Final Buzz: Kraken fall in first game against Golden Knights

This night didn't end with a storybook finish for the Kraken, but no fan should feel cheated or worried. The Seattle squad went toe-blade to toe-blade with one of the league's favorites to win the Pacific Division and Stanley Cup.

The Kraken dug in right to the end with Jordan Eberle ending the game how he and his linemates started the game - with a near-miss scoring chance. The film and analytics will show lots of positives from this game. There's reason to be excited about the rest of this five-game road trip - and the full season ahead.
"We will take a lot of good things we did and build on them," Dave Hakstol said during the post-game media availability. "We will try to fix one or two things but no more. We have short practice tomorrow, then get on a plane to get ready for Game 2 in Nashville."
Hakstol acknowledged that the last couple days of COVID protocol uncertainty was "a challenging last 40 hours for our group." He praised his team and likely believes it built chemistry through shared adversity (my words, not his): "That we were down three-nothing [in this building} and pushed back, it says a lot about sticking together. We're disappointed we didn't get the two points."
Geekie-ing Game 1
Breakout players come in all sizes and at every possible time and situation. Morgan Geekie broke into the national hockey conversation in a big way with his head (faking that he was looking to pass to a teammate) getting Vegas defenseman Zach Whitecloud to relax just enough that Geekie sniped a shot past goalie Robin Lehner in an upper near-side corner.
The shot stunned Lehner and even ESPN play-by-play man John Buccigross, who called something akin to "Holy Snike-kee, what a snipe from Geekie."
Geekie has caught the eye of everyone on this team and Kraken fans attending training camp at Kraken Community Iceplex. Now the rest of the country is on notice.
Bears repeating: Ron Francis drafted this guy twice. Geekie has good size and not afraid to by physical. He plays hard on both ends of the ice. Sound familiar?

Why We Play This Game
Watching the second period of this epic season opener is why hockey fans love the sport. Your team is down two goals despite a number of impressive shifts in the first period.
You outshot and outhit a final-four 2021 playoff team, so you take that into intermission.
Then you have to kill off two penalties in the first six minutes of the second period, which is accomplished primarily by PK specialists Riley Sheahan (extra gold star for him), Brandon Tanev, Adam Larsson and Jamie Oleksiak. Philipp Grubauer chips in big saves, including a couple rapid-fire, chaotic sequences.
Only to have the opponent score a third goal less than a minute after killing off those penalties. Not a good feeling.
Then Ryan Donato scores on a rebound off an aggressive deep-in-the-zone shot by defenseman Vince Dunn. It should be noted Donato's linemate, Joonas Donskoi, set up the Dunn shot.
Donato arrived in late-summer as a free-agent signing. He arrived in camp knowing he needed to be strong and tenacious in the 'heavy-traffic' area in front of the net. He's been doing that all preseason and now on a historic goal.

Just over a minute later, the Kraken top line of Jaden Schwartz-Jared McCann-Jordan Eberle made it a one-goal game on the strength of Eberle's playmaking.
The Kraken's two second-period goals looked like more than a few dozen observed in training camp practices and preseason games: Ryan Donato standing in the 'dirty' area in front of the net long enough to score on a rebound. Then the McCann line working passes for the best shot.
Philipp Grubauer made 17 saves in the second period, keeping his team close. That continued with a couple of big saves in the first six minutes of the final period. Vegas did hit a couple of posts in the period, but as pal John Forslund would say, "That's Kraken Hockey!"
Analytics with Alison: Deadline Edition
Kraken colleague Alison Lukan, who will be a frequent analyst for ROOT SPORTS this season in addition to game-day duties every game for our digital content report, is an "analytics storyteller" I have followed and admired for years. Now we get to work together - amazing.
An on top of that, she is sending some analytics notes for Final Buzz from Game 1 through 82 (and let's hope more). Good for all of us. Alison's points and notes from Tuesday's opener. You can thank me later:
For Openers: Just Missed
The early minutes of Tuesday's opening night for the Kraken went well and almost great. Veteran forward Jordan Eberle just missed making it 1-0 in the first minute, hitting the crossbar while getting knocked backward. Even so, the Kraken were clearly not intimidated by the Vegas crowd, pre-game hype or perhaps the NHL's best top-four defensemen.
Noteworthy Numbers
+ After two periods, the Kraken had won 56 percent of the game's faceoffs. That's a stellar number in this league.
+ Kraken forward Joonas Donskoi appeared in his 400th NHL game. Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo appeared in his 800th.
+ The two Kraken second-period goals were 69 seconds apart.
+ Vegas hit three goal posts Tuesday.

Roster Start to Finish
The day started with Seattle's 23-man active roster including young forwards Alexander True and Kole Lind (both called up from the Kraken's AHL affiliate Charlotte) and former Tampa Bay forward prospect Alex Barré-Boulet (claimed on waivers Monday).
The roster featured 13 forwards and eight defensemen along with the elite goalie tandem of Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger. But that forwards group did not include top-line center Jared McCann or Joonas Donskoi (the Kraken player with the most previous games against Vegas), nor veteran Jamie Oleksiak among the defensemen.
By 5 p.m., all three of those missing players had arrived in town and were soon enough inserted into the Tuesday lineup once they officially cleared the NHL's COVID protocol.