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Morning Swim: Kraken lose first franchise shootout, fall to Detroit 4-3

The Kraken ended their 4-game road trip on Monday in Detroit with a 4-3 shootout loss. It wasn’t ideal, but it also could’ve been much worse considering the news that broke that morning. Seattle was without their two leading scorers in Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz, both of whom are nursing lower body injuries. Taking those two out of the lineup and still coming away with a point in the standings, finishing the road trip 2-1-1? Yeah, that’ll do just fine.

FIRST PERIOD

Despite both teams finding the back of the net in the first period, the score after one was still 0-0. Jeremy Lauzon found the back of the net in his return to the lineup after a 2-game sit but the referee immediately waved it off as Mason Appleton made contact with the goaltender. It was probably the right call, but I won’t stop you from standing on the hill that Moritz Seider pushed him into the goalie.

The Red Wings got one of their own that didn’t count a bit later when star rookie Lucas Raymond beat Philipp Grubauer short-side during an extended 4-on-4. It’s a goal that Grubauer definitely wanted back, and luckily enough he got his wish. Head coach Dave Hakstol used his first challenge as a Kraken to get this one called back. Turns out Raymond was indeed offside when he entered the zone, so no goal!

SECOND PERIOD

Okay these goals all counted.

Robby Fabbri opened the scoring on a Detroit power play on a play where Grubauer got himself just too far out of position. That lead only lasted about 5 minutes, however, as Vince Dunn answered for the Kraken with a power play tally of his own.

Even without Scwartz and Eberle, the power play continues to grow and succeed. That’s now 8 of the last 11 games that Seattle has notched a goal with the man advantage.

A few minutes later Seattle would take the lead on a goal by Ryan Donato. With the two top wingers out for the evening, Donato got a chance to step up in the lineup and play with Yanni Gourde and Joonas Donskoi, to great success.

This one was the result of hard forechecking, a bit of luck with the defender losing an edge there, and a great pass by Gourde.

Seattle couldn’t quite take the lead into the third unfortunately. A Haydn Fleury blocked shot bounced right back to Detroit forward Vladislav Namestnikov, and he was able to put away his own second chance. That’s a tough play for Grubauer, but he does once again pull himself a bit too far out of position on the initial shot and leaves too much open space on that glove side.

THIRD PERIOD

Lucas Raymond got one that counted early on in the third and it started to feel like this one would get away from Seattle. But Donato decided the Kraken were not done yet. With a little over 5 minutes to play, he notched his second goal of the evening on a wicked snipe to the top corner.

Let’s also take a second to appreciate the zone entry by Jamie Oleksiak, who looked prepared to take his 6’7” frame hard to the net before hitting the breaks and getting the puck to Donato (intentionally? Who cares it worked). I personally always considered him to be more of a stay-at-home defenseman, but he appears to disagree with that assessment.

SHOOTOUT

For just the second time this season, the Kraken went to overtime. Nobody scored in the five minutes of 3-on-3 action, so we then got to see the first ever Seattle Kraken shootout. Of course the game without the leading goal-scorer went to shootout.

Seattle rolled with Donato, Jared McCann, and Donskoi to start, and wouldn’t you know it the only one to score was Donskoi — the lone forward without a regulation goal on the roster.

It wouldn’t be enough though, and goals by Adam Erne and Dylan Larkin gave the Red Wings the victory in the shootout. Overall it was not a bad loss by a short-handed Kraken team. They battled through some late lineup changes and came away with a point in the standings and a far better road trip than last time. Up next they’ll get a tough matchup with Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers as Seattle kicks off a 4-game homestand. Let’s hope some of those younger players like Donato can keep the hot streak going.

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