A five-game Kraken win streak came to an end in Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators.
Here are three thoughts from the game.
Biggest comeback
There was “a lot of good” in that outing, as Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn reminded after the game. One of those take-aways was it was Seattle’s first time erasing a three-goal deficit this season.
Seattle has climbed out of several two-goal holes this season and gone on to finish the job, perhaps most memorably an overtime win against the Washington Capitals in December in which they trailed throughout. Matty Beniers then scored seven seconds into the extra period.
This is another feather in their cap, even though the Kraken weren’t able to finish the job.
“We were able to dig out. That’s a real positive,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “But we didn’t start on time tonight, and [it was] a disappointing end.”
Work it out
Starts as poor as Thursday’s are rarely just the goaltender’s fault, but he’ll often be the fall guy. Confidence is high in Philipp Grubauer lately, and he got the chance to rally against the Senators.
Hakstol left Grubauer in, and the second half of the first period went much better for the goalie. He made the next eight stops and weathered two penalties.
“At 3-0, that was his job,” Hakstol said. “We needed to have some battle. He needed to come up some saves and give us an opportunity to dig out of that hole, and he did that.”
Shane Pinto’s first goal for Ottawa was a group effort, as Grubauer was square to the shooter on the other end of the crease and Pinto was able to drift in, body down the puck and tap it in.
Jakob Chychrun’s blistering shot was a tough one to stop. He took over a bobbled puck at the top of the faceoff circles and placed it perfectly. The third goal, however, came off a turnover from Grubauer himself. He was able to get back and got some, but not all, of the incoming shot on net.
A coach will often make a swap in net at that point to wake the team up, no matter who’s at fault. Hakstol instead called his timeout and ripped into everyone. Backup goalie Martin Jones’ baseball cap stayed on.
Grubauer has started all but two of the Kraken’s past 13 games. Since the All-Star break, his seven wins were tied for first in the NHL entering Friday’s action. His accompanying .889 save percentage and 2.97 goals-against average in that span, while not stellar, are on par with what both goalies have turned in this season to get the Kraken where they are — third in the Pacific Division and 37-22-6.
Fool me twice
The Kraken again failed to close out a home game in which they led late and should have been able to take away at least one standings point.
On Feb. 23, the Kraken took a 5-4 lead on the Boston Bruins with 4:10 to play thanks to Jaden Schwartz’s goal. They allowed the tying goal 29 seconds later, and Jake DeBrusk shocked the Climate Pledge Arena crowd with the winner with 1:38 left on the scoreboard.
Seattle came closer than most who’ve tried recently to take down the Bruins, who then sat 44-8-5. That was victory No. 5 of a 10-game win streak that ended Thursday night against the Edmonton Oilers. As miserable as the late loss was, the Bruins are having quite the regular season.
It was 38 seconds instead of 29 between the go-ahead and tying goals Thursday, and they were swapped earlier in Thursday’s third period. The Senators, who are wild-card hopefuls in the East, aren’t the first-place Bruins. But the outcome was the same, and the dark mood in the locker room was similar.
“Regardless of how the first 50-plus minutes go, we’re in a position to earn that point,” Hakstol said.