Instant Reaction: Flames devoured by Kraken on opening night

Just 32 seconds after Eberle’s goal, the Kraken scored again. They got the puck into the Flames’ zone off the face-off, cycled the puck to the point, and a Vince Dunn shot found its way though traffic – and past Wolf – to give Seattle a 2-0 lead.

The Flames had a power play later in the first period, but failed to register a shot on goal.

Late in the opening period, Seattle padded their edge. Off a rush play, Kaapo Kakko threw a pass that found its way to Freddy Gaudreau at the side of the Flames’ net – based on the replay, it appears one (or both) of Jake Middleton or Morgan Frost should have been in the passing lane – and Gaudreau beat Wolf with a nifty shot to give the Kraken a 3-0 lead.

Shots were 6-6 in the first period.

The second period was a bit more even in terms of chances and game flow, but Seattle was playing a bit of prevent defence and the Flames took advantage of the space a bit. That said, the Flames didn’t generate much in the way of dangerous chances, nor did they find a way to bury the precious few they did create.

The highlight of the period was either a big scrum after a Matt Coronato scoring chance, or a wacky sliding Wolf save after a Seattle dump-in hit a stanchion and bounced into the slot.

Shots were 12-8 Kraken in the second period.

The Kraken made it 4-0 early in the third period, as Zach Whitecloud lost an edge at the defensive blueline and toppled, and that confusion allowed Chandler Stephenson a clear path into the Flames’ zone and right to the net, where he tucked the puck between the pads of a sliding Wolf.

A little later, the Kraken added a fifth goal. That time, the Flames had an offensive zone face-off but lost possession, with Seattle using their speed to back the Flames’ defenders into their zone, then set up Matty Beniers for a clean look at Wolf. Beniers’ shot found a way past Wolf to make it 5-0.

Ryan Strome managed to spoil Joey Daccord’s shutout bid with 3:25 left in regulation. He received a pass from Yegor Sharangovich, spun to the top of circles and fired a wrister that eluded Daccord to cut the lead to 5-1.

On the very next shift, though, Kakko poked a loose rebound past Wolf to give Seattle a 6-1 lead.

The Kraken held on for the win.

Why the Flames lost

Were the Flames especially bad in this hockey game? Not really. In a lot of ways, they were victims of bad execution and bad mistakes at bad times. Were the Flames especially good in this hockey game? Also no.

The Flames made bad mistakes at bad times. Dustin Wolf was asked to be heroic early on… and it was just way too much to ask from him.

The Flames took way too many penalties. Yeah, you could argue that some of the calls were a bit iffy… but they were still penalties by letter of the law, and as a result the Flames gave Seattle way too many puck touches, and taxed their own penalty-killers quite a bit.

And while the Flames did generate a few good scoring chances, they didn’t generate nearly enough nor did they bury nearly enough of the chances they did generate.

Red Warrior

Let’s go with Ryan Strome, who scored the Flames’ lone goal and had several good looks aside from his goal.

Turning point

The Flames allowed a pair of goals on consecutive shifts in the first period. That put them distinctly behind the eight-ball, and they could not get themselves back into the hockey game.

Flames lineup

The Flames looked like this in the season-opener:

Matvei Gridin – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Sam Honzek – Mikael Backlund [C] – Joel Farabee
Connor Zary – Ryan Strome [A] – Yegor Sharangovich
Maxim Tsyplakov – Martin Pospisil – Adam Klapka

Kevin Bahl – Simon Nemec
Jake Middleton – Zayne Parekh
Yan Kuznetsov – Zach Whitecloud [A]

Dustin Wolf started in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The healthy scratches were Joel Hanley, Brayden Pachal and Brennan Othmann. Jonathan Huberdeau missed the game due to injury.

This and that

Video tributes to co-owner Alvin Libin and broadcaster Peter Maher, who both passed away during the off-season.

Video tribute to the ‘Dome opened the game.

After Burner

Join Cami Kepke and Mike Gould right after the game for After Burner!

Up next

The Flames (0-1-0) head on the road for a weekend back-to-back on the west coast. They visit the Vancouver Canucks in the late game on Saturday night, before facing Seattle again on Sunday evening in the Emerald City.