OTTAWA — It was hardly surprising to hear the Kraken asked questions by local media here about the identity the team was seeking to forge in its debut season.
When the Ottawa Senators were formed 29 years ago, they were a catastrophe on the ice and in the owners’ box, a last-place franchise that nearly went bankrupt. Well, the Kraken aren’t nearly that big a mess and in Thursday night’s 4-3 overtime loss showed some of what they hope that identity will become in a stunning third-period comeback from three goals.
Jared McCann and Colin Blackwell scored just 36 seconds apart midway through the third, then Mason Appleton — who’d had a first-period goal nullified by a video challenge — saw his bad-angled shot sneak by goalie Anton Forsberg just 3:10 later to tie the game. The three goals in just under four minutes left the Canadian Tire Centre crowd, which contained thousands of empty seats despite COVID-19 capacity restrictions having been lifted last week, shaking their heads in disbelief.
But Josh Norris scored the winner on the power play at 2:34 of the overtime period on a one-timed shot from the right side that eluded goalie Chris Driedger. The goal came moments after a tripping penalty taken in his own zone by Kraken captain Mark Giordano.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol and forward Riley Sheahan had answered the pregame identity questions by stating that hard work and not giving up were quickly becoming evident both on this trip and preceding it. Those traits were well on-display as the third period as the Kraken showed they weren’t done yet.
From the time eight minutes into the game when an Appleton goal was overturned by an offside call upon video review, to Josh Norris opening the scoring for Ottawa just 15 seconds later, this appeared another long Kraken night. That was especially true when the Senators saw Brady Tkachuk and Parker Kelly score goals just 1:57 apart off Kraken turnovers to make it 3-0 midway through the game.
The Kraken appeared dead and buried when Senators goalie Anton Forsberg stoned Colin Blackwell point-blank on a 2-on-1 short-handed rush late in the middle frame.
Nothing much had changed until nearly midway through the third when McCann and Donato struck for their goals seemingly out of nowhere. McCann got the puck, spun and beat Forsberg with a good wrist shot for his 22nd goal of the season to make it 3-1. Then, off the ensuing faceoff, Donato did some good work chasing down the puck, fed it to Riley Sheahan and then deflected his incoming shot to make it 3-2 and cause the Senators to call a timeout.
Despite all appearances, the first-year Kraken have little in common on the ice with the horrific Senators expansion team from 1992-93. Sure, those Sens could relate to a Kraken team that entered the night having lost 11 of its last 12. And yes, the Kraken still have a shot at the league’s worst overall record.
But those Senators from three decades ago went 10-70-4 in tying San Jose for the league’s worst. They’d chosen from a relative scrap heap compared to what the Kraken had to pick from, including team scoring leader McCann, having been given more favorable expansion draft rules.
