Well the other shoe dropped last night for Seattle. After playing a roster full of NHL players against a Canucks roster that was mostly AHL caliber, Seattle turned around and iced an AHL caliber roster against an Oilers team that was chalk full of NHL talent. The results were an unsurprising 6-0 loss. Is there anything else that can be said?
I'm being told that it says in my contract I can't just post a paragraph and call it a blog so I guess so. Let's start from between the pipes and out.
It wasn't a great night for Chris Driedger as he allowed 5 goals on 23 shots. The most egregious one he let in was the goal from Darnell Nurse that was scored just past the blue line. There was some traffic in front but Driedger simply wasn't able to get down fast enough. Daccord came in for the third period and stopped 9 of 10 shots.
I will give the goalies a bit of slack because of the blueline that was iced in front. First let's discuss the good. Dunn and Oleksiak played together and managed to help contain the Edmonton Oilers offense. Oleksiak was on the ice for just one even strength goal while Dunn was not on the ice for a single EV goal against. This duo also got the heaviest dose of the Draisaitl, RNH, and Yamamoto line and managed to not only prevent them for scoring, but actually outchanced the Oilers second line when they were on the ice.
Will Borgen and Jeremy Lauzon also had a quietly effective night. This line played most of it's time against the McDavid, Puljujarvi and Hyman line and did not allow a 5 on 5 goal against the Oilers most dominant trio. This line also saw just over a minute on the penalty kill and once again did not allow a single goal against.
The Evans and Carrick line were absolutely brutal. The Oilers, regardless of if they had a #97 on their back or not were able to cruise through this pairing at will. At no point did either of these two players put up anything of a challenge for the Edmonton Oilers and yet they played the most minutes on the back end.
Up front, the Kraken iced what likely could be their fourth line this season as their first line last night. Sheahan, Tanev, and Appleton played just over 14 minutes at even strength with just over 6 of those minutes against the McDavid line. While the line as a whole ended up slightly behind the McDavid line in the scoring chances department, they as a whole generated more shots than the Oilers when they were on the ice. Small victories on a night like that but I do believe this could be a decent shutdown line for Seattle.
Morgan Geekie continues to impress as well and the forward almost had the lone goal for the Kraken in the third period but was stopped point blank by Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen. Geekie is an aggressive player and I love his instinct to charge right for the net the moment one of his linemates gets the puck.
Calle Jarnkrok and Ryan Donato both had poor games and didn't do much to garner my notice. Jarnkrok in particular might be counted on in Seattle's top six depending on how Hakstol sets up his lines. He did not help his case last night.
Alexander True impressed me in short bursts last night. For a 6'5 guy, True skates fairly quickly and I like his creative instincts in the offensive end. The 24 year old isn't afraid to hold onto the puck and try and set up as a playmaker. That being said that same instinct to hold onto the puck and skate into traffic got him in trouble on a few different occasions. I don't see him as an option for the big club, at least to start the season.
Now we have seen a Kraken team that was able to score some goals and a Kraken team that failed to produce any. Obviously the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Tonight Seattle will play in Calgary and ice I expect a better lineup. We will see how Seattle can do against a Flames lineup that has not yet shown they can produce much in the goals department.