Final Buzzer: Not a Calendar Highlight

Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer circled Nov. 19 on the calendar from the first day of the NHL free agency period when he signed with Seattle and left his No. 1 role for the Colorado Avalanche. But the date to outduel his ex-teammates now pushes to a Jan. 10 road game at Colorado.

That's because fellow goalie Chris Driedger started for the second time in this young-but-getting-sorta-late-in-some-ways season. He is coming back from an early season knee injury.
Five minutes into the second period, Driedger was replaced by Grubauer, who didn't have subbing in with a 4-0 Colorado lead in mind when he marked up that calendar. Grubauer surrendered three goals himself in the 7-3 final.
It gets a bit worse. The winning goaltender for Colorado, Darcy Kuemper, is Grubauer's replacement on a team that is now 8-5-1 and on a four-game winning streak, all wins without superstar center Nathan MacKinnon.

Another Fitful Start

The fast start Kraken players and fans wanted Friday night didn't materialize. The Kraken carried play the first several shifts, drawing "ohhhs" from the crowd on a good handful of early potential scoring chances.
But a tripping penalty called on Kraken forward Ryan Donato kickstarted a Colorado power play that sent the night into a decidedly wrong direction. Andre Burakovsky scored in the man-advantage situation when Driedger made a solid first save, the puck pinballing a bit on the rebound.
Kraken penalty killer Yanni Gourde inadvertently swiped the puck directly to the stick blade of Burakovsky, who jammed the puck past Driedger just four minutes into the game.
A minute later, Seattle was awarded its first power play. But Colorado struck for a goal instead when Valeri Nichushkin scored the Avalanche's league-leading fourth shorthanded goal of the season. Six minutes in, the Kraken was staring at a two-goal deficit.
Mid-period, Jaden Schwartz hit the crossbar on a breakaway that could have halved the lead and shook up the momentum of this game.

Fan Appreciation

It must be said: A dreadful night for all phases of the Kraken offensive and defensive play didn't significantly dampen the enthusiasm of the 17,151 Climate Pledge Arena fans. They broke out into a half-dozen spontaneous "Let's Go Kraken" chants in the second and third periods when the goal margin mounted.
Grubauer made any number of saves, some routine and others Grade-A, that elicited the "Gruuuu" response. Like a seasoned hockey crowd, the cheers were highly audible and appreciative when the Kraken killed a power play when the score was still 2-0 late in the first period.
The fans' resilience and Seattle-worthy decibel levels found paydirt in the third period with a pair of power play goals, one by Jordan Eberle, now at nine goals for the season in 17 games.
The other goal came on a rebound shot from Brandon Tanev, who scored his seventh goal of the year. Tanev's last goal was Oct. 28. Both goals came on the power play.
"It was good to see the power play come out and execute," coach Dave Hakstol said. "Biggest part it gave our fans the opportunity to enjoy the third period. "That's pretty special when they're still into it as much as they were in the third period. Our players can be proud of showing that effort in a difficult spot."
Colin Blackwell scored the third and final Kraken goal with his first of the season. It was his third game back from the injury list he'd been on since training camp. The crowd roared hard on all three goals.

Newcomers to the arena and Kraken games did get to enjoy that Washington State ferry horn at mega-volume and likely made their own memories walking the arena concourses, snapping selfies at the Climate Pledge living wall, sampling the foods from local purveyors and in-house under direction of executive chef Molly Demers.
But for a Kraken squad of players and coaches on a six-game losing streak, the night was mostly one to forget or keep in the craw for motivation or both.
"We're all frustrated," said Jordan Eberle, sounding like the alternate captain he is during the post-game media scrum. "We all love being here. We all love Seattle and want to do well for the city and build a culture to win. We have to find urgency early in the game."
"We don't want to forget it," said Hakstol, before first evaluating "what put us on our heels in the second period."

Playing from Behind

Call it slow or fitful starts or even "50-50" (Hakstol's term for some starts), the Kraken have trailed by at least a goal in more than half their games after the first period. Key figures from Hakstol to captain Mark Giordano to leading goal scorer Eberle have all emphasized it's hard to play from behind in this league.
Proof is in the statistics: The Kraken are now 0-9 in games when trailing after the first period. They're come back to make games close but not to get any standings points in the form of regulation victories or overtime losses. Friday didn't buck the trend.
Colorado is now 7-0 in games when leading after the first 20 minutes.

Sub-Par Second Period

The Kraken have turned in a multitude of strong second periods so far this campaign. Friday night was not one of them.
Hakstol said he thought the Kraken were "competitively engaged" in the first period, despite the two-goal deficit.
"We got away from it in the second period," the Kraken coach said.
When asked about Driedger's start and Grubauer's relief job, Hakstol preferred to focus on Driedger. He didn't fault the former Florida Panthers goalie on the first goal, noting without names that Gourde trying to strip the puck sent it right to the Colorado goal scorer instead.
But the next three goals drew analysis from Hakstol. He said Driedger was having trouble "finding his angles" and those are shots "where he needs to stay big" to make a key save.
Colorado poured it on with four goals during the 20 minutes, starting with a Cale Makar shot the official scorer said was tipped by Mikko Rantanen but later switched the credit back to Makar.
Burakovsky scored his second power-play goal of the night two-plus minutes later. Then Makar, one of the league's elite defensemen at 23, scored his sixth goal of the year to make it 5-0.
Makar's second goal was the first one surrendered by Grubauer. Defenseman Erik Johnson, 33 and playing his 12th season for the Avs, scored to make it a 6-0 rout after 40 minutes.

Silver-Lining Department

Some footholds as the Kraken climb the NHL standings rock-wall:
+ Young Kraken D-man Jeremy Lauzon continues to play solid defense, check hard and gain confidence carrying the puck up ice. He is playing top-pair type minutes no matter who his partner on the blue line (Saturday it was Jamie Oleksiak).