On the bright side, there are really only two things that need fixing and they keep being roughly the same stuff.
On the other hand…IT. KEEPS. HAPPENING.
The Highlights, if you dare.
Game Notes
- Your TOI Leader was Adam Larsson, who logged 25:16
- Look. I can go on forever about the net-front defense, the fact that Grubauer’s often caught getting screened by his own defender, the speed and reactivity of the backcheck being just about a step or two behind their competition, there’s a million different things I could kvetch about. But that gets boring, so I’m gonna come down on their smoking gun. The actual reason this team is in the position they’re in. This offense straight up cannot score right now. A graphic ESPN had up pretty much said it all; they’ve completely crashed in terms of even strength scoring. From 1st all the way down to 29th. And boy, can you tell. The Devils got mostly rocked up and down the ice and it did not matter what so ever; one bad bounce got it behind Grubauer, and then an unmarked Simon Nemec, and they just sat on that and dared Seattle’s offense to tie the game. An offense that has significant trouble completing passes, or even in some cases identifying passing lanes. They don’t have the physicality to win puck battles by dumping and chasing, and they don’t have the crispness of passing nor the speed to beat teams head on with clean entries. This team is lost at sea and unless something big and drastic happens I’m not sure what you do beyond begin swapping out players left and right until something works.
- Okay, I think I can come up with a couple of things. The Kraken did spend most of this game dictating the pace, and they knew it. What I would start with, and as heretical as it sounds…I think it would be in Matty Beniers best interest if he and Alex Wennberg swapped lines for a couple of games. It rewards Wennberg who honestly hasn’t been as bad as he started the year, and it would give a hell of a wakeup call for Beniers to get his head straight. They can’t scratch him, so let’s try curbing his minutes to see if they can get his confidence back.
- Power play still sucks. 0-fer-2 and extremely bunched up and incapable of moving opposing players around.
- Ryker Evans played tonight! I thought he did pretty good! If we can clone him a couple of times, we should be alright.
- I’m just gonna say that in spite of it all, I think Grubauer did okay. Not great, definitely not good, but just okay. The issues this team faces are, as usual, mostly away from him. Does that first goal-against look horrific from the broadcast angle? Absolutely. Would he have been able to stop it? Maybe. The margin for error on defense has forced their goaltenders to either be precognizant or sub-NHL. That doesn’t change with a different name on the back of the jersey. We found that out with Daccord making Tim Thomas-level saves and still not being able to steal them games. I’m not sure they’re at the point where they could.
- Mild injury scare with Andre Burakovsky as he had some issue that kept him out of a chunk of the 2nd period, but mercifully he returned. As nice as having him back is, I think we can officially afford to be patient; anything less than 90% of a player right now isn’t nearly good enough for Seattle.
- 6 straight losses. Edmonton’s charging back up the standings. This might get dark before the Winter Classic.
- Time to fix this, Dave.
Was there anything positive about this game?
Tye Kartye always seems to step up in especially backbreaking losses these days, getting the sole goal of the Kraken’s night and being a generally strong player on the puck. I was hoping he’d be coming in to be a spark for a more successful season, but I guess I’ll take “The only spark of an increasingly disastrous season”.
The NaturalStatTrick.com Charts
If you could just complete a f!#king pass…
Kraken get a chance to continue their death spiral against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who they play on Saturday night at 7pm PT. Mercifully back over at ROOT, and not where national TV cameras can see this team play.
Seattle sports is an exercise in just how much punishment you can take, and this market is remarkably resilient.
Keep Calm, and Post Zoidberg When We Win
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