Three thoughts on the Kraken's Game 1 overtime win against the Stars

DALLAS — Here are three thoughts from the Kraken’s Game 1 win in overtime over the Stars on Tuesday night.

How important was it for the Kraken to find a way to not blow this game?

Kate Shefte: Oh, hey, this is one of those leading questions I try not to ask players and coaches … obviously pretty important. We haven’t seen the Kraken lose their stride yet in this postseason, not for long anyway. If/once they do, this whole thing feels like it could fall apart.

This isn’t the Avalanche, where if the top line and top defensive pairing are doing their thing, they can steal three of a seven-game series. The Kraken need complete buy-in or it doesn’t work.

To give up four goals to a geezer (in the sports world) and lose a game you led 4-2 halfway through the third period? That would have been tough to grapple with on this gorgeous Texas Wednesday.

The proud underdogs have the high ground again. They have another scrappy win in hand and that comforting chip on their shoulder. How it went down isn’t shameful — it feeds into this identity they seem to have rallied around. You counted them out? Thought they weren’t good enough? That they wouldn’t make it? Well forget you, then.

“Just focused on the next shift and not listening to any media or anyone telling us what we can and can’t do,” defenseman Justin Schultz said Tuesday night. “We just go out and play and have fun. It’s working for us now. Just gotta keep it going.” 

Geoff Baker: Hey, watch the geezer stuff. Some of us are old enough to have babysat Joe Pavelski if we happened to live in Wisconsin and needed beer money at the time. Seriously, the value of not blowing this game can’t be overstated. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger was pegged as a possible difference-maker and gave up four goals on the first 11 shots faced. That’s a gift the Kraken were handed. Had they lost, that’s the type of thing you live to regret.

But they didn’t. And in the playoffs, style points mean nothing. There are also no “loser” points to be gained or lost by making it out of regulation. It’s all or nothing in the playoffs and what matters is winning.

Now, the Kraken are guaranteed the road split they needed here. It shifts full pressure to the Stars for Game 2. We can get into the Kraken needing to take better advantage of their own home games but that’s for another day. They were a bit depleted from their Game 7 win in Colorado 48 hours earlier, didn’t play their best hockey here, but pulled off the Game 1 win and now can collect their breath and get better focused for stealing Game 2 and really putting the squeeze on. Three more wins and they are in the conference final. Can’t believe I just wrote that.

Unsung hero in this game?

Shefte: First of all, let’s take a moment to acknowledge Vince Dunn’s career-high 32:18 of ice time. Adam Larsson (29:30) and Will Borgen (21:53) both looked like they were hurting by the end of it, doing everything they could think of to avoid giving up the lead and the game.

I’ll give it to Borgen for taking a Max Domi wrist shot directly off the knee 6:12 into overtime, one of three blocks in Game 1 for him. He twisted, he dipped, he felt vulcanized rubber meet bone, and he had to be towed off the ice.

And now for one of the high compliments of the playoffs and hockey in general: “He didn’t miss a shift.”

Baker: I’m going with Morgan Geekie, who wasn’t one of the five different Kraken scorers. But Geekie did set up the first Kraken goal by Jaden Schwartz. And he did it by having the presence of mind to slide Schwartz the puck right at the net front. 

Most players in Geekie’s position would have just slapped the puck toward the net and hoped for the best. That extra little pass gave Schwartz the better position to shoot from and he put the puck between Oettinger’s pads.

That goal was huge. The Kraken fell behind early and given their somewhat weary state coming out of Game 7 two nights earlier, I felt the next goal might decide the game. They’d played quite well to that point, but falling behind 2-0 might have triggered a Dallas onslaught. Schwartz getting the goal vaulted the Kraken into this game and showed them — as Yanni Gourde later said of his overtime goal — that trusting “the process” would pay off. 

And even though Pavelski put the Kraken in a 2-1 hole a minute later, it wasn’t as devastating because the Kraken already knew they could hang with these guys. Three minutes later, they were up 4-2. So, that little Geekie pass might have made all the difference.

What’s your biggest takeaway from Game 1?

Shefte: I’m impressed with how they were able to push past the fatigue and keep it rolling against a more put-together opponent.

There was a lot going on with the Avalanche in the first round. Between the injuries, the mysterious absence, the suspension, the lack of production from almost everyone and the general weariness, they were dealing with their own lively demons while fending off the Kraken.

Then Seattle comes into Dallas, with everything it has going for it, and dropped four first-period goals on the Stars — after falling behind twice, no less. Pavelski owned the moment, but the Kraken claimed the night.

Maybe Oettinger just had a bad pregame granola bar, rather than a human moment, and it’s all downhill from here for Seattle. Maybe not.

Baker: That this “stars versus depth” thing wasn’t just a one-series anomaly. Last series, it was 15 different Kraken goal scorers beating Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon. And last night, it was five different Kraken scorers defeating Pavelski.

So, if the Kraken keep generating this widespread production, recent history tells us it wins against teams with more elite players. Honestly, the Kraken could have — and probably should have — had seven different goal scorers because Alex Wennberg hit the post and Matty Beniers did as well with a wide open net. So, they had a couple of goal scorers to spare.

I’d be somewhat worried if I were the Stars because they just wasted an historic four-goal Pavelski performance. The Stars were nagged much of the season by a lack of production beyond their top two lines. Dallas played with better depth after trade-deadline acquisitions of Domi and Evgenii Dadonov but the Kraken have the more proven sample size of doing it all season. 

All I know is, the Kraken pumped five goals past Oettinger from three of four forward lines. No Dallas player other than Pavelski could score on Philipp Grubauer. If the Kraken take Game 2, this series could be done quicker than anybody dreamed. 

Shefte: I thought you were “done writing about depth.”

Baker: Yeah, yeah. The playoffs are all about adaptability. Us “geezers” know you have to change to survive.