The Seattle Kraken weren’t smart with the puck in their 2022-23 home opener Saturday night against the Vegas Golden Knights. Getting control of it to begin with was another serious problem.
The Kraken struggled in the faceoff dot from the opening second and never corrected the trend in the 5-2 defeat.
“We lost the first nine in a row, and I think we wound up at about 35%,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “That’s a big piece, when you start without the puck that often.”
He was right. The percentage breakdown hovered around 70-30% for more than half the game and the Kraken landed at 35%.
The first faceoff loss was the most destructive. Yanni Gourde lost the opening draw to Nicolas Roy, then bobbled the puck to William Carrier along the boards. Carrier tapped it to Keegan Kolesar and the Kraken were down 1-0 just 12 seconds into the game.
“First shift, I’ve got to do a better job. Lose that puck and it’s in the back of our net,” Gourde, who won four of his 12 (33%) draws Saturday, said. “Kind of killed our legs there a little bit. I’m supposed to be on the ice to bring energy to this team and make the right play. This can’t happen in the first shift.”
Roy (67%), Chandler Stephenson (69%) and William Karlsson (71%) had particularly good nights in the circle for Vegas. The only Kraken players above 40% efficiency were wingers Brandon Tanev and Jared McCann, who took a combined four draws. Matty Beniers’ numbers improved during the third period before dipping again to 38%.
“You’ve got to start with the puck as much as you can and tonight, we weren’t able to do that,” Gourde said. “Personally, got to be better than that.”
There was another quick conversion in the second period, when Stephenson won a draw against Morgan Geekie (35%) to open a power play. The Golden Knights scored to make it 3-0 seven seconds later.
The Kraken haven’t had the edge in the circle in any of their three games, though the margin was narrower during the California road trip. They won 43% of their draws against the Anaheim Ducks in the season opener and 42% the next night against the Los Angeles Kings.
Players take rapid-fire draws against each other during lulls in practice at Kraken Community Iceplex. More will almost certainly be on the horizon Sunday, when the Kraken will work on resolving several issues ahead of a Monday matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes.
“Guys know what we did,” Hakstol said. “We’ll take a look at some of it, and we’ll address it.”