Adam Larsson “Super Skills” Cap Day Of Kraken Fun 

Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson didn’t pay much heed to talk ahead of the Kraken Super Skills Showcase about how his team randomly drawn by goalie Philipp Grubauer might be less offensively skilled than one coached by netminder Joey Daccord.

And despite trailing big after three of Saturday’s first four individual skills events, worth five points apiece, a Larsson-led comeback would indeed spark Team Grubi to a stunning victory. Larsson’s stickhandling in the Breakaway Challenge got the rally started and his sudden death shootout goal – albeit somewhat controversial – sealed a win for the ages by Team Grubi over Team Joey in front of about 8,500 fans at Climate Pledge Arena.

“I mean, it’s fun; the guys enjoy it,” Larsson said of the event after being picked as its de facto Most Valuable Player by players on both teams. “And today, we had a blast.”

Todd Humphrey, the Kraken’s senior vice president of digital innovation and fan experience, said the Super Skills Showcase – held every two seasons – gives season ticket holders and those who can’t ordinarily attend NHL games the chance to see players up close and even interact. The team restricted ticket sales to the lower bowl to give fans the closest possible view of the action.

“It’s always such a great, celebratory event,” Humphrey said. “You see people around taking pictures, players signing autographs and having fun. It’s just a real fun way for the team to connect with the fans.”

Proceeds from the event benefit youth programming at the Kraken Community Iceplex.

Larsson has scored a couple of breakaway goals in actual Kraken contests. He said he rarely gets the chance to practice such moves.

“No, no,” he said. “They’re just in there. I just need them (the Kraken) to actually put me out there in the right (game situation) spot.”

For his part, Team Joey coach Daccord wasn’t impressed by Larsson’s shootout winner – claiming the goal shouldn’t count because he’d moved backward ahead of putting it in the net in clear violation of NHL rules. Daccord tried lodging a somewhat tongue-in-cheek protest, but it was quickly shut down.

Earlier on, Daccord had more successfully protested that the scoreboard was erroneously crediting Team Grubi with 15 points to make the score 15-15 after three events instead of 15-5. The scoreboard was indeed corrected.

After Larsson’s heroics in the Breakaway Challenge – scoring on both attempts, including one that saw him make more than a dozen stickhandling moves – cut into Team Joey’s massive lead, Team Grubi won a 3-on-3 game worth 10 points by a 4-2 score. That knotted the event up at 15-15 and sent things to a sudden death shootout where Larsson again scored to end it.

Team Grubi forward Shane Wright, who had the day’s most dazzling goal with a puck-lifting, spin-around move during the Breakaway Challenge event, said Daccord’s moaning about Larsson’s winner was unfounded.

“It looked clean to me,” Wright said. “I didn’t see anything wrong. Joey’s just being a bit of a sore loser there. I don’t know, it looked good to me. I had no problems with it.”

Wright’s Team Grubi teammate, Jared McCann, earlier had shrugged off Daccord’s protests as well and suggested the goalie should get off the coaching bench and join players in the skills events next year. Regular Kraken goalies are limited to coaching from the sidelines during the event to protect them against injury. Daccord had mused during the week about asking Kraken general manager Ron Francis to let him partake in some skills events and try his luck shooting on goalies.

Wright was asked about McCann’s comments about Daccord playing in future competitions.

“Yeah, Joey wanted to come on, but apparently they didn’t let him,” Wright said. “Those were his words, not mine. If you’re asking me, I’d say Joey’s a little scared to get out there.”

Here's a full recap of the day’s events.

Accuracy Shooting: Players are given up to 45 seconds to successfully hit five shooting targets

Winner: Team Joey

Score: 5-0 for Team Joey

Eberle came away the winner here, though one of the targets he hit didn’t actually break. So, there was slight confusion when the clock stopped and he was deemed the winner for having hit all five.

For all his post-event chirping about how Joey Daccord seemed “a little scared to get out there” Shane Wright didn’t exactly appear confident before or during his last place showing in this event.

“It actually wasn’t my choice,” Wright told Kraken Hockey Network reporter Piper Shaw ahead of taking his shots. “I kind of just got selected for the event.”

Relay Race: Players stickhandle around cones and must shoot three pucks over an obstacle and into an empty mini net. They then must take a pass and shoot a puck down the ice and into an empty regular net before teammates can continue the relay.

Winner: Team Joey

Score: 10-0 for Team Joey

The inability of Andre Burakovsky and Yanni Gourde to quickly shoot their required three pucks into the empty mini net proved costly for Team Grubi. Burakovsky missed twice and nearly struck an on-ice attendant with his first attempt as she scrambled out of the way.

Gourde, however, missed the mini net on three occasions. He was at least a good sport about wearing thick GoPro glasses so viewers on social media would have a personalized view of his attempted shots.

KHN analyst JT Brown, providing commentary over the arena’s public address system, certainly had his own view of a bespectacled Gourde’s efforts.

“Better change the prescription on those glasses,” Brown quipped.

Hardest Shot: Players get scored on their hardest of two slap shots at an empty net, recorded in miles per hour by a radar gun.

