Kraken Make Statement in VAN

Seattle veteran Jordan Eberle said earlier this week that his team’s route to success is “win by committee.” Saturday’s night subcommittee of goal scorers included Eberle (second goal of the season), Jamie Oleksiak (first of the year), Yanni Gourde (third of the season) and Matty Beniers (second in last two games). That’s depth-scoring personified.

The foursome fueled a thrilling 4-3 road victory over rival Vancouver in the first of four straight Pacific Division games between now and Friday for the Kraken when Vancouver travels down to Climate Pledge Arena. On top of their goals, Eberle added two assists, including one centering pass on his knees to Beniers for the fourth goal. Beniers earned an assist on the Oleksiak goal, deploying a pretty and heads-up skill play to set up the big defenseman. Eberle now has a four-game point streak (one goal, five assists).

“More than not, we have found ways to lose games,” said Eberle, speaking like the team leader he is. “We've been in almost every game with the exception of a few in which we haven't played well. We've just found ways to lose. This group has a lot of character here a lot of guys who care.

“You look at how many shot blocks we had tonight. Guys are paying a toll. Those are the little things that maybe go unnoticed.”

Dropping the Canucks From Regulation Perfection

Vancouver entered Saturday’s game in B.C. flying high with the second-best record in the Western Conference on the strength of three players leading the league in scoring with 27 points each. That would be defenseman Quinn Hughes and forwards J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson, the first two of whom scored in this division matchup. Perhaps a bit overlooked is the Canucks standing as a top team in preventing goals allowed, backstopped by goalie Thatcher Demko. It all added up to a challenging contest for the Kraken.

Consider that challenge met and then some, with significant contributions from Philipp Grubauer making pivotal saves (plus help from one late third-period post to keep it 4-2) and the Kraken penaltykillers holding off a mid-third-period power play (rookie Tye Kartye was breathing easier exiting the penalty box and Kraken play-by-play man John Forslund called it “the penalty kill of the year”).

The entire night had all the feeling of a statement game for Seattle, showing up with an all-out effort throughout the three periods, featuring aggressive play and lots of net-front presence even after Beniers put up his team, 4-2, with the eventual game-winner.

Marring Vancouver’s Perfect Mark

The Kraken are the first team to defeat Vancouver in regulation at home in the Canucks’ first eight games at Rogers Arena. Vancouver did make Kraken fans hold their collective breaths when Vancouver scored with 10 seconds remaining.

One center-ice faceoff and threatening Vancouver shot (tipping off Grubauer’s glove before it exited the playing area over the glass) didn’t help the oxygen intake. But the final 5.9 seconds played out without incident (though it required one Adam Larsson block of a shot attempt).

First SEA Goal is Rigged

Seattle D-man Jamie Oleksiak has quietly been turning in elite performances night in and night out this season. He and partner Will Borgen have been routinely drawing assignments against opponents’ top forward line, ranking in the top 15 in defensive analytics categories among all NHL pairs. For his part, the 6-foot-7 Oleksiak has been doling out the hits, too, along with noticeably joining the offensive rush.

In the second period Saturday, Oleksiak and Matty Beniers worked an impromptu Beniers-give-and-Oleksiak-go to tie up this contest between evenly matched teams on this night, even if Vancouver started the game nine points ahead of Seattle in the standings. Beniers, showing signs of heating up in terms of points production, zipped into the zone and then spun to feed the puck to Oleksiak, who was trailing on the play.

Oleksiak wound up for an old-school slap shot and put his full 250-some pounds behind it, beating VAN goalie Thatcher Demko clean and square. It marked Oleksiak’s first goal of the season on his 21^st goal of the season.

“I was fortunate to get some space there and just hit it as hard as I could,” said Oleksiak in-game on ROOT during the second intermission, making sure to credit Beniers’ creative move.

Funny thing: During a first-intermission interview with ROOT Sports’ Piper Shaw, fourth-liner Tye Kartye said one of the Kraken keys for the second period was to execute line changes cleanly, especially since it is the only period in which players are a farther distance from their defensive zones. On the Oleksiak goal, it was the home squad who botched the shift change with two players leaving the ice too soon and leaving Oleksiak unchecked.

Oleksiak’s partner, Will Borgen, followed his partner’s lead on the Yanni Gourde insurance goal, joining the offensive zone scoring set and quickly releasing a pass to Gourde net-front for what Gourde said “I barely touched the puck” for the goal. Borgen and Oleksiak have both been generating quality scoring changes and Dave Hakstol said he was glad both D-man were rewarded with points scored Saturday night.

First Things Tight

The first period in Vancouver Saturday night was about as close as “this much” (cue thumb and index finger) and so was the only goal of the first 20 minutes. The period finished with nine shots on goal for the Kraken and eight for the home squad. Seattle generated three Grade-A scoring chances while Vancouver notched two against Philipp Grubauer, per Natural Stat Trick.

Grubauer and Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko traded early big saves to set the pace for a goalie duel. Canucks fans might not like it, but there were plenty of Kraken jerseys in attendance with those SEA supporters unleashing “Gruuuuuuu” cheers for saves by you-know-who.