A pair of hockey writers have vastly different reactions to the Seattle Kraken re-acquiring veteran forward Daniel Sprong (above photo). In addition to his first stint in Seattle, the native of Amsterdam has played in Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Washington, Detroit, and most recently Vancouver.
Adam Proteau of The Hockey News prefers to see the Sprong cup as half-full. “Since he left the Penguins in 2018-19, he’s never played more than two consecutive seasons with any one team. That shows a lack of staying power, but it also shows multiple teams have seen enough in Sprong’s game to put him in their employ.
“Sprong has averaged just 11:56 of ice time in his NHL career, and although he’s not going to get a wealth of minutes in his second go-round with the Kraken, he can chip in some secondary offense and potentially get himself back toward being a 15-20-goal-scorer.”
Influenced by seeing his team score one goal total in a recent stretch of three road games, Kraken general manager Ron Francis traded future considerations to the Canucks for Sprong on Nov. 8. From 2022-2023, the winger scored 27 goals for the Kraken in 72 games spread over two seasons.
Even though Vancouver received essentially nothing in return for Sprong, beat reporter Rob Williams of Daily Hive still thinks it’s addition by subtraction. “He looked totally lost in his own end. The two defensive gaffes Sprong had in his first two games with the Canucks (both led to goals against) were giant red flags for me. He knew the reason why he had trouble getting a contract in free agency was his defensive play and he starts out like that? He’s 27, not 19.”
That’s not seeing the cup as half-empty. That’s seeing it as bone dry with holes in the bottom.
Sprong saw exactly 10:55 of ice time in each of his first two games back in Kraken sweater #91, Saturday against the Islanders and Sunday against the Rangers. He had one shot on goal in the Rangers game.
No Freezing Allowed
Two almost identical plays in Saturday’s Kraken-Islanders game highlighted a little-understood officiating change concerning board battles.
Back in the 20th century, if a player pinned the puck to the boards in his defensive zone, the referee would blow his whistle for a faceoff as soon as an opponent came close. It’s what still happens when an opponent skates near a goalie who’s trapped or scooped up the puck.
In the last couple of decades, pro hockey philosophy has evolved, to let board battles continue until one team secures the puck.
Fans at Climate Pledge Arena Saturday saw the referee reluctantly whistle a faceoff when a stalemate along the boards refused to resolve. But in that same corner, when players from both teams again seemed trapped, the official wouldn’t provide relief.
For what seemed like an eternity, though it was probably no more than 10-15 seconds, skaters pushed and bumped each other without effect. Sticks poked uselessly into a tangle of legs and skates. The ref was willing for the rest of the period to expire whether or not the puck ever left that corner. (Spoiler: it did, eventually.)
The reasoning is that hockey is at its best a game of continuous motion. Which reminds me: in Sunday’s Pittsburgh-Baltimore NFL game, seven minutes of real time elapsed for the game clock to move 22 ticks from 0:29 remaining in the half to 0:07. Even the last two minutes of NBA games move faster. That’s why we love our ice sport – except for video reviews.
Full Nelson
The Hockey Gods, in their unquenchable thirst for amusement, will occasionally decree that all events – like planets around the Sun – will revolve around one player. In the 3rd period Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena, that player was New York’s Brock Nelson.
With 15 minutes left and the score tied 1-1, Nelson scored shorthanded to give the Islanders the lead. With just over three minutes left and the score now tied 2-2, Seattle’s Jamie Oleksiak let a shot rip from the blue line which NYI goalie Ilya Sorokin was perfectly positioned to stop – until the puck hit Nelson standing in front and skidded past Sorokin for the game-winning score.
Because the Isles lost a coach’s challenge for goalie interference, they were once again shorthanded. Playing it safe, Kraken coach Dan Bylsma went with three forwards and two defensemen, rather than the usual four forwards-one defenseman alignment. Why? Because the biggest thing was not to surrender a tying shorthanded goal.
Of course, the puck eluded those defensemen, Ryker Evans and Adam Larsson. And of course, the player to first catch up to the puck 40 feet from the Kraken net was Brock Nelson. I asked Byslma postgame if Nelson scoring a second shortie would have made him consider other lines of work. The coach laughed, then revealed that he’d yelled at goalie Joey Daccord to leave his crease and beat Nelson to the puck. Because the crowd was so loud, Daccord couldn’t hear him.
Nelson, on his breakaway in the final two minutes, decided – maybe because the puck was bouncing, maybe to try and catch Daccord off guard – to shoot from between the circles, rather than attempting a deke. Daccord calmly turned the shot away to preserve the Seattle victory.