The Kraken clinched their first ever playoff birth on Thursday with a 4-2 win over the Coyotes, but given that we were uh…indisposed over the prior week, we feel that it’s only fair to you that we go over everything that happened over this week so you’re all caught up with what’s been going on in the Seattle Hockeysphere!
Game 75: Kings beat the Kraken in tragic 3-1 loss
A closer game than I think it needed to be, it unfortunately reinforced a real problem the Kraken can sometimes have with the razor thin margin of error, particularly when it comes to guys like uh…Sean Durzi, who opened the scoring for LA after getting crunched down behind the net, got up and then…uh…
GUYS HE’S RIGHT THERE. GUYS–
Ugh. Really, it was just that kind of game, y’know? The Squids couldn’t buy a goal and the Kings are making their push for the playoffs as unpleasant for their opponents as humanly possible and if you can’t finish against Joonas Korpisalo, you’re gonna have a bad time. The Kings of the early season, these guys definitely weren’t. Even with how fun it was.
Whatever, let’s take a look at the highlights, then move on.
Game 76: Kraken get back on track with an 8-1 beatdown of the Coyotes!
On one hand, I think celebrating a blowout of the Arizona Coyotes feels a little mean. This is what you’re supposed to do when you play a bottom-feeder team in the league. On the other…man this game absolutely RULED.
It had everything! Vince Dunn’s 50th point! Big Billy Borgen’s 3rd goal of the year! Seven players with two points! A .952 SV% from Philipp Grubauer! Say what you want of the kind of team Arizona is (and you’d be forgiven for being a little mean about it), they’re a great stepping stone to getting your confidence back!
Game 77: Kraken go on the road and embarrass the Canucks in 5-2 game!
I didn’t care for the Kraken’s first period in this game against Vancouver, though I definitely understand why it was like that; they looked kind of gassed from all the travel, and from the reality of playing a back-to-back, but a funny thing happened as the game wore on; they never lost focus, they never let up on the Canucks, and let Yanni Gourde’s opening tally set as a rallying cry for their absolutely incredible second period, where they ended up dropping a whopping 18 shots on goal on the Canucks, to say nothing of their absolutely hellacious assault on Vancouver’s net in general in that middle frame. Just take a look at how badly they crushed their spirits through the NaturalStatTrick gameflow chart:
Just erased them from ever mattering to the game past the 35 minute mark. That’s a response. The Matty Beniers goal at the end of it all was just icing on the cake.
Sure, I probably shouldn’t celebrate beating the Canucks like this, but given the trouble that Vancouver has given Seattle over the past few months, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say “YEAH! SCREW YOU GUYS!”
…and that’s what you missed while we were offline! We’re terribly sorry about all that, but we hope you enjoy the Hyvar comment system, the new site, our (admittedly kind of bare) archive, and our new logo!
And of course, please join us for the game against Chicago on the 8th!
Leave a tip to support our writers and staff!