The scene was absolutely perfect for the Seattle Kraken, who won a great victory in front of their fans at the Winter Classic, but then again, the Vegas Golden Knights will not have a positive memory of this game from the outside.
After the 3-0 defeat on Monday afternoon, long faces could be seen in the visitors' dressing room. The defeat was like a cold shower for the Knights after the pleasant last few days in Seattle.
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“Yesterday [dimanche]“It was very enjoyable with the family skate session and all that, but you'll always remember that game as a loser,” forward Jonathan Marchessault admitted to NHL.com. So it’s very disappointing for our group and we know we’re a good team, but we’re not playing our best hockey together and we need to find a way to be more consistent.”
Vegas directed maybe 35 pucks toward the cage defended by Joey Daccord, but nothing worked. The Kraken completely dominated until the third period, but again Yanni Gourde's net was the final nail in their coffin.
“It sucks because we lost, but when the dust settles we’ll have good memories,” admitted head coach Bruce Cassidy. […] But if you lose in the end, the positive atmosphere of this game will be destroyed.
“To be honest, I thought we were better,” he added. Once we found our rhythm it was 2-0. We had no sense of urgency at the start. When we got there we were already in pursuit, which has been happening a lot lately.”
From one end to the other
December was quite a busy month for the Golden Knights, which may explain player fatigue. Over the past two weeks, they have had to travel between North Carolina, Florida, California, Nevada and Washington state.
Having won just four of their last ten meetings, the Vancouver Canucks seized the opportunity to overtake them at the top of the Pacific Division.
“The next hockey sequence is important for us,” captain Mark Stone wisely recalled. We have time to train, prepare and fine-tune a few details. We've been doing pretty much everything for a while now. We can't use that as an excuse, but we played a lot of hockey. We haven’t practiced.”
Meanwhile, everything is going well for the Kraken, who secured their fifth win in a row. The experts quickly eliminated the Seattle team, which lacked conviction, but things are slowly starting to pick up again.
“You have to give them credit. They play well, they tackle well. “They do a good job of keeping the puck out of their net,” Cassidy concluded.
The Knights have until Thursday to take a breather, when they welcome the Florida Panthers to T-Mobile Arena.