Kraken vs Capitals RECAP: Mistakes Doom Seattle in 2-1 LOSS

Roll the Highlight Reel!

Game Notes

• The Jordan Eberle ceremony was really neat. The other 1000 game ceremony in Kraken history was during the inaugural season where then-captain Mark Giordano was honored to remember his 1000th game — and then was a healthy scratch, because they knew he was being traded in a few days. This was a good and proper celebration for an original Kraken and someone who has been a huge part of the organization since its inception.
• Seattle came out in the first period with a much better start than they had against Vegas on Tuesday, outshooting Washington 6-0 early. They were crisp with their zone entries and started out with great energy, getting pucks to the net, and keeping Washington to the outside in the scoreless first period.
• The second period, on the other hand, was a disaster. Seattle, facing the Capitals power play, featured Joey Daccord misplaying the puck and giving T.J. Oshie a freebie goal to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead. With Daccord it’s a double-edged sword. He plays the puck a lot. It’s what he does, and he does it well. And overall, it’s a huge net positive for the team. But there are risks, and there is downside to being so active with the puck, and you have to accept that’s going to happen. “Mistakes happen,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “That’s gonna be a mistake that Joey will learn from.” Daccord was otherwise quite good, and still finished with .84 goals above expected on the night (Moneypuck).
• “We didn’t generate enough offensively and we didn’t come up with enough pucks,” said Hakstol “Our start to the hockey game was good…In the second period we weren’t able to generate and we did not generate momentum offensively.”
• The third period Seattle came out with a lot of jump and energy and tied it on a power play goal by Oliver Bjorkstrand that came as the result of hard work. But it was a third period mistake where a drop pass by Burakovsky intended for Oliver Bjorkstrand was picked off by Connor McMichael, and his breakaway goal was the decider.

Seattle’s playoff chances were on life support but had a dim hope. Now those hopes have gotten much dimmer, dropping their playoff chances to 5% per Moneypuck. To get a sense of what 5% is, shuffle a deck of playing cards and draw two cards. The odds that both cards are above a 10 and are connected (AK, QK, QJ, or J10) are about 5%. That’s not impossible — but it’s also not very likely. But that’s where we sit right now.

I’m sure there will be much discussion about Seattle’s roster construction and what they should do over the summer, and we’ll leave that discussion for a later time. But it’s pretty safe to say that Seattle is in a spot where their focus should be turned to setting up for next season.

Three Stars of the Game

⭐⭐⭐ Oliver Bjorkstrand (1g)

⭐⭐ Charlie Lindgren (23 saves, .958 sv%)

⭐ Connor McMichael (1g)

The Natural Stat Trick maps

Seattle will continue their season at home against the Nashville Predators on Saturday at 7pm.