Kraken Used Daunting Trip To Show What They Can Be

Fourth line centerman Freddy Gaudreau helped demonstrate right from the outset of a daunting five-city, 10-day road trip what this Kraken team was designed to look like.

This was one of those early trips that has teams swallowing hard when a schedule gets released. An odyssey three time zones away against good teams mostly in arenas historically unfavorable to the Kraken, where an early slump could spell disaster for the rest of the season.

Instead, the Kraken not only avoided going off the rails, but arrived back in Seattle just before 2 a.m. Sunday – their trip stretching into an 11^th day – having gone 3-1-1 to position well for an upcoming string where six of the next seven games will be played at Climate Pledge Arena. And much of it began the Friday morning of the trip’s opener in Detroit, when Gaudreau gathered linemates Ryan Winterton and Ben Meyers for a talk about what they could be as a trio.

“I know it’s a fourth line but I don’t think we should think that way,” Gaudreau said. “We should think of it as a solid line that can contribute.”

And contribute they did, with three goals and four assists between them in defeating the Red Wings 6-3 and beating them for the first time ever in regulation at Little Caeser’s Arena. Meyers would finish with a goal and two assists, while he and Winterton both showed off their speed in setting up Gaudreau’s goals.

“Anytime you get a night like that from your fourth line you certainly expect to win the game,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said.

Two nights later, they beat the Washington Capitals for the second time ever at Capital One Arena with fourth line members combining for two goals, four assists.

This time, it was Gaudreau scoring again and getting an assist. But also Winterton taking a Meyers breakaway pass late in the game and adding a huge insurance goal after Jared McCann’s eventual game winner late.

“Those guys are leading the way for us,” McCann said of the fourth line. “You’ve got to give them credit. They’re playing a simple game and they’re on the forecheck, they’re creating turnovers and like I said, they aren’t doing anything crazy special. They’re just playing their game.”

That game showed off even more of the speed becoming an early Kraken hallmark. They’d seen it from Bobby McMann and Mackie Samoskevich in a home opening win, but the way in which Winterton and Meyers deployed it on Gaudreau’s goal against the Capitals was textbook for how Kraken forechecking needs to work.

Meyers outraced every Caps player down the ice for a loose puck, gathered it behind the net and dished it back out. Winterton had also beaten most players down the ice and was right there at the side of the net to tap the puck past a defender to a wide open Gaudreau, who made no mistake.

“I like using my speed,” Winterton had said heading into the game, discussing how the fourth line threesome complements one another. “They’re both pretty fast and they can hit me in stride and vice-versa.”

Trip Reaches Key Inflection Point

The welcomed results those first two games set the Kraken up nicely the rest of the trip.

After all, the Red Wings had been in first place much of last season, while the Capitals were also playoff positioned most of the way before barely missing as well. The Philadelphia Flyers made the playoffs and even won a round. Tampa Bay was one of the NHL’s best teams all season before Montreal beat them in a seven-game, first round upset. And the Florida Panthers are a consensus pick by many to win the Stanley Cup after enduring a rash of injuries last season coming off consecutive championships.

Not to mention, the Kraken had previously just opened their season with two away games, three matchups in four nights and four games in six days ahead of going back out on the road again. In other words, a rougher start and the trip could easily have gone 0-5-0.

But now, they were another victory from ensuring a winning trip record ahead of a looming two-game heavyweight set in the state of Florida if they could get by the Philadelphia Flyers.

This game would be pivotal in how the overall trip wound up perceived. Sure, the Flyers entered it a dismal 0-4-3 marking a franchise-worst start. But they’d been a playoff team months earlier. That’s why this game had “trap” written all over it, with the Flyers increasingly desperate.

In many ways, a contractually-mandated day off for the Kraken the Monday ahead of this Tuesday night start was inherently opportune. It was against Philadelphia that some costly in-game slowdowns became more prominent and grew as the long trip wore on.

