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The expansion team Seattle Kraken is building a huge surprise in the NHL playoffs. The team, playing in its second season in the league, claimed a 3–2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche and took a 3–2 lead in the first round match series.
Reigning Stanley Cup champion Colorado is one loss away from the summer break. It must win the next match of the series on Saturday away from home.
How is it possible that Seattle, who entered the playoffs as a giant underdog, is turning the series around? Based on the events of the game, Kraken’s lead is not even a big surprise.
– In four games out of five, Seattle has been undeniably better, hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen says.
Seattle has drummed up its disciplined and active scrum game with quality throughout the series. So far, Kraken is ahead in almost all possible statistics: puck control, shots, goals expected, goal positions, special situation play and scoring efficiency.
Yes, and in the goalkeeper game.
Listen to the latest episode of the Ika änäri podcast, where we talk about the refereeing line in the playoffs:
Torn by injuries and other personal problems, Colorado is having a really broken season. Seattle, on the other hand, is first and foremost an intact team.
The Kraken doesn’t have the individual skill of the superstars, but it has four very smooth chains that execute the gameplay perfectly.
Colorado has Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar and a couple of other top players, but not last season’s depth in their roster. Behind the top two chains, Colorado has yet to score a single goal in the playoffs.
Corsi% – 49-51
Shots – 48%-52%
Goals: 9-11
Distribution of expected goals: 47.5%-52.5%
Goals: 48%-52%
Dangerous goal posts: 43.5%-56.5%
Suppression rate: 91.8%-92.8%
Power play: 8.3%-16.7%
Underpowered game: 83.3%-91.7%
Starts: 54.2%-45.8%
Colorado doesn’t want to have two chains right now. The second center who played huge game minutes throughout the spring JT Compher seems tired, and no other power unit has been built around him.
To top it all off, the important Russian pier Valery Nitshushkin withdrew from the team’s activities citing personal reasons.
Injured captain Gabriel Landeskog has not played and will not play a single game in the entire season.
– Nitshushkin’s departure has a huge meaning. He leaves quite a dent there. What the coaching team doesn’t talk about is that some could play sick even a little too early. There are always a couple of defenders there, with whom we tense up every day, whether the guys can get together for the evening with medication, Lehkonen states.
– The top players are under heavy wear and the line-up is thin.
Showing indiscipline
Behind the injuries, Colorado still can’t escape. The most confusing thing is how a team of the Avalanche’s caliber has been able to stay on its feet when playing five-on-five.
– Seattle’s passing game is at a really good level and they really get Colorado’s defenders in trouble. There are no quality feeds to the center from there. One thing Colorado also repeatedly does is leave pucks in front of the line. If the game turns 20 times at the ring line, that’s 15 times too many, Lehkonen sees.
At the same time, Colorado has begun to slip away from its characteristic discipline. In the fourth game, star defender Cale Makar earned himself a one-game suspension after making an unnecessary and dangerous tackle after the whistle Jared McCann.
On Thursday, Nathan MacKinnon started hitting the rink’s glasses with his bat in the middle of the game because the referee didn’t whistle for a timeout for Seattle. A slow substitution due to getting wet meant that Compher, who replaced MacKinnon, didn’t get to his own area in time, and Seattle scored an important 2–1 goal.
– I got away from the guy, and he pulled my legs from under me. I don’t know what I should have done. It’s not 1975. It was a struggle. However, I should have been able to keep my composure, so it went to me, MacKinnon admitted to the media in frustration after the game.
A strong pain has begun to emanate from the collective being of Colorado.
– Sometimes players who want so badly to be in charge get out of hand. This is a hard lesson to learn. The game of the goal and because of that clicked in their own. Wasn’t MacKinnon the smartest dude himself, that’s fun. Such mistakes are punished with a heavy hand, says Lehkonen.
– It’s clear that they are now starting to feel pain. However, this is a series that they had to continue with.
Kudos to Seattle
However, credit for the situation must be given to Seattle. The team that collected more than a hundred points in the regular season has boldly set out to overthrow the reigning champion by defending forward and taking the initiative into their own hands.
Unity, commitment and discipline have carried the group far.
– This revolutionizes the thinking that the underdog should play with scorched earth tactics. They have a skating-strong team that has not remained passively waiting, but clearly wanted to set the pace and be the host. They have a good four-string rotation, and the defensemen are playing well. They constantly get Colorado’s opening play broken, Lehkonen praises.
This disciplined 200-foot drumming is expected from Seattle on Saturday as well, but what does Colorado have to change to avoid a sensational loss in the first round?
– The top players now really have to accept the challenge when they are seriously being played away. It’s nice to see who can still tighten their belts in the hellish uproar of the six game. Playing in two directions has to be of high quality and the excitement controlled. Now you can’t leave the glove at all, because every change matters, Lehkonen instructs.