Stuart Skinner's 24 saves thwart Kraken in 2-1 loss to Oilers
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MARCH 02: Yanni Gourde #37 of the Seattle Kraken skates against Connor McDavid #97 of the Edmonton Oilers during the first period at Climate Pledge Arena on March 02, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty I
SEATTLE - The Seattle Kraken played a great game and still lost to a strong Edmonton Oilers team on Saturday afternoon.
If this was a game in November, you wouldn't bat an eye at the result. They played well. They lost. It happens, and you move on easily.
But when you're chasing a playoff spot, having dug a hole in the standings due to scattered play early in the season, missing out on two points at this point in the year is tougher to swallow.
"We played well," Jaden Schwartz said. "We had a lot of looks. For as high power as they I think we limited quite a bit of their offense. Yeah, it's tough when you play such a good team game. … "It's frustrating obviously when you only score one goal. Need results this time of the year. Obviously, could have gone either way, but yeah, tough."
With under a week remaining until the NHL's trade deadline, the Kraken were unable to get the better of Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner, who made 24 saves in a 2-1 win over Seattle. Skinner didn't have to make a ton of saves for the Oilers, but the ones he did were critical.
Leon Draisaitl and Brett Kulak each scored for Edmonton in building a 2-0 Oilers' lead early in the third period. Eeli Tolvanen scored his 15th of the year on the power play, and Seattle had a power play chance for 53 seconds to end the game trying to get the tying goal that came up empty.
"We spent quite a bit of time in the O-zone. We generated enough," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "You know, good opportunities tonight to score some goals. Their guy in the pipes was good. A couple of bounces offensively didn't didn't come to us. And, you know, at the end of the night, it becomes a disappointing loss."
Philipp Grubauer was sharp again in net for Seattle as well. He stopped 22 of 24 shots faced from Edmonton with little chance to stop either puck that got by him. Since returning to the lineup, Grubauer has a .942 save percentage in five starts over six games played with a 4-1 record.
"Our goaltender was good tonight," Hakstol said. "Phil did a real good job. You know, they had some opportunities, you know, especially in the third period that they missed on. But, you know, Grubi was good tonight. Offensively, we generated enough to deserve a little better fate."
The Kraken got the best of the early chances with Skinner coming up big to keep Seattle off the board.
Skinner has a terrific blocker save to deny a backhand chance on an otherwise open net from Jordan Eberle. He then got a little help as Tye Kartye had a prime look sail wide of the net, and a Jared McCann tip chance of a Justin Schultz shot beat Skinner only to go off the left post and stay out.
McCann was slashed on the play to give the Kraken a power play, but they were unable to deliver the opening goal. Skinner then made another glove save on a chipped shot from Yanni Gourde as Seattle's pressure continued to be turned away.
A very weak cross-checking penalty called against Jamie Oleksiak gave the Oilers' highly dangerous power play unit their first chance of the game. Grubauer made a big save to deny his fellow German in Draisaitl to keep the game scoreless into the first intermission.
Edmonton started to create more dangerous looks in the second period. Evander Kane – who had a hat trick against Seattle earlier this season – had a clear look from the left circle driving in on the net with Grubauer delivering a hard pad save. The save created a dangerous rebound, but no one was able to get to it for the Oilers.
But they didn't have to wait much longer to break through. Will Borgen broke up a Draisaitl pass on a rush chance, but it fell directly to Connor McDavid at the top of Seattle's zone. Draisaitl got lost by the Kraken defense amid the redirected puck and McDavid found him open in the right circle for a one-time blast by Grubauer to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead.
The Kraken then had to survive another Edmonton power play after Oliver Bjorkstrand was called for a slash against Corey Perry, but Seattle made it into the locker room still down just one goal.
Skinner had another massive save against Jared McCann just over five minutes into the third period. Eberle found McCann with a pass to the slot from behind the goal line but Skinner swallowed up the shot to preserve the Edmonton lead.
The save from Skinner allowed the Oilers the chance to extend the lead. Brett Kulak fired a puck from distance that redirected slightly off the ankle of Jamie Oleksiak and went in off the left post to gave Edmonton a 2-0 lead with 11:58 remaining.
A Seattle power play chance off a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins holding call gave the Kraken a chance to rally late. Tolvanen had a shot right off the face-off that rang off the left post. Tolvanen would get another chance and his shot from the right circle deflected off the skate of Darnell Nurse into the net to make it a 2-1 game with 6:37 remaining.
Grubauer took to the bench with 1:40 left to play to bring an extra attacker on. After a zone clearance by the Oilers, Draisaitl took McCann down for a holding penalty to give Seattle a late power play to chase the tying goal with 53 seconds left. Tolvanen had another chance deflected wide by Skinner and enough chance for Eberle was denied with Skinner's right pad to secure the 2-1 win for Edmonton.
"I got a little bit fortunate with getting a little bit of time to get back to my feet and then being able to get across on Eberle," Skinner said. "I think that was a really big moment for myself. You got to give a lot of credit to Seattle tonight. I thought they came on hot and they stayed that hot for the whole game."
Seattle has just two games left before the trade deadline next Friday at noon PT. A back-to-back on the road with the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets on Monday and Tuesday serve as the last data point for the Kraken before determining what direction to take with their roster. Eberle, Alex Wennberg, Schultz and Tomáš Tatar are all on expiring contracts and could theoretically be moved in trades to reset the roster for the future if they can't keep pace in the playoff race.
If they miss the playoffs, it won't be losses like this one to Edmonton that will sting. It will be kicking games to Chicago, Montreal, Ottawa, San Jose and Arizona before the All-Star break that will be the ones that will haunt Seattle.