Kraken close November with a dud, lose to Sharks for 3rd straight defeat

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Dec 1, 2024

Published in Hockey

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SEATTLE — Sharks 4, Kraken 2, at Climate Pledge Arena

Notable: The month of November finished with a dud for the Seattle Kraken (11-13-1) with their third straight loss to a team below them in the Pacific Division standings. Seattle squandered three opportunities to pick up needed points, but badly flopped with falling to Anaheim before Thanksgiving and back-to-back losses at the hands of San Jose. The Kraken were outscored 17-9 over the three games. The undoing on Saturday was a three-goal outburst in the second period where Luke Kunin scored just after leaving the penalty box, Cody Ceci was left unmarked to collect a rebound and Will Smith finished off a 2-on-1 breakaway. Joey Daccord was shakier than he’s been, finishing with 19 saves and at least one goal allowed he’d like to have back.

Meanwhile, San Jose goalie Mackenzie Blackwood was terrific, and it took a 4-0 deficit for the Kraken to wake up and show a little resolve. Jaden Schwartz scored midway through the second period and Jared McCann sniped his first goal in seven games with 13:33 left. Matty Beniers scored with 7.6 seconds remaining, but the goal was disallowed for goaltender interference.

Quotable: “We have the road trip coming up. We let three big games slide on us there and these next few games are not going to be easy, so we got to find a way to pull things together here.” — Vince Dunn, who returned after missing 19 games.

Goal of the game: McCann had just one goal and two points since captain and linemate Jordan Eberle was injured and lost for three months. McCann was back to being Seattle’s most aggressive forward offensively and was rewarded with his 10th goal of the season.

Player of the game: Blackwood finished with 36 saves and turned away several good chances in the third period as the Kraken tried to rally.

On tap: The Kraken open a difficult four-game road trip on Tuesday in Carolina against the Hurricanes. Carolina overwhelmed the Kraken in a dominant 4-1 victory in late October in Seattle. The trip also includes games against the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers.