There was a time back at the season’s opening when pundits suggested the two most recent NHL expansion squads squaring off Wednesday night were likely to be playoff teams this spring.
The Kraken effectively fell out of the playoff hunt by Thanksgiving, while the Vegas Golden Knights came into Climate Pledge Arena fighting for their playoff lives. The visitors, missing several key mainstays, got it done as the Kraken were dealt a 3-0 loss on a night they couldn’t solve backup goaltender Logan Thompson.
Onetime Seattle Thunderbirds junior product Shea Theodore snapped a scoreless tie just under eight minutes into the second period, stepping out of the penalty box and taking a pass for the second breakaway chance on Chris Driedger in just under a minute. Vegas added an insurance goal in the third when Michael Amadio banged home a rebound off a skate during a wild goal-mouth scramble.
“Tonight, I thought we had a good first and it seems like we just ran out of steam after that,” said Driedger, who stopped 27 of 29 shots directed his way. “I thought we could have played better in the second and third.”
Jordan Eberle appeared to get the Kraken on the board, smacking home a rebound with 2:08 remaining. But the goal was overturned when the Golden Knights successfully challenged the preceding zone entry as having been offside at the blue line.
Jonathan Marchessault added an empty-net goal with 26.5 seconds remaining and Driedger pulled for an extra attacker. Vegas backup Thompson would go on to stop 23 shots and record his third straight victory in place of injured starter Robin Lehner.
Driedger had earned the start with a solid win in Los Angeles two nights prior and again played well this time around but could not overcome his team’s lack of scoring. The Kraken dominated the Kings on Monday night after playing them fairly tightly in a loss last Saturday, something Driedger attributed to a physical, disciplined style much in evidence during Wednesday’s opening period.
“I felt like our forecheck, we were just smothering them,” he said. “They didn’t have any time or space to make plays.”
As for his own play, Driedger said he’s been seeing a sports psychologist the past few weeks to help him change his pregame routine in hopes of bettering his play.
“When the season’s not really going the way you want it to, you’ve got to reach out to certain resources,” he said. “So, we just reached out and figured we’d tweak some things up. If it’s not working, there’s obviously room for change.”
While the dissection of what happened with the Kraken has been ongoing for months, the slow-but-steady collapse of the Golden Knights came seemingly out of nowhere. A perennial playoff team and Stanley Cup contender since their inception five seasons ago, they entered this season as a consensus Pacific Division favorite and few panicked when Vegas stumbled to a slow start.
After appearing to right themselves by Christmas, the Golden Knights went into an early February tailspin from which they’ve yet to really recover. They entered Wednesday a point behind the Dallas Stars for the final Western Conference wild-card spot but having played three more games.
Even the November trade for former Buffalo Sabres captain and No. 2 overall draft pick Jack Eichel hasn’t quite gotten things right. Also, the team’s attempted salary-cap-shedding trade of Evgenii Dadonov, who played his 400th career game on Wednesday, was voided by the NHL last week. That means the Golden Knights lack the salary-cap space to activate Mark Stone — and possibly Reilly Smith as well — off the long-term injured reserve list before the playoffs, if they can even make it.
For a long while, this tightly played game looked like the battle between playoff contenders that had been predicted so many months ago. Neither team was giving much and both didn’t hesitate to throw weight around, leading to a spirited heavyweight bout between Jamie Oleksiak and Keegan Kolesar in the early going.
But Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said things got away from his team in the second when they got sloppy with the puck.
“We’ve got to be stronger and better with the puck,” Hakstol said. “That’s where it starts and finishes.”
A pair of power-play giveaways early in the middle frame wound up costing them. First, it was William Karlsson stealing a puck in the neutral zone and racing in alone only to be stymied by Driedger.
The Kraken weren’t as fortunate moments later as Victor Rask gave the puck away in the Vegas zone, and Jonas Rondbjerg head-manned a pass to Theodore just as he stepped out of the penalty box. Theodore went in alone, made an initial fake, shifted to his backhand and tucked the puck in upstairs for the game’s opening goal at the 7:38 mark.
Hakstol said the repeated turnovers led to increased Vegas time in Seattle’s zone that eventually wore his team down. He tried shaking things up — moving Jared McCann to the top line to start the third period in place of a struggling Ryan Donato — but it wouldn’t be enough.
Vegas got the insurance goal it needed in the final frame after Driedger made the initial stop off Marchessault. But on the ensuing scramble, Amadio slid the puck through Driedger’s legs and it banked into the net off a defender’s skate.
“I believed the first goal of the game tonight was going to be a big one and a very important one,” Hakstol said. “Our reaction to that goal against — if you look at the next 10 minutes of the hockey game — we can be a little bit better there and have a better pushback.”
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