The Kraken identified things they wanted to improve coming into the third game of the season including transitional play; power play production; and overall consistency. Progress was made in all of those areas in St Louis as quality goaltending continued this time in the form of Joey Daccord after Philipp Grubauer got some well-deserved rest after two stellar performances in net versus Vegas and Nashville (10th most shot attempts against; fifth most shot quality against; third best performing above expected saves).
Let’s look at the game “by the numbers.”
- It’s no wonder this game was split fairly evenly throughout. The Kraken won the shot volume battle (55.67%) but not the shot quality battles (49.57%) in 5-on-5 play.
- Joey Daccord was very strong in his first game of the year turning away 1.75 more goals than he should have based on the shot quality the Blues generated – earning him his first quality start of the season.
- An impressive improvement for the Kraken was their return to form in battling for the puck. After falling below the breakeven point in the first two games, they won 55-percent of all the contested puck battles in all situations (50% in 5-on-5 situations) creating possession opportunities for the team.
- The Kraken power play generated its first goal of the season – on the third shot attempt of their lone man-advantage. That’s the same rate of production as the Blues’ power play across their four chances.
- Vince Dunn earned the 100th point of his Seattle career with the secondary assist on the goal.
- The Kraken penalty kill remains perfect on the season going 4-for-4 tonight and 11-of-11 across three games.
- The Kraken generated 12 scoring chances off the rush and allowed just six.
- Your three top Kraken players in terms of Game Score: Joey Daccord; Oliver Bjorkstrand; and Adam Larsson.
Here's a look at our data-driven Instant Analysis from Sportlogiq:
