Kraken Round One Game THREE RECAP: Avs stars shine in 6-4 blowout, Squids down 2-1 in series

This doesn’t bode well for your Kraken, even with the positives.

If you can stand it, the Highlights:

Game Notes:

• Your TOI leader for Seattle was Vince Dunn with 23:42 logged.
• This was the kind of game we’ve kind of been dreading for the Kraken, as the Avs stars finally came to life fully. Makar and Toews both had 2 points, Nathan MacKinnon got his first pair of goals of the series in the most blunt, “I am here” way possible, and of course, the finishing touch of Mikko Rantanen’s ENG. The high impact players of the Avs on their own dictated how this game went.
• A monkey’s paw seemed to slam closed tonight, as nearly everything we suggested in our podcast preview happened: We got scoring from the top line, they scored on the power play, they scored first, they shot more….and then a miserable start to the third period negated almost all of that, with the shots on net becoming useless. Just…agonizing.
• While they got one, the Kraken Power play was 1-for-6. That first powerplay was so bad it ended up being instrumental towards the Avs getting the momentum they wanted for this game. Hakstol and company need to do something about it, or it’s going to be the death of this playoff run.
• Grubauer didn’t have a great game in a night they desperately needed him to be: an .862 SV% in the playoffs isn’t gonna cut it. He needs to be better or this is going to be over by Wednesday.

Were there any bright spots?:

Well, I guess there were a couple.

• Matty Beniers didn’t just score a good goal, he scored a critical goal in a critical playoff situation where it really felt like the game was well and truly out of hand. Given how much we’ve been begging the top line of the Kraken to score, that’s huge. Hopefully this is the start of him finally getting this team going at full power.
• The Kraken battled back from being down 2 in less than 19 seconds. That’s quite a few seconds less than the Avs needed in Game 2.
• While Schultz didn’t have an ideal game, he did finish the night with 2 points. Good for him!

Let’s grouse about the game after we take a look at the NaturalStatTrick.com charts:

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Game 4 remains here in Seattle as the Kraken enter a must win scenario; they cannot give one of the better teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs the opportunity to go up 3-1. We’ll see you on Monday at 7pm PT.

Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win.