Though they were still only two games into the trip’s five, they had already been on the road six days once the puck dropped at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The Flyers, as expected, came out with edge and started taking liberties in goalie Philipp Grubauer’s crease.

They grew even more desperate as McMann opened the scoring and then defenseman Ville Ottavainen made it 2-0 in the second period with the first goal of his NHL career. That brought the boo-birds out in force and caused the Flyers to crash the net more and jam away at Grubauer after he’d frozen pucks.

Flyers winger Trevor Zegras did that once too often and Grubauer went at him.

“All I did was punch him,” Grubauer said. “He stabbed me twice and I punched him back. I kind of thought it was funny but they couldn’t let it go.”

Zegras had been assessed a slashing penalty on the play and two minutes later, having stepped out of the penalty box, raced down the right side and fired a puck that Grubauer snared.

Grubauer said Zegras kept yapping and staring him down so the goalie slowly and theatrically underhanded the puck back towards him. Zegras immediately shot the puck back at Grubauer, then skated right up to the goalie, who shoved him hard.

“We love it,” McMann said of the Kraken netminder. “We love the passion.”

McMann would save the day with a game winning shootout goal after Philadelphia scored twice in the third period to tie the game. The Kraken had come out lethargically that final frame, their legs no longer as fast and energetic as earlier.

But as he and Joey Daccord would do throughout the trip, Grubauer kept his team in it. He’d made 15 first period stops and 37 on the night in Detroit. Then, against the Flyers, he faced 20 shots the final 40 minutes, most of them coming from about midway through the second period to halfway through the third.

Daccord had done his part against the Capitals as well, making 17 saves in the third period to help keep the game tied for McCann and Winterton to put it away.

In the end, the Kraken would get away with blowing the lead in Philadelphia thanks to two crucial shootout goals from Matty Beniers and McMann. Shootouts have never been a Kraken strong suit, so nobody cared about style points in escaping Philadelphia with the win.

The 3-0-0 record on the trip was what mattered and the Kraken had just guaranteed a winning record. They’d even briefly moved into a first place tie with the Vegas Golden Knights atop the Pacific Division.

“It’s the habits you want to build now,” McMann said of closing out a game in which the final period turned quickly. “Learn how to do that. Make sure it feels right. Make sure it feels normal to close out games when you have a one-or-two-goal lead. Those are the games you want to close out now so you’re doing it later on.”

The Kraken struggled at times late last season to secure two points – or any at all – in games they were leading in or tied late. Now, as they boarded their charter jet for a late night, postgame flight from Philadelphia to Tampa Bay, they did so knowing they’d bought themselves some breathing room.

And another much needed day off as Lambert canceled the next day’s practice. The Florida humidity was at 90% and palpable outside on the tarmac a few hours later as weary Kraken players stepped off their plane in early Wednesday morning darkness.

So, the chance to sleep in was one they relished.

They were a week into their journey. And nothing drains the legs and recovery more than repeated travel and excessive humidity.

Trying not to wilt in Florida

One day later, somewhat rested with the humidity again at 90% and the outside heat index at 101 degrees, the Kraken prepared for a matchup against the Lightning in another building they’d never won at in regulation. Their only two victories at Benchmark International Arena had come last March in overtime and three years prior in an extra session as well. 

They began this game well enough, with Gaudreau forechecking hard to steal a puck behind the net and dishing the puck out to Winterton for yet another fourth line goal. But from there, the Kraken’s legs deserted them.

The Lightning would get a pair of Brandon Hagel goals at first period’s end and early in the second period to grab the lead. In fact, from the span right after Winterton’s opening goal right up to when Hagel put the home team ahead, the Kraken were outshot 17-6 and needed Grubauer to save the day once again.

That he did, keeping things close enough as the Kraken regrouped and forced themselves to skate harder. McCann would end up tying the game on a third period power play. Then, after the Kraken nearly took the lead only to have goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy swat a puck away right before it crossed the goal line, the Lightning scored to go back in front.

