ST LOUIS - You never know when your NHL debut may come. For Nikke Kokko, it came Thursday in St. Louis on his first full day in the League. It may not have been how anyone would have drawn it up as Kokko came on in relief of Joey Daccord after St. Louis built up a five-goal lead after Seattle struggled defensively.
Kokko persevered. Seattle limited the pressure he faced and both Vince Dunn and Jaden Schwartz added goals late, but it wasn’t enough to overcome St. Louis’ early lead, and the Kraken fell to the Blues 7-2.
“Take your pick (in terms of what we were struggling with,” Jared McCann said. “Pretty much everything. D-zone coverage, couldn't get a forecheck established, we made it easy on them. Just looked like we didn't have our legs tonight, and, it's just overall pretty embarrassing.
“You have to play for the logo on the front, right? It’s an honor to be in the NHL, and there are a lot of other kids and other guys in this in this league, who are champing at the bit to get into the play here. So, we have to take a long look in the mirror and figure out everything.”
Ceding Space
The Blues were the first to get on the scoreboard. The Blues won a faceoff in the neutral zone and then Cam Fowler and Colton Parayko activated with Fowler skating into the slot and passing to the team’s leading scorer Jordan Kyrou on the right flank. Fowler continued his center lane drive to pressure Daccord while Kyrou deftly moved the puck from front to back of his stick blade and to front again changing the angle of the shot to beat Daccord.
Less than five minutes later, St. Louis capitalized again with the first power play of the game. They won the faceoff and were able to maintain possession getting the puck low on the goal line where Pavel Buchnevich was able to feed Oskar Sundqvist in the slot for the second goal for the Blues.
Pinned In
The Kraken had held even in shots with St. Louis early, but the shot counter was 14-4 after the first 20 minutes, including a final 10:48 with no pucks testing Blues goaltender, Jordan Binnington. The Kraken struggled to get into the offensive zone thanks to St. Louis hounding them on the breakout and winning more puck battles in a lot of areas of the ice. As Josh Mahura told KHN’s Piper Shaw in the first intermission, “We have some things we need to fix. The Blues are moving their feet, executing passes, and coming with speed. We need to (have better) gaps and not get stuck puck watching then they get the cycle going.”
Changed Up
The Kraken started the second period strong. Seattle had the first eleven shot attempts including eight on target (including their first power play of the game), but then, they again were stuck in their own zone. Jordan Eberle eventually had a takeaway that gave the Kraken relief but after a shift that exceeded 1:15 for some of the skaters on the ice, they went for a change. St. Louis pushed right back into the zone with numbers and Jake Neighbours was able to pass to Robert Thomas who got net front for a 3-0 lead.
From there, the Kraken defense was challenged. Passing lanes were open as were shooters and in the next five minutes, St. Louis added two more goals first off a cross-slot pass from Sundqvist to Zack Bolduc and then off a low-to-high pass from Brayden Schenn to Fowler.
“(We) didn’t execute,” Jordan Eberle said. “We kind of hung Joey out to dry. It’s frustrating. I think it was just a lack of compete really. I just saw a lot of missed battles, missed communication. Frustration builds up and then things go south.”
With that, Daccord’s night was done, and in came Kokko. Called up on Wednesday, Kokko was now playing in his first NHL game and, at 20 years old and 348 days, he was now the youngest goaltender to play in the NHL since Leevi Merilainen of the Ottawa Senators was 20 years, 236 days on 4/6/2023 at Florida Panthers.
The defense seemed to respond by not allowing a single shot attempt for almost two minutes, and when tested, Kokko stopped the first shot he faced. But then another cross-slot pass challenged the young netminder and Neighbours put a goal on his stat line in addition to his assist. The second period ended with a 6-0 score.
“That’s not the way we planned the game,” Dan Bylsma said. “Joey had three or four great saves in the first half of the game that he was in and even the ones that went in he makes a great save and the guy knocks it out of the air; there’s a seam pass and then one he doesn’t see from the point. I don’t think Joey had a ton of chance in there.
“Sometimes I think your first taste in the NHL is a little bit better when it’s by surprise. It was a time Kokko didn’t have to think about a start…he got tossed in there. His first save was a great one and he was a young goalie doing a good job out there.”
Finding Some Pushback
Bolduc’s second added a seventh goal early, but the Kraken were able to get on the board 5:13 into the final frame. After maintaining possession through a few battles, as the puck went high in the zone, Vince Dunn’s retrieval kept the play onside. The defender skated lower in the slot before firing a puck past his former teammate aided by a flash screen from Chandler Stephenson setting the score at 7-1.
