I told you all to make sure you set your alarms for this bright and early game. It’s alright if you slept in enough to miss the first period, but if you missed everything after that? You can’t say I didn’t tell you that it could go from sleepy to fun in an instant! There were a few main storylines to this game that made it even more feel-good than your usual Kraken win, but let’s first break down the period by period action.
First Period
The primary theme of this period was penalties. Matty Beniers took a high sticking penalty that was successfully killed off, but only shortly after, Jamie Oleksiak went for a trip to the penalty box for hooking. Toward the end of the frame, then it was André Burakovsky’s turn to sit in the sin bin as he went for slashing. All the penalties were killed off, and the Kraken’s saving grace is that the Flyers’ power play hasn’t historically been very good. Yet, to take all these penalties speaks to a sloppiness to start the game. While it thankfully didn’t bite them in the butt, it’s not a good strategy for winning to be constantly down a man.
If there was a chance that maybe the Kraken could feel proud that they were about to escape the first period unscathed, those hopes were dashed in the dying seconds of the period as Owen Tippett broke the scoreless tie.
Second Period
As the first frame died out, it was announced Olle Lycksell took a penalty, so the Kraken got to start the second period off on the power play. Unfortunately, it was just as unsuccessful as every other man-advantage this period and the Kraken were unable to convert.
As the period moved on, it felt like the Kraken were starting to generate more chances, especially around the net front. Yet, it ended up being a shot from the perimeter that tied this game up for the Kraken. Tye Kartye dangled the puck around for a spin behind the Flyers’ net, and when he came back out to the middle of the attacking zone, launched a shot that Sam Ersson was helpless to stop. Kartye had recently been down in the Coachella Valley on a conditioning stint, so seeing him get on the score sheet was a win for him as much as it was beneficial for the Kraken.
At this point, the shot totals were also starting to tilt in the Kraken’s favor. Even in the back half of the frame, the Kraken had enough sustained pressure in the attacking zone that it almost felt like they were on a power play. This was met with the boo birds from the Flyers faithful, but anyone who lives in Philly knows the boos weren’t directed so much at the Kraken and more so at the Flyers for not being able to clear the puck out of their own zone. The City of Brotherly Love should really be renamed to the City of Tough Love.
All that sustained pressure began to pay off towards the end of the period. There were two quick goals in succession from Matty Beniers and Chandler Stephenson. The Beniers goal took place during 4-on-4 play, as Mikey Eyssimont and Sean Couturier both sat in the penalty box for penalties taken only mere seconds apart. It was the kind of goal that Ersson wishes he could have back, as he visibly dives backwards to try to recover the puck, but it wasn’t enough.
As for the Stephenson goal, it took place while the Kraken were down a man, as Brandon Montour took the team’s 5th penalty of the night. I said above that it’s not a winning strategy to keep playing down a man, but I guess Stephenson took that personally as he scored shorthanded.
I had said in my preview piece that it might take some time for this game to wake up, and this was clearly the period where it happened—especially for the Kraken as they took a 3-1 lead.
Third Period
If there was any fear that the Kraken’s momentum from the end of the last period wouldn’t carry over after the intermission, Montour put those to rest. With an absolute blast from the blue line, he padded the Kraken’s lead some more. Of course, embeds don’t seem to be working for me on this particular highlight, which is annoying because the social media team’s copy on that goal is what inspired my title for this article! Just go click that link, because I fought WordPress too much and it still didn’t like what I was doing.
For the majority of the rest of this period, it was up to the Kraken to play the kind of game that would continue to wear the Flyers down and prevent them from staging any sort of a comeback. Going by the shots on goal this period, 9 for the Kraken and 4 for the Flyers, the mission was most definitely accomplished. In fact, those 4 shots were the least the Flyers scored in any frame as they had 11 in the first and 9 in the second. Shot totals don’t tell the entire story, but at a quick glance, it shows a wearing down of the home team throughout the game that allowed the Kraken to take the 2 points with them en route to D.C.
Final Thoughts
One of the primary themes of this game was watching a couple of guys who had spent time down with the Coachella Valley Firebirds step up and prove themselves. Kartye’s goal in the second period was the first he had scored since December. When talking about his game today, Kartye mentioned that “sometimes when you’re getting scratched, you might lose a little confidence and you’re not touching the puck as much, so the game became a little more difficult.” He went on to mention that while playing with the Firebirds, it allowed him to get more playing time again and thus “let me get my little bit of confidence back.” That confidence showed, not only in the goal he scored (which he also chalked up to as being “lucky” that there was a screen for him), but in the entirety of his game. When talking about Kartye, Beniers mentioned that “when he’s playing his best, he’s shooting the puck from everywhere, he’s winning battles, and he did that tonight.” (Though it’s not night time, but I’ll cut you some slack. At least you didn’t spell “comfortable” when you meant to spell “comfortability” like Coach Bylsma did.)
The other player who had an extended stint down in Coachella was Philipp Grubauer. While Coach Bylsma praised the Kraken’s second period as the best second period they’ve had all season, he mentioned that “I don’t think you can get to the second period without Grubi’s performance in the first.” Coming up big during the three penalty kills was especially what Bylsma honed in on. Beniers was also asked about how Grubauer played today, and mentioned “there’s been a lot of games where he’s played great and we left him out to dry” and was happy that today was not one of those days. When looking at Grubauer’s performance this season, part of it has been on him, but Beniers is correct in stating that the goaltender has had games where he’s more than held up his part of the bargain, but there was no goal support. Grubauer did mention that “it was tough to get into a little bit” after playing for so long in the AHL as opposed to the NHL, but it certainly didn’t look like it in today’s game.
Something not touched on too much in any of the press interviews was the abundance of penalties in this game. I said it above, but the Kraken were lucky that they were playing against an opponent that isn’t good on the power play. A game like this against, say, the Winnipeg Jets and their league-leading power play unit might have created a vastly different result. Part of the lack of discipline might have been how it was an early start time on the road in a time zone the team’s not accustomed to, but the Kraken better not make this a habit.
Beyond that, this was probably a good of a game as you could ask for after trading away multiple veteran players for picks at the deadline the day before and having to wake up for an early matinee start time. We’ll see if the Kraken can do it all over again tomorrow afternoon against the Washington Capitals, though they are a much more formidable opponent.