Kraken Play Their Style, Win 4-2

On John Forslund Bobblehead Night, it’s only appropriate to say, “That’s Kraken hockey lately, baby,” when summarizing Seattle’s 4-2 win over visiting Nashville. All of the telltale elements for Kraken recent wins were in place: Aggressive forechecking in the third period, depth scoring, the hot hands of Jared McCann and Oliver Bjorkstrand, net-front presence and strong goaltending efforts.

Well, almost all. There was no overtime Thursday night. Vince Dunn’s mid-third period goal secured the Kraken’s first two-goal lead of the night and Seattle rode that advantage to a victory to start November on a happy note – and no doubt prompting thousands of Climate Pledge Arena attendees to push the audio button on the Forslund bobblehead on their journeys home (playing “That’s Kraken hockey, baby!” and, of course, “Hey, hey, whadda ya say?!”).

Among the high points: The aforementioned McCann scored his fifth goal in the last seven games. The Kraken avenge an early-season 3-0 shutout by Juuse Saros by solving the elite goalie four times with lots of screens to annoy and impede Saros. Brian Dumoulin doubled his goal production from all of last season in Pittsburgh—in the last two Kraken games. There’s more, such as Oliver Bjorkstrand a month ahead of his 20-goal pace from last season, but ‘hey, hey, whadda ya say,’ we get started on the details:

Grubauer Back in Goal

After backstopping a heart-stopping overtime win in Tampa with stellar third-period saves (and some help from his goalposts), Philipp Grubauer earned his second straight start after Joey Daccord tended the net in the first three games on the eastern road trip. Grubauer delivered a half-dozen early saves to settle his squad, who were fighting off two penalties. While Nashville opened the scoring with one second left in one of those Nashville power plays, Grubauer proceeded to make a half-dozen Grade-A saves while his teammates built a 2-1 lead going into the late stages of the middle period.

With three-and-a-half minutes left in the second period, Grubauer and the Seattle penalty killers allowed a second power-play goal, this one scored by all-star defenseman Roman Josi, beating Grubauer from mid-range on the glove short-side. The goal came with 20 seconds left on the PK effort and might be one Grubauer would like back.

Grubauer’s second-period work before and after Nashville’s second and final goal was the deciding factor in the Kraken victory, as per Dave Hakstol: “The second period, that's the key point where Grubi did a really good job getting us through and putting us in a good spot coming into the third period. The other guys picked it up from there.”

Dumoulin's Double

But newcomer Brian Dumoulin, who scored one goal all of last season with Pittsburgh, notched his second Kraken goal in the last two games when his shot from the blue line beat Juuse Saros with help from Tye Kartye’s big body standing in front of Nashville’s all-star goalie. The response goal was 24 seconds after the Josi score, helping Seattle regain a one-goal lead. Kartye started the scoring play before his screening work, getting the puck to Justin Schultz, who passed to his defensive partner Dumoulin. Schultz looked even happier than Dumoulin, a former teammate in Pittsburgh, where they were part of back-to-back Cup-winning teams.

“It’s great to contribute,” said Dumoulin post-game. “Everyone's going to contribute for us to win. We've done that here in this last stretch, getting goals from different people.”

Grubauer was likely feeling better just about then. Soon after, though, maybe not so much. Just under a minute later, the Kraken goaltender veered out of his crease to cut the angle and shot of Nashville’s Liam Foudy. Grubauer ended up behind his net tangled up with Foudy and Kraken D-man Jamie Oleksiak (a big body to collide with). Grubauer looked a bit shaken up but stayed in the game to make four quality saves on the late power play.

“He made really big [saves] in big moments,” said Dumoulin about his new teammate and goaltender. “He did a good job of controlling his rebounds, not giving them too many second or third opportunities. “They are a team that really likes to get to the blue paint [goal crease] and have some bigger bodies.”

Shooting Gallery, Part 1

Two of the best shooters on the Kraken displayed their wares during the first period. On the Kraken’s second power play of the opening 20 minutes (the first was quiet), Oliver Bjorkstrand took a pass from power play quarterback Justin Schultz, then fired quickly from the right-point, sending a dart to the upper right-hand corner of Nashville star goalie Juuse Saros’ net.

Saros was still searching for the puck when it was hitting the twine (screened by Alex Wennberg). Kraken GM Ron Francis is a believer in Bjorkstrand and has been anticipating a fast start this season by the summer of 2022 trade acquisition. So far, so true.

Monday’s opening goal for Seattle is Bjorkstrand’s third of the season to go along with six assists for nine points in 11 games. Last season, when Bjorkstrand was not quite 100 percent coming off a summer surgery, the Danish forward didn’t tally his third goal of the year until Nov. 29 or 22 games into the 2022-23 season. Bjorkstrand’s quick release on the goal is a signature habit intended to stop goaltenders from getting settled in position for a save. During the first intermission, Bjorkstrand gave “full credit” to Wennberg for his net-front screen.

The power play score was the fifth for Seattle in the last five games and the Kraken entered November eighth in the NHL with a 25 percent success rate on man-advantage.

Shooting Gallery, Part 2

During offseasons, Jared McCann says he is always working on his already-elite NHL-quality shot, whether it be the hard slap shot Kraken fans were thrilled to see notch an overtime win at Tampa Bay on the just completed and successful road trip or the quick-release wrister that whizzed past Juuse Saros, who was a half-beat to slow in reacting.

One of McCann’s focuses over the summer months is quick-releasing his shots from all angles. So when linemate Yanni Gourde was chugging up ice on the left side, McCann set up to his right mid-Nashville zone, seemingly ready to unleash another slap shot one-timer. Instead, McCann didn’t wind up or delay his swing at the puck, putting a premium on getting the puck off his stick blade. The strategy worked for McCann’s sixth goal of the season and fifth goal in his last seven games.

Oh, and by the way, McCann and Bjorkstrand are standouts in setting up goals for teammates. McCann earned the secondary assist on Bjorkstrand's power play marker.

‘Killing’ It Early

The Kraken penalty killers were preoccupied early in this November debut for the Kraken. They were one second away from erasing a tripping minor on Eeli Tolvanen (committed in the first minute) and a double-minor on Adam Larsson for high sticking (and drawing blood on Nashville forward Gustav Nyquist). The PK work included some 5-on-3 prevention and then Predators forward Colton Sissons was whistled off for two minutes for tripping SEA defenseman Brian Dumoulin. But Sissons returned before Larsson did and proceeded to notch the primary assist on the game’s first goal, feeding Predators forward Tommy Novak for his fifth goal of the season.