Jaden Schwartz Propels Kraken Rout

Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz knows his team finally snapping an epic streak of futility against a Pacific Division nemesis outranks any individual achievements on his part.

Still, the Kraken snapping a nine-game losing streak against the visiting Edmonton Oilers with a 6-1 victory on Thursday night likely doesn’t happen without Schwartz scoring twice in the opening three-plus minutes of the second period. The pair of strikes gave Schwartz a team-leading 23 on the season, his highest total in seven years, while propelling his team to a five-goal outburst in that middle frame.

“You approach every game wanting to win, but we knew our record against them hasn’t been great and so we had an opportunity,” Schwartz said. “It’s the last time we play Edmonton this year, so we knew we could end the season against them on a good note, I guess.”

A good note that allows the Kraken to start next season with a clean slate rather than lingering doubts. It’s a metaphor of sorts for what they’ve done the past few weeks since falling from realistic playoff contention, in contrast to some games a year ago at this time when they lost some games in embarrassing fashion down the stretch.

“Overall, we’ve been playing pretty good for a while now and getting contributions from everybody,” said Schwartz, whose goal total with nine games to go is his most since notching 24 with St. Louis in 2017-18.

Zach Hyman got one back for Edmonton in the final period but Jared McCann popped another for the Kraken by batting a puck out of midair on the backhand to complete the rout.

The five goals in the second was their most ever in one period at home and fell one shy of the franchise record for a single frame, set in Chicago back in January 2023. They also equaled the club mark for goals in a second period, set a couple of months before that Chicago affair in a wild 9-8 overtime win at Los Angeles.

The Kraken actually did score six times in the second, though one Jordan Eberle goal was negated when Shane Wright was ruled offside on the play after a video challenge.

And the goal eruption, sparked by Schwartz and continued that period by Jani Nyman, Matty Beniers, and Andre Burakovsky, helped give the Kraken confidence they can still prevail against the Oilers – or, at least, a reasonable facsimile of them – without needing another season to prove it.

“I think we created a lot of momentum in their zone,” said Burakovsky, who scored the fifth Kraken goal of that second period after an earlier assist. “So, we got a lot of long shifts on them and tired them out a little bit.”

Like it or not, the Oilers still reside in the Pacific and the Kraken eventually making the playoffs again will undoubtedly require them not getting swept year-in, year-out by a foe typically occupying one of that division’s top-three spots.

Sure, this romp came against an Oilers team devoid of leading scorers Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, both nursing injuries. An Edmonton squad that had just played and lost to the Dallas Stars at home the night before looked on a first period power play like somebody had pulled the plug on the “power” part.

Not to mention, the Oilers started backup goalie Calvin Pickard, who’d come on in third period relief against Dallas when starting netminder Stuart Skinner got kneed in the head by Mikko Rantanen. Pickard was mercifully pulled after the five-goal Kraken second and Olivier Rodrigue worked the third in his NHL debut.

But even all of those Oilers shortcomings couldn’t negate the fact they’d owned the Kraken with a 0-8-1 record since January 2023 and were 11-2-1 overall since the teams began competing in late 2021. And that’s leaving out four years of preseason games, which the Kraken have never won any of when facing the Oilers.

So, one could be forgiven a bit for a sinking feeling when the clubs left a sluggish first period in a scoreless tie. The Oilers looked like they wanted no part of things, yet the Kraken were letting them hang around dangerously.

“You pay attention to it,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said of the losing streak to the Oilers now vanquished. “I think it’s always in the back of your mind,”

In fact, the Kraken would have been trailing after the opening period if not for some saves by goalie Joey Daccord and a late Edmonton goal waved off when it was ruled on a coach’s challenge that the puck had been touched by a high stick moments before.

“The game was still 50/50 at that point and that high stick was certainly a huge, huge call,” Bylsma said, singling out video coaches Tim Ohashi and Brady Morgan for noticing.

Bylsma added: “It felt like a high stick but…I didn’t see all the replays, and it was not, like, 100% ‘Oh yeah, that’s a high stick.’ It just changed the puck a little bit, but Brady and Tim were on it. And no, I wasn’t 100% confident we were going to get it.”

But once they got the call, the Kraken were off to the races to start the second period.

Burakovsky found Schwartz on the power play with a cross-ice pass at the net-front he one-timed home just 78 seconds in.

Just two minutes after that, Oilers defender Jake Walman coughed up the puck off a Mikey Eyssimont forecheck, and Schwartz grabbed it. Schwartz was allowed to waltz unmolested into the right faceoff circle where he snapped the puck past Pickard again.

“He’s a super intelligent hockey player,” Bylsma said of Schwartz, who turns 33 in July. “And what fuels that is your feet, being able to get there and do things. I don’t know how old he is, but he’s been able to do that all year long.

“And again, talking about the play of the team – he’s kind of at the forefront of it,” Bylsma said. “Both in verbal communication to the group and on the ice.”

Schwartz scored only 13 goals a season ago when limited to 62 games due to injury. He’d been limited to just 37 games the Kraken’s first season and said staying on the ice has obviously helped increase his production.

“It’s hard to point to one thing,” Schwartz said. “I had a good off-season and was able to get my body where I needed it to be.”

And now, in-season, he’s getting the Kraken where they need to be to hit the next campaign at a higher level.