The Seattle Kraken wrapped up their homestand on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators. After a rough first half of the season, they were assured a .500 record on this homestand, but a 4–2 record would definitely look better.
Head Coach Dave Hakstol rode his hot goaltender in Philipp Grubauer. Grubauer played in all three home wins, with Chris Driedger and Joey Daccord playing in losses against the Loa Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues.
Seattle began this game with some momentum, which has been rare for this Kraken team. They outshot the Predators 12–11 and scored the opening goal on a two-man advantage at the 8:59 mark of the game. Leading goal scorer Jared McCann took a one-time feed from captain Mark Giordano and beat Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros to give the Kraken a 1–0 lead. Seattle had the opportunity to really open up the game with three straight power plays and a Yanni Gourde breakaway, but Saros held the Predators within one.
Sweet 16 for number 16! 🎉
McCann nets his 16th goal of the season! pic.twitter.com/Ww1VQv0u8B
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 26, 2022
Eventually, Nashville’s Luke Kunin followed up with a game-tying goal with just 21 seconds left in the first period to deadlock the score heading into the first intermission.
The Kraken had momentum in the second period as well, with defenseman Adam Larsson scoring his third goal of the season just over halfway through the period. Nashville followed up once again, though, but this time they took the lead into the second intermission with goals from Filip Forsberg (15:15) and Mattias Ekholm (16:31) just 1:16 apart. The Kraken led in shots, once again, 13–11.
Nashville took advantage of a late third period power play for too many men, on one of only five third-period shots, to secure their 4–2 win. The Kraken doubled up Nashville in shots with 10 in the frame, but were unable to tie the game on a shorthanded Alexander Wennberg-Calle Jarnkrok 2-on-1 just before Matt Duchene gave Nashville a two-goal cushion to put the game away.
Anchor points
⚓ Grubauer had been playing so well lately that we had to expect things would trend back to average. He played a really good first period, but he is going to want Forsberg’s goal back. Giordano played it well and left Forsberg with a long perimeter shot that Grubauer needs to stop.
COAST TO COAST pic.twitter.com/VKIcprk2Zz
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) January 26, 2022
⚓ On special teams, the Kraken both “giveth” and “taketh away.” They opened up scoring on the two-man advantage, but had the opportunity to take a two-goal lead and failed. A third period stop on the penalty kill would have kept it a one-goal game heading into the final minutes and given the Kraken a much better opportunity to send the game into overtime.
⚓ The Gourde, Mason Appleton, Calle Jarnkrok line was pinned in their own end most of the night, getting only three shots for while surrendering seven against. Luckily, four of those seven against were blocked. Hakstol seems to be relying on Giordano far too much. He was on the ice for 17 chances against and only nine for at 5-on-5.
⚓ When you outshoot your opponent on home ice, and lead in almost all relevant analytical categories, you need to win said game. This is why the Kraken currently sit at 29th overall.
🔱 5-on-5 Corsi (total shot attempts) 
57%–43%
🔱 5-on-5 Fenwick (Unblocked shot attempts) 55%–45%
🔱 5-on-5 High-danger chances for 60%–40%
🔱 5-on-5 Expected goals for 54%–46%
🔱 Face-off percentage 
55%–45%
⚓ The Kraken travel to Pittsburgh today, where they will face the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night. The puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. PST.