Final Buzzer: Kraken's Sweet Redemption

VEGAS -Friday night's 4-2 Kraken win over first-place Vegas is the sweet redemption Seattle fans have been waiting for. After five previous tries to beat Vegas over two seasons, Seattle quieted the first-period boisterous home crowd here with a two-goal second period and standout work by Philipp Grubauer in his first start in more than a month. The Kraken are now 12-5-3 overall and own a four-game winning streak.
Grubauer celebrated his 31st birthday Friday in a spotless final 40 minutes after surrendering a pair of goals in Period 1.
"Obviously a little bit rusty [in the early going]," said Grubauer, who made 20 saves on the night. "The guys have been playing unbelievable. They made it really easy for me tonight. Once you make a couple [saves], it seems like everything settles down a little bit. It is just amazing to watch from back there, how everybody is contributing and doing the right thing. There are no selfish plays."

When asked about winning on his birthday, Grubauer smiled and said, "Besides my dog, the two points are the best birthday gift I've received."

Seconding the Motion and Emotion

With Philipp Grubauer doing his job by making several big saves in the middle period, including four Grade-A chances per Natural Stat Trick, the Kraken dropped a two-spot on Vegas with Jamie Oleksiak first setting up Andre Burakovsky's second goal of the night (another elite shot from longer range, a big reason GM Ron Francis signed the two-time Stanley Cup winner), then Matty Beniers executing yet another highlight-reel pass to linemate Jordan Eberle, who was stopped by Vegas goalie Adin Hill on the first attempt, but Eberle stayed with the puck and elevated the rebound over the prone VGK goalie to make it 4-2.
Some cleanup details: Eberle now has five goals in his last seven games; he looked particularly jazzed to score on the second try, putting on a clinic lately in driving the net. Beniers leads all NHL rookies in scoring. Grubauer's best save of the period was a glove stop on Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore right at net-front. And, oh yeah, Burakovsky almost notched a hat trick in the final minute of the middle frame.
Video: SEA@VGK: Eberle makes a slick move and scores

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Right Start, Wrong Turn

This Friday night showdown couldn't have started any better for the visiting Kraken with Ryan Donato and Andre Burakovsky both scoring goals in the first eight minutes and both scoring a goal for a second straight game. But Vegas reorganized the momentum, first scoring late on a power play and just over two minutes tying the game when an unfortunate bounce off Carson Soucy's stick (with the Kraken D-man making the right play with wrong puck luck) pinballed to well-traveled veteran goal scorer Phil Kessel.

The opening period finished with 9 shots (four Grade-A chancers per Natural Stat Trick) for the Kraken and nine off the sticks of Vegas. After the score knotted at two goals apiece, Grubauer made a couple of key saves to keep matters tied after 20 minutes, aspiring to coach Dave Hakstol's penchant for timely saves. The Grubauer hold-the-line work continued into the second period, with an early save on Shea Theodore.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol was pleased with the win, but like returning goalie Grubauer emphasized, "you can't get too high or too low" over the long season. For Hakstol's part, he views Friday's big win as a more important divisional win and less redemption against Vegas. But that doesn't mean fans can't savor the victory. In any case, Hakstol was satisfied with the effort on the ice.
"We're not looking for a measuring stick," said Hakstol when asked about gauging progress with a win over first-in-conference Vegas. "We're looking to win games. This was an important two points here on the road. We beat a good team here tonight."

Defense on the Offense

Kraken defensemen have scored 15 goals this season with Jamie Oleksiak leading the way with four goals in 15 games (halfway to his career-best). The 15 goals represent nearly a quarter of Seattle's 66 goals. Only the New York Islanders have more defenseman goals. By comparison, Vegas D-men have notched eight goals, or roughly 10 percent of the Golden Knights' 77 scores, but are second-best in the NHL in total points (translating to a plethora of assists).
Jamie Oleksiak didn't score Friday night in Nevada but his rink-long rush in the second period drew two VGK defenders, affording time and space for suddenly hot Andre Burakovsky. Oleksiak was at the Vegas goal line when he nimbly spun his 6-7, 257-pound frame 360 degrees to feed the puck to Burakovsky. The Kraken sharpshooter beat Vegas goalie Adin Hill short side and retook the lead for his second goal of the game and seventh of the season. He now has 10 points in the last seven games.

It should be noted the Kraken's opening goal was set up by an Adam Larsson one-timer shot from the blue line, stopped by VGK goalie Hill but left near-crease for Donato to start the night's scoring. Larsson was one of the last shooters to leave the ice during warmups, maybe he had something in mind.
"Lately we're getting rewarded when we got pucks," said Larsson. "[The first goal] was a prime example. Just close your eyes and shoot. It landed pretty much on [Donato's] stick, so that was nice."
In his own manner, Larsson was effusive about the Friday night victory and the 18th and 19th points of a possible 22 standings points in the last 11 games.
"I thought it was a great, great team win today," said Larsson "There's lots of big blocks, and that kind of fires up the boys ... and Grubi played great."

First Goal First for Donato

Ryan Donato scored the first-ever goal here in Vegas during the Kraken's first-ever game last season. He did it again early first-period Friday in a late-afternoon start, staying upright in front of the Vegas net to snag and shoot a rebound off SEA defenseman Adam Larsson's shot from the point. It's Donato's second goal in two games and he continues to be one of the most effective net-front scorers and scrappers for Seattle.

Video: SEA@VGK: Donato puts a rebound in to kick off scoring

First-Quarter Numbers

Friday's Vegas matchup is the 20th game of the season for the Kraken. While it's too early to be closely watching the Pacific Division or Western Conference standings - Kraken play-by-play man extraordinaire John Forslund says he doesn't take it seriously until after the winter holidays - there is one school of hockey thought that NHL teams need to start worrying if they are not in one of the eight playoff spots in each conference by Thanksgiving.
According to NHL Stats, since the 2005-06 season, 76.3 percent of teams in a playoff position on Thanksgiving Day made the playoffs. That excludes the 2019-20 season paused in March due to COVID-19 and eventually included 12 teams from each conference. Same for the 2012-13 and 2020-21 seasons because neither started before the day of gratitude.
Three-time Stanley Cup winner Mark Recchi, who has worked as an assistant coach with Pittsburgh and New Jersey, wrote in
a recent "Coaches Room" NHL.com column
that the "Thanksgiving deadline" was definitely a topic of discussion by both Penguins and Devils coaches.
As per usual at the quarter mark of the league's season, the NHL Stats crew also assembles fun facts and trends. Here's a "by the numbers" sampling relevant to Friday's showdown in Vegas:

6 - Number of non-playoff teams from 2022 that currently hold a playoff spot: New Jersey (No. 1 in Metropolitan), NY Islanders (No. 2 in Metropolitan), Detroit (No. 3 in Atlantic), Vegas (No. 1 in Pacific), Seattle (No. 2 in Pacific) and Winnipeg (No. 3 in Central). There has been a playoff turnover of at least five teams in every season under the wild card format.

13 - Number of teams in NHL history that have produced a year-over-year improvement of 35+ standings points (min. 80 GP in first season) - the Devils (+68 points), Kraken (+48 points) and Golden Knights (+35 points) all are on pace to do so in 2022-23.

22 - Number of teams currently with a point percentage .500 or higher, including seven outside the playoff picture last season (New Jersey, Vegas, Seattle, Winnipeg, Detroit, NY Islanders, and Montreal).