If the Seattle Kraken’s game with the Philadelphia Flyers last night at the Wells Fargo Arena lasted only ten minutes, then the Kraken would have had plenty to be happy about in their performance.
Seattle had three sterling scoring chances in the game’s opening minutes, but when the Flyers’ captain Claude Giroux scored on a breakaway at 9:18 of the first period things went downhill for the first-year expansion team. The Flyers went on to post a 6-1 victory, the most one-sided defeat in the Kraken’s young history.
Giroux’s goal came moments after Philly goalkeeper Carter Hart – a former member of the WHL Everitt Silvertips – made the best save of the game. Justin Eberle, standing to the left of Hart, had an open net after taking a pass from teammate Jaden Schwartz. But Hart slid across and batted the puck away as Eberle was about to jam the disk home.
“We had a really competitive start in the first 10 minutes,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol, who was Flyers coach for four seasons (2015-19). “We did have a couple of good scoring chances, we had a good, competitive start. We gave up the first goal from 200 feet away, which was a little bit of a theme tonight. After that, we got back on our heels and we really didn’t have a consistent push.”
When asked about his team being fatigued, playing their fourth game in a week, third in five days, Hakstol replied, “we were out of sync. We couldn’t put ourselves on the right track. Look at their goals. About four of them were from about 150 feet out, whether it was turnovers or breakaways.”
Things looked promising for Seattle when Joonas Donskoi came in on a breakaway 1:35 into the game, but Hart made the kick save, Hart, who wasn’t pleased with his performance in Philadelphia’s opening game (a 4-3 shootout loss to Vancouver) made a big save on Ryan Donato, camped in front of the net a few minutes later.
“I think it could have been 2-0 for them early,” said Giroux. “Carter made some huge saves for us and it gave us momentum.”
Moments after Hart’s save on Eberle, Giroux scored on a pass from linemate Travis Konecny. The Kraken have now given up the first goal in all four of their games this season. Konecny put in the rebound of his own shot at 12:12 and Derick Brassard, one of eight new Flyers on the team made it 3-0 when his shot from the right corner went off defenseman Carson Soucy’s skate.
Ryan Ellis scored his first goal with Philadelphia to make it 4-0 at 7:10 of the second period, and Braun scored with a shot from the slot that trickled between Grubauer’s pads at 8:49 for a 5-0 lead. That led to Grubauer’s exit and the season debut of Chris Driedger between the pipes for the Kraken.
“If I had to do it over, I would have gotten [Grubauer] out of there one goal sooner,” Hakstol said. “Not indicative of his play whatsoever. He’s played a lot of hockey for us and been outstanding.”
Before the puck was dropped after the goalie change, forward Nathan Bastien started jousting with Giroux apparently trying to `get things going’ for the Kraken. Bastien and Giroux received minor penalties and that scuffle served as the prelude for the main event later in the period when Seattle defenseman Jamie Oleksiak scored a one-sided victory over Flyer rookie Nick Seeler.
The only Seattle goal came from defensive-minded defenseman Carson Soucy at 7:14 of the third period. Soucy skated around a cluster of players in front of the net to fire home his own rebound. scored to make it 5-1 at 17:14.
Joel Farabee, Philly’s leading goal scorer a year ago, scored off the rebound of a Cam Atkinson shot at 5:25 of the third period for the 6-1 final. That was the only goal allowed by Driedger, who stopped seven shots.
“This was a great lesson for us,” said Donskoi, who assisted on the lone Kraken goal. “We have to battle hard and forecheck. It’s easy to hang our heads. It’s good that we’re playing (tonight). We know we can play well. We’ve played some good hockey on this road trip. We’ll regroup and know what we have to fix.”
The Kraken travel up I-95 tonight for a game with the New Jersey Devils before their much-anticipated home opener against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night. Like the Flyers, New Jersey has only played one previous game – a victory at Chicago, last Friday.
GAME NOTES
- Kraken coach Dave Hakstol was head coach of the Flyers, parts of four seasons, 2015-2019, compiling a 134-101-42 record. Hakstol made the playoffs twice in his Philadelphia tenure, but his teams didn’t get past the first round. Hakstol was hired by general manager Ron Hextall (he coached Hextall’s son at the University of North Dakota) and was let go shortly after Hextall was fired. Only Fred Shero, architect of the fabled `Broad Street Bullies’ and Mike Keenan, coached the Flyers longer than Hakstol.
- The Kraken had received only 19 minutes in penalties in their first three games. On Saturday, they had no penalties, a rarity in the NHL. Last night, Nathan Bastien picked up 27 minutes in penalties on his own. Bastien seemed to be battling former Seattle Thunderbird Nate Thompson all night. Both received misconduct penalties in the second period for an attempted fight and then picked up fighting majors and misconducts midway through the third period.
GAME SUMMARY
1st Period
P – Claude Giroux (Travis Konecny) 9:18.
P – Konecny (Keith Yandle) 12:12.
P – Derick Brassard (Justin Braun, Travis Sandheim) 14:36.
2nd Period
P – Ryan Ellis (Brassard, Joel Farabee) 7:10.
P – Braun (Oscar Lindblom, James Van Riemsdyk) 8:49.
S – Carter Soucy (Joonas Donskoi, Jared McCann) 17:14.
3rd Period
P – Farabee (Cam Atkinson, Brassard) 5:25.
Saves – S: Philipp Grubauer 5-20 .750, Chris Driedger 1-7 .857. P: Carter Hart 1-24 .958.
Penalties – Seattle: 8-46. Philadelphia 9-40.
Referees – Steve Kozari, Frederic L’Ecuyer. Linesman – Michel Cormier, Dan Kelly.
Attendance – 17,720.
