Blues Spoil Kraken Opener With 3 Goals in Under Two Minutes

10/8/2024

(Seattle, WA)

New Beginning

Game 1 of 82…the beginning of the long 82 game regular season slate for the Seattle Kraken started Tuesday afternoon before a national television audience and a raucous home crowd of 17,151.

Although the Kraken held St. Louis in check for most of the game, it was a bad two minute stretch that spoiled the Kraken season opener in a 3-2 defeat.

Before the game, the Kraken named Jordan Eberle their team captain.

A deserved achievement for the veteran who played in his 1019th game.

Adam Larsson and Matty Beniers were also announced as assistant captains for the new year.

Puck Drop

The first period saw no scoring, with Seattle outshooting St. Louis 11-5. All eleven shots came from different Kraken.

Seattle’s best chance of the first period coming off an attempt from Jaden Schwartz that rang of the cross bar.

It did not take long into the 2nd period for the Kraken to get on the board.

Wild 2nd Period

Former St. Louis Blue Vince Dunn joined the offensive rush and scorched a wrist shot past Jordan Binnington to score the first goal of the season for Seattle (his first career goal against the Blues).

1:53 later, Eeli Tolvanen tipped in a Ryker Evans slap shot to put the Kraken up 2-0 at 2:20 of the second period.

Tensions rose at 9:01 of the 2nd period when a Kraken would be goal was deemed offside, which led to matching fighting majors.

The physicality gave way for St. Louis to capitalize, last year’s leading scorer for the Blues Jordan Kyrou raced in on the right wing to put the Blues on the board on a power play tally.

It kept coming, newly acquired defenseman Philip Broberg notched a goal from the left circle below the pad of Kraken netminder Philipp Grubauer to tie the game 1:35 after the goal from Kyrou.

Minutes later, off a defensive faceoff won by Alexander Texier, Kyrou showed off his speed on a breakaway ending with his second goal of the period at 15:37 of the 2nd, 20 seconds after the Broberg goal.

Kyrou’s second bookended three goals in 1:55 for St. Louis.

The 2nd period ended with Seattle outshooting St. Louis 17-13, but the visiting Blues led where it counts, 3-2.

The Kraken had outshot the Blues 10-1 through the first 10 minutes of the period.

St. Louis locked down defensively in the third period. This forced Seattle to dump and chase offensively, an approach that does not cater to their strength.

Aftermath

Head Coach Dan Bylsma said after the game the loss was in many ways solvable. A bad four to five minute span was all it took to dictate the 60 minutes of play.

Seattle outshot St. Louis 32-25, with Philipp Grubauer making 22 saves on 25 shots in defeat.

Jordan Binnington for St. Louis was excellent with 30 saves in the win.

Faceoffs were a recurring problem for Seattle last season, they were edged 40-31 in the circle by the Blues.

Vince Dunn for the second time in his career, scored the Kraken’s first goal of the year (2021-22). Dunn emphasized after the game that there were still 81 games to play.

It was the first game for Kraken Assistant Coach Jessica Campbell. Campbell is the first female assistant coach in NHL History. Before the game, Campbell received the loudest ovation in team introductions.

UP NEXT:

The Kraken will head on the road for a three game road trip. It begins on Saturday against the Minnesota Wild, before stops in Dallas and Nashville. The Kraken will return home next Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Stay up to date on the Kraken with updates here on ESN.