DETROIT — One area the Kraken have made great strides in despite recent struggles overall is a penalty kill that fended off three more power plays Thursday to run their streak of success to eight consecutive games.
The Kraken, after an overtime win over the Red Wings, haven’t surrendered a goal in the last 18 power-play chances by opponents dating to a Feb. 14 contest against Winnipeg. They promptly killed off a Detroit opportunity in the first period, generating a 2-on-1 break at one point that led to the Red Wings taking an interference call that negated the rest of their man advantage.
Not long after, the Kraken scored to take a two-goal lead.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol credited structural changes implemented by assistant Dave Lowry back in early January for the extended run.
“We’ve been better on our entries, been a little bit harder on our denials,” Hakstol had said after Thursday’s morning skate at Little Caesars Arena. “Even if we haven’t been able to deny the zone, we’ve been able to set up some pressure off of that a little bit better. And just in-zone, we’re protecting inside better with the structural changes that we’ve made.
“We’re just protecting the inside plays a little bit better and are still able to [apply] our pressure with the way that we’re killing.”
The Kraken at one point had the league’s worst penalty kill but began experiencing more success during their eight-game win streak in January. Once that ended, they put together a season-high stretch of eight straight games without allowing a power-play goal — which came to an end in a loss to the New Jersey Devils three weeks ago.
This current stretch started just three games after that Devils contest. They still had the NHL’s fourth worst penalty kill rate at 73.41% heading into Thursday but are just a couple of percentage points away from the middle-tier teams.
Hakstol said a big key has been finding players with the right skill sets to place on the two units. He’s gone mainly with Alex Wennberg, Brandon Tanev, Jamie Oleksiak and Adam Larsson on the first unit, and Yanni Gourde, Jared McCann, Carson Soucy and Will Borgen on the second one.
Most teams don’t utilize their top goal scorer on the penalty kill, but McCann — who scored his team-high 28th and 29th goals in Thursday’s opening period — has worked on such units at his prior NHL stops. Hakstol said that experience and McCann’s strong skating ability are the skill set Lowry needed in that role.
McCann generated the 2-on-1 break in Thursday’s first period that led to Detroit taking a penalty. McCann scored his second not long after to put his team up 3-1.
McCann said part of the penalty kill’s recent success has to do with off-ice preparation for upcoming power-play units.
“I think it’s just the details,” McCann said. “We do a good job in video of kind of noticing some of their habits and some of the things they look for.”
While Hakstol was pleased with the latest penalty-killing streak, tied for the team’s longest games-wise, he added that “the kill is not a perfect science” and needs goalies to make some big stops at times.
Martin Jones made a couple of those late in the second period and partway through the third Tuesday night in St. Louis with the Kraken clinging to a one-goal lead.
“Let’s be honest, the other team’s going to make good plays,” Hakstol said. “That happens. They make good plays and they find opportunities. So, you need the goaltending element as well.”
And some luck. After Jones was pulled in Thursday’s second period, the Red Wings hit the post behind Philipp Grubauer on their second power play of the game.
But Grubauer later made some big stops during Detroit’s third man advantage of the night with the score tied early in the final period.
Notes
- Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen collected an assist on McCann’s second goal, giving him points in seven of his last eight games against the Red Wings. It was Tolvanen’s fourth assist in the first two games of this road trip, giving him 19 points in just 27 games over two months since joining the Kraken as a waiver-claim pickup.
- Vince Dunn’s first period assist gave him a four-game points streak. It came one game after the young defenseman celebrated the 400th contest of his career in St. Louis, where he broke in with the Blues before being selected by the Kraken in the July 2021 expansion draft. Dunn has a career-high 34 assists and 45 points in 61 games.