By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – To end the year of 2022, the Seattle Kraken concluded a poor month of December with a disastrous loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Right out of the gate the Kraken defensemen were out of position and leaving Oilers skaters completely unmarked, resulting in three quick goals just under four minutes into the game. Seattle never recovered from the haymaker Edmonton threw after the opening whistle and were brutally embarrassed on their own home ice. A goaltender swap after the third Oilers goal failed to provide the effect desired by Seattle, as Edmonton stacked on four more scores after Martin Jones came into the game. A third straight loss continues Seattle’s free fall down the standings, now sitting at fifth in the Pacific Division.
Morgan Geekie tries to sneak a puck past Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner (Photo by Liv Lyons)
A horrid opening period spells disaster
Heading into the contest against Edmonton, things had seemed positive for the Kraken. The team had a full turnout at morning skate despite it being listed as optional, Seattle had played well despite a few untimely mistakes in their last game as Philipp Grubauer was stellar between the pipes, and Edmonton was without superstar forward Leon Draisaitl. While those factors seemed to spell positive fortune for the Kraken, Seattle had a bad month in December and needed a strong performance against Edmonton to get themselves back in the win column and earn points to improve their divisional standing.
The presumed positive notions quickly were negated as Edmonton forced a penalty two minutes in, sending their top ranked power play unit out against Seattle’s near-league bottom penalty kill. It only took Connor McDavid 40 seconds to find teammate Zach Hyman completely unmarked on a back door pass to score. 32 seconds later, Seattle got caught in an odd-man rush which led to Klim Kostin being left completely unmarked for a tap-in goal. 39 seconds later, a turnover by Seattle in the offensive zone was taken 200 feet as Edmonton caught the Kraken in a three on two opportunity, where Darnell Nurse was left with all the room in the arena to shoot, scoring the third Edmonton goal in only four minutes of this game being underway. Seattle defensemen Adam Larsson spoke about those opening minutes to the media, postgame.
“They’re a dangerous team, obviously we need a better start, but tonight was more of a 60-minute issue. Just wasn’t good enough. It was a lot of things. Every team goes through a stretch or a game like this, obviously we’ll talk about it and see what we did wrong. We can do a lot of things better, we can be a lot sharper, play a lot faster as a team. It’s hard to pinpoint just one thing,” Larsson reflected.
The pairing of Justin Schultz and Jamie Oleksiak have both had their own respective struggles, and both need to step their games up (Photo by Liv Lyons)
A muted offensive effort shows flashes, but not nearly enough substance
The second period saw Seattle find some footing in the mucky mess of a game, as Daniel Sprong opened the scoring in the second frame. Sprong's rocket shot could not be contained by Stuart Skinner in net for Edmonton, and Seattle was on the board. The Dutch forward notched his eleventh goal, responding to Edmonton's four unanswered goals to begin the game, further proving that he is deserving of an extension. Towards the middle of the frame, Brandon Tanev broke his streak of bad luck with finishing net front, as he was able to nudge in a rebounded shot from Adam Larsson. The Kraken did a good job of getting a screen in the way of Skinner as both Tanev and Sprong were battling in the slot, so Larsson's shot had a great chance off the rebound to be picked up with Edmonton's defensemen preoccupied. Tanev, who has missed several breakaway and "easy" finish opportunities this season, was able to simply poke the puck in for the score.
It was nice to not only see Sprong continue his strong year while playing on limited ice time and Tanev finally break through after several opportunities were botched in which he seemed destined to score. However, the issues tonight on the offensive end were ugly. The Kraken had a few shifts here and there were they generated solid chances, but it took the infamous "Dave Hakstol line blender" to shake some things up and get some more offensive pressure generated. Too often, you could see puck handlers fail to really get a head of steam. Too often, you could see Seattle failing to put away breakaway chances and near misses. The Kraken are far from the offensive juggernaut team they appeared to be In November, and that makes sense considering that teams adjust and things get harder as the season goes on. That being said, the scorers on this team need to find a way to break through and resort to the basics in order to generate more offense.
Morgan Geekie recorded an assist on the night (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Grubauer pull incites embarrassing reaction from crowd
As was stated previously, Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol made the decision to pull starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer from the game following Edmonton's third goal, which came 3:55 into the opening frame. Coming off of a 41 save performance in which his teammates failed him yet again, Grubauer headed to the bench and the Climate Pledge Arena crowd cheered LOUDLY as Martin Jones took over in net. That proved to be moronic and unfair, as Jones actually allowed more goals than Grubauer on the night, and was the worse looking goalie of the two. Whether it was the large number of Edmonton fans in attendance or the stupidity of the casual fans that were cheering for the goaltender change, it's an embarrassing look. As we've stated in recap article after recap article, Grubauer has been excellent since his return from injury. As we broke down in this episode of CSS on Converge, his defensemen have consistently failed him by leaving him out to dry. It was the same exact scenario in this game, as in rapid succession Seattle's defensive pairings left men wide open as if they were on their own private island.
