One way an NHL coach might try to get a player’s attention is to scratch him from the lineup and let him sit and watch the game from high above the ice in the press box.
That’s what Seattle Kraken coach Dan Bylsma did with forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand and Tye Kartye on Nov. 5 at Colorado.
The move seems to have paid off, as Bjorkstrand scored a goal and Kartye assisted on another as the Kraken snapped a four-game skid with a 4-3 overtime victory against the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.
After a weekend off, the Kraken will host the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
Bjorkstrand’s gritty goal early in the third period — Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill lunged to make a pokecheck, only for the puck to careen off Bjorkstrand as he charged to the top of the crease and deflect into the net — put the Kraken ahead 3-2 after they had fallen behind 2-0.
“I thought his game, in particular, was a great bounce-back game for him,” Bylsma said. “He’s a talented, skilled player with a great shot and scores a lot of goals. His competition was at a great level for him to have success in the game. And it’s not just the evidence of going to the net and scoring a dirty goal, but on the wall in the first period, at the faceoff (circle), also in the first period, the battle on the wall in the second period in front of our bench. It was great.”
Bjorkstrand, who told reporters he needed to be better when asked about being a healthy scratch, was pleased to impact the game.
“Yeah, it was good,” he said. “I would have been ready in Colorado, but I was ready (Friday), kept it simple. I feel like I played well with the puck and was able to create some chances.”
After a promising start to the season, the Blue Jackets are winless in their past five games (0-4-1). They fell 4-2 on Sunday at Anaheim as Ducks goaltender John Gibson, making his season debut after undergoing an emergency appendectomy on Sept. 25, stopped 38 shots.
Kirill Marchenko had a goal and an assist for Columbus. Yegor Chinakhov also scored, and Daniil Tarasov made 26 saves.
“It’s unacceptable,” said Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski, who was playing in his 500th NHL game. “Enough with the moral victories. We’ve played well enough in a lot of games this year to win and we end up losing them, and that’s on us.
“We have to look ourselves in the mirror and find a way to win hockey games. I don’t care if we outshoot them 50-20 or we get outshot 50-20. At the end of the day, we have to find a way to get points in this league and win hockey games, and we haven’t done it.”
The Blue Jackets have scored just nine goals during their losing streak.
“Goal-scoring is funny. It goes in streaks,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “A few weeks back, we couldn’t miss and the pucks were finding their way in and we were getting some bounces and good stuff. And now it’s gone the other way a little bit, but there’s nothing we can do about it now except move forward and keep doing those things to get those opportunities.”
Both teams could have lineup reinforcements Tuesday. The Kraken reacquired forward Daniel Sprong, who scored 21 goals for them in 2022-23, in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks. The Blue Jackets claimed defenseman Dante Fabbro, a former first-round pick, off waivers from the Nashville Predators.
