Joey Daccord’s return not enough as Seattle Kraken fall to Red Wings

Kraken coach Lane Lambert didn’t get the birthday performance he was hoping to see from his team starting a four-game road trip.

Not enough shots at the offensive end. Mistakes with positioning on the penalty kill. One soft goal allowed by Joey Daccord in his return from injured reserve.

“I don’t think we had everyone going and we can’t afford to have anybody not going,” Lambert told reporters after the Kraken’s 4-2 loss to Detroit on Tuesday night. “We were OK in the game, but not good enough to win the hockey game. So, there’s certain things and certain reasons for that, but certainly I thought we could have been better.”

The themes touched on after the loss by Lambert — who turned 61 on Tuesday — have been heard before on nights his team has stumbled through the first quarter of this season. They’re an offensively limited team who needs to pepper the net with shots, play a structured style defensively to limit chances and get good goaltending.

All three of those phases were lacking to a degree against the Red Wings as Seattle’s three-game points streak and two-game win streak was snapped with the loss. The Kraken (9-5-5) suffered their fifth regulation loss after entering Tuesday as one of just five teams leaguewide with four or fewer regulation losses.

“There’s always effort. Our guys work. To me, they work and they give it everything they have,” Lambert said. “I didn’t think we shot the puck enough. Again, we’re playing against a team that’s man-on-man in the [defensive] zone for the most part, and you got to find a way to put the puck to the net and find a way to get a greasy goal. And I don’t think we attempted enough shots, not only in the third but all night long.”

Jordan Eberle scored on a power play late in the first period for his eighth goal of the season off a deft feed from Matty Beniers. Ryker Evans pulled the Kraken even in the second period with his second goal since returning from injury, but Emmitt Finnie’s power-play goal midway through the second period proved to be the difference for Detroit.

“I think just the chances we gave them, they ended up capitalizing on them,” Evans said.

Seattle’s best chance in the third period came late when Eeli Tolvanen’s shot from the side of the net was gloved by Detroit’s goalie Cam Talbot, the best of his 20 saves. Detroit’s Dylan Larkin added an empty-net goal in the final minute.

Daccord played in his first game since Nov. 5 when he suffered an upper-body injury in a loss to San Jose and landed on injured reserve. He missed five games and his return was timely after Matt Murray suffered a lower-body injury in last Saturday’s win over San Jose and is expected to miss six weeks.

For the most part, Daccord played well and showed little rust from the nearly two-week layoff — with one glaring exception.

Daccord finished with 24 saves in his return. But one shot likely to irritate the goalie came in the opening moments of what turned out to be an eventful second period that featured four combined goals and another that was disallowed after a Seattle challenge.

Detroit jolted awake to start the second with a pair of goals just 45 seconds apart — one rather soft and one unlucky. Lucas Raymond got the Red Wings on the board with a shot from the right point that leaked under the right arm of Daccord and into the net to pull even at 1-1. It’s a save that more often than not Daccord squeezes.

“I think Joey probably wants the first one back,” Lambert said.

Less than a minute later, former first-round pick Nate Danielson picked up the first goal of his career as a shot from the point by Axel Sandin-Pellikka took a pair of deflections. It first hit former Kraken forward Mason Appleton before finding the shin pad of Danielson and deflecting into the net.

Detroit appeared to make it 3-1 after Danielson collected a bouncing puck and beat Daccord, but the Kraken challenged for offside and the goal was disallowed when video replay showed Finnie was in the offensive zone before the puck.

Evans brought the Kraken back even at the 7:26 mark when his shot from the point took a deflection to beat Talbot. The play was primarily made by Shane Wright’s work along the boards and his ability to get the puck to Tolvanen before feeding Evans at the top.

There was significant debate whether the goal belonged to Evans or potentially rookie Berkly Catton as he was in the area where the deflection took place. But the goal was eventually awarded to Evans after it was determined the deflection came off a Detroit player and not Catton, leaving the Kraken rookie still searching for his first goal.

The road trip for the Kraken will continue on Thursday in Chicago.