The Golden Knights welcomed the Seattle fanbase to the NHL with a thrilling but controversial game to — kick — off their first season.

The Seattle Kraken play an interesting style under Head Coach Dave Hakstol. The game was extremely transition heavy. Despite being out shot, out hit, and the Kraken dominating the faceoff dot in the first — the Golden Knights left the period up 2-0 by finishing their chances.

The Golden Knights started the second period 14-1 in shots mainly due to power plays. After so many opportunities, a Nick Hague shot finally found its way through with help from a tip by Paccioretty. Despite the positive result, that goal served as the rally point for the Seattle Kraken. In the five minutes to follow, the Kraken scored two goals and suddenly the game was 3-2 Knights.

At 12:12, Strathclair, Manitoba native Morgan Geekie ripped a shot past Lehner from the outside on a 1-on-1. DeBoer's lead was gone.

There was under a minute of doubt before Mark Stone led a drive to the Kraken net and Chandler Stephenson got his skate in the right place for the puck to rebound into the net. It was a very shady goal. Personally, I thought it was a clear kicking motion.

Sorry Seattle fans. Welcome to the NHL though.



A few thoughts:

Krebs showed promise
Despite being held off the scoresheet and not registering a shot on goal — Peyton Krebs showed some flash. He had a few nice individual plays and drove the outside well. He doesn’t look like a fit on a line with Patrick and Dadonov though.

Nolan Patrick is looking like he’ll recover
With three shots on goal and two hits in 13:36 of ice time, Patrick looked like a contributor. His transition play looked on point and he made some nice passes.

Stone and Pacioretty start hot
After seemingly running out of gas last playoffs, the power duo combined for six points last night. Stone has three assists and zero shots on net. Pacioretty has two goals and a whopping eight shots on net. The stats definitely lay out the dynamic of that line. Even more impressive was that those six points were all earned at even strength. The line wasn’t on for a goal against.


Have a great day,


Trevor Neufeld

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