Seattle Kraken, Vince Dunn

Kraken Game Day; Grooby Again, Dunn Fine

I walked into that one with Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol. It turns out Seattle’s bench boss has been asked more than once about his goalie rotation and whether or not Philipp Grubauer is his “number-one” and Martin Jones is officially the “back-up”.

Which is kind of counter-intuitive considering the articles we’ve written here about the Kraken’s fortuitous goaltending situation, where one guy gets hot and takes over and then the next guy gets hot and takes over. It’s a nice problem to have with two former Stanley Cup winning goalies.

If insanity is doing or saying the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, then consider my question the group-think version.

“You guys keep trying to push a number-one and a number-two, ‘Jonesy’ is top eight in the league in wins, ‘Grooby’ is playing really well, so I’m going to push replay again,” Hakstol said Thursday morning. “Like I said we’ve got two pretty good goaltenders that are a big part of where we’re at, so Grooby does go tonight, yes.”

It’ll be the German’s fourth straight start after taking over for Jones mid-game in Detroit on March 2nd.

Shhhhh. (whisper) Until he screws up, Grooby’s number-one.

Kraken D

Vince Dunn verbally snapped on the officials late in the third period during the Kraken’s win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night following a hit by big Ducks forward Max Comtois. The play resulted in a cut on Dunn’s nose that the Seattle defenseman didn’t appreciate. He took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and was eventually pulled out of the penalty box and sent to the dressing room to get treated and potentially monitored for concussion protocol.

Bottom line, everything is fine and Dunn was back on the ice for morning skate on Thursday.

“I’m not really thinking about it, I’m thinking about tonight’s game against Ottawa,” Dunn said after the skate.

Dunn is sporting a seven-game point streak with nine points over that time. He’s enjoyed playing the Senators over the years, with eight points in eight career games.

Special Teams

Since Valentine’s Day, the Kraken have killed off 26 of 27 opposing power play opportunities. Seattle is still ranked 26th in the NHL on the penalty kill, but with that recent 96.3% clip they’ve improved their overall season number to 76.4%. Still not great, but it’s how one finishes the season, not how one starts it.

Although the Kraken power play is ranked 20th in the league, it finds success 20.2% of the time, which isn’t horrible. Baseline, it’s necessary to best keep your PP over 20% and your PK above 80%.

The Kraken have won five games in a row and sit two points out of a tie for 1st place in the Pacific Division.

Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.