Final Buzzer: Kraken Fall Just Short in Opener

Vince Dunn reflected postgame on how he and Kraken teammates had gone a long way toward making this feel like a new era for the franchise well before the defenseman opened Tuesday’s scoring by banging home his own rebound.

Bolstered by a new head coach in Dan Bylsma, a freshly named captain in Jordan Eberle and second period goals by Dunn and Eeli Tolvanen, the more-aggressive-looking Kraken swarmed the visiting St. Louis Blues at will and appeared on their way to opening day victory. But out of nowhere, three St. Louis goals in a span of 1:55 the latter part of that middle frame sent the Kraken reeling to an eventual 3-2 loss in front of a Climate Pledge Arena crowd likely anticipating a far different outcome much of this afternoon affair.

“It shows you how tight the league is,” Dunn said. “You let your foot off the gas for a little bit, and there’s three back at you. Losing momentum that dramatically is sometimes hard to get back.”

But the Kraken tried, going hard at the Blues despite being limited to just four shots in the final period. They pulled goalie Philipp Grubauer for the extra attacker late, but Blues netminder Jordan Binnington made 30 saves to allow his team to escape with the two points.

“I thought we battled right to the end,” Dunn said. “We had some good looks. But obviously, letting a team back into the game like that is not something you want to do.”

Jordan Kyrou had two of the St. Louis goals against Grubauer that second period while Philip Broberg had the other.

For the Kraken, playing in front of a national ESPN television audience and a pumped-up crowd of 17,151 left roaring by the pregame introduction of Eberle as captain, the defeat was their fourth straight in both a season and home opener. Still, it was quite unlike many of their losses during a prior 34-35-13 season in which the Kraken often sat back on their heels and struggled to push the pace.

They were all over the Blues from the get-go, outshooting them 11-6 in the opening period and controlling the puck for long stretches in the opposing end. If anything, as Bylsma would later suggest postgame, the Kraken could have shot the puck even more than they did despite just missing on numerous scoring opportunities.

That dominant pace continued the middle period, when Kraken chances finally landed in the St. Louis net on goals by Dunn and Tolvanen barely two minutes in.

For Dunn, his first goal since last Feb. 26 following a prolonged injury absence that caused him to miss last season’s final quarter appeared destined to help the Kraken shed their opening-day losing streak. Eberle made a nice play getting the puck to Dunn ahead of taking a hit along the boards and the defenseman’s initial shot was stopped by Binnington.

But Dunn kept going to the net and slammed the rebound home just 27 seconds into the second period.

Going to the net had been preached often by Bylsma throughout the preseason, and the Kraken took it to heart from the opening whistle. By the time Tolvanen deflected a Ryker Evans point shot for a 2-0 lead fewer than two minutes after Dunn’s goal, the Kraken held a 21-8 shots advantage and the acrobatic Binnington was the only thing keeping the Blues in it.

The Kraken were also standing up for one another, going after the Blues aggressively in scrums and not allowing them to physically assert themselves back into the contest.

“I thought we played super fast,” said Yanni Gourde, in the thick of several heated confrontations as part of a forechecking fourth line keeping the Blues on their heels much of the opening 40 minutes. “We played good. There was no risk in our game and the pace was excellent. We got sleepy for a few minutes there and they definitely took advantage.”

In fact, the Kraken were a hair away from making it 3-0 when a blue line blast eluded Binnington, but the play was clearly offside and immediately whistled down.

Not long after that, the Kraken were penalized, and Kyrou took a Robert Thomas stretch pass down the right side, outraced Jamie Oleksiak and tucked the puck between Grubauer’s legs on the backhand. Fewer than two minutes later, Broberg took the puck in the left faceoff circle and fired a shot past Grubauer to the far side.

Just 20 seconds after that, off an Oleksiak giveaway in the neutral zone, Alexandre Texier sprung Kyrou with a breakaway pass and watched him beat Grubauer short side to put the Blues ahead for good.

“Like I said, I thought we came out flying,” Gourde said. “I think if we can manage to have more maturity in our game and be able to sustain that pace for 60 minutes, we’re going to be successful this year.”

Bylsma agreed, saying, “you could feel the energy in the building” as the Kraken began taking over the game in the opening period with strong forechecking by Gourde, Tye Kartye, Brandon Tanev and others. Beyond that three-goal flurry, he felt the outcome could very easily have been different.

“The way of losing the game is solvable,” Bylsma said, adding: “It was just maybe a four, or five-minute stretch in the second period where they got the powerplay goal, and they kind of grabbed the momentum from us there for a couple of minutes.”

And that’s something Dunn and company will work on before the team hits the road for three games against Minnesota, Dallas and Nashville starting Saturday. It’s been a long road back for Dunn since his neck injury last March when hit from behind by Calgary forward Martin Pospisil.

Coming back and starting strong in this one is something Dunn hopes bodes well for the season ahead.

“It was just a pretty rough couple of months for me,” he said. “I think just being in my room with teammates, even in the exhibition games, is something that I’ve looked forward to. And stepping back into it, it feels good to be in front of our fans.

“So, whatever. You score the first goal. But more importantly, I want to win with this team. So, we’ve got to find a way to do that.”