We The Fans: Vince Dunn Carries Kraken Past the Kings in the Filson Final Minute!
Picture this… You are one of the 17,151 Kraken Faithful in attendance for Wednesday’s disorganized effort against a conference rival in the LA Kings. The Kraken (Now 8-7-1 all time against the Kings) have struggled all year with scoring and find a rare as of late leading power play goal from Jared McCann in the slot after nearly 30 minutes of scoreless play, who is almost definitely out again with a lower body injury after colliding with an out stretched knee of forward, Kevin Fiala; at the end of Wednesday’s Contest against the likely play-off bound Kings squad.
Five minutes after securing that 1-0 lead. while on another unsuccessful power play, the Kraken conceded a goal that took the life out of the building on a short-handed breakaway by Alex Laferriere after a bad zone entry by defenseman Brandon Montour and a worse recovery effort by forward Mason Marchment result in the puck being chipped out into the neutral zone for one Laferriere’s easier goals of the year. The Kraken probably should have been more aware that they were leading a team that lead’s the NHL in shorthanded goals. In his defense, Montour has helped bolster some offense as part of a back-end that is one of the more talented in the league, with exception being bottom of the lineup defenseman Jamie Oleksiak who just came back after sitting out as a healthy scratch and has a similar cap hit to Toronto’s Chris Tanev.
With a little over five minutes left in the third period, Corey Perry took a high stick from Ryker Evans that drew blood and resulted in a double minor. After a common seasonal defensive zone collapse that saw the Kraken give up a breakaway on the penalty kill to the Kings top-scorer, Kevin Fiala, who worked his way to right side of the Kraken crease and potted it past Joey Daccord, giving the Kings the lead shortly into that power play. The Kraken did manage to kill the back half and shortly before pulling their goalie. The Kraken saw the planets align as Anton Forsberg, an NHL journeymen goalie took a tripping call while diving for a loose puck just outside his crease.
Vince Dunn has entered the chat. At this point Kraken Fans are on their feet; and the blind support and energy that makes this fan base one of the best in the league did everything it could to play its part at the end of the game. After losing the face-off, Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn made a great backhanded save at the blue line before dishing the puck to Eli Tolvanen who found Matty Beniers net front for the equalizer. Less than a minute into overtime, Adrian Kempe took a trip early in the overtime period that put the Kraken on a 4-on-3 Man Advantage. After winning the face-off and a couple crispy passes, Vince Dunn found his 5th goal of the season and the Game winner just 1 minute and 27 seconds into the overtime period. 2 minutes of bliss to end the 6 game losing streak!
This comes as no surprise as Vince Dunn, Brandon Montour, Ryker Evans, and the Kraken defense and goalies have largely been the major reason for the Kraken’s team success this season. As Coach Lambert would say Goaltending often hasn’t been “rewarded” for as well as they’ve preformed for a team that’s bottom of the league in scoring. An odd way to address the teams increased volume of missed shots, maybe one possible reason the results of recent have fallen short. The power play has improved from where it was in previous seasons, when it could’ve been considered an advantage for teams to put the Kraken on a power play. In order to continue improving they have to practice staying out of the box. The easiest fix to a bad penalty kill is to stay off of it, unless the penalty you take prevents a goal: the team must do everything possible to stay out of the box.
President of Hockey Operations, Ron Francis, has a history of producing bad teams that struggle offensively and hopefully the Kraken fans do not have to tolerate the nine year playoff drought he caused due to poor management in Carolina.The Kraken traded away all of their goal support for prospects, draft picks, or likely to pay more favorable players of ex-GM Ron Francis before his “Promotion”. Former Kraken members, Morgan Geekie is 14th in scoring in the NHL, while Alex Wennberg has 15 points and Ryan Donato has 13 points. Kraken Management has attempted to cover bad signings with more bad signings. The logic in professional hockey is that if a guy scores a 100 points with the best offense in the league and he will come to my team and do the same thing just because you paid him is as naive as it is disappointing. This is a league that values guys as much for what they can do as it does for what they have done.
If the Kraken are going to be the franchise that pays guys who deserve to be paid for what they’ve done for other teams in their career, then they have to come to terms with the fact that they may never compete for a Stanley Cup with a roster of more conservatively veteran two-way forwards. NHL Players have a history of making terrible General Managers and may otherwise find success in scouting as I believe that’s where their expertise could be most valuable as an alternative. Hockey is for everyone and I would love to see the NHL be as competitive as possible and even expanded to 40 teams to help grow the game.
Hockey is a formula and the current roster is a bad formula. This league loves youth, speed, strength, size, and skill: the veteran player is a role more than a necessity in the modern NHL. The Kraken scoring woes can’t all be blamed on the players or coaches when management doesn’t put them in positions to be successful and gives the boot to any of the coaches with bad results from a bad team and consequintly give no real chance to establish any identity or system within the team. The Kraken could move struggling wing Mason Marchment, who clearly doesn’t want to be here with this team, or perhaps Kappo Kakko for a more productive veteran option, but will likely have to include draft picks for any improvements as no one wants to be the one who trades down.
Something has to give in Seattle and with a rotating roster and a Carousel of NHL Coaches, The biggest thing holding the Kraken back is the front office executives. Trading some players could save the season and possibly Coach Lambert’s job, but in order to save this organization: The Kraken need to get as far away as possible from Ron Francis and company as soon as possible, just like the Carolina Hurricanes did, after he got that team sold due to poor performance.
Very Respectfully,
Caleb Nance