Opportunity beckoned on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 23) for the Seattle Kraken in the City of Angels. Coming off an impressive home stand during which head coach Dan Bylsma’s side went 5-1-0, Seattle headed south to face the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena. They arrived with 21 points compared to 23 for their Californian opponents. As such, it was a chance to level the terms in the Pacific Division. What resulted was a frustrating 2-1 loss. Here are the takeaways.
Kraken’s Attack Get Clogged Up
Some contextualization is necessary to understand what the Kraken were swimming into for their matinee melee. The Kings are an incredibly disciplined defensive unit, coughing up a total of 373 shots on target (before the Nov. 23 contest), which ranked third in the NHL. For that matter, their status as the fourth-best side in the league regarding unblocked shot attempts against (565) is great, too. L.A. is also first in rebound shots against.
In a nutshell, head coach Jim Hiller has his ensemble slow down games, clogging up lanes and making life difficult for opposing offensive players. That doesn’t bode well for a Kraken group still searching for consistency when striking.
Well, that was a problem for Seattle on Saturday. It’s difficult to conclude which stat is more disappointing. Either that the Kraken had registered seven shots against Kings goalie David Rittich by the match’s halfway point, or that Matty Beniers, Jared McCann, and Andre Burakovsky – who formed the top line – all had expected goal percentages of 30% or lower when playing 5-on-5.
Related: How the Kraken Can Overcome the Loss of Captain Jordan Eberle
It looked as though Seattle played right into L.A.’s trap almost all afternoon. They tried setting up plays by skating up through the neutral zone, but that’s just not something the Kings concede much of.
On the topic of attacking opportunities that don’t produce results these days, the power play doesn’t look great, either. Seattle has been on the man advantage 12 times in its last four games and hasn’t scored. Versus the Kings, the units went 0-for-3 and, worse, saw the best scoring opportunity go to the other team in the second period. The iconicity of Jessica Campbell being the first woman coach – assistant or otherwise – in the NHL will always be hers. But the power play is one of her responsibilities and it needs work now.
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