Goaltending, lineup sheets, and a 5-1 homestand: takeaways

Complete success. 

The Seattle Kraken can’t look at this homestand at anything but those two words after a convincing 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday, closing out a season-long six game homestand, which perhaps had a season dangling by its hinges, with five wins in six games. 

The first period avoided any kind of catastrophic start. Joey Daccord, earning his first shoutout of the season on 24 saves, was simply phenomenal. Then, two big-money off-season pickups in Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson put on a show for a national audience, as the Kraken tied Vancouver at the Western Conference cutline with the season progressing toward December, and the split between “haves” and “have nots” becoming more pronounced.

Five takeaways from the homestand, ahead of a two-game road trip starting Saturday in Los Angeles:  

1.        Joey Daccord: on the elevator to upper echelon

Before we get carried away, here’s the reality of Daccord’s world in the last month: the key word in that previous sentence is the last one, “month.” It’s been a good one, but far from a foregone conclusion on long-term state of the Kraken goaltending matters. 

However, the undeniable fact is Daccord has been simply lights out. The Kraken have a much clearer read on their goaltending situation, and it begins with “The Mayor” in net, who has whooped and yelped with yeeted fish after wins much over the previous nine games, where his save percentage stands at .931 (only Joseph Woll and some guy you may have heard of, named Andrei Vasilevskiy, are better). His goals saved above average figure stands at 7.29: only Vasilevskiy at 10.22 is better. Philipp Grubauer has taken spot duty ever since, and recently kept the Kraken afloat in a 2-0 loss to the Rangers on Sunday where several of his 21 saves were of high difficulty. 

That’s strong progress for a long-term picture to indicate that state of goaltending is in good hands. 

2.        Brandon Montour: the real deal 

It’s a frightening picture to imagine where the Kraken defense would be without Montour, because Vince Dunn has barely played at all this season due to injury (more on that below). 

But with 13 points in 19 games, Montour has delivered full returns so far on his massive seven-year deal signed this past summer, and taken a heavy workload on defense. He chews up a ton of minutes, and loves it. He’s armed with a cannon of a shot. His viper-strike backcheck to kill a Gustav Nyquist breakaway against Nashville on Wednesday reminded us of his defensive capabilities. 

“He just tried to go backhand/forehand, and I was lucky enough to be close enough,” said Montour, obviously in a modest mood about the play. 

He and Jamie Oleksiak were a fluid situation pairing. Now they are as close to a sure-fire routine lineup fixture as it gets. It’s helped transform the picture on the Kraken blueline. 

3.        Dan Bylsma’s coaching style: nimble, dynamic 

He hasn’t been afraid to send messages with lineup decisions. He doesn’t favor veterans to rookies in the press box (Shane Wright and Oliver Bjorkstrand have taken turns sitting upstairs). Line combos going into the proverbial blender, mid-game, are commonplace. Then he and his coaching staff had the presence of mind to go full “Oceans Eleven” stealth mode, and wait until immediately after the game started on Wednesday night to sound the alarm on an illegal lineup submission with Nashville. 

Simply put, the Predators iced a different lineup than what was indicated on the official starting lineup sheet. The Predators wrote in Steven Stamkos. Instead, Filip Forsberg was on the ice when the puck dropped. That’s a penalty, two minutes in the box, and to quote Denis Lemieux in Slap Shot, “feel shame.” 

It’s a rarity in hockey, but not Bylsma’s first rodeo. He and Jessica Campbell, on the coaching staff last season for Coachella Valley, caught the same slip-up by the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Finals. Bylsma and the Kraken coaching staff had the advantage of a fresh memory in detecting Nashville’s error. The home team gets the right to see the starting lineup submitted by the visiting team, then select a lineup to their best preference. Nashville’s starting three listed forwards were different than what was shown in pre-game warmup line rushes, where lines get a “dry run” through drills to enhance familiarity amongst linemates. 

That tipped off Bylsma when it came to lineup time. 

“What was presented was odd,” said Bylsma. “It's not what they had normally done. It's not how they practiced in warmup in the pregame skate. So, it was odd. I started a different line up (Chandler Stephenson centering Brandon Tanev and Jaden Schwartz, with Tanev replacing Daniel Sprong) because of it.” 

“To see Forsberg on the ice for the six guys starting the game was alarming. And it was the exact same way it happened 24 games ago in (Coachella Valley) when the Hershey Bears started a certain line all the time. It was a little bit mixed up because of an injury. But they started a line that wasn't the normal thing, so it immediately drew attention to it.” 

Call that a Tim Ohahshi and Brady Morgan video coaching “W.” 

“Brady and Tim were all over it,” said Bylsma. 

The Kraken didn’t score on the power play, though they came close, and helped set the tone for the evening to keep Saros busy. As Bylsma said his brand of energy is progressing based on Thursday’s practice, his penchant for high-alert and dynamic moments have become a Kraken hallmark.

4.        A 5-1 homestand: as good as you could have asked for. 

The season wasn’t exactly in grave danger two weeks ago, but headed in that direction with the brakes already falling off after a 1-6-1 run that ended with a 6-3 loss in Colorado. 

The Kraken needed a jolt. They got it with captured lightning in a homestand opening win over Vegas – among two of the tougher opponents they’d face. The Rangers were the other, who won 2-0. Everyone else in Columbus, Chicago, Nashville and the New York Islanders were at full Seattle mercy, outscored 14-5. 

“You couldn’t have asked for more energy this week, or the last two weeks,” said defenseman Brandon Montour after Wednesday’s win. “Guys are excited to see what direction we’re going in right now.” 

Call this opportunity seized, with five wins in six games. It now sets up them up with a potentially ripe road ahead, facing the Ducks and Sharks in four of the next five games, and a Kings team on Saturday that’s lost three of its last four games and won’t have Drew Doughty for a while. 

5.        Life’s harder without Vince Dunn and Jordan Eberle, but not impossible. 

Removing Dunn’s play-driving offense on the back end and Eberle’s leadership, along with a hot start, was mounting up to an extremely difficult calculation to keep the season afloat. 

Dunn with Adam Larsson, a mainstay defensive pair over the last two years, put key minutes and Dunn’s quarterback-like presence into upheaval. Eberle, who began his first season as captain with nine points in the first ten games, began to cool off with just two in the next seven, but became a fit again alongside Matty Beniers and Jared McCann.  

This is where depth is kicking in again, beginning on the back end with Montour. Ryker Evans has begun to shed his novice NHL skin, developing into one of the bright and young talents in the league for rookie blueliners, also grabbing key power play time, quarterbacking a unit alongside Montour. 

Chandler Stephenson showed off his deft touch among the three assists in Wednesday’s win, and his 12 assists are tied for most on the team with Jared McCann. Daniel Sprong took three games to get his first goal, a slam dunk into a half-open net following Stephenson’s no-look pass. McCann has started strong with nine goals in the first 20 games.  

“Just understanding the system now,” said Stephenson. “You can try to be as close to perfect as you can be, but it just feels a little more fluid everywhere on the ice.” 

Depth is real again, and a system is apparently kicking in.