Ten for Team, Zeroes for Daccord

Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord nearly posted back-to-back shutouts, settling instead for beating his former NHL team and leading the way to the 10^th straight game in which Seattle has earned at least one point. It also marks a sixth straight win and an 8-0-2 record in the last 10 games. Daccord, with help from Chris Driedger, have surrendered just 13 goals over the 10 games and only a half dozen during what is now a six-game winning streak. No NHL team has been hotter over the last 10 games.

After winning a handful of one-goal games (2-1 was a familiar score that doesn’t bother Dave Hakstol and his systems of play even a little bit), the Kraken supplied multiple goals in front of Daccord, including another highlight-reel goal from recent trade acquisition Tomas Tatar and forward Andre Burakovsky’s first goal of the year (just his ninth game) and first since last February, when an injury wiped out the rest of his 2022-23 debut season with Seattle.

“That Tatar goal was a nice transition play and a great finish by him,” said Dave Hakstol post-game, calling it the most important goal of the night. “For ‘Burky, that's the type of play that helps continue getting him confident and feeling good about himself. It was really nice to see him finish that.”

Yanni Gourde scored the first goal with more simple but spectacular hustle and skills from his line that has been an improv trio since last Jan. 1. Vince Dunn scored his seventh goal of the year and added an assist to his team-leading total of 32 points.

The Kraken are now 16-14-9 ahead of an upcoming road trip that starts in Buffalo Tuesday, then stops in D.C., Columbus, Pittsburgh, and New York Rangers (back-to-back nights) and finishes a 10-day stanza in Edmonton.

158-Minute Man

By the time Kraken goalie Joey Daccord had stopped all 11 Ottawa shots in the first period here at Climate Pledge Arena Thursday night, it seemed time to start counting up the number of scoreless periods and minutes the 27-year-old rookie phenom (time to break out that description) had strung together.

Let’s see, Philadelphia scored the first goal of the game 16:21 into the first period of the Dec. 30 home game which the Kraken tied late and won in overtime. That 46-plus minutes of zeroes. Then there were 60 more minutes in the first-ever NHL Winter Classic shutout with Daccord making history and 35 saves.

Add two more periods Thursday against Ottawa, the team that drafted him, then left him unprotected in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. When Ottawa’s Parker Kelly scored with 7:40 left, Daccord’s franchise-record scoreless string of 158 minutes and thirty-five seconds ended.

Gourde Stuff

When Yanni Gourde scored Monday at the ballpark, his linemates were so happy for him. Kraken 2024 All-Star Game representative Oliver Bjorkstrand and fellow linemate Elli Tolvanen were grinning wider and yelling louder than Gourde himself, who was pumped himself. Just a couple of hockey buddies who know how many of their goals materialize from the dig-dig-dig mentality of Gourde. A fave moment from Monday: Gourde, by then on the Kraken bench, giving a thumbs-up to the crowd and viewers when the stadium camera focused on him.

That was Monday in the pleasant chill. Wednesday was back indoors, but the Winter Classic was so fun, Gourde, the two-time Stanley Cup winner and Seattle alternate captain picked up where the Kraken left off in SoDo, scoring on a rebound coming after a Tolvanen shot. Tolvanen’s shot was set up, by, wait for it, Gourde. And the whole scoring play was made possible by Bjorkstrand stealing the puck back on the forecheck (all-stars apparently do more than score and rack up statistics).

Gourde went 16 games without a goal then scored his fifth and sixth of the season in two consecutive periods across a pair of games. These days, the Kraken need all of the goals they can muster, so Gourde heating up would be most bienvenu.

Earlier Thursday, in a first interview after being named to the All-Star game, Bjorkstand the winning concept for the Gourde line was “keeping it simple” and relying on familiarity with the linemates that have been together pretty much every 5-on-5 since Tolvanen made his Kraken debut last Jan. 1 (and scoring a goal too). During a first intermission interview by ROOT Sports’ Piper Shaw, Gourde said hockey is a sport in which “you can overthink a little too much” and that he and his linemate were avoiding that (though they don’t skimp on ribbing each other, even on the bench during games)

The Kraken penalty killers were perfect again, snuffing four power plays against an Ottawa team with plenty of skill players. Daccord stopped seven shots across two early-game penalties that included some 5-on-3 time. The goalie heard the cheers but was quick to call out the shot blockers in front of him during the PK successes and even strength, naming Jared McCann, Jamie Oleksiak, and Will Borgen but saying there were more he was forgetting in the moment.

“Look at the way we've been playing as a team,” said Daccord. “A goalie can impact the game here and there. But for the most part, if my teammates are making my life easy, or whoever's playing [in goal], it really makes a huge difference."

“I mean, I can't even count how many guys had big blocks. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of guys and great sticks, great plays in the D-zone getting pucks out as a unit and just sticking to our structure. It's fun to see our guys play so well and get rewarded for it.”