And that’s that.
I am obligated to post the highlights, but I am not going to suggest you watch them right now:
Game Notes:
- Your TOI Leader for the final game of the Kraken’s season was Adam Larsson, who logged 25:04.
- Dallas’ opening goal coming off of Oleksiak’s stick was in many ways a dark harbinger for how he played most of this game, but he was hardly the only player with puck security issues; pretty much the entire squad got pummeled by the Stars as their relentless forecheck made winning board battles a challenge at the best of times and actively impossible in long stretches of this game. I’m no Stars fan but I gotta give it to them: they played their asses off when it mattered, and Seattle couldn’t match it. Simple as that.
- Man, I don’t even know what to tell you. Philipp Grubauer would’ve been Seattle’s Game 7 hero again had they been able to even tie it. His .929 SV% doesn’t tell the story of the game; he played out of his mind for 60 minutes regardless of the score…but it told a much more annoying story about the Kraken in front of him; he couldn’t get the goal support necessary. Again.
- This team has to do some real soul-searching on the people in charge of it’s power play. A good 5v5 team can make a playoff contender but the real winners can get something going through their chances, and the Kraken’s miserable power play took a big part of this loss.
Series Notes:
- This was one of the more enigmatic series of the 2nd round but I think it’s the one that was the most fun…from an outside perspective. Every game was an event, heroes abounded in different nights, both sides trading wins back and forth…it was torture within it some nights, but it was definitely one that wasn’t marred by any refereeing controversies beyond “boy they really let them just do whatever in the playoffs, huh”. Which a more league-wide thing. Terrible shame about the result, however.
- The Stars defense adapted at the worst possible time for the Kraken; Seattle got very few high danger chances but capitalized on most of them, thankfully. There was very little in-between on it however; either the Kraken were good enough to take chances, or Dallas shut the door.
- Philipp Grubauer deserves some kind of award for becoming the player he was always meant to be. I will always hold this and the previous series as a moment to be cherished. Dearest Grubert showed his true stripes, and they were that of a champion.
How about some Charts?:
I think you’ve earned a night off from the usual. I think the best way to put it was done by HockeyViz.com‘s Micah McCurdy:
So what’s next?:
- Well, the big thing is to sort through their RFAs, and there are quite a few coming into this offseason: Morgan Geekie, Daniel Sprong, Vince Dunn, William Borgen, and Cale Fleury. Of the five, I can think there’s at least three that need a raise.
- That’s not even getting into the UFAs, a couple of whom are probably harder debates to have. Martin Jones, anyone?
- Tye Kartye probably should make his way back to Coachella Valley to maximize his playoff experience. They’re gonna need him; they’re tied 1-1 with the Wranglers in the series right now.
- There’s obviously the injury report that will likely come out over the next couple of days as clean-out day and exit interviews pass on by. Given this unprecedented season and even crazier post-season, I can only imagine what some of these guys were playing with.
- Seattle’s first pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, which is set to be very strong, appears to be 20th overall. They have three 2nd rounders as well; if they wanted to make noise and pick up some other position to improve it…they very much could.
- Offseason stuff!
Hey. This is Sky speaking through the screen to you. Looking you square in the eye. You have a little something in your teeth, but we’re gonna ignore that. Because on behalf of Zaiem, Em, Mel, and Sean…
We Thank you All.
Moving on from Vox was, to put it lightly, a major pain in the ass. It took us a lot longer than it should’ve, and we had to make some quick changes under a month in order to get the site working as it does now. We’re glad you decided to stick around with us, and we hope you keep doing so through the offseason, draft, and well into next year and beyond. We’ve got tons of really cool stuff planned, and now we have a few months to actually implement it.
In the meantime Go M’s (congrats on skunking the Red Sox tonight!), and of course…now, and forever.
Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win.