Seattle Kraken suffer lopsided loss to San Jose Sharks
Sharks 6, Kraken 1 at Climate Pledge Arena
Notable: For the first time at home this season, the Kraken (6-3-4) put in a truly ghastly performance filled with errors and breakdowns and watched San Jose, with its bevy of young talent, take advantage of seemingly every miscue in a 6-1 loss to the Sharks on Wednesday night.
In the process, the Kraken suffered their first home regulation loss of the season and snapped a five-game points streak.
Macklin Celebrini got it started for the Sharks when the No. 1 overall pick in 2024 scored just 68 seconds into the game after being left alone in the slot. It was his 20th point of the season, making him the second-fastest player in Sharks history to reach the 20-point mark.
That was just the start. Celebrini later assisted on John Klingberg’s power play goal in the second period that gave San Jose a 3-1 lead and flashed in front of Joey Daccord as a screen on Will Smith’s goal 62 seconds into the third period while also getting a secondary assist on the play.
Daccord allowed five goals on 20 shots and was pulled after San Jose’s Ty Dellandrea cleaned up Collin Graf’s short-handed breakaway effort 3 ½ minutes into the third period following a mistake by Vince Dunn.
Matt Murray took over and was instantly greeted by a breakaway goal from Tyler Toffoli as he popped out of the penalty box that gave San Jose a 6-1 lead.
Seattle’s lone goal came off the stick of Ryan Winterton, the first of his NHL career. In his third season, Winterton drove to the net on a half breakaway late in the first period only to have Yaroslav Askarov make the initial save. But the puck remained in the offensive zone and eventually fell to Winterton in the slot and he beat Askarov to the blocker side.
That was about the extend of the offensive push from the Kraken. They had just five shots in the second period and went 0 for 6 on the power play against a goalie who had a 4.29 goals against in seven games entering Wednesday.
Player of the game: Celebrini looked the part of a No. 1 pick and the cornerstone the Sharks want to build around with his fourth game of at least three points already.
Goal of the game: In his 34th career game, Winterton finally netted his first. He’s the eighth player to score their first career goal wearing a Kraken jersey and the first since Jani Nyman last season.
On tap: The Kraken head out on a quick weekend road trip beginning on Saturday in St. Louis and concluding Sunday in Dallas before returning home for three more home games next week.