At least they made it clear that work still needs doing.
I don’t wanna go back to Salt Lake again.
Here is what passes for Highlights
Game Notes
- Your TOI Leader was Vince Dunn, who logged 20:34
- The Kraken played this game like they were skating in sand. The fatigue from playing such a tight game yesterday was both clear and apparent as they played one of their most penalty filled, defensively bereft games of their entire season; stiff competition given how this season has gone. The biggest killer was Utah’s power play, which happily made mincemeat of the Kraken’s mediocre efforts to try and kill them off, but with how frequently Seattle struggled to get much of anything going in the offensive end (the few times they ever went), it was clear there was nothing in the tank here to counterattack against a Utah squad that had nothing but attack to give. Just a rough night all around. The official line after the game was 3-for-6 for Utah, but they very easily could’ve had more. Just a disappointing day on special teams all around.
- But! Let’s not let the lack of 5-on-5 anything get off the hook in all this; Seattle didn’t spend a lot of time in the first 40 minutes of the game at even strength, they spent a good amount of time doing a lot of nothing. Just an absolutely frustrating lack of effort from these guys, even if they were tired from a game against LA, this was a weak effort.
- I would’ve had no problem with a fight like the one that Kartye and Crouse got into, but one of the things I’m very suspicious of is fights that late in the game and down by that much. That’s not a “start a spark” kind of fight, and definitely not one that says you’re playing with pride. If you’re playing with pride you would’ve had one after the 2nd power play goal. That’s a tantrum fight. That’s “I’m losing and mad about it” as a fight. It’s a sure sign of defeat. If you’re gonna do this, for the love of god please do it before the halfway point of the 2nd period? Then at least I can pretend this could spark something.
- If there’s anything else we need to touch on, it’s goaltending. Specifically; how it was deployed tonight. Joey struggled quite a bit tonight, and while I don’t think all of the goals against were directly his fault (in some cases he needed almost precognition to get some of these shots), but knowing that he’d just come off of a 39 save performance meant that of any one of these players, it was he who had the most miles on his body. While I understand the sentiment towards keeping up the confidence of guys like Victor Ostman as the last few times Seattle has played with a goalie they didn’t have such a long relationship with it’s ended in disaster, but if you know your goalie is going to be tired after such a gutsy win, you must take the chance with the rookie. Ostman did perfectly fine by comparison, and maybe if given the chance, the fresh legs would’ve seriously helped the team out. It’s just mind-boggling how badly that was handled.
Was there anything good about this game?
Sure. Jared McCann scored in it, getting his 21st of the season.
The Charts, via NaturalStatTrick.com
Seattle enters the home-stretch of the season with their final game on the road, as they face the Vegas Golden Knights at 7pm in Paradise, Nevada.
We’ll see you there. Thank you for reading, and as always;
Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win.