Oh Joey. Ooooh Joey.
Oh this team as well.
If you can stand it, the Highlights:
Game Notes:
- Your TOI Leader was
- An all-too-familiar sight for this season happened once again; the Kraken had a great first period with mostly even shooting between the two teams (14 shots to 15), and then a massive swing by the other team where the goalie basically spent the entire period under siege with almost no hope from the skaters which resulted in any positives from the first period being erased. Daccord saw 13 shots in comparison to his own team’s three. One of those three was a goal, but the point stands; he had no help for a whole 20 minutes, and the end result suffered badly for it. This has happened over the past three losses and it’s burned them badly every last time. It just happened to be a team in red that did it to them today. This one part of their game needs major adjustment if they want to win anything going forward.
- Another loss, another game where the man-advantage (both a power play and a pulled goalie) led to absolutely nothing. The Panthers can score on their power plays with a bunch of guys nobody who lives in Ontario and covers this sport has heard of. Why can’t the Kraken? I would say it’s because they’re so good at even-strength, but so far this year they’ve only been selectively good at even-strength. This is making a quirk of their game nearly intolerable. Dave Hakstol and company need to buckle down and fix this immediately. Do drills. Do all the drills. Spend an entire week of practice on this. Fix this or give Ron a reason to make changes; one of the two.
- Also take it from me not dropping 10 goals on the Panthers early and keeping that pressure on is a bad idea. That team will happily fight from whatever position to get a lead.
- But of course…now we have to talk about the game winner. Very late in the 3rd period, Joey Daccord overskated a puck that took a wild bounce, and Nick Cousins punched home an easy goal. Daccord’s aggressive style has, for the most part, been a net-positive for the Kraken; making yourself look big in net means you sometimes have to come to the top of the blue paint and he is completely unafraid to do that. He is also one of a great many goaltenders who can play the puck when given the opportunity…but that aggressiveness can also be a major curse if not harnessed properly, and in a game where he got as good a look as anybody that his teammates were sort of skating with some kind of head fog…he completely misplayed an otherwise easy freezing of the puck. He finished the night with a .921, but the fact it wasn’t higher (or hell, even a win) is all on him. Sometimes you just gotta let the play come to you and trust your teammates.
- The official “maybe we should be worried” point of the season is American Thanksgiving, where the Kraken will have played roughly 20+ games, 400 minutes of even strength time on ice, and will have had four weeks to try and figure something out here. There’s clear improvement from the early days of the season, but nagging issues like this cannot be something that leaves this fall. Otherwise this maddening start will just balloon into a maddening season.
- Get well Burakovsky. We miss you.
The Charts from NaturalStatTrick.com
Can you guess when aaaaaaall of this turned around? If you said “The minute the 2nd period started”, you win! Your prize is pain!
Like it is for all of us!
Good Gravy, this accursed road trip continues on with it’s final stop: The Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Monday evening. That game drops the puck at 4pm PT.
We will see you there, and always remember, even as this continues on
Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win.
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