SEATTLE — Among numerous changes to the gameday presentation at Climate Pledge Arena before Saturday night’s Seattle Kraken home opener was a team pledge that fans attending would be treated to a fresh array of off-ice giveaways.
Unfortunately, the Kraken players took that commitment a little too literally just 12 seconds in when Yanni Gourde coughed up a puck and one-time Seattle Thunderbirds junior prospect Keagan Kolesar buried it soon after behind goaltender Martin Jones. Three minutes later, a missed clearance on a penalty kill led to another odd-man rush and goal that put the Kraken on their heels the remainder of a 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Having scored four goals in each of their first two contests to take three of four road points against Anaheim and Los Angeles, the Kraken struggled to generate quality chances in this one. They finally broke through with about six minutes to play in the game when defenseman Justin Schultz took a pass on-the-fly and beat goalie Aidn Hill with a close-range snapper at a time his team trailed by five.
Jaden Schwartz added another late marker on a power play traffic jam in the final minutes in what was his 600th NHL game, but it was far too late for any comebacks by then.
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol had said during Saturday’s morning skate his team would try to harness energy from the opening night crowd. But Hakstol added his team couldn’t get distracted by the extra activity surrounding the game.
“There’s a lot going on around the home opener but the reality is for us it’s about the hockey game,” Hakstol said. “And that’s what we’ve talked about — making sure that our focus is on the opportunity at hand.
“No question, we’ll try to harness some of that adrenaline, extra energy. But just make sure we have a good focus on what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Unfortunately for the Kraken, that focus went awry the early minutes and sucked much of the energy out of the building.
A somewhat surprising starter insertion in place of No. 1 goalie Philipp Grubauer, backup netminder Jones — who’d looked solid in beating the Los Angeles Kings two nights earlier — did what he could to keep the Kraken in it, stopping Chandler Stephenson on a second period penalty shot. But Reilly Smith launched a three-goal onslaught late in the frame to erase any doubt.
Smith’s goal came just seven seconds after the start of a Vegas power play when a pass attempt deflected off some skates and found him in the right circle where he wristed the puck over the glove of Jones. Then, just three minutes later, Jonathan Marchessault scored his second of the game on a bad-angled shot that somehow sneaked past Jones on the short side.
Things went from bad to worse with just 16.5 seconds to play in the period when Shea Theodore became the second former Thunderbirds junior player to score, redirecting a harmless looking Phil Kessel shot from a significant distance.
The three goals in just 5:48 ended any suspense for the announced sellout crowd of 17,191, which not surprisingly contained plenty of empty seats given the marathon Mariners baseball playoff game taking place across town. Even those actually in their seats seemed somewhat preoccupied by the scoreless deadlock at T-Mobile Park still taking place as the puck dropped on another home Kraken home season.
They’d barely had time to get comfortable in those seats before Gourde lost the puck along the right side boards in his own zone to William Carrier, who broke in 2-on-0 before sliding a pass to Kolesar for the easy goal.
The early marker by Kolesar, a member of the 2017 WHL champion Thunderbirds, was the second quickest given up by the Kraken in their short history. They’d yielded a goal by Tyler Motte of the Vancouver Canucks only 11 seconds into a road game back on Feb. 21.