The idea that Philipp Grubauer is at 100% fault for any of the goals he "allowed" is just flat out wrong (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Grubauer never even had a chance, never was able to really begin the game. Jones was able to sit and settle in, and he still failed repeatedly in goals that he had chances on. Two examples of that are Jones being beaten five hole twice, as he failed to get into his butterfly technique quick enough. To hear the cheers for the goaltender change, and to see that there are still "fans" out there that will blindly blame Grubauer despite the fact that he is not at fault, is really disappointing. Whether this is a case of too many bad apples in the fan base, a lack of hockey knowledge, or just plain ignorance, it's disappointing and unfair to Grubauer. Interestingly enough, despite pulling Grubauer and often being one of his bigger critics, Dave Hakstol agreed that Grubauer didn't have a fair chance. Check out this quote from his postgame media availability.
"Yeah, sure we want a stop there. But, that's about the fourth place that I am going to look at on that goal. We get beat up the ice on a couple different cases there, at a time where our full mentality should be shut it down, settle the game down, work our way into it, and that's an easy one," Hakstol said when asked about if he wanted Grubauer to save the third goal after not having a fair shot on the first two.
Martin Jones has struggled overall this season, outside of his solid stretch of play earlier in the season (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Specialty teams continue to slip with no sign of traction
A big factor that the Kraken had to pay attention to coming into this game was Edmonton's power play, which ranks at the top of the NHL. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl champion an already dangerous attack at even strength, so their power play becomes one of the most dangerous in the league by default when they have the man advantage. With Draisaitl out in this game, there was some hope that even if Seattle allowed a penalty (which ideally they'd avoid outright) they could potentially survive, but twice this was disproven. As mentioned previously, Seattle sent Edmonton to the power play just two minutes into the game, against their 31st (out of 32) ranked penalty kill. One of the big, glaring things to avoid, and it happened before some fans even found their seats. The second power play goal came off of the stick of Connor McDavid, who was able to walk into the slot to beat Martin Jones top shelf, as Jamie Oleksiak seemed almost too scared to pressure McDavid or even have an active stick to somewhat ward off a shot.
Seattle's power play continues to struggle as well, now having plummeted to the #22 spot in the NHL. Outside of a brief early season stretch that saw some success, the Kraken power play has been poor. It hasn't been as bad as last seasons power play, which often felt as if the team was down a man when they had the man advantage, but it doesn't seem like Seattle realizes they are actually in a situation that benefits them. Too many times the Kraken power play passes the puck around hesitantly, looking for the "smart play" or the extra pass instead of letting it rip. With sharpshooters such as Jared McCann, Andre Burakovsky, and Daniel Sprong on this roster, we should be seeing heaters coming from the faceoff circle often. In this game, Seattle's second power play only had one notable thing happen and it was a Connor McDavid breakaway that was somehow stopped by Martin Jones. In addition to the line blender that Hakstol used in this game, perhaps the power play units need to be shaken (not stirred) up as well.
Andre Burakovsky had a breakaway, but failed to beat Edmonton's Stuart Skinner (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Seattle floundering to begin a horrific mid-season stretch
These past three games have been of solid importance for Seattle, considering that they have all been against divisional opponents and two of those opponents were just points behind in the standings. Those teams, Calgary and Edmonton have now overtaken you in the standings. Las Vegas and Los Angeles seem like they may be able to run away with the top two spots in the division. Things are going to get intense very quickly, especially considering that the January schedule for Seattle includes five divisional contests and six games against teams that are at the top of league standings. Too often you can find examples of lacking effort, failure to sacrifice for the team, and an inability to play the full 60 minutes. Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol had an excellent challenge for his team when it came to the upcoming stretch.
“We have to make that decision, as a hockey team. Whether we are satisfied with the level of play that we have had that has gotten us to this point, or whether we are willing to make that decision to push to the next level. Not just through the next two home games here or through that upcoming road trip, but through the remainder of the season. We have to make that decision as a group, whether we’re ready to make that investment on a day-to-day, game-to-game basis in order to step up the level. That’s exactly what has to happen, our play has to elevate as the stakes continue to get higher and then the games continue to get tighter and tighter,” Hakstol stated.
