Some nights in the National Hockey League are simply better to be quickly forgotten and forgiven by fans, even if Tuesday’s 4-1 loss at Vegas was the season opener and a nationally-televised divisional showdown. But Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol will review the tape and determine ways to improve and make adjustments before his squad takes the ice in Nashville for Game 2 of the new season Thursday.
“There’s no way we’re going to let it go,” said Hakstol post-game. “We left something on the table today. I’m not disappointed with the overall effort. I think some individuals can have a better night. We’ve got to take some things out of this, improve on them and get right back at it in two nights.”
Jared McCann scored Seattle’s lone goal. Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves.
Vegas got the scoring going early in the first period when Mark Stone, Brett Howden and Stephenson played tic-tac-toe in the offensive zone. As they crossed the blue line, Stone went cross-ice with a pass to Howden, who sent the puck to the crease where Stephenson was there for the finish.
The Golden Knights made it 2-0 when Seattle’s Brandon Tanev went to clear the puck past the goal, but Marchessault nicked it off course and past Grubauer.
Barbashev connected on a breakaway snapper 1:20 into the second period to make it 3-0. Seattle answered midway through the period when McCann’s wrist shot from the slot sailed past Hill.
Barbashev made it 3-0 at the 1:20 mark of the second period when he took a stretch pass from Brayden McNabb at the blue line, split a pair of Kraken defenders and then roofed a slap shot into the top right corner of the net.
Seattle cut it to 3-1 midway through the second period when McCann, coming off a 40-goal season, took a pass from Jordan Eberle in the low slot and quickly snapped a wrist shot past Hill's glove side.
Brandon Tanev later that period attempted to clear the puck behind his own net and had it deflect off Jonathan Marchessault for another Vegas goal. Then, fewer than two minutes into the second period, Vince Dunn — playing his first game in more than two weeks — failed to stop a long stretch pass to Ivan Barbashev, who raced in and fired a slap shot past Grubauer from close range to make it a 3-0 game.
McCann got one back that same period off of a Jordan Eberle feed to the slot. Then, with the Kraken down 3-1 in the third, Howden was assessed a match penalty for an illegal check to Tanev’s head that presented the Kraken with a golden opportunity to narrow the gap.
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