In seven-second span, Kraken get reminder that they can’t take a shift off

Inside the NHL

Seven measly seconds may not seem like much, but behavioral scientists say otherwise.

They’ll tell you it’s how long a potential business partner — or a first date — needs to decide whether you’re likable and trustworthy. Or, that a criminal needs to pinpoint you as the perfect target. A longstanding myth predating television soccer coach Ted Lasso has it that goldfish need only seven seconds to erase their memories and start over. 

And with the Kraken, seven seconds is precisely what it took this past week to underscore the fragility of their newfound playoff contender status. A bizarre three-game Kraken homestand bookended by highs and lows of seven-second extremes will undoubtedly get some folks re-examining expectations.

First, there was last Thursday’s peak of Matty Beniers inducing sudden victory with an overtime winner against the Washington Capitals just seven seconds into the extra session. It was the second-fastest overtime goal in NHL history, upping the Kraken’s franchise record winning streak to seven games and their season record to 15-5-3.

Only five times had an overtime been ended quicker — by just one fewer second, most recently by William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs in January 2018. And it was the fastest rookie overtime winner ever, eclipsing the nine-decade-old mark set by Walter Jackson of the New York Americans — who took eight seconds to beat Hall of Fame goalie George Hainsworth of the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden on March 7, 1933.

For the streaking Kraken, this seemed a signature moment.

But the merriment lasted only two days. The Florida Panthers came to town and the winning streak exited in a 5-1 pounding.

No problem, Kraken faithful reassured. All win streaks end. New ones begin. And what better way to begin anew Tuesday night than facing a Canadiens franchise that had never beaten the Kraken? Heck, the Canadiens couldn’t beat the Seattle Metropolitans when it mattered, either. They were so awful last season they landed the No. 1 overall draft pick used to diss Shane Wright so he could fall to the Kraken at No. 4 and set up a Tuesday night “revenge tour” for the taking.

The revenge part for Wright went rather well, even though he says his first NHL goal coming against Montreal wasn’t that big a deal. But then, with the game tied and Wright’s team overwhelming the visitors in shots, the bottom fell out.

And it took just seven seconds. 

First, Andre Burakovsky made a lazy pass out from the corner to the middle of the ice in his own zone, right on to the stick of Montreal’s Nick Suzuki, who fed Cole Caufield and — bing-bang — the Canadiens had the lead.

You’d think the Kraken, fresh off their seven-second triumph of five days prior, would be on the lookout for something strange unfolding in the moments to come. Then again, maybe not. After all, what were the chances of a repeat this quickly?

Well, the Kraken found out. Right off the ensuing faceoff, Kraken defenseman Will Borgen lost a neutral-zone battle for a loose puck that shot straight to onrushing Christian Dvorak for a two-on-one break against. Seven seconds after it all began, Dvorak slid a pass across to Josh Anderson for the easy one-timer and a two-goal advantage.

Game over.

The Kraken suddenly find themselves embarking on a now-perilous-looking road trip against Washington, Tampa Bay, Florida and Carolina. They’ve won in only one of those four teams’ buildings — facing the Florida squad that just whupped them. So the Kraken’s playoff push indeed seems slightly more precarious. 

And perhaps, for the team’s sake, that’s how they should view it moving forward. This was, after all, a surprising top-five NHL squad beginning to flash bad habits during its win streak, especially in victories of 8-5 and 5-4 against weak San Jose and Anaheim opponents and then that 9-8 mess in Los Angeles. 

Don Henley once crooned about how everything can change in a New York Minute. But the Big Apple has nothing on Seattle’s Seven Seconds in spelling out exactly what the Kraken still are and can become — both good and bad — if things improve from here, and especially if they don’t.

In losing to Montreal, the message was the Kraken can’t afford to let up at any juncture. Despite their record, they aren’t elite enough to take even a shift off.

Two plays within seconds in which Montreal outworked them resulted in goals against. It seemed far removed from Beniers beating the Capitals after the unrelenting version of the Kraken fought back from two goals down to force overtime.

That Beniers goal instantly reminded me of watching on TV in May 1986 when another rookie, Brian Skrudland of the Canadiens, scored a still-playoff-record nine seconds into overtime against Calgary in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The Flames nearly had series command, taking Game 1 and leading 2-0 at one point in Game 2 at home. But they’d been only a 95-point playoff squad and weren’t yet elite enough to overcome lapses at critical junctures.

The Canadiens didn’t lose after Skrudland’s goal, winning the Cup in five games.

Here in Seattle, my next-door neighbor, John, the CEO of a local chocolate company and avid Kraken supporter, is a Rhodes Scholar from Saskatchewan. While attending the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon in the 1980s, the best friend and frequent visitor of his college roommate happened to be local Saskatoon Blades junior player Skrudland.

Another note of interest: The neighbor directly across from my house, Carole, is the mother of Sports Radio KJR personality Ian Furness. She’s from Saskatchewan as well.

Now, odds of somebody in Seattle living directly adjacent and across from two natives of a Canadian prairie province of just 1.17 million is pretty rare. Perhaps as rare as two NHL goals just seven seconds removed from a center-ice faceoff involving the same team within days.

But anything clearly can happen, be it in seven seconds, a minute or four months from now.

The Kraken will ultimately decide how the past week’s rarities come to define them. A good start would be dropping any pretense regarding their still-lofty record and getting back to the relentless, hardworking basics that made them playoff contenders in the first place.