Clearing the Way

Thursday’s final score of 4-1 Kraken over Ottawa appears a comfortable win to make it 10 straight games with at least one standings point and six straight wins, the team squarely back in playoff contention. But there was no such comfort level during the early moments of the first period.

The Kraken penalty killers were marking opponents and doing their usual stellar job of keeping shots to the outer lanes when possible, blocking shots but also giving goalie Joey Daccord sightlines to the puck. But Ottawa was pressuring, getting three good looks that forced a trio of quality saves by Daccord. He made seven saves all told in a near-four-minute game stretch that included some 5-on-3 time with penalty-killer extraordinaire Adam Larsson and fellow killer Jared McCann in the box with overlapping two-minute minors.

So, seemingly, standard operating PK procedure: “Your best penalty killer is your goaltender,” said fill-in-the-blank with coach or player ID. Not so fast. After the aforementioned flurry of three Ottawa shots and saves in a half-minute of play, the puck squirted toward the goal crease from the left corner.

Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak was net-front and primed to send the puck somewhere safe, but then in a did-he-really-just-do-that moment interrupted the usual standard operating procedure. Daccord stepped between trusty D-man and puck, backhanding and lifting a shot that cleared the Kraken zone and traveled all the way to the Ottawa goal line. The home crowd roared and more than a few media members were simultaneously smiling and shaking their heads. Dave Hakstol was doing the same during a post-game media scrum, talking about that particular “clear.” And make no mistake: Hakstol is always happy to talk about clears while spreading the praise around for his PK units. This one stood out.

“That was a heck of a play,” said Dave Hakstol. “There are certain plays that have some risk to them, that’s a great skill and the right play, at the right time.”

There’s been a lot of “right time” in Daccord’s game performances as of late: His .958 save percentage in the nine games he’s played during the point streak (his record is 7-0-2) and 1.31 goals-against average leads the NHL for any goaltender who has started at least three games of the last 10. He’s posted two shutouts (the first-ever for a Winter Classic) and allowed just 12 goals in that stretch.

Daccord has bumped his season save percentage to .922 over 24 games. He’s already double the 19 previous NHL games in which he’s played. Perhaps most tellingly, his teammates and head coach bring up his big saves usually before the media even ask a specific question about the 27-year-old rookie goaltender.

For his part, Daccord never finishes any media availability without praising the shot blockers (Oleksiak is top 15 in the league and leads the Kraken with 92, with Larsson, Will Borgen, Alex Wennberg, and Eeli Tolavene top five) and thanking all teammates for allowing him to see the puck. He jokes with reporters about that clear (“I was thinking this better work”) and couldn’t use “grateful” enough when talking about the wonders of posting a shutout in front of 47,000-plus fans on Jan. 1.

Daccord's hockey odyssey is a feel-good story, no doubt, one he shares daily with both his long-time goalie coach father, Brian, who mentors all levels of goalies and currently oversees the position at Boston University, and his mom, Swiss-born Daniela (“I talk to both of them pretty much every day, my dad and I always talks goaltending after each game, but I actually talk with my mom more, just touching base.”

That feel-good part of Daccord’s NHL storyline now happily extends to all people Kraken. The “Joey! Joey!” crowd chants have traveled first-class from last season in Coachella Valley straight to the 100s and 200s at Climate Pledge Arena. For a brief, whimsical snapshot of Daccord’s itinerary of the long journey from USHL to NCAA to ECHL to AHL to NHL backup to “everyday goalie” (Dave Hakstol’s words) consider this lots-where-these-came-from sampling of “Daccord Dispatches” as the team heads out on the road for a six-game trip:

Last season: With the team as a backup while Philipp Grubauer is on the injured list:

“One memorable post-practice session included Daccord and new goalie coach Steve Briere doing their version of a goalie hug with Daccord in net and Briere as a stand-in defenseman “won” a shooting drill with skaters bearing down on Briere, then trying to beat Daccord. No one was left watching at Kraken Community Iceplex but no matter, Daccord was pumped yet lighthearted. It’s a common thread for Daccord, the teammate and person.”

Words from reliable sources about Daccord, puck-mover:

“He gets the puck moving right away,” said Kraken analyst JT Brown, who blocked shots frequently during his seven NHL seasons. “You don’t always want to take a whistle by ‘freezing’ the puck. It can slow the game down when needed, but that means a pending faceoff in the defensive zone.”

“He moves the puck forward,” said Adam Larsson last year after a big win over Dallas. “You don't see that a whole lot in this league. It's a skill for goalies to have and it's a very underrated skill. I think that kind of cuts out a couple of minutes in D-zone [defensive zone] every night if gets the puck up ice quick.”

Lessons from Dad: Excerpt from a story of the late, greatly missed Kraken colleague Andy Eide:

Daccord grew up in Massachusetts but played college hockey in the desert at Arizona State University after being drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 2015. In his final season with the Sun Devils in 2018-2019 he was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award (NCAA Player of the Year) and the Mike Richter Award (top goaltender). He signed with the Senators that same year, becoming the first Arizona State player to sign a pro contract. He was also the second-ever player to commit to the then-fledgling, now NCAA top 20 Sun Devils.

His father, Brian, played goalie, has written books on goaltending, and is the goaltending coach at Boston University. Joey grew up around the game and the position. He has mastered the mental aspect of putting on the pads.

“I think the biggest thing is just always falling back to what makes me play well, and what makes me successful through all the chaos,” Daccord said. “I always come up with some sort of performance statement."

“Which means three things I like to kind of recite to myself during the game. The mind likes to wander, whether you're working at a desk or playing hockey, it doesn't really matter. The mind likes to wander. For me, anytime I can just have a little performance statement to reset during the game and just re-focus, that's usually what I try to do.”

‘Uh, Dad, Mom, About the Basement ...’ :

Saturday afternoon, before a nighttime team gala to fete One Roof Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena, Daccord was talking trash about his own shooting accuracy, which he was tempted to put to a test last Monday at the Mariners ballpark with a Vegas empty net but couldn’t settle the puck.

“I practiced shooting a lot as a kid,” said Daccord, “I shot the puck like a skater, not even a goalie, in our basement in our house [back in the Boston area]. “My parents had to redo the basement once I grew up because I put holes in the wall from missing the net so much. I had a shooting station in the basement and a little shooting mat. I would just shoot and stickhandle for hours. Honestly, I did it just because I thought it was fun, not necessarily because I was thinking it would help me much in my hockey career. Then it kind of translated as I got older.”