The Seattle Kraken, who played up to their competition in a thrilling 2-1 victory over East-leading Carolina on Monday, played down – no, make that below – their competition Wednesday.
The rows and rows of empty seats at Climate Pledge Arena gave the feel of a pre-season game. The uninspired effort by their heroes made it feel that way even more. The St. Louis Blues, 2nd worst in the entire NHL, embarrassed Seattle for the second time in a week with a 3-2 victory.
The listless defeat snapped a five-game home winning streak. Call Dylan Holloway the Kraken-killer. He put the Blues ahead for good in the 2nd period, his 5th this year against Seattle. Ol’ Dylan has seven this season against the rest of the NHL.
Maybe the Kraken thought this would be easy after Jaden Schwartz gave Seattle a lead before the game was a minute old.
Nope.
1st Period
Blues goalie Joel Hofer makes a costly error early. Hofer kicks Adam Larsson’s soft shot from distance right to ex-Blue Jaden Schwartz, who makes no mistake 31 seconds into the contest. Schwartz scores his 10th, a welcome relief from a personal one-goal-in-20-games scoring drought.
Jacob Melanson gets his nightly hit parade started with a crunch on Alexey Toropchenko. Melanson led the Kraken with eight of the team’s 21 hits.
Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer has his own costly “oops,” failing to squeeze his trapper on a shot. The bobble is eventually collected by Logan Mailloux, who parks a wraparound to tie the game at 6:50.
Another Kraken “oops.” Berkly Catton fishes for the puck behind the St. Louis net; he misses, but his skate upends goalie Hofer. The kind of penalty that can find a rookie planted on the bench for a while.
The 31st-ranked Seattle penalty kill goes to work, but fortunately, the St. Louis power play is ranked 25th, so Catton’s mistake doesn’t change the score. Neither does Seattle’s first power play.
After allowing the first five SOG, the Blues end the period leading in shots, 13-10. Grubauer made his final save, off the stick of Jimmy Snuggerud, with his mask.
2nd Period
Grubauer comes up huge on two different tip-in tries by the Blues. He stones Snuggerud on the first one, Mailloux on the second one, leaving Robert Thomas scanning the sky in disbelief.
The third re-direction’s the charm for St. Louis. Cam Fowler threads a pass through the legs of Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans, onto the stick of Dylan Holloway at the far post. Holloway, who torched Seattle for a hat trick a week ago, gives the Blues a 2-1 lead at 7:40. Evans would have a night to forget, on ice for all three St. Louis scores.
3rd Period
Surely the expletives shared in the Kraken dressing room between periods would wake the home team up for an inspiring final frame.
No, it didn’t (and don’t call me Shirley). Trade-rumor target Robert Thomas showed why he’s in demand, giving St. Louis a 3-1 lead at 1:33.
Just to make things interesting (it’s about time), the other Ex-Blues Stanley Cup champion on the Kraken, Vince Dunn, narrowed the deficit to 3-2 at 13:34. Everyone who’s scored tonight is either a Blue or former Blue.
One more oops, this time from the visitors. Justin Faulk put the puck into the seats from the defensive zone with 2:06 remaining. Officially, that’s known as delay of game, and it’s a minor penalty. With Grubauer pulled, the Kraken have a 6-on-4 skaters advantage. Could they pull a rabbit out of a hat on a night otherwise devoid of magic?
Nope.
Losing two offensive zone draws didn’t help. Hofer finished with 35 saves, as Seattle outshot St. Louis 36-27.
Up Next
Now we await any additions to or subtractions from the Seattle lineup. The next time they hit the ice will be one day after the trade deadline, a Saturday meetup at CPA against the Ottawa Senators.