Frustration bubbled over throughout the game, including this instance when Brandon Tanev and Jamie Oleksiak caught tangled up with Oilers skaters. Also, Vince Dunn and Dylan Holloway dropped the gloves (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Is it time to panic?
If you've been reading our recaps since the season began, you'd notice that often I try to look at the positives from these games and remember that this team is supposedly ahead of schedule when it comes to Ron Francis' master plan to reach the playoffs. The frustration has bubbled over, and it's time to face the reality of the current situation. Seattle was comfortably around the 2nd-3rd spot in the division for a bit, even pressing Las Vegas at a point in time during their flaming hot November. Now, as the new year of 2023 is upon us, this team has fallen down the stairs and are currently caught on the railing that is 5th place. If you want to go a step further, the Vancouver Canucks are only five points below you. Granted, Seattle has three or more games in hand to play on everybody in the division except for Vancouver, the current situation of the Kraken form is bad. The numerous defensive issues that have plagued Seattle are being compounded, as was displayed in the three goal outburst tonight. Stupid penalties such as the one taken by Carson Soucy, who continues to spend more time in the box than producing valuable ice time, persist. Perhaps the Seattle penalty kill isn't THAT bad, but when it keeps being sent out because players are taking penalties for bad reasons, it only gets worse.
Seattle's goaltenders have been solid considering the circumstances, but Martin Jones is resorting back to the Jones that the NHL is used to. There may need to be a shaking up of the defensemen pairs, because it's currently hard to pinpoint what sort of solution there is to the defensive issues. When it comes to net front, the simple answer is that your defensemen need to be more physical and protect the crease, which is something you'd learn playing hockey growing up but is somehow a primary issue for a professional team. Too often, we see defensemen looking completely lost when an opponent is left wide open net front or getting caught having to chase because they were out of position to begin with.
At the end of the day, the sky isn't falling. We haven't hit the All-Star break yet, there is plenty of time to climb back into a better spot for the playoff picture, and this team has a solid foundation for a bright future. The team's only poor month this season has been December, and we have several months yet to play. When this team produces a full effort, which they have done a few times this season, they have shown that they can be amongst the leagues best. The only problem is, they cannot seem to consistently find the motivation as an entire unit to go out their and display a complete, 60-minute showing. Alternate captain Yanni Gourde seemed particularly upset postgame about the teams lack of effort, grit, and overall effort.
"I feel like lately we haven't been playing our best hockey. Tonight was just a big slap in our face, we didn't come out the way that we wanted... At this time of the year, it's really unacceptable to have a performance like this... I think we've been lacking a little bit lately, we have to pick up our game. We have to have more of an edge to our game, more sandpaper, more grit, less turnovers. Just a simple game, we're a really good hockey team when we play simple. Maybe we're trying to hard, maybe we're trying to play the easy way, and I don't think that works this team of the year... I think when we play physical, we see that the ice tilted a little our way. But in this league, we can't only do that for 20 minutes, 40 minutes, or 55 minutes. It has to be 60 minutes, if you don't do it for 60, you won't win games and that's the bottom line," Gourde stated.
Yanni Gourde tries to move the puck up the boards (Photo by Liv Lyons)
Quick notes
Former Oiler Adam Larsson extended his assist streak to five games with his second-period assist on Brandon Tanev's goal, setting a career high for consecutive games with an assist. The assist also gives him points in five consecutive games, matching his career high.
His streak now ties Justin Schultz, Alex Wennberg and Vince Dunn's franchise records for most consecutive games played with an assist.
Tonight marked the second time this season (Last: Nov. 13, vs. WPG) that Larsson has recorded at least four hits and five blocked shots in a game.
Morgan Geekie's assist on Daniel Sprong's goal gets his third assist in four games.
With three hits tonight, Daniel Sprong set a season high. He had two hits each in two prior games this season.
What's next?
Seattle will have a day of practice before the final game of their three contest homestand, when they battle the New York Islanders for the first time this season. Puck drop is at 5PM PST for the Kraken’s third consecutive nationally televised game, as Seattle needs a bounce back effort to break the funk of their three-game losing streak. Former Seattle Thunderbird Mathew Barzal and the fifth place in the Metropolitan division New York Islanders will put their three game win streak on the line. Having beaten both Florida and Pittsburgh by the same score of 5-1 during that win streak, the Kraken have their work cut out for them if they aim to successfully break their losing streak.