The Kraken send us to the break happy after a wonderful comeback!
And also has us deeply concerned for Brandon Montour’s health.
Well, nobody said the Kraken do anything easy, now did they?
But First, the Highlights!:
Game Notes
- Your TOI Leader was Vince Dunn, who played a whopping 29:18 tonight.
- The Kraken once again fell behind quite a bit to the Flames, but unlike last time, the Flames actually had to work hard to get to those goals, and by the time the Kraken began their comeback, they didn’t have a completely insurmountable lead to actively try and overcome thanks to the ever annoying problem of trying to figure out goaltender interference. From the moment Shane Wright got his rebound goal, the Kraken flipped the script on the Flames entirely and had them on the backfoot for the rest of the period, and for once, the team most prone to multi-goal comebacks in the NHL made that work out for them.
- It helps that the Kraken actually got their power play to do something for once, and even if it took four tries, they actually created a goal. Wild improvement in my opinion.
- The Flames and Kraken got into all sorts of little scrums throughout the late portion of this game and frankly it felt like it was getting uglier and uglier until finally boiled over in a scuffle with Tye Kartye and Jonathan Huberdeau…which just ended up with both teams taking shots at each other right up until the game ended. I think the blood between these two is both boiling and very bad.
- We’ll talk about it later on down this page but boy this was a night Andre Burakovsky needed; for a guy who’s being paid an awful lot of money to score goals, he’s been seriously lacking in that department and his tally tonight was vital towards getting the two points.
- Brandon Montour left the game due to a lower body injury after the 1st period thanks to an upper body injury. Losing him for any length hurts BAD and the Kraken really cannot afford to lose him, but thankfully he has two weeks to get better.
- As a result of that, Vince Dunn stepped up big time like he had in the past and nearly played half the game on his own. While I appreciate the work and definitely think he earned some plaudits, I really hope he doesn’t have to do that again.
- I dunno if I’d call the first goal Joey let up a good one, but there really wasn’t much other than precognition that would’ve helped him on the Nazem Kadri goal. But, if that’s all you’re letting up in a game where you leave with a .931 SV%? I think the Mayor had a productive day at the office.
- Have fun at 4 Nations, Kaapo!
Let’s Give a Hand To…
- Shane Wright opened the scoring for Seattle on a fantastic shot and directly assisted on Andre Burakovsky’s game-tying goal, and received the Hockey Night in Canada Towel; an otherwise small honor that a lot of Canadian players aspire to. Wear that little thing with pride, Shane.
- Vince Dunn had an assist on the game-winner, and had to take up a tremendous payload of work due to Montour getting injured. He had a tremendous game and he deserves a lot of credit for it.
- Andre Burakovsky, a player who has had spears at his throat for his lack of production showed up gigantic in a 2 point night; helping on Wright’s goal and scoring an extremely important game-tying tally. Nobody on the team needed this more than he did. Let’s hope the chance to rest and recouperate gives him time to re-focus his game. First star well-earned.
- Matty Beniers for not just scoring the game winner, but a power play goal. I didn’t even know the Kraken were allowed to do that!
The Charts, via NaturalStatTrick.com
Love how you can see the EXACT moment in the game the Flames suddenly lost control of the game. That’s just nice to see the eye-test matchup with that.
The Kraken…do not play for a couple of weeks! The team reconvenes for a Back-to-Back (AGAIN) against the Florida teams on February 22nd and 23rd.
The only Kraken who will be playing any hockey in the interrim is Kaapo Kakko, who will suit up for Team Finland in the Four Nations Faceoff. Finland’s first game is on Thursday night at 5pm PT on ESPN.
We’ll see you for the Primer on the Four Nations Tournament, and we thank you for reading!
Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win.