Benching players mid-game is a rarity for the Kraken. The 2023 Calder winner may have bragging rights as one of the first such cases for the franchise.
Matty Beniers sat for nearly 11 minutes in the second period of Monday’s loss immediately following his gruesome defensive-zone turnover to hand a 2-0 lead over to the New Jersey Devils. Forty-eight seconds into the middle frame, Erik Haula snatched the puck from Beniers’ loose grip, slipping the puck over to Jack Hughes, subsequently banking it in off of Joey Daccord’s mask.
Mistakes happen. Beniers’ was unacceptable. Seattle could not afford a deepened deficit neck-deep in a disconnected, ugly first twenty minutes.
Suggestions of benching were firmly deflected by head coach Dave Hakstol, claiming instead that the young centerman’s skills weren’t needed during penalty kills. All he confirmed was Beniers’ blame for the goal against, and that he would never resort to benching to send a message.
“The turnover came off of his tape and ultimately, that’s his responsibility,” Hakstol said following the 3-1 loss.
There’s reason to suspect his answer. Publicly airing grievances isn’t Hakstol’s forte, and besides, a harsh move would’ve been justified. Seattle performed poorly enough to warrant drastic measures intent on salvaging the game and scraping together some dignity.
The next night, spending the second half of Seattle’s third back-to-back of the season at UBS arena, Beniers recovered his stride. A violent, clean collision dealt by the New York Islanders’ Ryan Pulock sent Beniers sprawling into the boards. Flow of play drifted back to the Kraken’s own zone, and when they regained possession, Beniers was up and ready to receive a stretch pass at the blueline.
Five minutes into the 48th game of his slumping sophomore season, 11 seconds after sustaining a frightening hit, Beniers flew at the net to score Seattle’s only goal through regulation for their first lead since Jan 28. Beginning the sequence slumped over, face-to-face with scathing cold failure, and ending with a slick wrister past Ilya Sorokin, elevated the play into a rousing demonstration of gumption when all seemed lost.
“It definitely hurt,” Beniers said of the impact, continuing with a smile. “I was trying to just get off the ice, and then I saw the opportunity and I was like ‘ah, I’m not that hurt.'”
On the night, Beniers tilted the shot quality battle 74.8% in Seattle’s favor. Every area of the game flourished, making for what can reasonably be called one of his best all-around performances of the season.
In fact, every line except the fourth put together a dominant two-way effort. Despite making his first appearance in the lineup since Jan 30, Justin Schultz flaunted a team-leading generative prowess (93.3% xGF%). Philipp Grubauer slammed the door shut on all but one Isles chance through regulation and nothing got past him in the shootout, crowning his first start in almost two months an undoubted triumph.
Furious forechecking, sound transitional movement, and a fervid connection between offensive and defensive arms boosted the Kraken to their best performance on this side of the All-Star break.
“I don’t think our battle level and compete was there the past two nights, and that’s kind of been our identity since the beginning. The big emphasis on tonight was ‘we’re not going to get outworked, we’re not going to get out-battled.'”
Incessant inconsistency of effort and performance quality this season, however, warrants intense criticism of the legitimacy of identity Beniers speaks of.
According to NaturalStatTrick, Tuesday, despite having played the night before, was Seattle’s fourth-best generative offensive performance of the season. Three days later came their worst of the entire season and their ninth-worst in franchise history, Saturday’s disconnected, losing crack at the Philadelphia Flyers. No worthwhile net-front presence was established, teammates were colliding headfirst into one another, and despite finding the puck well, skaters looked clueless as to what to do with possession.
Finishing issues are clearly still hindering winning campaigns. Controlling 69.39% of the total shot quality and creating enough chances to expect nearly three goals, Seattle could only manage to put one on the scoreboard. Sorokin, a 2023 Vezina finalist furnished with a .911 SV% and robbing the Kraken of 1.52 goals above expected at the end of the night, was unquestionably a roadblock. Seattle’s shooting percentage hovers around the bottom of league standings, where it’s resided season-long (8.14 %; 21st), depriving them of 6.27 goals they should have scored in addition to the 101 (21st) they’ve accumulated. Scoring two or fewer goals in eight of their last 11 games, going 3-7-1 in that span, offense must be coaxed.
But the difference between games against the Flyers and Devils compared to Seattle’s win over the Isles— separated by mere days— is nothing short of whiplash-inducing. Recall the several 10 minute-long shot-less stretches against the Flyers, Devils. There’s an extreme unpredictability to the Kraken’s game characteristic of teams much worse than theirs.
For Seattle to know they are abandoned by the finishing touch they enjoyed last season, that generating offense will still prove taxing even on their best nights, why is sluggishness still a problem despite obvious proof over the past three games that they can turn on high-quality efforts instantaneously?
Is there reason to question whether we’re seeing the best Seattle has to offer, night in and night out?
It’s suspected that a lack of confidence resulting from the shock of scoring struggles at the dawn of the season may still be wreaking havoc on the ice today— it may be difficult to buy into systems knowing they’re met with forces out of their control preventing production anyways.
No team can help the plethora of uncontrollable issues hurting Seattle this season— injuries, regression, loaded schedules— and while success rarely comes easy in this league, the only way to guarantee a lack of it is to shy away from trying for it completely.
Perhaps there’s something to be learned from Beniers’ resiliency, the immediacy with which he dusted himself off and got back to work, still aching, despite his obliviousness as to the success that would soon unfold.
All data five-on-five, via NaturalStatTrick, MoneyPuck, NHL, ESPN.
Leave a tip to support our writers and staff!