Kraken Can't Achieve Goals, Fall to Avalanche In Home Opener, 4-1

PK Perfect, Goalie Grubauer Solid, But Seattle Drops to 0-3-1

Four games into an NHL season, you shouldn't be able to name all of a team's goal scorers off the top of your head.

Add Kailer Yamamoto to Jared McCann and Jaden Schwartz on the Seattle Kraken sparse goal-scoring honor roll - not enough, as the Kraken drop their home opener to the Colorado Avalanche at Climate Pledge Arena, 4-1.

For the fourth straight game, the Kraken couldn't convert glorious scoring chances and multiple power plays into results which count, falling to 0-3-1.

Colorado decided to extract retribution 1:20 into the game, but not for last season's playoff series loss. 

The Avs' Andrew Cogliano suffered a fractured neck when Jordan Eberle pushed him into the boards in last year's Game 6. Though Cogliano is in the lineup, Logan O'Connor was the designated payback-er when Eberle takes his first shift. Both take fighting majors.

Another Kraken grade-A goes for naught when an inexplicably wide open Jaden Schwartz waits for Colorado goalie Alexandar Georgiev to make the first move. When Georgiev doesn't, Schwartz shoots the puck into him.

Later, Andre Burakovsky fires wide on a 2-on-1 with Eeli Tolvanen.

Philipp Grubauer, who as a Kraken has played his best against former Avs teammates, makes fine stops on a Nathan MacKinnon tip try and a blast by Fredrik Olofsson.

The 4th line coach Dave Hakstol has praised for their energetic play breaks the drought. Tye Kartye is stopped point-blank, but Kailer Yamamoto takes a Vince Dunn pass, and from a severe angle to the left of the goal beats Georgiev. 1-0 Seattle at 15:09, with Dunn drawing the assist.

Obligitory mention: It's the first goal ever scored by a native-Washingtonian Kraken player; Yamamoto, who signed over the summer as a free agent, hails from Spokane and played in the WHL with the Spokane Chiefs.

What's more, his goal produced the first lead for the Kraken all season.

Shots: Seattle 16, Colorado 9.

The Kraken begin the period with fresh ice and 1:47 remaining on Ross Colton's penalty for tripping Brian Dumoulin.

The Kraken don't score, nor do they on Josh Manson's trip of Yanni Gourde at 8:13. Thirteen seconds after that penalty expires, Colorado's MacKinnon is whistled for interference.

This third Kraken power play proves dangerous - to Seattle. First, an errant puck hits assistant coach Dave Lowry on the Kraken bench, and he heads down the tunnel for repairs.

Moments later, O'Connor converts a shorthanded breakaway when Vince Dunn can't corral a Colorado clear at center ice. 2-1 Avs at 11:50, with assists to Cale Makar and Devon Toews. 

Colorado's Artturi Lehkonen had earlier tied the game 1-1, unassisted  at 3:50.

While still a man short, Lehkonen almost scored again (see photo at right), simultaneously knocking the puck into Grubauer and Justin Schultz's stick into the end boards.

At the other end, the Kraken kill off a Schultz slash of Ross Colton and a Jamie Oleksiak hold of Mikko Rantanen. Seattle improved to 13-for-13 shorthanded on the season.

Given the Kraken's scoring issues, Grubauer makes perhaps a game-saving block when Samuel Girard walks down the slot like he had a VIP red carpet pass.

Shots in the middle 20 are 14-6 Seattle, 30-15 for the game. But the Kraken are 1-10 so far on the "power" play through 3 2/3 games, and have surrendered two shorthanded goals.

C'mon, Hockey Gods!

Stop me if you've heard this before. Seattle's opponent takes a penalty (Andrew Cogliano, hooking at 2:47), and the Kraken don't score.

Mikko Rantanen, who torched Seattle in last year's playoffs, beat Grubauer under the bar at 13:45 to increase Colorado's lead to 3-1. (Assists: Girard and Cogliano.) With the dearth of Kraken scoring, that two goal deficit-hill might as well be the Rocky Mountains.

Valeri Nichushkin's empty-netter finalized the score at 4-1 for Colorado. The Kraken have scored one goal on their 11 power play chances, and three goals total in four games.

Cold comfort: Seattle won the SOG battle 38-28, and 58% of faceoffs. Grubauer had a third straight strong performance, and the Kraken penalty kill remains undented.

The elusive search for scoring, and a victory, doesn't get any easier. The now 0-3-1 Kraken face the Carolina Hurricanes Thursday in the second of a three-game homestand.