GDT: Kraken @ The McDraistles 11/15

[Hocktopus]

I stopped watching after McDavid's first goal, and dont think I can bring myself to go back and watch the "highlights". Especially since they are going to feature a lot of Kane. Having to watch Hyman go off last week was bad enough.

Here's what is frustrating me : last season, there were more than a few "tough losses" where it felt like the team was busting their asses and flying around but were a notch behind in overall talent. That's tolerable. Hell, I actually kind of LIKE that. Speed and hard work is fun hockey to watch.

This year it feels like the system is borked, schemes like the powerplay or the forecheck look disorganized and chaotic, and up and down the roster a couple players will randomly make "wtf"-tier mental mistakes that make you really scratch your head.

Some of that stuff...the system/scheme and the mental mistakes...would seem to land squarely on coaching and I'm not super confident that Hak is the guy to sort it out.

The other frustrating factor is that this team keeps blowing leads. Either this is due to using up all their energy and then running out of gas, or the failure / unwillingness to make in-game adjustments or both.

The last game against the Avs was a perfect example: the Kraken came out flying in the first period and completely dominated and should have been up by two at the end of the first period. However, the Avs made adjustments for the second period and Seattle absolutely could not adapt and ended up being run out of their own building. They could only muster one lousy shot in the third period when they were losing

I have to agree with you, I like Hak and he did great things last year, but how much longer can this go on? Whether some like it or not, after last season, many fans have expectations now and will not accept the "well, we are just an expansion team" excuse.

 

[Fuhrious]

Has the system really changed? The roster, like every other team, has had some changes. The lines have been juggled. Things aren't working, and mistakes are being made. But Hakstol's system is the same, no?

Last year, we made mistakes. We had mediocre goaltending much of the season and gave up a lot of rushes. But we worked hard. We played fast. The lines had chemistry. We possessed the puck. Won battles. Had crisp passing. All 4 lines were scoring. The defense was scoring. We outscored our breakdowns.

No, I dont think the system has honestly changed much, if at all. The players seem to not be executing it as well as last season?

Forecheck is an obvious one to pick on, as it's an isolated view. It feels like there are a handful (or more) of times each game where I cant tell who is 1F or 2F because they're both engaged in a scrambly chase for the puck? At least once last night, specifically a couple minutes before McDavid's goal, one of the forecheckers was completely flatfooted at a dead stop as the Oilers went D to D.

Hak is presumably drilling into these guys "hey, we dont have the same level of talent as Edmonton or Colorado, so our game needs to be tight as a drum"...and it's just not. At some point that lands on Hak, no?

 

[kihei]

The elephant in the room right now is Matty. Nearly a quarter of the way through the season, who would have thought that Bellemare would have the same number of goals as Matty and Eberle combined. Beniers continues to work hard but his plus/minus (-14) is concerning and he seems too often to get manhandled in scrums. He needs to get a lot stronger but that is not going to happen over night.

 

[Hocktopus]

The elephant in the room right now is Matty. Nearly a quarter of the way through the season, who would have thought that Bellemare would have the same number of goals as Matty and Eberle combined. Beniers continues to work hard but his plus/minus (-14) is concerning and he seems too often to get manhandled in scrums. He needs to get a lot stronger but that is not going to happen over night.

That is definitely not helping. If you take Matty and Alex as our 1 and 2 centers (with Yanni as a strong no. 3) then our top two centers have a combined 2 goals, no where near good enough. Although I cannot watch games and have to listen to them on the radio, I barely hear mention of Matty as he is not driving play. He really has a horrible case of the sophomore slump and it is dragging down the team.

 

[Fuhrious]

The elephant in the room right now is Matty. Nearly a quarter of the way through the season, who would have thought that Bellemare would have the same number of goals as Matty and Eberle combined. Beniers continues to work hard but his plus/minus (-14) is concerning and he seems too often to get manhandled in scrums. He needs to get a lot stronger but that is not going to happen over night.

I dunno, while I've harped on him quite a bit I think there are plenty of question marks to go around at the quarter point.

Larsson has very quietly been pretty bad so far. McCann is scoring to roughly match a 40g pace but his assists are waaaaaay down (symptom of Beniers and Eberle not scoring?). Neither goalie is above a .900 save%? Thus far it doesnt really look like Borgen took that "next step" many of us were hoping?

There has been a lot of handwringing over the players who left and how their contributions were being missed. I would still argue that your top C and top D getting off to a horror-show start are far more impactful.

 

[Fuhrious]

Man...I didnt realize that both goalies were below .900

Even more surprised that there are still 10 teams with a lower Sv%, as Seattle is only #22 in the league in that stat.

 

[RainyCityHockey]

Has the system really changed? The roster, like every other team, has had some changes. The lines have been juggled. Things aren't working, and mistakes are being made. But Hakstol's system is the same, no?

Last year, we made mistakes. We had mediocre goaltending much of the season and gave up a lot of rushes. But we worked hard. We played fast. The lines had chemistry. We possessed the puck. Won battles. Had crisp passing. All 4 lines were scoring. The defense was scoring. We outscored our breakdowns.

Last year we also had next to no injuries and the only guy missing was Burakovsky and that was after the all-star break.

That shooting percentage last year papered over a lot of cracks on defense and in goal as the Kraken were able to outscore their overall problems.
Once that shooting percentage went down, after the all-star break, the Kraken needed a five game stretch playing Arizona 3x, Vancouver and Chicago to finish the second half of the season with a slightly above NHL .500 mark.

That's why the talk was about us possibly taking a step back this year cause the shooting percentage wasn't sustainable and you also won't have as much luck with injuries as we had last season.

