Seattle, WA – With both teams coming off of frustrating losses to the Vancouver Canucks, the contest between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Seattle Kraken proved to be a bounce back for someone. It proved to be the less likely Kraken, who put out one of their strongest defensive performances to date. With some unique offense that saw two goals called off due to challenge and only one goal allowed, this game shows what the Kraken can be if they put in a 60-minute effort.
As has been noted throughout the entirety of this teams’ playing existence, the Kraken defensive units and goaltending have drawn the frustration of the fanbase. The team’s primary weakness and issue number one to address going forward seemed like a thing of the past in this matchup with Pittsburgh, as the Kraken held the likes of Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, and crew to just the one goal. A breakaway goal by Jake Guentzel with Kraken defensemen on his back put Pittsburgh on the board first, but Seattle was locked in after that. Seattle netminder Martin Jones reflected on the game.
“It’s been a roller coaster, just trying to wrap my head around playing hockey today. Sometimes, when you’re not thinking too much, things work out for you. That might have been the case today,” Jones remarked in regards to playing just hours after his son was born.
Both Jordan Eberle and Martin Jones welcomed a new member of their family into their lives in the form of the newborn prior to today’s game, so the term “dad strength” came into play. While Jones held it down between the pipes for Seattle, Jordan Eberle and the Kraken attack stayed resilient to beat Pittsburgh goaltender Casey DeSmith twice. While two potential goals for Seattle were called off for offsides and a high stick respectively, the Kraken remained undeterred by the bad luck. A little over midway through the second period, the line of Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers, and Jordan Eberle found each other in succession to end the play with an Eberle goal. Eberle discussed the day, postgame.
“This is special. Something you’ll always remember. I’ll be able to tell him I scored after he was born, but I think more importantly, we got the win… After having a couple of goals disallowed, the resilience to continue to go at it and find a way to win — that was big,” Eberle said of his newest son, Deacon.
This game was an excellent example of the sort of potential that this Seattle hockey team has, if in fact they play out the entirety of the three periods. The Penguins are solid club year in and year out, and it would be a tall task to shut them out, so allowing a goal is fine. To hold them to one, while staying patient and battling through some bad luck on challenges to score twice and then add an empty netter, shows the toughness this team has. With top talent such as rookie Matty Beniers, free agent addition Andre Burakovsky leading the attack, getting goals from fourth liner Morgan Geekie tonight displays the depth this team has.
The Kraken will get a few days before their next game, on Tuesday, November 1st. Seattle will head on the road to battle their Pacific
Division rival Calgary Flames. With a relatively new look roster, the Flames and free agent addition Nazeem Kadri will host Seattle inside of the Scotiabank Saddledome with a puck drop of 6PM PST. The winner of this matchup will likely take temporary hold of third place in the division.
