Just a few shifts later, Seattle newcomer (and, goodness, he is a welcome addition) Mason Marchment ran over Stolarz in pursuit of a scoring chance. The Toronto goaltender wasn’t angry at Marchment over what Berube called a hockey play. But Stolarz did call out his own teammates about playing more like the Kraken.

“I think we gotta start going to the cage a little harder, make it harder for their goalies,” Stolarz said. “It’s not fun — I don’t like having 225-pound guys laying on me. Hopefully we learn a lesson here.”

Kraken fans might recall in the 3-1 season opener home win that the visiting Ducks leveled Joey Daccord with several Seattle teammates jumping to goalie’s defense. Stolarz had to engage in his own scrap with Marchment (Toronto players said later they knew a Kraken penalty was going to called and didn’t want draw a two-minute roughing call). Stolarz equally envied Daccord for the Kraken’s success at protecting the net-front, high-danger area Saturday night.

“Their goalie, it’s like playing catch in the yard,” Stolarz said about a lack of Toronto net presence. “He’s seeing everything. We’re not making it difficult. We did make it difficult in the third [period] and look what happened. We came out, tied the game, got a point out of it, almost scored with five seconds left [in regulation, but prevented by a Grade-A Daccord save].”

Overtime with a Flair, Game-Winners

Seattle’s 3-0-2 record includes two overtime wins, Saturday against Toronto and the previous Saturday against another offensive juggernaut, Vegas. The Kraken’s overtime play has featured significant puck possession and player combinations creating impressive scoring opportunities. Fans no doubt are loving the high-octane overtimes, even if Lambert and his hard-working assistant coaches would prefer not to have played four straight games that were tied at regulation.

For his part, Toronto coach Craig Berube conceded the Kraken’s dominance in extra time despite the likes of stars Auston Matthews and William Nylander. In fact, Kraken D-man Josh Mahura, who scored his last NHL goal three years ago in the same arena, outraced Nylander to the puck for a breakaway and sweet move on Stolarz to cap the 4-3 OT win.

After the Vegas home win in overtime a week ago Saturday, VGK coach Bruce Cassidy said the Kraken’s control of play doomed his team’s effort to earn the extra standings point at stake: “You get into overtime, and anything can happen. We just didn’t have the puck enough to generate at their end. Then we got a little bit fatigued and they buried one.”

‘Checking In’ Fore and Back

Veteran depth forward Colton Sissons, in his first season with Vegas after 11 years in Nashville, was also clear postgameabout the grit and never-quit forechecking and backchecking delivered by the winning Kraken. “They were making it hard on us,” said Sissons. “Obviously, teams are going to defend as hard with the firepower we got up front … They checked well. They had a game plan that they weren’t going to lose against our defensemen [skating] up the ice. They didn’t allow our odd-man rushes to get through the neutral zone clean. It took us a while to figure that part out.” Cassidy seconded his player’s assessment, which in turn provides a sense of optimism the Kraken might top their 12 standings points amassed the first 10 games of the 2022-2023 season. “They were in forecheck mode,” said Cassidy. . “It wasn’t going to be a neutral-zone turnover transition-type of game where you’re giving up a lot off the rush. We had to go work for it…they didn’t want to give us any easy stuff.”