LOS ANGELES -The gusher of offensive production the Kraken generated in Wednesday's road opener was flowing freely again here in southern California in a 4-1 win for Seattle, making it three of four possible standings points to start the second season. Among the scoring highlights: Matty Beniers notched his 12th point in his first 12 NHL games, newcomers Andre Burakovsky and Oliver Bjorkstrand have registered a goal and assist each in their first two Kraken games and fan-favorite-returnee Brandon Tanev notched the game-winning goal.
After losing a two-goal lead twice in Wednesday's overtime loss, goalie Martin Jones and the Kraken skaters didn't let that happen again. Jones stopped 16 of 17 shots in the first 40 minutes, several Grade-A quality chances, including a big stop on the Kings' trade acquisition, Kevin Fiala, late in the second period (not repeating a late Anaheim score to make it a 3-2 game in the road opener). Jones stopped 28 of 29 shots in his first Kraken victory.
Final Buzzer: Winning Ways
The Kraken power play converted again, the offense keeps rolling and goalie Martin Jones is stellar in his first outing for Seattle. Kraken win 4-1 in LA
Not to be lost Thursday: The Kraken were played a decidedly physical game against their divisional rival, even on the second of back-to-back nights. Seattle finished with 44 hits.
"I think anytime you're on the road it's gonna be one of those games where maybe goals aren't going to be coming in the bunches, I think you've got to go in hard for checks, play physical and work as a group," said Brandon Tanev, who scored his first goal of the year (and first since Dec. 14, two games before his 2022-23 season was ended by a knee injury). "Because obviously tonight, we're playing against a good team in LA. You need to make things simple, play physical."
+ Dave Hakstol was feeling lighthearted after Thursday's 4-1 statement win over a divisional opponent with playoff aspirations and projection. He approached the media scrum asking if the press group had interviewed "Turbo," aka Brandon Tanev. When heard "yes" and saw the nods, the coach pretend-walked away several steps, then turned back to take questions. The first was about did he feel this was the type of play-hard-for-60-minutes games he seeks.
"We played hard in every way," said Hakstol "We were better with the puck [compared to Wednesday]. And we were smarter in the areas that we wanted to address. The biggest thing is we just played together as a group."
It's early, but this team does seem more connected, no doubt helped by the greatly reduced and/or eliminated COVID restrictions. Media members, now able to talk with players in the locker room, can see the friendly interactions among teammates and there appears to be more cheering on teammates during practice drills.
+ An early-game Kraken power play less than two minutes into this divisional road game didn't amount to much for the visitors. But just nine seconds after that man-advantage situation ended, Seattle was gifted a second power play, taking advantage this time.
The Kraken's fourth power play of this nascent season was fueled by Andre Burakovsky circling around the net and dishing from near the right point, zipping a cross-ice pass to the stick tape of Jordan Eberle left net side. Veteran LA goalie Jonathan Quick made a spectacular save but didn't control the rebound. Jaden Schwartz slid inside right net front to knock in the rebound, scoring his first goal since March 19, as he fought through injuries last season.
Schwartz is a role model for teammates in doing the little things in all three zones, especially getting net front and battling through foes attempting to push him out of scoring areas. Veterans like him and Jordan Eberle made a number of defensive plays Thursday that protected the 3-1 lead in the second and third periods, before Adam Larsson scored an empty-netter to seal the game late.
+ Thursday's ROOT SPORTS broadcast featured new analyst Eddie Olczyk for the first time (he worked a TNT game Wednesday) and marked the first three-man booth for Kraken fans. Olczyk, play-by-play maestro John Forslund and analyst JT Brown found plenty of air time to provide analysis, share views on why the Kraken power play is rolling, kid each other and sound like they have been doing this for longer than one game. Olczyk judged the power play to be "confident" and "unpredictable in the way you want" while Brown brought fresh views on Martin Jones positioning to make saves and insisting the Kraken "couldn't sit back" to protect the 3-1 lead going into the final period. Good stuff and we're all fortunate to hear the trio and catch Alison Lukan and Nick Olczyk for intermission analysis and Piper Shaw reporting throughout.
Fun moment when an Alison Lukan tweet appeared on the screen lower-third during the third period, showing the Kraken won 16 of the 21 games when they led by two goals last year. Olczyk admitted he couldn't read it on the booth monitors and ventured it was likely brilliant and would be tweeted (actually retweeted) a couple million times. Olczyk agree he didn't know much tech, Forsland said, "same" and mentioned Brown is ultra tech-savvy, to which Olczyk quipped, "oh, he's got 'Instaface' and 'Space Scape.'"
