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Game Notes
As An Old, I recall watching ABC when they still used the phrase “thrill of victory, agony of defeat.” As a kid, I always found this strange. Who uses the word “agony” to describe something that’s supposed to be fun?
Growing up in a St. Louis Cardinals household, one of my dad’s favorite jokes was “It’s a shame about those Cubs. But I guess anybody can have a bad century.” Cubs fans always presented themselves with a hooligan’s dignity. Year after year, fans all over Chicagoland get on the El train, go to Wrigley, and cheer loudly for a team that hadn’t won a World Series in 100 years. Every year, more agony of defeat.
Since this is the Kraken’s last home game of the season, it’s a natural time to reflect. There were joyous moments but it’s not been a party. It’s not like last season with all that hope and a playoff run that included beating the reigning champions.
So why do we do this to ourselves?
We think that the thrill of victory is why we enjoy sports, but it’s not. The agony of defeat is why we watch. The joy doesn’t taste as sweet without the salt of the loss. It’s easy to love perfect, but we are not perfect. No person or sport or team is perfect. In our everyday lives, we get plenty of practice loving what is imperfect. And closing one chapter means hope about the chapters to come. The way the Kraken organization is run, the way it’s stacking its rosters for the future, means more exciting chapters ahead.
Tonight was fan appreciation night, and the Kraken faithful were plied with gifts all night. They’re giving away Amazon-related gifts, concert tickets, and swag all night. Spirits were high, even with a loss.
Tonight’s game was all about pressure. The Kraken turned up the pressure as high as it could go and peppered the Sharks goalie Devin Cooley with the most shots on goal in franchise history. In the end, the Kraken had 50 SOGs to the Shark’s 23.
Hockey is a game of mistakes and it was capitalizing on little mistakes that ultimately clenched the win for San Jose.
In the first period, the Shark’s Luke Kunin drew first blood and scored his 11th of the season in the 9th minute. Shortly after, Brian Dumoulin answered back with a goal for the Kraken and we were tied 1-1 at the end of the period.
In the second and third periods, the Kraken kept up the pressure and spent so much time in the offensive zone, they should have started paying rent. But in the second period, the Sharks managed to get two goals in less than a minute. Fabian Zetterlund went one-on-one in the crease and managed to find just the right opening. Kyle Burroughs capitalized on being momentarily unguarded and found an opening. Suddenly, the game was 3-1.
You have to hand it to Devin Cooley for staying cool(ey?) under pressure. By the end of the third period, there was no more scoring and the Kraken were handed a loss in their final home game. Still, they returned to the ice to yeet fish and give away game jerseys, a very Kraken way to end the year at home.
Three Stars of the Game
⭐ William Eklund (2A)
⭐⭐ Brian Doumoulin (1G)
⭐⭐⭐ Devin Cooley (.980 SV%)
The Natural Stat Trick heat map proves I wasn’t kidding about all that shooting:
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