Jack Campbell played his life out and now we’re down to two preseason games left.
If you can stand it, the Highlights:
Game Notes:
- The TOI leader for tonight’s game was Matty Beniers, who logged 21:33.
- I could talk about all the individual plays that ended up sinking an ultimately meaningless preseason game…but the ultimate decider of this game was Oilers’ goaltender Jack Campbell. Campbell stopped 31 of 32 shots in a game Edmonton effectively mailed in for nearly 52 minutes of hockey. The Kraken had near total control of the puck for a good portion of the first, second, and portions of the third and it didn’t matter because Campbell was just that good. If McCann’s late bid couldn’t get you a goal on a near-perfect shot, that’s the kind of thing that signals a Goalie’ing. The first and second star would absolutely be Jack Campbell if they could double up on them.
- For as good as Campbell was, a very worrying sign for Philipp Grubauer on an extremely light workload given to him. Granted, he had to mostly try and stop Connor McDavid and that’s hard enough on the best of days, but his pre-season coming into this game has been mercurial at best, and a .769 SV% on 13 shots(!!) is not a workable arrangement. This kind of thing has to stay in preseason or we’re going to have to reheat some very old arguments very early on in the season.
- Were this a win, I think all I’d have spent my time talking about is the special teams, which were otherwise pretty strong for the Kraken. Against one of the most formidable power play teams in the world, the Oilers couldn’t get anything going against the Kraken, who shut down the passing and shooting lanes so hard they could’ve put up road maintenance equipment in their own end. They also had multiple shorthanded bids; particularly when Tye Kartye took shifts. The Power Play even had a half-decent night though could’ve easily had more than one goal had Campbell not decided to channel prime-Dominik Hasek. There’s clear improvement, it just ran into a brick wall.
- There was also a shootout at the end of the game because I guess everyone needs a little practice. The Oilers won that too. Blugh.
- Oh well, it’s preseason. Can’t lose sleep over it.
Were there any upsides?
Yeah, a couple.
- Tye Kartye as far as I’m concerned has made this team. He’s done everything that’s been asked of him and more, and Dave Hakstol needs to find space for him ASAP. This guy has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that sending him to Coachella Valley would be pointless. He’s keeping a good attitude, as he told the media post-game, so let’s hope they reward that thought process with some ice time and a dark blue sweater.
- Kailer Yamamoto scored the only goal of the game for Seattle, and while it is a preseason game that means nothing, we can call it a decent dress rehearsal for a regular season goal-against when his vengeance can be sweetest.
- Ryker Evans was once again a guy that Dave Hakstol could rely on in a game; playing about 20 minutes and change TOI tonight. Hakstol himself post-game said that his ability to trust himself in getting the puck up ice will benefit him greatly.
- It is still very much preseason and this is not the end of the world.
- The Regular season is almost here and we don’t need to worry about McEichel in a game that matters until November.
Let’s all take a breath, remember it’s preseason, and take a look at some charts provided by NaturalStatTrick.com:
Jack Campbell, man. Just unreal what he did today.
The Kraken will be on the road for the rest of preseason, as they make their way to Abbotsford, BC to play on the AHL Canucks’ ice to face the preseason version of the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. That game drops the puck at 7pm PST.
Thank you for reading, we’ll see you Wednesday and remember…
Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win.
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