KRAKEN

Eide: The piece the Seattle Kraken offense is missing

Feb 11, 2022, 10:41 AM

Seattle Kraken...

Taylor Hall celebrates Boston Bruins teammate David Pastrnak's goal against the Seattle Kraken on Feb. 1. (Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)

(Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)

The Kraken played their greatest hits during a disappointing 5-2 loss at home to the last-place Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night.

Vejmelka stymies Seattle as Coyotes topple Kraken 5-2

In their first game since the All-Star break, the Kraken opened with the classic turnover deep in their own zone that led directly to the game’s first goal. Seattle followed that by allowing a goal less than two minutes after Colin Blackwell put the Kraken on the board to cut the Coyotes lead to 2-1 early in the third period. For an encore, the power play went scoreless, and the Kraken outshot Arizona but could not muster more than two goals.

The latter two issues have been a constant for a while but weren’t what concerned head coach Dave Hakstol the most.

“The number of chances and the offensive side of our game last night was enough to win the hockey game,” Hakstol said after Thursday’s practice. “It’s the other side of our game that wasn’t where it needs to be last night. Our play without the puck is a huge key for us. We expected that to be a little bit sloppy coming off of a break, and it was, but the competitive pieces of our game that had been a real staple of our game of late weren’t consistent enough last night. We got to get back to that.”

The Kraken aren’t scoring much this season and over their past six games are averaging 1.67 goals per game. On the season, Seattle is averaging 2.6 goals per game, which is 25th in the league. To complicate matters, the power play is in a 3-for-42 tailspin.

When the Kraken roster was assembled there was an obvious lack of firepower in the forward group. That has come to be the reality, but perhaps the reason Hakstol isn’t running around with his hair on fire about the offense is because right now the Kraken are actually performing slightly above where they should be.

On the season, in all situations (5-on-5, power play, shorthanded, et al) Seattle’s expected goals forced – a statistic that looks at the quality of shots a team generates – suggests they should have 118 goals. The Kraken have actually scored 122 goals.

This is the offensive team that the Kraken are built to be, but the lack of scoring has played a role in the way the season has gone.

Yes, the goaltending and defense had issues early on, but when you can only count on two goals each game the margin of error is razor thin and the pressure on the goalies rises. It’s tough knowing that if you give up that third goal, you’re probably going to lose.

The Kraken need to add offensive talent when the NHL hits the offseason, because right now they face a talent deficit most nights.

Kraken loaded with middle of the lineup forwards

Seattle’s biggest issue is that the forward group is loaded with good players but not elite forwards, and they’ve played roles that they aren’t best suited for. It’s a team of middle-of-the-lineup guys, and without an elite scorer or scorers, it can be the difference in close, one-goal games – which they play a lot of.

This doesn’t mean the roster is terrible, but it is limited in what it can realistically produce as the results are showing. The Kraken produce chances, they are a good possession team, and they create as many scoring chances as they allow. They can’t finish, though.

There have been many games like Wednesday’s where they out-shoot, out-possess, and out-chance the opponent but still fail to score. Sometimes they run into a hot goaltender, and that’s just part of hockey, but most nights it’s Seattle failing to find that one goal to either go ahead, tie, or extend a lead.

Seattle has a collection of good players like Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde, to name a few. Imagine if a skilled finisher or two was sprinkled into that Kraken mix.

Alex Wennberg is a perfect example. He’s coming off a career season with Florida in which he scored 17 goals, but it came with a shooting percentage of 20%, well above his career average. Turns out that he’s more of a playmaker looking to dish the puck. His goals are down to four this season, but he’s creating and has 18 assists.

Wennberg is playing well without scoring goals, but how many more goals would he help produce if the insertion of elite scorers up the lineup moved players like Jaden Schwartz or Eberle to his wing? How often would that lead to an extra goal that ends up winning a close game instead of losing one?

Prior to the All-Star break, the team played a tight and structured defensive game and got good goaltending as they won, and lost, some close games. That’s a good foundation to build on, and with the addition of finishers this summer, the team should see marketable improvement.

When general manager Ron Francis goes about adding to the team this offseason, he needs to find one (or maybe two) guys who are primary scorers. Seattle has the supporting cast but needs to find a leading man or two.

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