Daniel Sprong, at your service.
Someone has to head to the penalty box to serve a team penalty, such as too many men on the ice or delay of game resulting from an unsuccessful coach’s challenge.
Someone also needs to serve penalties when a teammate can’t — when there’s an extra two minutes tacked on for unsportsmanlike conduct, or an ejection after a hit. Both of those scenarios happened for the Kraken in the past month, and both were handled by Sprong. He doesn’t absorb the penalty minutes and in fact only has a pair of minors to his name through 26 games this season.
Ryan Donato has been the occasional fall guy. Jordan Eberle served a couple of team penalties in November. On Wednesday, when the Kraken were whistled for too many men on the ice, Sprong made a beeline for the box. He doesn’t need to be told at this point.
“I don’t play on the penalty kill or four-on-four, so it’s a pretty easy decision,” Sprong said. “It happened a couple of times and at that point, you kind of know that when there’s a penalty like that, you’re going.”
He also doesn’t mind.
“In juniors, I volunteered,” Sprong said. “Hoping for a breakaway out of the box.
“I’m sitting two minutes anyway, it doesn’t matter if it’s on this side or the other side [of the rink].”
Sprong’s linemates Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames, Morgan Geekie and Brandon Tanev, log valuable minutes killing penalties and need to stay available. So does anyone who might go out four-on-four, as Sprong said, in case the Kraken draw a call of their own.
This is something he can do for the team. Even if he sets a new career high in points — at 19, he’s only two away — or reaches 20 goals for the first time in his seven-year NHL career — he has 10, less than halfway through the season — he doesn’t plan on shirking this duty.
“Everyone has their things,” Sprong said.
Division-heavy stretch
The Kraken (18-11-4) took one of four available standings points out of their past two games against Pacific Division opponents Vancouver and Calgary.
“We’re gonna try to have a short memory. We’ve got to forget those,” forward Jared McCann said. “We felt like we let one slip away. The first 30 minutes of the game, we kind of dominated, but it’s about how you finish.”
They play another neighbor, the Edmonton Oilers, twice in the next three games. The Oilers and Kraken are tied with 40 points, but Seattle has three games in hand.
Seattle held an optional skate Thursday ahead of a home game against Edmonton. Vince Dunn, Yanni Gourde and Jaden Schwartz weren’t with the group.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol reiterated that he was pleased with the even-strength play of the first two periods in Wednesday’s 3-2 regulation loss to Calgary. One potential area for improvement was shot selection. The Flames outshot Seattle 44-31. Though the Kraken generated numerous chances in transition, including three breakaways, there’s more to be desired.
“You can’t turn down shots at this time of year,” Hakstol said. “You can’t always look for a better play. Sometimes you’ve got to put it to the scoring area and you’ve got to get inside.
“In the third, we were on the wrong end of everything. We generated two or three scoring chances, maybe, and we gave up a bunch.”
World Juniors update
A pair of Kraken draft picks scored at the 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships on Thursday.
Forward Jani Nyman, Seattle’s second-round pick (49th overall) in 2022, opened the scoring in Finland’s 3-0 win against Latvia. It was his second goal of the tournament. He added an assist as well.
Canada led by the same margin after just one period against Austria, and 2022 first-rounder Shane Wright chipped in his third power-play goal in as many games.