Seattle, WA – After a tough loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning last March, Kraken alternate captain Jordan Eberle said that the team had “twenty days to find out who wants to be here” when referencing the trade deadline. Numerous veterans were shipped out as Seattle looked to the future, and Eberle made a statement that he wanted to be here as a member of the Kraken and build something special. Tonight, in game four of the first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs matchup against the Colorado Avalanche, Jordan Eberle scored the most important goal in franchise history to tie the series at two games apiece.
Game four of this series started off fast for the Kraken, just as it has in every single game of this first round Stanley Cup Playoffs matchup. Seattle became the second team in NHL history to score first in their first four contests of the postseason, joining the Toronto Arenas (Now the Maple Leafs) thanks to Will Borgen’s first period goal. Just as they had before, the Kraken were displaying the waves of attacking pressure that they can bring thanks to their depth, and it was doing its job against Colorado. Seattle continued to pelt Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev with shots through the first frame and were able to create a golden opportunity on an unfortunate event.
Colorado defenseman Cale Makar hit Kraken forward Jared McCann far after the whistle, slamming him in the boards and eventually taking him out of the game as he did not return. Considering that the play had been blown dead and the puck was not close to the two, Makar was issued a major penalty (five minutes) initially before the officials discussed and decreased it to a minor. That itself is ridiculous and here’s to hoping that the NHL safety committee punishes Makar for the play, but the Kraken pushed on and took advantage of the power play when Daniel Sprong rang the puck off the pipes of the goal in the dying seconds of the man advantage. Once again in this series, Seattle had a two-goal lead to begin the game.
“Yeah, it’s part of the plan. I mean, we’ve got to play at the bottom there, I think we have a lot of success there. Keep using our D, keep shooting the puck. If we do that, I think we’re a pretty successful group,” Yanni Gourde, Seattle Kraken forward and alternate captain, on the team trying to wear down the Avalanche.
Stanley Cup Playoff hockey continues to show out for the Seattle Kraken and their fans, in a variety of different ways. Whether that be the intensity level of the play on the ice, the stress that it brings on a minute-by-minute basis throughout the course of each game, or the physicality in each hit. The Kraken and their fans are seeing it all play out in this first round series against the Avalanche, and one of those key aspects was especially apparent in the win for Seattle.
“I think all around. I think our forecheck was much better tonight. I think part of it is just having a better chip. It’s tough to forecheck someone when their eyes up, especially that group of defensemen there, they’re pretty solid. But any defenseman that is trying to dig out that puck from the wall, it’s pretty inconvenient, and that’s what we did tonight. We put the puck in better spots, and it was easier to forecheck that way. So, like I said, we did a better job tonight sticking to our system,” Yanni Gourde, Seattle Kraken forward and alternate captain, on tonight’s physicality.
The series now switches off into individual games instead of the two game blocks through the first four. The Kraken will head back to Colorado for game five of this series, taking place on Wednesday April 26th with a puck drop at 6:30PM PST. Seattle, coming off this historic victory, will be gunning to keep the pressure on the Avalanche but will have to do so without 40-goal scorer Jared McCann, as the forward was taken out after the whistle by Colorado defenseman Cale Makar. The win tonight guarantees we will have a game six, which will take place on Friday, April 28th with a puck drop that is still to be announced back at Climate Pledge Arena.
