By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA – Coming into this divisional contest just barely above Edmonton and Calgary in the divisional standings, the Seattle Kraken face a tough homestand before an even tougher month of January. The Kraken looked to snuff out a Calgary team about to play the second game of a back-to-back, but the Flames were able to take advantage of three critical Seattle mistakes. A playoff like atmosphere inside of Climate Pledge Arena saw the Kraken play gritty/grinding hockey, but ultimately Seattle could not stay out of their own way. With the loss, the Kraken fell to fourth place in the Pacific Division.

Fanning the Flames

As has been the primary culprit for Seattle’s struggles during their two-year existence as a franchise in the NHL, the defensive play by the Kraken held them back in this loss to Calgary. While it wasn’t a complete defensive meltdown by Seattle, like we’ve seen a few times this month, poorly timed breakdowns wiped away some solid defensive work by the Kraken. It was a tale of two halves of the game, as Seattle mitigated most of Calgary’s offensive chances to shots near and around the blue line through the first 30 minutes, but started to get burned after an ill-timed high-sticking penalty by Carson Soucy. The unnecessary and infuriating penalty was a slip up in the type of game where even the smallest mistake could change everything, and it did that tonight in the form of Calgary's tying and winning goals.

Calgary scored quickly on the power play caused by Soucy’s bad penalty, evening the score up at two goals each. It’s a continuation of Seattle’s issue with taking bad + untimely penalties, and Soucy is a prime catalyst for that very issue. Soucy leads the Kraken in penalty minutes taken by a ten minute margin, and has the most penalty minutes drawn above taken at -24. Calgary’s other two goals were caused by 1) failure to clear the puck 2) giving the Flames far too much room to operate. The first Calgary goal of the night was scored by Tyler Toffoli, whose persistent digging for the puck in a scrum was rewarded as Seattle couldn’t clear a rebound. The go-ahead goal, scored by Jonathan Huberdeau, was embarrassing for the Kraken defense. Huberdeau was able to gather a tipped shot from teammate Ramus Andersson, turn around and fire away on net from just a few feet away. The Calgary skater was completely untouched and unbothered, which is simply unacceptable. Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol spoke on his team’s effort to local media, postgame.

Donato Delivers, Big Rig rumbles to get the Kraken on the board

Seattle’s offensive chances were generated through grimy, grinding goals scored by someone who's been a productive offensive weapon for Seattle and a defensemen that's seen a big jump in scoring from last season. As the first period was winding down, Ryan Donato answered Calgary’s first goal of the night with a similar looking score, slamming home a juicy rebound in the crease. The Harvard man fired his own rebounded shot back towards the direction of Calgary netminder Dan Vladar, finding success on the second attempt while chaos was ensuing in the crease. Donato continues to prove his worth, scoring his eighth of the year and fifth in the past six games, all while on a “prove it" deal this season. Seattle’s second goal of the night came from Jamie Oleksiak, as the “Big Rig” rumbled through traffic and snuck a sizzling shot through a Calgary defensemen’s legs and just a hair underneath goaltender Dan Vladar’s stick. Despite adding onto his offensive success this season, Oleksiak discussed the teams defensive issues in the postgame media scrum.

German Gentleman GREAT yet again

As I've gone over several times, whether it be in articles or in Circling Seattle Sports on Converge episodes, Philipp Grubauer has never been the sole issue for the Kraken's struggles despite what casual fans/scoreboard watchers say. Since his return from injury when he helped the team beat the Las Vegas Golden Knights for the first time in franchise history (November 25th, 2022), Grubauer has posted a save percentage of .911%, with the large majority of the goals being allowed at the fault of his defensemen. Grubauer, with his parents in attendance to watch, posted a franchise record 41 saves in the game, which is also the most by the German-born goaltender in his time with the Kraken. The one knock on Grubauer's ability tonight could be the rebounds he allowed, but many of those should also be a responsibility of his defensemen to help clear from their own defensive zone. Grubauer did his job as well as he possibly could have, he just didn't get the support that he needed, which is another common theme that's just downright frustrating. Both head coach Dave Hakstol and defensemen Jamie Oleksiak spoke the praises of Grubauer, while the German Gentleman himself expressed frustration with how the game went.

Stepping back to assess

Outside of the defensive miscues, Seattle played the sort of tight, focused, intense hockey that could fair them well in the latter stages of the season. Alas, the Kraken could not overcome the mistakes that they had made and didn't find the back of the net enough in order to shoot their way out of this one. On the bright side of things, Seattle successfully killed three of the four Calgary power plays, had 25 hits, Grubauer played excellent, and got goals out of a third liner and a second line defensemen. On the negative side, Seattle allowed 44 shots after coming into this game first in the NHL in shots allowed per game, failed to cash in on the power play while only drawing one penalty, quadrupled Calgary's penalty minutes, gave the puck away nine times, and failed to score on about three breakaways. It was one of those divisional-opponent games that was going to be a grind from the start, and it proved to be so. One mistake can change the outcome in the blink, and that's what we saw tonight. There's plenty of season left to play in and Seattle has several games in hand compared to the teams above them in the standings, but the lack of adjustments being made in regard to the teams continuing issues is a major concern.

Quick notes

• Ryan Donato’s first-period goal gives him goals in three consecutive home games for the first time in his career (Dec. 18 vs. Winnipeg, Dec. 20 vs. St. Louis and tonight).

• Adam Larsson’s assist on Ryan Donato’s goal extends his assist streak to four games, matching his career high that he set from Nov. 19 to 25, 2011.

  • The assist also gives Larsson points in three consecutive home games for the first time since Feb. 20 to 23, 2015.

• With his two assists tonight, Jordan Eberle records his sixth multipoint game of the season and 13th as a Kraken skater. Only Jared McCann has more with 14.

  • According to NHL PR, Eberle leads all Kraken players in points against Calgary. He has 15 goals and 23 assists in 43 career games against the Flames.

• Morgan Geekie recorded a season-high in hits per game with three. His career high, set last season on April 16 against New Jersey, is four.

• Jamie Oleksiak scored only one goal in 76 games played last season. Through 26 played this year, Oleksiak has 5 goals.

• Philipp Grubauer's 41 saves on the night ties a franchise record for the most in a game.

  • In addition to this, Grubauer recorded three more saves than his previous record for the Kraken, which was 38 back on 3/16/2022 vs the Tampa Bay Lightning.

  • According to MoneyPuck, Grubauer had a "Goals saved above expected" of 1.32.

  • Factoring in Calgary's shot location & quality, Grubauer prevented at least 2 goals (+2.4) more than he should have - per Evolving Hockey

  • By that same standard of outperforming expectations (based on opponents shot locations & quality), Evolving Hockey rates tonight as Grubauer's best start with Seattle - over his 35-save performance vs the Carolina Hurricanes on November 24th of last season - and his best start since February 11th, 2020

• Entering today, Seattle was the 4th-best in the NHL in terms of limiting opponent shots off rebounds - and tied for 6th-fewest rebound goals against.

What's next?

Seattle will have a day of practice before another divisional matchup, when they take on the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, December 30th. Just as this matchup against Calgary was, the contest versus Edmonton plays a role in the Kraken divisional standing as the Oilers are just one point below Seattle. Edmonton comes into this game having beaten Calgary in the last time that they hit the ice, and on a 5-3-2 run of form over the past ten games. Seattle must regain their winning form, having gone 3-6-1 over the last ten games and losing valuable positioning in the Pacific Division. Puck drop is at 7PM PST inside of Climate Pledge Arena, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+/HULU.

https://www.whereweconverge.com/circling-seattle-sports