Oh, Shoot: Kraken Fall in OT, Earn Standings Point

Saturday was full of drama, if not shots on goal. In regulation, the Kraken managed just 12 shots on goal, plus one in overtime, for 13 total, four fewer than the previous low of 17, recorded five times. But Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour (again) scored the two Kraken goals on that slim dozen to push this Third Jersey debut game into overtime. Seattle goalie Joey Daccord, who faced a more standard 27 shots, is another major reason why the Kraken still haven’t lost at home in regulation. The Kraken are now 3-0-2 at home and 5-2-4 overall. Chicago visits on Monday.

“We've got some things to work on, obviously, but if you look at it from a positive standpoint, that's six overtime games this year that we played in,” said Kraken head coach Lane Lambert. “We're understanding and getting a real good experience in what it means to play in situations where you never know what two or three seconds is going to win or lose you in the hockey game. That experience for a hockey team will be valuable. It's positive. I thought our guys battled.

“Yes, we wanted to shoot more. We thought we could do a better job of that, but certainly there was a lot of battle to our game. Give our guys credit for that. It wasn't an easy game for either team. They move the puck around pretty good on that team.”

Montour Scores Third Goal of Season – and Week

After an early-second period, the Kraken power play produced just one shot on goal, the home-squad Good Guys knotted the game at 2-2 when Kraken points leader Jaden Schwartz zipped a pass to the hottest hand on the team, defenseman Brandon Montour. The Kraken were cycling on the right side of the offensive zone with Vince Dunn starting the puck movement by passing to Chandler Stephenson, then exiting the ice. Stephenson pushed to Schwartz, who found Montour, who just entered play in place of Dunn. Next time you hear the great and future Hockey Hall of Famer John Forslund describe the Kraken, this goal is a perfect example.

It is Montour’s third goal of the season and, actually, his third goal of the week and, actually, his third goal in the last two games. He has three goals and two assists for five points in the three games since returning from a week-long family leave.

Slow Start Until Kraken Power Play Delivers

The visitors outpaced the Kraken from puck drop through the first 12 minutes here at Climate Pledge Arena. New York fired seven of the first nine shots on goal and opened the scoring when defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov scored on a long shot from the point that sailed high but handcuffed Daccord, who was trying to see his way around a netfront battle between Kraken fourth-line center Ben Meyers and Rangers center Sam Carrick.

“Maybe I got to watch it,” said Daccord when asked what he saw or didn’t see on the goal. “I don't know what happened. I think it was going over the net ... I just know it hit my stick, like way over the net. So just a fluky one. Sometimes those weird ones find a way in, and you just toss them in the garbage and move on.”

But when 19-year-old Berkly Catton drew a hooking penalty attempting to handle a high-slot pass from linemate Matty Beniers, the Seattle power play went to work and made quick work of the man-advantage undertaking. Controlling puck possession in the offensive zone, forward Eeli Tolvanen started the scoring play by playing catch with power play quarterback Vince Dunn before the D-man sent the puck left faceoff to Chandler Stephenson. Given time and space and seizing it, Stephenson wristed the puck upper right corner, far side on NYR star goalie Igor Shesterkin to tie the game and rouse a Saturday night crowded heavily speckled by fans wearing their newly purchased third jerseys with a menacing black theme and glow-in-the-dark numbers.

Unfortunately, the Rangers, 5-1-1 on the road before this matchup, answered with a goal-ahead goal just 61 seconds later, qualifying for the dreaded response goal. Rangers forward Will Cuylle from the left point just inside the blue line of the Kraken zone. The original shot Daccord kicked out, but the rebound caromed to incoming NYR forward Noah Laba, who scored his second NHL goal. The 22-year-old rookie and 2022 fourth-rounder was starring for NCAA Division I Colorado College this time last year. He played 11 games for the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack after his college season, then made the NYR roster out of training camp.

Special Teaming It
The Rangers get the first power play after a tripping call on D-man Josh Mahura, which the crowd didn’t like, nor did Mahura. His usual defensive partner, Jamie Oleksiak, blocked an early shot attempt before Joey Daccord stopped NYR sharpshooter Artemi Panarin twice on threatening shots. Later in the same shorthanded segment, Daccord made another necessary and quality save, this time on Rangers captain J.T. Miller. A couple of zone-clearing passes in the two minutes helped kill the penalty. Daccord was at it again when Shane Wright was whistled off for slashing mid-second period, stoning a fast-approaching and open Panarin yet again.

With 5.5 seconds left in the middle period, former Rangers defenseman and Kraken free-agent signed Ryan Lindgren was sent off for hooking. Daccord and the PK units, minus a valuable Lindgren, were charged with holding off another NYR power play. Mission accomplished with timely zone-clears, a Daccord save on Miller and Miller shooting on the best scoring chance of the soon-expired two minutes.

“The PK was great tonight,” said Daccord about the teammates in front of him. “It's an elite power play over there. All five [NYR] guys are incredibly highly skilled. I thought we did an awesome job tonight. We’ve got just to keep building on that momentum on our penalty kill moving forward.”

High-Danger Drought

In his remarks after Saturday’s morning skate, Lane Lambert expounded on the topic of high-danger chances, which is not a perfect statistic but does indicate the volume and frequency of shots allowed from the high slot area. The high slot is best described as the center lane of the defensive zone from the hash marks (protruding from the sides of the faceoff circles) out to the outermost reach of the faceoff circles. Per Natural Stat Trick, Seattle is top seven in allowing the fewest high-danger chances. The Rangers are part of that group, too.

Earlier this week, Lambert said he likes the way his penalty killers are performing, despite the basis stat of goals allowed ranking the PK units middle of the pack in the NHL. The Kraken head coach included overall high-danger chances when asked how he reconciles the elite work in preventing high-danger chances with pedestrian even-strength and power-play goals allowed.

“You can call it bad luck, misfortune, you can call it a few different things at the end of the day,” said Lambert. “If you believe in analytics and statistics, we're limiting the opposition's chances. We're at the top [level] of the league in those categories. You have to feel and trust that, eventually, it's going to turn around.

As it turned out, through the first 40 minutes of this tight affair, the Rangers had managed just three high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick, with the first goal from the point and finding its way high past Daccrod, being proof of the “bad luck” or misfortune.” The Kraken had just one high-danger chance in the first two periods, yet managed to score two goals on a total of just nine shots on goal. The Rangers added three more high-danger chances in the third period to make it six on the night.