Sean Maloughney: Game 15: Wild @ Kraken - Stop The Bleeding

Ron Francis was a horrific choice as Kraken GM!!!!

Team construction was a real question mark here. Francis overplayed his hand thinking he could repeat what Vegas did. That didn’t happen at all. And it also means that depth is critical and hampers him even making trades. At this point it is safe to say the team is more of a traditional expansion team.

Hakstol as coach was a very questionable choice. With the names available, taking a just above .500 coach who was just an assistant on the Leafs bench, I think Francis made another mistake. I think the sustems in place seem rudimentary basic and in game there is little adjustment. The team seems to rely on their own talent half the time to get out of trouble. Closing in on 20 games the team seems to have trouble with coverage and puck movement.

Eberle and McCann shoulder the offence, but a yeam sporting a top four of Gio, Oleksiak, Lauzon, and Larsson should be able to defend. The bottom pairing has cost them some. Dunn has offensive talents but has been making bad pinches and bad decisions in his own end. Soucy is big but early wasn’t moving his feet. Gets out of position easily. Fleury seems to be odd man there despite playing well. Hakstol has said he goes by matchups for Soucy and Fleury but damned if I can hnderstand his justifications. At this point I would sit Dunn and run with Fleury- Soucy it cant be any worse.

This team cannot play run and gun and needs to be strong in their own end. And bith goalies need to be better. Some great saves but also some soft goals that the team can ill afford. Definitely not all on them but…

Ron Francis was a horrific choice as Kraken GM!!!!
- Shady1962

While I’m no fan of Francis this team is about what I expected. Anyone thinking they’d catch lightning in a bottle like Vegas was bound to be disappointed.

Man they better show up and control the shots and their own end tonight.

Sheahan placed on waivers. Blackwell in and going with Geekie and Tanev.

Not really that dissapointed Sheahan is out. Him and McCormick haven’t exactly been gangbusters out there really.

Blackwell with a great chance and hard hit, and then Turbo with a HUGE hit

Looking good here so far

And there it is. Already had a few bad moments in their own end and got caught and Soucy pairing once again gets burned and it goes by Gru. Brutal.

And once again over aggressive and get caught giving up a 3 on 1 and got lucky there the cross pass caught stick and was able to be grabbed up by Gru and didn't wind up in the back of the net.

Hackstol needs to start getting on these guys. They've been sloppy since the Wild opened the scoring there. Call a time out settle them down or something here before this turns into another Ducks game.

Starting the 2nd. Need to pay attention not get over aggressive, be smarter. Control the puck and start to generate more chances on Talbot here to find a way to put a couple past him. 3 shots does not cut it. Fingers crossed.

Oh you got to be kidding me?! Ugly, just utterly ugly. Skate right into the guy and cough it up and breakaway there. What is wrong with these guys?!

And before the 2nd ends Pitlick completes the hattrick with 40 seconds left. Once again over aggressive, turnover and four trapped deep and Pitlick just sprung and gone on a breakaway. Deked out Gru and nets it.

Just the same old story and errors and it just keeps ending up in the back of the Kraken net.

Getting shots and some chances but can't get a goal and then just shooting themselves in the foot coughing up the hatty too. At some point the coach has to start getting these guys to tighten up and stop this stuff. No way they can't be better than this.

FINALLY!!!

Generating some good ozone time on the PP and Johansson with a nice doorstep tap in there. Wennberg just found him perfectly there! Shutout ruined at the very least! On the board and still half a period to get this tied up maybe?!

And ENG 4-1. Over 5 min left way too early to try that. Chances were there and now down by 3.

Wennberg gets a late one there but still just game over really.