VANCOUVER, BC - In their second pre-season game, the Kraken headed north to Vancouver to face off against the Canucks. These are two teams that want to play faster this coming season and you could feel that from the first drop of the puck. Seattle generated seven of the first ten shot attempts and was effective at jumping on loose pucks as both teams looked to add speed through the pass.
Both teams also brought a tenacity to their games. There was the physicality you’d expect from John Hayden and Brandon Tanev – both of whom got into skirmishes as the primary or secondary aggressor. And the Kraken showed pushback against an aggressive Canucks squad.
When play was at even strength, the Kraken had the advantage in both shot quantity (55%) and quality (59.6%), and Andre Burakovsky (second in individual shot quality) and Brandon Montour (most shot attempts) both made their Kraken pre-season debuts.
But multiple penalties limited that even strength time for the Kraken, and while Ben Meyers would add a goal at the top of the third period, the Kraken were unable to find the equalizer and fell 2-1 in Vancouver.
“At even strength. I thought there was a lot of good from our team, both in where we played and how we played,” head coach Dan Bylsma said. “Just going north and quick and getting to the offensive zone…had a few chances there, throughout the lineup. Five on five, it was a pretty good game from us.
“Pre-season is a time to take some penalties so you can get on the penalty kill; you only really get those reps live in a game. But too many from us tonight. . . At the end of the day, they score the two power-play goals, and that's the difference in the game.”
How did it all go down? Let’s dig in.
Man in the Box
As to the aforementioned penalties, in the opening period, Hayden challenged Mark Friedman after the Canucks crashed in on Joey Daccord after a save. Less than two minutes later, Vilmer Alriksson had Hayden answer in a scrum, and both headed to the box for fighting.
Hayden wasn’t the only Kraken to take a penalty. At the same time, Seattle was called for what would be the first of two too-many-men penalties and that window of opportunity allowed the Canucks offense to build momentum.
Seattle survived the first penalty kill, but the second, which came seven minutes later on a Ty Nelson cross-check, allowed Vancouver to get on the board. Brandon Tanev challenged Nils Hoglander for the takeaway at the blue line but Vancouver was able to maintain possession and move the puck low where Linus Karlsson was able to feed Hoglander in the slot for the first goal of the game.
The first period ended 1-0 Canucks.
Short Work
The Kraken penalty kill got more time in the second, with three penalties called in the course of play. Tanev, Yanni Gourde, Borgen, and Jamie Oleksiak, backstopped by Joey Daccord, took on the bulk of the work and survived the first two penalties before Daccord was dinged for handling the puck in the restricted zone (for newer fans, rule 27.8 states that a goaltender can’t play the puck outside of the designated area (the trapezoid) behind the net).
The Canucks power play moved the puck with speed from low in the zone up the left flank before a quick give-and-go between Filip Hronek and Brock Boeser at the top of the zone set up Hronek for a long shot that beat Daccord setting the score at 2-0.
“There's some mistakes that were made,” Gourde said. “At least we get some good reps, but we got tired at some point during the second period.”
