[PFellah]

October 2019: Somebody Hit The Snooze Bar


Kasperi Kapanen gets 2019 off to a good start with a game-winning goal with 52 seconds left. Too bad the rest of the month didn't go nearly so well..

10/14 vs Dallas (0-0-0) – 5-3 W
New season, new roster, new alternate jersey (black pops a little more). Seattle gets off to a bit of a slow start as Dallas opens up a 2-1 lead after two periods, with Paul Stastny getting the lone goal for the Dragons. But the Dragons come roaring back to start the third, with Stastny scoring his second and Tyler Myers putting them in front. Devin Shore ties things up with about seven to play, setting up a tense finish. But Kasperi Kapanen becomes the hero of Opening Night, jamming home a Michael Grabner rebound with 52 seconds left, and then he adds an empty netter seconds later.
GOALS: SEA – Stastny 1, Stastny 2, Kapanen 1, Kapanen 2. DAL – Janmark 1, Johns 1, Shore 1.

10/15 vs Pittsburgh (2-0-0) – 3-0 L
Seattle’s offense takes the night off, while the Pens score individual goals in each period. Matt Murray only has to face 19 shots to collect the shutout.
GOALS: SEA – NONE. PIT – Aston-Reese 1, Guentzel 1, Crosby 1.

10/17 vs New York Islanders (2-1-0) – 4-3 L
Seattle does a good job digging out of a 3-0 hole but Anthony Beauvillier breaks a 3-3 tie with 2:25 remaining to give the Isles the victory.
GOALS: SEA – Myers 2, Grabner 1, Bozak 1. NYI – Tavares 4, Stafford 1, Nelson 2, Beauvillier 2.

10/20 vs New York Rangers (3-1-0) – 2-1 L
The Metro Division continues to have our number. Seattle strikes first on Kasperi Kapanen’s third goal of the season, but the Rangers score a pair in the second, and a scoreless third closes things out.
GOALS: SEA – Kapanen 3. NYR – Belesky 1, Fast 3.

10/22 at Calgary (3-1-1) – 3-2 L
Seattle jumps out to a 2-1 lead over the Flames, and for two periods, it looks like the Metro mojo might be broken. But Calgary scores twice in about a minute in the third period to send the Dragons to their 4th straight loss.
GOALS: SEA – Wheeler 1, Beaulieu 1. CGY – Frolik 2, Chiasson 2, Monahan 2.

10/23 vs New Jersey (1-3-1) – 2-0 L
Chad Johnson gets the start since it’s back-to-back games, but the result is the same. Another loss to the Metro, and another shutout. Nico Hischier and Kyle Palmeiri score the goals for the Devils; Steve Mason stops 26 pucks for the shutout.
GOALS: SEA – NONE. NJ – Hischier 1, Palmeiri 1.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mike Green

It's good to have an elite goaltender, but it's not fair to ask him to be perfect. We've got to give him better effort on defense and we've got to put more pucks in the net.

10/26 at San Jose (4-1-1) – 5-4 W
For a while it looked like the story of the game was going to be Seattle blowing a 4-0 3rd period lead, as San Jose scored goals at 4:32, 7:59, 8:27, and 13:02 of the final frame, and had a power play with about five minutes to play. But then Seattle caught a break, as Yanni Gourde put a throwaway shot on net, but Brent Burns turned the attempted cover-up into a game-winning own-goal. Ugly, but we’ll take the two points.
GOALS: SEA – Stastny 3, Morrow 1, Stastny 4, Gourde 1, Gourde 2. SJ – Kane 1, Labanc 3, Winnik 2, Pavelski 4.

Quote: Originally Posted by Tyler Bozak

We got lucky. Blowing a four-goal lead is absolutely unacceptable and humiliating, but we got a break and they bailed us out. It's nice that the offense showed up tonight, but we have to play a complete 60 minute game.

10/29 at Florida (3-3-1) – 3-1 L
Back to our low-scoring losing ways. Florida outshoots the Dragons 37-22 and Jonathan Huberdeau breaks a 1-1 tie with 5:10 remaining, and Mark Pysyk adds an empty-netter in the final minute.
GOALS: SEA – Bozak 2. FLA – Barkov 3, Huberdeau 1, Pysyk 1.

10/30 vs Columbus (3-4-1) – 7-6 W (SO)
Bobrovsky returns to his old stomping grounds, but Chad Johnson gets the start against Joonas Korpisalo. The resulting game is a wild ride, as a sedate 3-3 affair turns into a 6-6 barnburner in the 3rd. Seattle scores twice in the final five minutes to force overtime, and then Blake Wheeler nails things down in the shootout. Columbus’ Alex Wennberg scores a hat trick in the losing effort.
GOALS: SEA – Stastny 5, Athanasiou 1, Bozak 3, Wheeler 2, Kapanen 4, Gourde 3, Wheeler SOW. CBJ – Wennberg 2, Dubois 2, Jones 2, Panarin 1, Wennberg 3, Wennberg 4.

Quote: Originally Posted by Blake Wheeler

As much as we've struggled to put the puck in the net, t's good to see we can get out there and score in bunches. Now we just need to put that sort of offensive effort together with cleaner play in our own end. Yeah, our record isn't where we want it to be, but a game like tonight shows us that the pieces for success are there.

MONTHLY SUMMARY

STANDINGS REPORT

• MONTH: 3-6-0.
• YEAR-TO-DATE: 3-6-0, 6 points
• DIVISION: 7th at 3-6-0. Edmonton starting off 0-7-2 is the only thing keeping us out of the cellar.
• CONFERENCE: 14th in the conference. Edmonton in last place, Nashville also behind us at 2-6-1.
  

TEAM LEADERS

• POINTS: Stastny 7, Bozak 6, Gourde 5, Wheeler 5, Kapanen 4, Grabner 4, Green 4, Perron 4
• GOALS: Stastny 5, Kapanen 4, Gourde 3, Bozak 3, Wheeler 2, Myers 2
• ASSISTS: Green 4, Perron 4, Wheeler 3, Granber 3, Bozak 3, Svechnikov 3
• PLUS-MINUS: Bozak 4, Grabner 3, Beaulieu 0, Stephenson -1, 10 guys at -2

ON THE FARM
Tacoma is off to a hot start at 8-1-0. Beau Bennett leads the way with 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists); no real standouts other than that – pretty even contribution across the roster. Chris Driedger and Elvis Merzlikins have spit starts fairly evenly and both have been solid.