This year you had Tanev missing a month, Burakovsky missing 6-8 weeks and others being out a couple of games.
That leads to lines being juggled in the first place and them being juggled again cause you don't win and want to find something that might work.

Overall this is a "playoff bubble" team and unless the young guys play really well(which they haven't) it's one of the most mediocre rosters that doesn't have much of a margin of error and procuces way too many of them to make up for it.

That's why, instead of last years 100 point team(that had basically everything clicking for them), it's going to be a 70 - 80 point team this season, if at all.

No, I dont think the system has honestly changed much, if at all. The players seem to not be executing it as well as last season?

Forecheck is an obvious one to pick on, as it's an isolated view. It feels like there are a handful (or more) of times each game where I cant tell who is 1F or 2F because they're both engaged in a scrambly chase for the puck? At least once last night, specifically a couple minutes before McDavid's goal, one of the forecheckers was completely flatfooted at a dead stop as the Oilers went D to D.

Hak is presumably drilling into these guys "hey, we dont have the same level of talent as Edmonton or Colorado, so our game needs to be tight as a drum"...and it's just not. At some point that lands on Hak, no?

Well, there's loads of juggling of lines which doesn't help to build any consistancy and also makes it harder to forecheck solid enough like last year.

They're also not getting the results and therefore don't have as much confidence which also doesn't help forechecking and therefore trusting yourself, the system and your linemates.

I'm actually not blaming Hakstol that much for it cause I doubt he's asking different things this season compared to last year.
The one thing I do critcize him for is the fact that he doesn't seem to be able to find a solution to oppenents changing up things in between periods.

The elephant in the room right now is Matty. Nearly a quarter of the way through the season, who would have thought that Bellemare would have the same number of goals as Matty and Eberle combined. Beniers continues to work hard but his plus/minus (-14) is concerning and he seems too often to get manhandled in scrums. He needs to get a lot stronger but that is not going to happen over night.

Yeah, Matty's not having a good start to the year and even that goal he got hasn't really gotten him going.

I've also read that he hardly takes shots which doesn't help as well and yes, he clearly needs to get stronger.
Espeically for a guy who's a 200 feet center that also needs to be solid in his own zone.

Man...I didnt realize that both goalies were below .900

Even more surprised that there are still 10 teams with a lower Sv%, as Seattle is only #22 in the league in that stat.

We're giving up about four goals a game.
Those SV% have been going down since about four games into the season and both goalies having two nice starts to start the year....

 

[Scomerica]

If we don't turn it around soon, does Hakstols seat start to get warm? Especially with some of our players underperforming

 

[Irie]

The system looks the same to me, I don't think there have been any adjustments, but it is still a minor league system, which is the problem.

The outwork you opponent in all three zones works well against teams with more wide open gameplans, as it clogs up the neutral zone and prevents them from having any space

Everyone was emulating the lightning and avalanche the last two years, so the environment was perfect for the system to find success in the NHL.

This is a copycat league. Everyone is now emulating the Bruins and the Golden knights. Teams are tightening up and playing more disciplined systems. Hakstol's system from last year is not going to generate nearly as many breaks on turnovers as it used to as the league evolves.

In theory, the oilers are a team that the kraken should be able to take advantage of, just based on system matchups, but the oilers skill is an equalizer, and the kraken losing their near historic team depth from last year is also making everything tougher.

 

[GrungeHockey]

If we don't turn it around soon, does Hakstols seat start to get warm? Especially with some of our players underperforming

Coach of the year last year, fire the bum this year. The world of the pro sports coach is a brutal one lol.
That was textbook blowing a game though. Team has no real shutdown ability so sitting on a lead is a very bad idea.

 

[Scomerica]

Coach of the year last year, fire the bum this year. The world of the pro sports coach is a brutal one lol.
That was textbook blowing a game though. Team has no real shutdown ability so sitting on a lead is a very bad idea.

Awful first year. Good second year. Bad third year. It's a tricky one.

 

[RainyCityHockey]

If we don't turn it around soon, does Hakstols seat start to get warm? Especially with some of our players underperforming

Unless we go on a huge losing streak I don't see it during the season.
Francis isn't one to take quick action and he just signed the guy to a three year extension(while he had this season left on his deal) during the offseason.

Coach of the year last year, fire the bum this year. The world of the pro sports coach is a brutal one lol.
That was textbook blowing a game though. Team has no real shutdown ability so sitting on a lead is a very bad idea.

Well, being anywhere close the Jack Adam's award or a finalist doesn't seem to go well for most coaches over the past couple of years.....

 

[Fuhrious]

The system looks the same to me, I don't think there have been any adjustments, but it is still a minor league system, which is the problem.

The outwork you opponent in all three zones works well against teams with more wide open gameplans, as it clogs up the neutral zone and prevents them from having any space

Everyone was emulating the lightning and avalanche the last two years, so the environment was perfect for the system to find success in the NHL.

This is a copycat league. Everyone is now emulating the Bruins and the Golden knights. Teams are tightening up and playing more disciplined systems. Hakstol's system from last year is not going to generate nearly as many breaks on turnovers as it used to as the league evolves.

In theory, the oilers are a team that the kraken should be able to take advantage of, just based on system matchups, but the oilers skill is an equalizer, and the kraken losing their near historic team depth from last year is also making everything tougher.

I agree with you on every point, although I’d like to reiterate the scheme (outwork everyone in all 3 zones) also relies on disciplined play and eliminating all mental mistakes, and this 23/24 team hasn’t as yet demonstrated the ability to do that.

 

[kihei]

Perfect time for the tail end of a three games in four nights situation, eh? Or not. Hope springs eternal--maybe the Islander game with put paid to this nightmarish little streak we are on.