The San Jose Sharks have added to the anxiety of Seattle Kraken fans everywhere, handily beating the Pacific Division foes in two straight games, outscoring the Kraken 12-7 in less than 48 hours. Seattle fans wanted to write off the loss on Friday as an aberration and called for the immediate dismissal of goaltender Philipp Grubauer. However, when faced with Joey Daccord last night, the Sharks pulled off another victory, potentially exposing some deeper-seated issues for the Kraken.
The Corsi differential is maybe what you’d expect to see after one side is beaten 8-5 in the previous game.
Seattle came out hard and ramped up its game as the Sharks took a commanding 4-0 lead partway through the second period. It was clear that the Seattle players did not want the game to get away from them the way it had on Friday.
Seattle launched shot after shot at Mackenzie Blackwood last night, hitting him with 17 shots in the second period and eight more in the third. By the end of the night, the Kraken had outshot the Sharks 38-23 and ended the game with 41 scoring chances to the Sharks’ 22.
One of the more interesting things about the scoring is the way the Sharks scored its four goals. According to Natural Stat Trick, Daccord stopped the two high-danger shots that he faced last night, but allowed three mid-danger goals and one low-danger goal. Seattle did a good job of keeping the Sharks out of the crease, but San Jose still managed to take advantage of flaws in Seattle’s defensive systems.
Kostin – Granlund – Smith
The line that’s been dominating the Kraken the most over this two-game span is the “third line” of Klim Kostin, Mikael Granlund and Will Smith. The trio accounted for two of the team’s goals and finished the night plus-2 across the board.
The Granlund line played 10:18 of 5-on-5 last night and had the best Corsi of all four lines. That’s a large increase on the 6:54 that the combination played at 5-on-5 on Friday, when it had a dominant 75% Corsi for against the Kraken.
The addition of Granlund in the middle seems to have gotten both Kostin and Smith going offensively. Smith has seven points in his last four games including a goal in the past three games. Meantime, Kostin registered his first point on Nov. 27 against Ottawa. He has four points in his last three games.
Is it time to give Celebrini a rest?
Don’t get me wrong. Macklin Celebrini continues to perform at a high level. He’s put the entire NHL on notice that the hype around him was too subdued. He’s also jumped firmly into the race for the Calder Trophy. These are all good things, but he’s also 18 and learning the rigors of an NHL schedule that plays 82 games in the span of seven months.
Celebrini has played all but one of the Sharks’ 15 games in the month of November. That’s a game almost every other day. He’s logging top-line minutes in those games. He hit 25:30 of ice time against the Ottawa Senators and averaged just under 20 minutes per game in total.
He’s performed at a top level this November, scoring 12 points in 14 games (14 points in 15 games total this season). It doesn’t look like he’s slowing down. However, the kid looks like he’s going all out on every shift and if the Sharks don’t start managing his time now, he runs the risk of burning out.
December would be an ideal time to get Celebrini some games off. We’re not pushing for the playoffs.
Scoring summary San Jose Sharks at Seattle Kraken Nov. 30, 2024
First Period
16:54 SJS Mario Ferraro from Mikael Granlund and Timothy Liljegren
Second Period
1:51 SJS Luke Kunin from Ty Dellandrea and Jake Walman
8:59 SJS Cody Ceci from Macklin Celebrini and Jake Walman
9:45 SJS Will Smith from Mikael Granlund and Klim Kostin
10:17 SEA Jaden Schwartz from Matty Beniers and Oliver Bjorkstrand
Third Period
6:27 SEA Jared McCann from Ryker Evans and Brandon Montour
