The Seattle Kraken faced another embarrassing, high scoring loss to their opponent. The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Kraken 5-2 on Dec. 22, their fifth loss in a row.
Kakko Earns His First Goal in Kraken Colors
Although there was little cause for celebration, Kaapo Kakko earned his first goal as a member of the Kraken. The Kraken’s second goal of the game came off the face-off. Matty Beniers took the draw against Nathan McKinnon. He won it and took control of the puck, knocking it away from the Avalanche and Kakko swooped in and took a shot, catching goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood by surprise. The puck found the back of the net with Blackwood unaware.
As Alison Lukan stated on Twitter/X, Kakko has yet to practice with his new team but looked great against the Avalanche, playing on the first line. This goes to show that with the right team behind Kakko, he can be successful. Hopefully there are more great chances like this for him throughout the rest of the season.
Too Many Penalties
In the first period alone, the Kraken sat for three two-minute minors. All were preventable, such as Eeli Tolvanen taking two minutes for sending the puck over the glass for a delay of game call. Colorado did not capitalize on this advantage, but they did on the next one.
Brandon Montour was called for tripping on Parker Kelly. While the Kraken were down a man, Cale Makar swooped in and scored the first goal of the night.
The Kraken continued to make sloppy plays throughout the game. They took four penalties on the night, and the Avalanche were able to benefit from this. In the first period, they prevented the Kraken from having any real shot attempts. They only had three, while the Avalanche were able to take nine. While Makar scored on the power play, the Kraken were at least able to capitalize on their shots as well. Jared McCann scored the first goal of the night for the Kraken towards the end of the first. With only three shots on the goal, Seattle was at least able to make the most of these attempts.
Throughout the entire game, the Kraken remained outshot by the Avalanche. By the second, they started to find their stride, taking seven shot attempts to the Avalanche’s ten. Kakko was the only one to make something of these attempts however, while Colorado scored two goals out of their ten attempts.
In the third, the Kraken took nine shots compared to the Avalanche’s ten. Again, Colorado was able to score twice off of these attempts, while Seattle scored no goals this period. Although they were getting more chances, they were sloppy and unable to find their mark. After taking so many penalties in the first, it appeared as though the Kraken were trying to come back with a fighting chance. Unfortunately, they were unable to succeed and once again fell to Colorado.
Can’t Always Blame the Goalie
The Avalanche scored two empty-net goals to close out the game. Joel Kiviranta scored both along with a second period marker for the hat trick.
Related: Kraken Must Make Joey Daccord the Clear Number One Goalie
Goaltender Joey Daccord came away with a .889 save percentage but still kept the Kraken in the game, allowing three goals on 29 shots. Without Daccord in net, the score likely would have been higher.
Time for Kraken to Reset
The Kraken now get a chance to reset during the holiday break. Their next game is on Dec. 28 against the Vancouver Canucks. Let’s hope this break gives them a chance to rest and come back stronger.
