Final Buzzer: Hook, Line, Sinker

The Kraken went to Long Island hoping to secure their third series sweep of the season (Buffalo, Pittsburgh), but it was not to be.
Seattle faced adversity early losing Andre Burakovsky to a lower-body injury less than a minute into the game. And while Martin Jones made some big saves, lapses in the Kraken's defensive game allowed the Islanders to build a multi-goal lead they would never relinquish.

Four New York scores through the first two periods of the game were enough to seal Seattle's fate. The visitors couldn't break through Ilya Sorokin who turned away all 45 unblocked shots sent his way to earn his second consecutive shutout. The 4-0 final marks just the second time this season the Kraken haven't scored a goal in a game.
"We could not find a way to give ourselves energy," Dave Hakstol said. "We just couldn't find the ability to make a play to get ourselves going in the right direction."
What stood out? Let's dig in.

Shaking off the Rust

Many teams struggle to return to playing form after extended time away from the ice. While the Kraken have the most wins over an opponent playing in the second game of a back-to-back, this season (8), they've also struggled coming back after five or more days off (0-4-2). This match was the first game Seattle had played in nine days and there was some rust to shake off.
After a quick start offensively, the Kraken were on the receiving end of most of the quality shots created in period 1. Seattle actually shot the puck more (by two) than the Islanders in the opening 20 minutes, but far more of the home team's chances came from in close to the net and off sustained pressure. The Islanders had seven slot shots to Seattle's two.
With the home team spending more time on the attack, it set up the first goal of the night. Samuel Bolduc earned his first NHL goal after the Islanders won an offensive zone faceoff win eight minutes into the game. It was a harbinger of things to come as the Islanders have a record of 18-7-2 when scoring first.
The Islanders' second goal came off the stick of Simon Holmstrom after four New York shot attempts. Jean-Gabriel Pageau sent a pass from behind the net to set up his teammate who was uncontested net front.
"We started okay (in) the first few shifts," Jaden Schwartz said. "But I think it was pretty evident in just our puck play and structure I thought our energy was just a little bit low. We just looked a little bit off today, a little bit tired. Guys had long travel…we don't want to use it as an excuse but we know we've got a lot better than that and we'll get our energy tomorrow and look at a few things and regroup."

Get What You Give

Which brings us to possession. Going into the second period, Vince Dunn told ROOT Sports NW's Piper Shaw that the Kraken needed to manage the puck better, but ultimately the Kraken were victims of their own play just a few too many times and it set up goals by the opponent.
On the second Islanders goal, Pageau took ownership of a Will Borgen clearing attempt and turned it into an assist. The third goal of the game - a Zach Parise tip of a Pageau shot - came off an unfortunate bounce of a blocked shot with the Kraken defense scrambling to prevent scoring chances against.
The fourth score came off a lost possession as well. Mat Barzal stole the puck from Yanni Gourde along the boards, pivoted, and set up newly acquired Bo Horvat for his first goal as an Islander, igniting an already raucous UBS Arena crowd.
"(The Islanders) have a lot of high-end caliber players," Ryan Donato said. "But at the end of the day, it's on us to box those guys out and recover pucks. I think that's something that we do great, but definitely wasn't one of our strengths tonight."

Shifting Around

As a result of the Burakovsky injury, Dave Hakstol had to shuffle his lines. He primarily looked first to Brandon Tanev and Donato before relying more on Donato - a player Hakstol has praised for his versatility earlier in the season - to fill the hole to the right of Matty Beniers. Hakstol said he was looking for an offensive push.
Beniers, Donato and Jaden Schwartz played the third most minutes of all Kraken forward lines and through two periods, didn't just tilt the ice in Seattle's favor in terms of shot volume, they generated 55-percent of all shot quality when on the ice, but did allow more against in period three and were unable to achieve the ultimate goal of scoring.

By the Numbers

Here's a look at our data-driven Instant Analysis from Sportlogiq (click
HERE
for how to read this graphic):