Not only have the Seattle Kraken failed to win any of their past six games, going 0-5-1, but they haven’t even held a lead over that stretch.
The Kraken will try to get started on the right foot Saturday night when they play host to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Obviously, right now, it’s not working,” Kraken forward Alex Wennberg said. “But I feel like the belief is in the team. We’re all together here, and we’re finding something. We’re going to grow from this and become better, and right now we’ve just got to find a way to get the first one. After that, we’re going to keep rolling.”
The Kraken opened a six-game homestand Thursday with a 2-1 loss to New Jersey despite outshooting the Devils 38-17 — including 16-3 in the final period. Jared McCann hit the crossbar on a two-on-one rush with about three minutes remaining and Vince Dunn grazed the right post in the final minute. There was a mad scramble in front of the New Jersey net as the final buzzer sounded.
But Seattle came up short again.
“We played our tails off,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “I mean, it’s a hard outcome, right? We played against a good hockey team, we played really hard. We made a couple of mistakes. That’s the nature of the beast, and … we’re not getting the benefit of some of the hard work.”
Tye Kartye scored the lone goal for Seattle, a one-timer from the low slot in the second period after taking a pass from Wennberg from below the goal line.
“That’s kind of what the blueprint is for us,” Kartye said. “We’ve got to do that a little more, kind of just get the puck to the bottom and try and get the puck in the slot to create more chances.”
Kraken forward Andre Burakovsky returned after a 20-game absence because of an upper-body injury and forced a turnover that led to Kartye’s goal. But Burakovsky was checked into the boards later in the period and lost his footing. He went to the locker room to receive medical attention.
After re-evaluation Friday, the Kraken said Burakovsky will be week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
The Lightning opened a five-game trip with a 5-1 defeat Thursday at Nashville. That snapped their two-game winning streak.
“We’re playing a decent road game, and then they get two quick ones in the second,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Once that happened, we never punched back. That’s probably the most disappointing thing about the game. I mean you’re not going to win every game, but let’s give a push. Whether you’re up or down or protecting the lead or trying to come from behind, especially in that case, you’ve got to punch back. And we didn’t.”
Alex Barre-Boulet scored and Jonas Johansson made 25 saves for the Lightning. Nikita Kucherov saw the end of an 11-game point streak in which he contributed six goals and 15 assists.
“I think we were getting guys to the net, but we just weren’t recovering the puck,” Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said. “… If you’re going to do that all night you’re not going to have second chances and have the goalie scrambling. It was kind of one of those nights.”
–Field Level Media
