The Seattle Kraken shouldn’t have been surprised by a lump of coal in their stockings.
The Kraken entered the NHL’s holiday break saddled with a five-game losing streak, tied with San Jose for the longest in the league. Seattle opens the unofficial second half of the season on Saturday afternoon at the Vancouver Canucks in its first of four meetings against its biggest rival.
“A lot’s been said,” first-year Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “There’s a lot of searching from the group, from the guys, going on. We didn’t want to use the last two games as throwaway and get to the break. We wanted some growth as a team.”
He said he was pleased with the effort in Sunday’s 5-2 loss at Colorado.
“The four-day break we have to take as a break, both mentally (and physically), get away from the game a little bit, come back after Christmas and be ready to go,” Bylsma said.
New Seattle forward Kaapo Kakko, who netted a goal at Colorado, looked forward to the holiday break for a different reason — a chance to actually practice with his new team. Kakko, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, was acquired Dec. 18 from the New York Rangers for defenseman Will Borgen and a pair of draft picks.
“I think for me and for the team, it’s a much-needed break coming up, but especially for me,” Kakko said. “It’s been only three games in four days. It will be a good thing to have a good couple of practices to kind of know how we’re gonna play. We watched some videos. The coaches have been great in telling me what to do. But practices are when you can really learn what to do.”
The Canucks nearly found themselves in the same situation as the Kraken heading into the holiday break, but they defeated San Jose 4-3 Monday to snap a three-game losing streak (0-1-2).
“I’m glad we could get the two points. I thought (we were) clearly invested right from the start of the game and (now we can) enjoy the next couple days,” said Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, who had two assists to give him a team-leading 42 points this season (eight goals, 34 assists). “The break is coming up at a fortunate time … just recover and regroup, and we’ll see what’s going on after that.”
Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson scored goals 44 seconds apart late in the second period to snap a six-game pointless streak before leaving early in the third with an injury.
“He got banged up,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “I think it was in the second period. He tried it one shift. We have the break. I don’t think it’s too bad.”
Tocchet said he liked seeing Pettersson end his pointless drought.
“Hopefully that will kick start him,” Tocchet said. “I liked his celebration. It was nice to see him scoring and get excited. I think the fans like to see that, too.”
Teammates were also pleased for Pettersson.
“He’s too good. He’s going to break out at some point,” Hughes said. “I’m glad he was able to do that (Monday) and hopefully for him, he can enjoy the next couple days like all of us and regroup and get ready to go.”
–Field Level Media
