Defending Cup Champions Raise Banner, Lower Boom On Seattle
Editor's Note: Our Kraken Reaction video package with dressing room sound and analysis drops at 1 pm Pacific time.
The Seattle Kraken had to wait until 8:16 Pacific time Tuesday to finally start their season, after the Vegas Golden Knights finished their Stanley Cup banner-raising ceremony.
The wait wasn't worth it. Seattle fell 4-1 inside a party-hearty T-Mobile Arena. Despite the Kraken doing a lot of things right, the defending champs did more.
1st Period
Seattle, which held the early territorial advantage, forced two Vegas penalties in the game's first 8:45. A national ESPN audience would get to see if coach Dave Hakstol was justified pregame when he bristled, "Everybody wants to crap all over our power play."
The Kraken's first PP deserved that bovine comparison, with zero shots and six Vegas clears. The second PP also came up empty, though significantly more polished (3 SOG).
Vegas' first shot on net went in the net at 7:16. Flying down the wing, Chandler Stephenson got behind new Kraken defenseman Brian Dumoulin and redirected a saucer pass past Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer.
Vegas doubled its lead to 2-0 on what appeared to be an own-goal by Seattle's Brandon Tanev. Replays showed that Tanev's attempt to clear the slot - still ill-advised - would have slid wide of the left post. Jonathan Marchessault reached his stick in to deflect the puck past a surprised Grubauer.
It deserves mention that on shots actually taken by the opponents, Grubauer made fine saves to keep the deficit from ballooning. Seattle led in shots 12-10, although they didn't have one for the final six minutes of the period.
2nd Period
Seattle's top defense pair, Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn, were victimized by an Ivan Barbashev breakaway at 1:20. Dunn trailed in vain as Barbashev increased the champs' lead to 3-0.
Before the game, Dunn wouldn't disclose the nature of his pre-season injury, which made his appearances scarce for the latter portion of training camp. He shared only that it was "nothing major," and an ailment he'd been dealing with since before the start of training camp.
The Kraken finally pierced Vegas goalie Adin Hill on a rare fortunate bounce at 8:19. From behind the Vegas net, Jordan Eberle's pass pinballed off Marchessault. Jared McCann was the grateful recipient, and from the slot, last year's 40-goal man reduced the Kraken deficit to 3-1.
On the first Vegas power play, Grubauer stoned Mark Stone from in close. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, a free agent signing this summer, showed his value as a penalty-killing specialist; Bellemare was stung blocking a Shea Theodore drive, but made the clear.
A third Seattle power play yielded 1:23 of zone time, and a second Vegas PP recorded two shots on goal, but neither man advantage altered the 3-1 Golden Knights lead after two periods.
Shots through 40 favored Seattle, 23-21. Though Vegas again went a 7+ minute stretch without a shot, they edged the Kraken in the middle frame, 11-10. Of more concern to the visitors is that to this point, they've won just 38% of faceoffs.
3rd Period
Brandon Tanev's tough night got tougher six minutes in, when Brett Howden leveled "Turbo" with a puck-not-in-the-vicinity hit to the head. Tanev remained prone on the ice as trainers attended to him, and another minute up on one knee, before exiting for the night.
Howden exited too, assessed a match penalty, resulting in a five-minute power play for the Kraken which would continue regardless of how many times they scored. In what became the key portion of the game, Seattle couldn't score at all.
Seattle's best scoring chances came in the first 20 seconds of the man advantage. Eberle directed a pass to the crease, looking for a tip from either McCann or Matty Beniers.
As goaltender Hill sprawled on the ice, his crease became more congested than the Las Vegas Strip. Not only Hill, but three Vegas defenders, plus Beniers and McCann, seemed velcroed together in the pile-up.
With no one left to cover him, Eberle skated the puck unobstructed into the slot, and tried to backhand a shot above the carnage. It was blocked.
After surrendering the first five SOG of the period, the Kraken responded with 10 of the next 11. With six minutes left, Hill denied Beniers and Eberle on back-to-back wide open looks.
The Kraken killed two late Vegas power plays; both teams finished 0-4 with the extra man. Seattle also couldn't score after pulling Grubauer, and Jack Eichel's empty-netter at 18:45 finalized the score at 4-1 Vegas.
Postgame
Shots were 10-7 Seattle in the 3rd, 33-28 for the game. However, they won just 41% of faceoffs. More than anything else, what doomed them was inability to finish.
They'll get another chance in the middle game of this season-opening three game road trip, Thursday night in Nashville.