Winner: Team Joey

Score: 15-0 for Team Joey

It was at this point Team Grubi fans were thinking about heading for the exits, given the blowout unfolding. Jamie Oleksiak is nobody’s vision of a power play “quarterback,” though he apparently got all of his 6-foot-7, 255 pounds into both shot attempts. Oleksiak’s second-best total of 100.7 mph still would have won the event for Team Joey over closest challenger Jared McCann.

Even the “Big Rig” himself seemed somewhat dumbfounded afterward about beating out known power play slapshot specialists.

“Canner and Tolvy, I think my money was on them,” Oleksiak told KHN reporter Piper Shaw of McCann and Eeli Tolvanen.

Breakaway Challenge: Players get two breakaway attempts on practice goalies, and the team with the most goals wins.

Score: 15-5 for Team Joey

This is where the tide finally turned for Team Grubi, as Shane Wright’s breakaway move of the day – lifting the puck on his stick and pulling off a spin-around move before firing it past the beleaguered goalie – put Team Grubi ahead to stay after Jordan Eberle had scored first for Team Joey followed by Adam Larsson tying it up.

“I’ve never done that before,” Wright confessed afterward. “I’ve been able to pick it up on my stick like that before. I do that all the time. But I’ve never done a spin around on a shot thing like that. I thought I might as well try it today and see how it goes.”

Wright mentioned he’d never dare try such a move in an actual game. “(Kraken coach) Dan (Bylsma) would kill me,” Wright said.

Naming his move is apparently still a work in progress: “I guess it’s kind of a Michigan Spin-o-rama Shot thing.”

From there, Andre Burakovsky and Yanni Gourde padded the Team Grubi lead in the second round of breakaways ahead of Larsson stunning the crowd with his second goal of the event. Larsson’s first goal had been a deke move of beauty. But his second goal was more borne of attrition as he moved sloth-like up the ice and stickhandled incessantly before the poor goalie in front of him seemingly collapsed from exhaustion at trying to keep track of where the puck actually was.

Controversy flared immediately following the event as the scoreboards showed a 15-15 tie instead of what should have been a 15-5 lead for Team Joey. That’s when Team Joey coach Joey Daccord spun into action. “I want a coach’s challenge here!” Daccord bellowed at KHN analyst Alison Lukan.

Daccord’s challenge held up proceedings for several moments as Team Grubi dejectedly saw what appeared to be its final chance – albeit an illegal one – taken away and the proper score displayed. But it wasn’t over for them just yet.

3-on-3 game (10 points): Two periods of five minutes each.

Winner: Team Grubi 4-2

Score: Team Joey and Team Grubi tied at 15-15

The star of this game was Team Joey, losing netminder Tyler Zetting, an actual Kraken accounting manager who has junior and college hockey experience and has served as an emergency backup goalie from the stands at some NHL contests. Under a constant barrage of Team Grubi fire, Zetting whipped out his glove to rob Matty Beniers of a point-blank attempt from the slot as the game wound down.

“That’s the save of the game,” KHN commentator JT Brown told the crowd. 

Indeed, Zetting was the only thing keeping Team Joey in a game they trailed 3-2 after Yanni Gourde’s go-ahead breakaway goal early in the second period. Goals by Will Borgen and Andre Burakovsky for Team Grubi in the opening period had been countered by strikes from Brandon Montour and then Jordan Eberle, the latter one a response marker coming just seconds before intermission.

But with Team Grubi desperately trying to stay alive in the overall competition, goalie Zetting couldn’t hold off Beniers and company forever. Beniers finally put things out of reach with a goal off a nice two-way passing sequence with Jared McCann to seal the 4-2 victory and even the day’s overall event score.

Sudden Death Shootout

As mentioned, this was the Adam Larsson Show after Shane Wright and Jordan Eberle both missed their sudden death breakaway attempts.

Larsson, as usual, wasn’t setting any speed records as he closed in on the goalie. But a series of deft stickhandling moves right at the doorstep – one of which appeared to carry the “Big Cat” backwards before he tucked the puck in the net – set off a victory celebration at the Team Grubi bench.

Team Joey coach Joey Daccord immediately let the entire arena know he felt Larsson had gone backwards and that the goal shouldn’t count. Amid the ensuing celebratory confusion, Oliver Bjorkstrand tried to take one final breakaway for Team Joey – no one really knows whether it would have counted had he scored – only to lose control of the puck.

Winning Team Grubi coach Philipp Grubauer took the high road in victory when asked about Daccord’s protests by KHN reporter Piper Shaw down at ice level. Grubauer passed up a chance to chirp back at Daccord and instead focused on his own team’s comeback.

“I didn’t think our scoreboard was working for the first times out,” Grubauer said. “We finally put up some points, so it worked out.”

As with most Kraken players, Grubauer told Shaw that Larsson was the obvious MVP. Grubauer then offered some advice for coach Dan Bylsma on how to use Larsson the next time the Kraken find themselves tied after overtime.

“I think he might go No. 1 in the next shootout,” Grubauer said.