By Raymond V. Murphy Posted on

Another slow start dooms Kraken

As baseball’s Yogi Berra famously said, “it was like déjà vu all over again.” The Seattle Kraken’s 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes last night at Climate Pledge Arena  was eerily similar to Kraken’s 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the home opener two nights earlier.

Like Martin Jones on Saturday, Philipp Grubauer gave up an early goal when he failed to cover Sebastian Aho’s shot (or was it a pass) and linemate Seth Jarvis pounced on the rebound for the score. Like Jones, Grubauer played well for the next period and a half before giving up three goals in a span in two minutes midway through the second period.

While the Kraken couldn’t generate much offense against the defensive-minded Hurricanes, Grubauer made some nice stops in the first period. The Hurricanes had an early 5-0 advantage in the shots on goal department, but the Kraken got their skating legs as the period continued. Seattle had a chance to tie the contest when Yanni Gourde parked all alone in front of the net was stopped by Carolina netminder Frederic Anderson.

“You don’t want to give up that first one (goal),” said Kraken coach Dave Hakstol. “But they went hard to the net and found the hole.”

Carolina increased the lead in a hectic two minute plus span in the second period. With Jordan Eberle in the box for high sticking, The Hurricanes notched their first power-play goal of the young season when Aho took a lead pass from Andrei Svechnikov and fired home a 15-foot wrist shot.

“We did a good job killing the first two penalties but giving Carolina three straight power plays was playing with fire,” said Hakstol.” You make mistakes against good teams when they put you under pressure and that’s going to come back to haunt you.”

Moments later, the Hurricanes Jordan Martinook was whistled off the ice for tripping Andrei Burakovsky. The Kraken’s first free-agent signee in the off-season, Burakovsky made the Canes pay for the penalty with his second goal of the season. The score not only made Burakovsky the team’s leading scorer, but it was also the 300th point of the Kraken right winger’s career.

That goal came at 13:24 and five seconds later, Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn was penalized for high sticking. Six seconds after that, Aho set up Svechnikov for the `Canes second power play goal of the game.

Svechnikov added his second goal a little over a minute later (he was voted the number-one star in the game) and Carolina picked up another insurance marker in the third period when Martinook scored from Stefan Noesen and veteran defenseman Jacob Slavin.

“We were giving up too many pucks,” said Burakovsky. “We weren’t hard enough on the puck. When we got the puck somebody was right on you. We’ve got to do better and win more puck battles.”

The Kraken face another playoff team tomorrow when they host the St. Louis Blues at Climate Pledge Arena. The Blues have only played one game this season but handily defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets in their home opener. The Kraken announced that they will honor Seattle Storm legend Sue Bird, who retired last month after the WNBA playoffs. Things don’t get any easier as they take to the road on Friday night and face the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

Game notes

Ryan Donato and Karson Kuhlman were scratches in last night’s game. Back in the lineup was Shane Wright, the Kraken’s number-one draft choice who didn’t suit up in the previous two games, and Darren Sprong made his first appearance of the 2022-23 season. Sprong who scored six goals late last season for the Kraken, came to camp as an unsigned player and earned a spot on the team.

Jordan Eberle, who picked up only 14 minutes in penalties last season uncharacteristically received two penalties (his first two of the season) back-to-back in the second period for slashing and high sticking. The NHL always gives out a Lady Byng Award to the league’s `most gentlemanly player,’ along with its other post-season awards.

Besides getting his 300th point last night, Burakovsky became the second Kraken player to score his second goal of the season. Jaden Schwartz recorded his second goal on Saturday night, The Kraken have  had balanced scoring in their first four games. Matty Beniers, Justin Schultz, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Jared McCann Adam Larsson and Alex Wennberg have all scored goals this season.

Seattle has been a more physical team this season. The Kraken had 44 hits in their game against the Los Angeles Kings. Last night, Seattle outhit Carolina by only an 18-17 margin, but Brandon Tanev pumped up the crowd with his five hits – he had six on opening night. The popular winger hasn’t changed his aggressive style after suffering a major knee injury last season. Tanev wasn’t in the scoring column but last night may have been his best performance of the young season.

Newer, younger fans may not realize that the Carolina Hurricanes were the Hartford Whalers in a previous life. In fact, the club was an original member of the World Hockey Association as the New England Whalers playing at the ancient Boston Arena. Current Kraken TV announcer John Forslund called Whaler games in their final season before the team headed to Carolina. The telecast of the final Hartford  game ever called by  Forslund, can be found on YouTube It was good to see a few Whaler t-shirts in the crowd last night.

Scoring

First Period- C, Seth Jarvis (Sebastian Aho, Brady Skjei), 3:35.

Second Period- C, Aho (Andrei Svechnikov, Brett Burns), PPG, 12:34. S, Andre Burakovsky (Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz), PPG, 13:06. C, Svechnikov (Aho) PPG, 13:24. C, Svechnikov (Stefan Noesen), 14:34.

Third Period- C, Jordan Martinook (Noesen, Jacob Slavin) 14:41.

Shots on Goal- Carolina 34, Seattle 23.

Penalty Minutes- Carolina 10, Seattle 10.

Referees- Pierre Lambert, Peter MacDougall. Linesmen- Devin Berg, Caleb Apperson.

Three Stars- 1. Andrei Svechnikov, C. 2. Sebastian Aho, C. 3. Andre Burakovsky.

Discover more from Cascadiasports.net

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply