must be pretty in front of their goaltender, especially RIGHT in front of him, if they want to be a winning hockey team.
What’s next?
Following tonight’s ugly loss to the Colorado Avalanche, their second loss in a row following last week's win over this Avs team, the Seattle Kraken will head out on the road for one game which is also the first of a back-to-back. Seattle will have to battle two teams that played each other tonight in their back-to-back, first the Edmonton Oilers team that won on Wednesday on the road before coming back to play the New York Islanders team that lost, at home. That game against the Oilers in Edmonton is on Wednesday, November 15th with a puck drop of 5:30PM PST being broadcast on Root Sports locally and ESPN+ nationally. The Oilers dealt this Kraken team one of the uglier, more frustrating losses of their season so far back on Saturday the eleventh, so Seattle will be looking to get back at Edmonton for that and to bounce back from tonight’s game.