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Kraken No. 7 Jordan Hebert scored his seventh goal of the season and seventh point in eight games to close the gap to one point, but the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated Seattle 3-1 in a climate game on Sunday night. The challenge for a comeback ended there. Pledge Arena.
The Kraken returned to the playoffs with a nine-game winning streak that ended on January 13th, but they have lost four straight since then. They are playing without two key pieces in NHL Rookie of the Year Matty Beniers and top defenseman Vince Dunn. Both have been absent since Seattle’s last win.
“We have four games left until the (All-Star) break,” Eberle said. “Look at the standings. We have to find a way to get every spot. But it all starts here with stopping the bleeding and getting blood.”
Kraken winger Brandon Tanev had a cannonball performance in the first period against his hometown Maple Leafs. He struggled in the first six minutes. First he took a dangerous penalty cross-check into the boards from Connor Timmins when Tanev came in hot and had a low center of gravity. Tanev set this up on Timmins teammate Simon Benoit, resulting in roughing penalties for both teams.
After Tanev roughly shoved Benoit into the boards after Seattle’s scoring chance, Tanev wanted to bite Benoit one more time. But in the end, the player he ended up dropping the gloves on was Jake McCabe. The match took a while and consisted of rock arm circling with very few punches thrown until McCabe forced Tanev to retreat to the ice.
Throughout the first period, the Kraken infiltrated the Maple Leafs in prime locations before converging and stopping them. That is, all within about two seconds, until former league MVP Auston Matthews was left in front along with Joey Daccord (23 saves) to score with a backhander over the crease. This was Matthews’ league-leading 38th point of the season.
“The team is going to be a tough opponent to play against because of the octane they have and the way they get up on the ice,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We did a pretty good job defending them, but they’re going to create chances.”
Meanwhile, the Kraken (19-18-9) had trouble getting through the neutral zone. Daccord threw a rock at Toronto’s Nicholas Robertson, but that was a temporary solution. Nine seconds after the Maple Leafs’ power play ended, Max Domi fed a wide-open Robertson to put the visitors up 2-0.
The Kraken penalty kill has gone up against three of the league’s top eight power plays in the team’s last three games. The unit fumbled once against the New York Rangers and twice against the Edmonton Oilers, but was able to keep the Maple Leafs’ man advantage off the scoresheet.
“Our players shut down the game very well, not allowing clean-seam plays, and we got down to the basket,” Hakstol said.
Ebert’s goal late in the second period was the spark for the Kraken. He pulled the puck through six legs, including linemate Jared McCann’s, and beat Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov’s low glove side.
On the next shift, Seattle All-Star Oliver Bjorkstrand hit the goal post.
The Maple Leafs had played in Vancouver the night before, but their legs didn’t falter. Trailing by one point in the third period, the Kraken did not take a shot for more than 13 minutes. Defenseman Justin Schultz looked like it would be worth the wait, but Samsonov blocked the shot with a sliding split.
McCabe took care of the empty netter.
“Joey (Daccord) gave us a chance with some saves, but we just couldn’t find a way to make the next one,” Ebert said.
Samsonov made 16 saves for Toronto. The next best thing after Schultz’s goal was when he dove to the far post and clipped the puck in the crook of his leg pad to deny Seattle winger Jaden Schwartz a second-chance goal.
Goaltender Martin Jones, who backstopped the Kraken until February last season before Philipp Grubauer took over as manager, watched from Toronto’s bench. He signed with the Maple Leafs as a free agent last summer.
The Kraken had an ugly 28% on the faceoff dot. Due to injury and Yanni Gould’s two-game suspension, two wingers, McCann and Ty Carty, are playing center. Other wingers advanced to the draw as well. It turns out that none of them are very familiar with this mission.
“I’m not going to use that as an excuse,” Bjorkstrand said. “We can still win games. When everyone is hurt, you have to find a way.”
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