WINNIPEG, Manitoba — It looked bad, as they often do.
The puck appeared to catch Matty Beniers away from the protection of his shin guard in the final seconds of Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. He crumpled to the ice and had to be helped down the tunnel.
However Seattle coach Dave Hakstol seemed surprised by a question regarding his marquee center’s availability Tuesday against the Winnipeg Jets. Though Beniers said his leg went numb after the contact, he wasn’t left with so much as a bruise.
“It hurts for a day, then it kind of goes away,” Beniers added.
That block sealed a 4-3 Kraken victory, which ended just the second regulation three-game skid this season for Seattle. Though they’ve dropped six of 11 games in regulation since a run of eight consecutive victories ended Jan. 14, they’ve kept the losing streaks short and the standings points rolling in. The Kraken are still in a playoff spot and trailed Pacific Division leader Vegas by three points entering Tuesday’s road trip finale.
“I think it’s awesome we can establish what’s going wrong, what we’re not doing well. Put it into action and fix it,” Beniers said. “A strength of our team has been that we’re able to bounce back from losing games.
“I don’t think we were playing poorly [after the All-Star break]. I thought we were playing pretty well. It’s just finding those pieces that put us over the edge and won us games before. We got that back.”
Beniers was supposed to represent the Kraken in the NHL All-Star Game but used the time to recuperate from a concussion. He left a game against the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 25 and missed the last two games before the break. He possibly sustained at least one mild concussion as a young player, but this was the first confirmed diagnosis.
“It definitely stinks, but you can’t really control that,” he said. “You get a concussion, and that’s one of those things where you need to make sure you’re OK and be extra safe.”
The 20-year-old hopes to get another chance to attend the All-Star Game.
“Stinks not to be able to go, but it was also good to get some extra time off and rest and get back to it,” he said.
Beniers had been held without a point for nine consecutive games entering Tuesday, the longest such streak of his 61-game NHL career. That’s just the way it goes in this sport, he reasoned.
Said Hakstol: “He’s going to be a big piece of our next two months. There’s going to be some lessons in there, some successes in there. But I know that Matty, as a young man, as a player, as a competitor, is going to continue to show up and be ready for the battle.”