Kraken Find The ‘Special’ In Their Special Teams 

It had become increasingly obvious to a Kraken squad in search of goals and wins that putting the “special” back in their special teams would play a decisive role.

No team is ever perfect on power plays or penalty kills. But it’s tough to stay in playoff contention, as the Kraken still very much are, with a penalty kill ranked last in the league and a power play sinking toward the bottom third. So, they set out to do something about it, working in practices at simplifying their approach to both.

Signs of improvement began popping up this past week, but it wasn’t until Wednesday night’s overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings that special teams played a key enough role to propel the Kraken to victory again. Three power play goals – accounting for all three Kraken scores – and some timely penalty kills gave them just the edge needed to snap a six-game losing streak.

And hopefully get this 12-10-6 season back on-track.

“I love our attack right now,” Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn, who factored in on all three goals, said of the power play unit. “I think we’re just throwing everything at the net. It’s disappointing when it gets blocked. But I think that maybe changes the way they’ll see us when we get in front of them. And makes them not feel so good when they know we’re not just going to pass it around and look for the highlight reel seams and things like that.”

Dunn added that such simplicity was key to the first two Kraken goals by Jared McCann in the second period and then Matty Beniers with 25 seconds to go in regulation.

“There’s not much to it,” Dunn said. “It’s throwing the puck to where guys are going to the net, and you know eventually it’s going to go in for us.”

Even Dunn’s overtime winner on a slapper from above the right faceoff circle was rooted in simplicity.

“It’s not anything special drawn up,” Dunn said. “It’s just taking the shot that’s there and hoping good things happen.”

In all, the Kraken fired an impressive 33 shots at Anton Forsberg, a veteran netminder who’d had their number dating back two years. He’d stopped 69 shots in a row by the Kraken over a stretch of seven-plus periods ahead of McCann’s power play goal, including back-to-back shutouts while still playing for the Ottawa Senators.

But as Dunn said, keep putting pucks to the net and eventually some of them will find a way in.

The penalty kill needed some help in the opposite direction, having allowed goals in seven of the prior eight opportunities coming out of last weekend’s home game against Detroit. The Kraken worked on it in practice Sunday, changing their alignment slightly and getting back to basics.

It worked Monday against Minnesota, when the Kraken fended off all three power play chances for the Wild. And it was successful on most of the five chances for the Kings on Wednesday, except for when Ryker Evans took a late double-minor for high-sticking.

The Kings scored on the first of those when Kevin Fiala got in alone on Joey Daccord and scored a go-ahead goal with under five minutes to go. But lost in the furious end-of-game rally by the Kraken was that they still had the second Evans minor penalty to kill off with only minutes to go.

“You’ll notice our PK changed a little bit, too,” Dunn said of the altered penalty kill structure. “And you know, stuff happens. They get the breakaway – it’s an elite play by them and we’ll live with those sometimes. But I thought that right then we bounced right back. We got a good kill to finish it off and then we get a lucky power play at the end to get back in it.”

Earlier in the day, Kraken head coach Lane Lambert addressed the penalty kill changes.

“We’ve made some adjustments to the kill, we’ve done it on-the-fly,” Lambert said. “And we really, in my mind, didn’t have an option but to do that. It wasn’t going the way we wanted it to go.

“So, we made some adjustments. We’re still kind of working on it on-the-fly, but there were certainly some areas I thought we were better in and pressure was one,”

Speaking in broad strokes about the changes, Lambert said that, as with the power play, simplicity was again key.

“We’re simplifying some of the reads for our forwards is probably the best way to put it.”

As mentioned, special teams are rarely perfect and perfection was not attained by the Kraken this time around either.

Lambert had said pregame that the Kraken had given up shorthanded breakaways three games in a row and it had to stop. Clearly, as evidenced by a shorthanded Alex Laferriere breakaway goal that tied it 1-1 in the second period, it did not stop.

The issue began cropping up in last week’s road game in Edmonton when Matt Savoie scored a key marker in identical fashion. The Oilers had multiple shorthanded chances at breakaways that game, another one thwarted by a Brandon Montour slashing penalty that negated the remainder of a Kraken power play.

Then, while shorthanded themselves, they also had Fiala get in alone for the go-ahead third period goal.

So, all has not been instantly cured by the lone victory.

The difference this time was, the three Kraken power play goals negated the one shorthanded marker. And the key penalty kill after Fiala’s man advantage breakaway helped offset the defensive breakdown on that.

It can also be noted that the Kraken haven’t scored an even-strength goal in roughly 7 ½ periods since Chandler Stephenson’s marker midway through the Detroit game last Saturday. And yes, the Kraken must start scoring more both at even strength and on the power play.

But they managed enough in this game to defeat the Kings and start making up standings points while they work on the rest. The Kraken have played fewer games than any other Pacific Division team ahead of them and anytime they snag points on those games-in-hand it gets them closer to playoff positioning.

They are currently only two points behind the Oilers for the final Western Conference playoff spot with two games in-hand. Officially now more than one third of the way into their schedule, the Kraken, for all their struggles, are still right there.

And that means any upgrade room left to fill will certainly help. Including, of course, keeping those special teams special.