But the Kraken didn’t wilt.

“I really liked our bench, our attitude,” alternate captain Beniers said. “Guys picking each other up.”

The Kraken kept going at the Lightning and it paid off, with Beniers deflecting home the tying goal off a Vince Dunn shot. It was the 200^th point of Beniers’ career. And though Victor Hedman would score the winner in an overtime dominated by Tampa Bay, the Kraken had emerged with an improbable point to improve to 3-0-1 on the trip.

“That's a good point for us to get,” head coach Lambert said. “Certainly, being down like that in the third period, still, you know, at the end of the day, you start getting into game, you know, day game four and day eight or nine of a road trip, and it starts to become fatiguing. I thought we had a little bit of fatigue tonight.”

Lambert’s words proved prophetic.

They boarded their charter yet again, this time for a shorter flight across the state. But humidity was still high when they touched down in Fort Lauderdale early Friday morning and would reach 94% that night as evening rain showers erupted.

By the time the Kraken took the ice Saturday night at Amerant Bank Arena in nearby Sunrise, Fla., a place they’d been very successful at during their franchise’s lifespan, they looked like a team running on fumes. When you’re on the road this long, mental fatigue can play as big a role as anything physical.

The Kraken decision-making and execution was off throughout the ensuing 8-3 loss to the Florida Panthers and that’s usually a byproduct of mental fatigue. They’d kept it close in the first period on a tying Shane Wright net-front goal off a nice Berkly Catton pass. But the Panthers got a pair right before period’s end and the Kraken had no response.

Still, they did in one way finish the trip as it began. With yet another fourth line goal, this one again from Gaudreau for his team-leading fifth of the season.

That fourth line production, seven goals and nine assists in five games, has helped give the Kraken arguably one of the NHL’s most balanced offensive attacks.

Wright’s goal made him the sixth Kraken player with three or more this season, tying them with Vegas for second most behind the seven players to do it for Colorado. The Kraken’s 11 players with at least two goals is also the league’s second highest total begin the 12 for Vegas.

Meanwhile, the Kraken’s 3-1-1 record on the trip allowed them to return home at 5-3-1 overall with the league’s No. 6 ranked offense averaging 3.78 goals per contest.

And that’s with having already played seven of their first nine games on the road. Now comes a stretch where six of the next seven will be at home starting Tuesday night against Detroit.

They’ve shown what they can do against some of the NHL’s better teams. And what they need to watch out for going forward.

Lambert hours before the Panthers game had offered some takeaways and observations about how the 10 days away from home had shaped his squad.

“I think we've done a pretty good job of, for the most part, starting games decently,” Lambert said. “I think our penalty kill's been good. Our power play's given us goals at certain opportunistic times – like they did the other night in Tampa.”

He added: “The one thing is, is you get on the road against some pretty good teams and there's a tendency for shot volume and scoring chances against to go up a little bit. We'd love to clean that up.”

That didn’t happen against the Panthers, who fired 37 more shots at Daccord. The Kraken entered with the third most shots allowed in the league. So indeed, despite the positive results,  plenty of work remains.

“It doesn't matter whether we're on a five game trip, a two game trip, we're at home, or we're out on the road,” Lambert said. “For me, we just have to be ready to play every night, and that's what I want to take away from this this trip is being prepared.”

They’ve bought time for that preparation and now can get home and regroup. Trips such as these can effectively end seasons real fast if things go wrong.

When they go mostly right, they can galvanize teams in terms of confidence and camaraderie. Gaudreau, at age 33, has played on plenty of teams where such trips improve the outlook on the remaining season ahead.

“When you go on the road right away like that early in the season, you get closer,” he said. “That’s our team. Everybody loves each other. Everybody wants to play with each other. And I think that’s the biggest takeaway: To keep doing it for one another and be that kind of team. That’s how we’re at our best.”

And for much of this 10-day experience now complete, they certainly were.