Kraken pounce on Predators early, extending win streak to five with 5-1 win
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Following a three-win road trip in as many games, the Seattle Kraken put on an impressive performance in front of a national audience. The Kraken have now won five games in a row, their longest win streak in franchise history, all against playoff teams from last season. Seattle jumped out to an early lead, forcing Nashville to pull their goalie, and never had to sweat. With the win, the Kraken reinforced their spot at second place in the Pacific Division and look like a playoff team. The continued quality performance from Seattle is proving that this team is for real, and the Kraken can just get better.
Martin Jones continues to be cool, calm, and collected in net for Seattle (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
First period fury
Seattle opened the first period with a very loud bang, nearly as loud as the Climate Pledge Arena crowd tonight. Just 38 seconds into the opening frame, alternate captain Jordan Eberle snuck a one-timer past the near side of Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros. Following the initial goal, Seattle settled in and chased Saros out of the game as Will Borgen, Jordan Eberle for a second time, and finally Andre Burakovsky tallied goals. The Predators pulled their starting goal with a little under four minutes until first intermission and failed to get themselves back into this contest. Alternate captain Jordan Eberle discussed the win, postgame.
“Obviously we come out and score four quick ones... a lot of times those are tough to play in because you know that the other team is going to have a push. You don’t wanna be lackadaisical, but most of the time it happens. Second period wasn’t great, but I liked the way we changed the momentum in the third,” Eberle reflected.
Andre Burakovsky tries to work the puck past Nashville’s Juuse Saros (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Regrouping to clear the dangerous chance
The one goal that Seattle allowed was on an unfortunate breakaway, started by Filip Forsberg who made a great play in the second period. Outside of this lone goal, the recurring theme for the Kraken defensive units was making the right play at the right time. Throughout the entirety of the game, Nashville was able to generate dangerous opportunities in the Seattle defensive zone. It seemed that the Predators were just one final touch away from being able to break through, but the Kraken were able to get extremely well-timed poke checks to steer danger away. Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol reflected on the defensive effort.
“One of the things I thought we did very well was that we recovered to the middle. These guys forecheck hard, they get a lot of stuff inside to the critical scoring area, and our guys as five-man units did a great job of recovering to that area. Even in the second period, we were sloppy with our play through the zone, but we did a great job of coming back to that area,” Hakstol stated.
Predators forward Filip Forsberg celebrates his goal, the only one for Nashville (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Building off the road trip
Seattle had an impressive showing across their three-game road trip, with three different kinds of games. The Kraken opened with a back-and-forth battle in Calgary, shut out the Wild in Minnesota, and then withstood a desperate yet dangerous Penguins team in Pittsburgh. Overall, the defensive units have made big strides from some of the early showings this season, and that has been the main concern with this team. While the power play has been a bit quiet over this win streak, it just means that when it starts to click again, Seattle may become even more dangerous. Depending on how they fare throughout the rest of this homestand, the Kraken could put the league on notice.
Andre Burakovsky yeets the fish after the win (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Quick notes
With his assist tonight, Morgan Geekie extended his point streak to five games. This five-game streak is the longest in his career
Geekie has eight points in his last seven games
The Predators are the fourth team that the Kraken have registered three wins against, having previously defeated the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks three times each.
The Kraken have gone a perfect 12-for-12 on the penalty kill, dating back to Oct. 29 vs. Pittsburgh. The Kraken are one of two teams (Winnipeg) to post a 100 percent success rate on the penalty kill since Oct. 29.
Tonight marks the first time in franchise history that the Kraken have scored four goals in the first period.
Seattle has a 6-1-0 record this season when they score first.
The Kraken have scored at least three goals in 10 consecutive games, dating back to Oct. 19 vs. St. Louis, which is a franchise-first.
Seattle is the only team in the NHL this year to score three or more goals in at least 12 games. There have only been two games this season in which the Kraken have scored two goals or less.
What’s next?
Following this statement win, the Kraken will continue their six game homestand, the longest of their 2022-2023 campaign. Their next contest is on Friday, November 11th against the Minnesota Wild with a 7PM PST puck drop. The Wild will look to avoid a shutout against the Kraken this time around, as Seattle blanked Minnesota in the team's last matchup last Thursday. This game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and Hulu.