By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA – The expression that a sport is a game of inches can be played out, but it rang especially true in the Saturday showdown of the Colorado Avalanche and the Seattle Kraken. The Avalanche bested the Kraken in an overtime shootout, as both teams traded near misses throughout the first three periods and overtime. Ultimately, Seattle’s inability to finish on one on one with the goaltender did them in as Colorado goaltender Pavel Francouz’s perfect save percentage in shootouts remained squeaky clean. Despite recording a point in the loss, the Kraken fell to second in the division as Las Vegas won their game tonight.  

The Kraken wore special Lunar New Year warm up jerseys pre-game, designed by local artist Monyee Chau (Photos by Liv Lyons)

Game of inches

Mere inches decided this contest between the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche and upstart Kraken, as both teams peppered each other's goaltenders with chances in the high danger area. Several Kraken skaters made incredibly critical plays to keep the Avalanche off the board, cleaning up their own messes. A major example of this was defenseman Adam Larsson, who flung the puck back up the ice after it was slowly inching towards the goal line. Larsson’s heads up play wiped a goal off the board and kept his team in it. Unfortunately, Colorado was able to get the fortunate bounces necessary in the shootout as Seattle failed to score any of their three opportunities and the Avalanche converted twice. Adam Larsson discussed what it was like defending against the reigning champs with the media, postgame. 

German Gentleman produces another pleasant performance

Getting the start between the pipes against his former team, eyes were on Philipp Grubauer to see how he may perform. Since returning from an injury suffered against this same Avalanche team, just on the road, Grubauer has been excellent as a whole, the skaters around him just simply have not been up to par. Surely, it must be frustrating as a goaltender to put out stunning performances against teams such as Carolina, Calgary, Tampa Bay, Calgary, and now Colorado and not have your teammates carry their own weight. Although tonight’s loss was far closer in resulting score than the other three mentioned, the Kraken still could not finish the job in order to get Grubauer the victory. Grubauer now has a .913 SV% in his last seven games, and only two wins to show for it. Grubauer reflected on the loss, postgame.

A positive loss?

This Kraken team may be coming back down to Earth a bit following their eight-game winning streak, but this loss against the Avalanche is one that I’d consider to be constructive. Seattle has obvious areas from this loss that need to be improved upon, some with higher priority than others. The Kraken have not been relatively good at all when it comes to finishing in one-on-one situations against opposing goaltenders, and that must improve especially when it comes to breakaways and shootouts. Seattle looked like they had overcomplicated their shootout opportunities. Another one of those addressable areas is the ability to get greasy goals, something the Kraken failed to do in this game as well. Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol discussed how he felt about his teams effort, postgame. 

Quick notes

• Colorado’s Pavel Francouz has seen 12 shootout attempts in his career. Zero have gone in the net.

• Ryan Donato netted his third goal in two games with his second-period goal. It was also his fourth point in the same span.

  • He now has six points in his last five games (three goals, three assists) dating back to Jan. 14 against Chicago.

  • According to Alison Lukan, it was the Kraken's 16th response goal within two minutes of an opponents' score this season.

• Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves on 27 shots, finishing the game with a .963 save percentage. This is his highest save percentage in a game this season in which he played in all three periods.

• Vince Dunn's five hits tied a career high, which he has only reached on two other occasions. Both were recorded as a member of the Kraken lineup.

• Matty Beniers matched a season-high faceoff win percentage. He had a 66.7% on the faceoff dot, with ten wins and five losses. He recorded the same stat on Jan. 14 against Chicago.

• Eeli Tolvanen reached a season-high shots on goal with four. He has recorded three shots on goal on six previous occasions, most recently on Jan. 19 vs. New Jersey.

• With five hits in tonight's game, Cale Fleury reached a season high.

• Tonight marked John Hayden's first game in the Seattle Kraken lineup. He joins Seattle from the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

• With 100% on the penalty kill tonight, Seattle has not surrendered a power-play goal to Colorado in their last four meetings. They are 11-for-13 all time on the penalty kill against the Avalanche.

• This is the second time this season that the Kraken have gone to overtime in consecutive games and the first shootout at home this season.

What’s next?

The Kraken will get three scheduled days off following the loss, but the reality of it is that two of those days will include activities. Seattle is hosting it’s “Skills showcase,” an event geared toward the fanbase at Climate Pledge Arena where the roster displays skills in several different competitions such as hardest shot, a relay race, and many more. Following the short-term break, the Kraken get back to the gauntlet of their January schedule when they host the pesky Vancouver Canucks. The two Pacific Northwest rivals will meet on Wednesday, January 25th with a puck drop of 7PM PST as Seattle still is searching for their first ever win over the Canucks. The Canucks have been the center of heaps of negative press, as they are expected to fire beloved coach Bruce Boudreau and are looking to sell at the trade deadline. Could that spell a win for Seattle on Wednesday? We’ll have to see.

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