I’m starting to experience deja vu on special teams.
I really do not like experiencing deja vu.
But first, the highlights
Game Notes
- Your TOI Leader was Vince Dunn, who played 26:13 tonight.
- Special teams seems to be one of the biggest things dragging the Kraken into hell this year, and tonight was a microcosm of the issue. Their powerplay shanked several golden chances if they didn’t send it directly into Karel Vejmelka’s crest, the 5-on-3 play is absolutely putrid; finding no adequate ways to somehow move three players around to create better chances for themselves. Their penalty kill of course, is where it is at this point; and it once again took the Kraken out of what was otherwise a completely winnable game. Change needs to come to at the very least the penalty kill if this team wants to have a prayer of being competitive.
- The Kraken once again gave up multiple empty netters in the vain hope of tying this game. This if you’ll recall, was the clarion call of the Hakstol era; a failed goalie pull. This is a deja vu I do not want to continue.
- You hear it, sometimes you even see it, but you really can’t experience the real Wes McCauley feeling until he’s deep into a game and effectively allowing the Utah Mammoth to assault Mason Marchment without calling a single effing penalty, or letting Vince Dunn get tripped for no reason. The refereeing in this game was borderline experimental in how bad it was, and even if special teams wasn’t going to save this squad, it certainly didn’t help much.
- Kailer Yamamoto’s goal was one that probably should have counted, even if you could point to the Jake O’Brien interference, the painful reality is that Vince Dunn straight up got distracted trying to pull his stick out of a pile rather than cover his side of the ice and just stopped playing hockey in the middle of a defensive sequence that was already going haywire. Was there interference? Sure, but there were bigger problems on that shift than any one player’s decision to be near Grubauer’s crease.
- Matty Beniers and Chandler Stephenson played nearly the same amount of even strength TOI tonight of 13:34 and 13:22 logged respectively, but for my money, possession was absolutely tilted one way or the other depending on which of them was on-ice: Beniers may not have had a point tonight but the team had more shot attempts and better scoring chances with him out there, and Stephenson…didn’t. In fact, over the last few games Stephenson and Beniers have been neck-and-neck when it comes to ice time and this pattern has repeated over and over. I sincerely don’t get what Lane Lambert’s seeing here, but I really hope someone sits him down and says “you need to double check this footage, man” because one is clearly trying to get things done and the other just can’t.
- Grubauer was fine! He had a .900 SV% on 30 shots. That usually should be enough to win, but the issues came from the special teams play…again.
- The Kraken desperately need to start picking through some of the lesser teams in the league (like say, their immediate northern neighbor) for useful depth. The Kraken’s ability to meaningfully defend as well as score cannot be continually dependent on veteran forwards remaining healthy. It just cannot be the case anymore.
- At least the Kraken only took the 2nd biggest L of the day from Pacific Northwest hockey teams.
Was there anything good about this game?
Sure!
- Mason Marchment had a big night with two goals scored: both being absolute beauties.
- Ben Meyers got his first goal as a Kraken!
- Again, Grubauer did perfectly okay! In general he’s been pretty good over his last few starts or if he wasn’t, it was because this defense in front of him just is not up to snuff.
The Chartz, via NaturalStatTrick.com
The Kraken get a chance to lick their wounds as they return to CPA on Sunday night, where they play the moribund Buffalo Sabres. That game is at 5pm PST.
We’ll see you there, and as always
Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win.