Kraken end road trip with another loss

One thing coach’s – and most likely fans – don’t want to hear about are moral victories. However, there were some positives for the Seattle Kraken in their 4-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils last night at the Prudential Center in Newark.

The Kraken were coming off their worst loss of the season a 6-1 shellacking at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers the previous night. And there were fears of more of the same when the Devils took a 2-0 lead in the first period (a third goal was disallowed because the puck wasn’t over the line before the period ran out).

“They came out a fresh team,” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. “They were a lot quicker than us. But I could see us getting our legs in the second and third periods. We battled hard. That was one thing that was missing (Monday).”

The Kraken offense perked up as the game progressed. Early in the second period, Jersey held a commanding lead in shots on goal – 16-7, but Seattle held a 22-16 advantage the remainder of the game.

The Kraken finally got on the scoreboard at 10:45 of the second period. Riley Sheahan, known as defensive forward, scored on a lead pass from defenseman Adam Larsson. Sheahan had the first-ever Kraken goal in the pre-season.

Seattle appeared to tie the game a few minutes later on a nifty wrist shot. New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff asked for a video review after the goal and the Kraken’s Jared McCann was clearly offside (although not directly involved in the play).

It was an uphill battle throughout for the Kraken. After Wennberg’s no-goal, New Jersey’s Jimmy Vesey scored to re-establish the Devils’ two goal lead.

Helped by Devils’ penalties, Seattle put more pressure on New Jersey goalkeeper Jonathan Bernier in the third period. With the two-man advantage McCann made it 3-2 on the power play at 14:35, taking a lead pass from captain Marc Giordano, spinning around in the right circle and firing the shot home. Giordano was a standout quarterbacking the Kraken power play.

Seattle pulled goalkeeper Joey Daccord with just under two minutes left, but were unable to get the tying marker. Jersey’s Paval Zacha scored into the empty net to notch the victory. The Devils are now 2-0 on the season.

The biggest positive for the Kraken however was the appearance of Yanni Gourde. Coming off two Stanley Cup victories with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Gourde was expected to miss two months recovering from shoulder surgery. But Gourde started practicing with the team a couple of weeks ago, and wound up missing one week of the regular season. Gourde had an assist on McCann’s goal and brought energy to what should be Seattle’s number-one line of Justin Eberle, Gourde and Jaden Schwartz.

“It’s pretty tough to come in with new linemates, new team, new everything, but we did a good job of simplifying everything, just going north and deep,” Gourde said. “It didn’t work, we didn’t win, but we had some good looks and we can build from there.”

Daccord, a 25-year-old netminder drafted from the Ottawa Senators in the expansion draft, also made his Kraken debut. After playing well in the pre-season, Daccord, as expected was sent to the AHL Charlotte Checkers. Chris Driedger, who played a period in Philly on Monday, was expected to start last night’s game but had `a little tweak’ in practice and Daccord was recalled from Charlotte. The Boston native played well, finishing the night with 29 saves.

“When you look at all the little pieces of the game, from guys sticking together and taking care of one another, to pushing to get back in the game and come back, we just ran out of time and ran out of gas a little bit,” said Hakstol.

GAME NOTES

• The schedule makers were not kind to the Kraken in their debut. Seattle became the first team to play five games (all on the road) and for the second consecutive night, the Kraken faced a well-rested team that had only played one regular-season game. Last night’s contest was the third in four games for the Kraken, and all three were losses.
• Of course, the Kraken were road warriors as the newly refurbished Climate Pledge Arena was being readied for opening night. While all the attention focuses on Seattle’s home opener with the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, a Kraken homestand allows the team a lot more practice time, essential for a new team.
• Each team saw a player injured in the contest. New Jersey’s Jack Hughes, the club’s second-leading scorer a year ago, was ridden into the boards by Seattle defenseman Jeremy Lauzon in the first period. After the game, Devils’ coach Lindy Ruff said Hughes suffered a shoulder injury. While Lauzon’s hit appeared legal, Kraken forward Morgan Geekie appeared to catch an elbow near the head from Jersey defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler early in the third period.
• Frontier justice still exists in the NHL. Early in the second period, New Jersey tough guy Mason Geersten – who does look a little like a character out of the movie Slap Shot – fought Lauzon whose hit put Hughes out of the game. After Siegenthaler’s run at Geekie, he was jumped by the Kraken’s Ryan Donato. This turned into a bad result for Seattle as Donato received 17 minutes in penalties, and neither Geekie or Donato played the remainder of the game. That left Seattle with only 10 able-bodied forwards in the final period.
• For the second straight night, the Kraken’s Jordan Eberle was robbed of what looked like a sure goal. On Monday, former Everitt Silvertips goalie Carter Hart slid across the crease to knock down Eberle’s shot that was headed into the open net. Early in the second period of last night’s game, the Devils’ Bernier batted away a shot at the last second that was headed into the net. Kraken fans hope will be looking for the Eberle-Gourde-Schwartz line to get untracked on the upcoming homestand.

GAME SUMMARY

1^st Period

NJ – Dawson Mercer (Tomas Tartar, Ryan Graves) 5:02.

NJ – Damon Severson (Jack Hughes, Graves) 6:42.

2^nd Period

S – Riley Sheahan (Adam Larsson, Vince Dunn) 10:05.

NJ – Jimmy Vesey (Andreass Johnsson, Colton White) 14:48.

3d Period

S – Jared McCann (Marc Giordano, Yanni Gourde) power play, 14:41.

NJ – Pavel Zacha (Michael McLeod, Nico Hischier) empty net, 19:40.

Goals/Shots: Seattle – Joey Daccord 3-32 .908. New Jersey – Jonathan Bernier 2-27 .931

Penalties: Seattle 6-41. New Jersey 9-35

Referees – Kelly Sutherland, Ghislain Hebert. Linesmen – Julien Fournier, Matt McPherson.