Seattle, WA – The Seattle Kraken would get out to an early two to nothing lead over the Edmonton Oilers in the first period, but that lead would quickly evaporate. The Oilers would score three unanswered goals, and eventually be able to pull away after the Kraken tied the game in the second period. Seattle was heavily outshot in this contest, with the Oilers having 41 shots on goal and the Kraken only logging 17.
Brandon Tanev battles to find the puck
A bright spot in tonight's contest was Seattle’s 25-year-old center Ryan Donato, logging his third goal in as many games. Donato’s current season total is the second most in his five-year career. His eight goals only trail his 14-goal season with the Minnesota Wild in the 2019-2020 season. For a team that has been looking for consistent offense, Donato has provided that as of recent and would speak about that success in the post-game press conference.
“I’m just trying to shoot as much as I can and pray for them to go in, and they’re starting to go in. For me, I’m trying to use my line mates and create. It’s a start and hopefully we can roll from that,” Donato stated, mentioning playing alongside Morgan Geekie and Joonas Donskoi as another factor in his positive momentum.
Captain Mark Giordano would push an Edmonton player into goaltender Chris Driedger
A major element in the loss for the Kraken tonight would be making critical mistakes against a good team. Despite their skid in recent games (going 1-6 in their last seven), the Oilers are loaded with talent that features two of the best players on the planet in Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Turning over the puck behind the net, pushing an opponent into your own goalie, and screening your own goalie all resulted in goals for Edmonton tonight. Until these mental mistakes are cleaned up, we will continue to see Seattle as a team holding themselves back. Head coach Dave Hakstol talked about the issues that he identified in the loss.
“We didn’t get through the neutral zone and we didn’t get any type of forecheck going, so there was no momentum to be found for us for most of the second and third periods. There were spurts, but we were not able to generate that on a consistent basis,” reflected Hakstol.
The team has had bright spots, but continues to hurt itself
As Seattle’s on-ice struggles continue, they also have to deal with Covid issues like the rest of the league. They now have Jamie Oleksiak, Colin Blackwell, Yanni Gourde, Riley Sheahan, and assistant coach Jay Leach on the COVID list. They are all key members of this team, and we wish them a quick recovery.
Seattle had a matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs scheduled for December 19th, but due to Toronto having to postpone this game (COVID outbreak), Seattle will play their next game on December 21st. This contest will be against the Arizona Coyotes with a 7PM PST puck drop.
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