Seattle Kraken erase late three-goal deficit but fall to Florida Panthers
The Kraken fell behind the Florida Panthers by three goals with less than eight minutes left in Tuesday’s game and managed to come all the way back to tie it. Matty Beniers got the ball rolling, then Jordan Eberle and Bobby McMann scored on breakaways 14 seconds apart.
They couldn’t secure a sorely needed extra point. Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (22 saves) stopped Eberle, McMann and Freddy Gaudreau in the shootout and Vinnie Hinostroza won it for the two-time defending champions, 5-4.
While they should be kicking it into high gear, the Kraken keep dropping winnable games, and this was about to be the worst one in a while. Seattle had lost three straight games in regulation and sat four points behind the Nashville Predators, who took over the second wild-card spot in the West that the Kraken have consistently occupied.
The Panthers, meanwhile, have fallen out of the playoff picture and the Kraken easily beat them 6-2 on March 15 at Climate Pledge Arena. That remains Seattle’s most recent victory. This rematch looked like the easiest tilt of a six-game road trip, so in that way, departing without two points is a disappointment.
But it’s a needed jolt with 12 games to play, and little else is going right. So Seattle will undoubtedly take it.
In part because Jared McCann missed his second straight game due to injury, but also seemingly looking for unconventional solutions, coach Lane Lambert scratched American Hockey League call-up Jani Nyman and tried something uncommon for this franchise — sending out seven defensemen instead of four full forward lines. Cale Fleury went in for the first time in more than two weeks.
That meant the forward lines were constantly changing. But as Lambert’s staff has continually tried to squeeze offense out of anywhere, the lines are often in flux. Beniers filled in a lot and played 22:52, most among Kraken forwards.
The scoring chances were few in the first period. Sixteen minutes into the game, the shots on goal were only 3-2 Seattle. There was a flurry of activity right before the intermission but the teams headed to their respective locker rooms scoreless.
Two-thirds of the line that was burned three consecutive times on Saturday in Columbus — Ben Meyers and Jacob Melanson, plus double-shifting Beniers — was back at it Tuesday, too slow to stop a 2-on-1 that led to Nolan Foote’s opening goal. Defenseman Ryker Evans couldn’t break up the pass that turned into a shot under Joey Daccord’s (20 saves) arm.
Evans scored the Kraken’s first goal, which arrived 8:10 into the third period when Seattle trailed 3-0.
Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson appeared in his 1,000th NHL game and joined an exclusive club. He’s the 423rd player all-time to cross that threshold and only the 23rd from Sweden. He registered an assist on Beniers’ pivotal goal.
Seattle fell to 1-5 in shootouts this season and 9-17 all-time. The Kraken’s best shootout man, Gaudreau, went first, and their hottest player, McMann, went next.
The stage was set for Larsson. A stay-at-home defenseman is an odd choice on paper, but Larsson has scored some shootout stunners in practice. Sadly Lambert went the more traditional route with his captain, Eberle, who missed. Eberle has gone 0-5 in shootouts this season.
The first weeks of the season, the Kraken needed overtime half the time. They went past regulation in eight of their first 16 games. But that hasn’t been the case toward the end of the season. Their last overtime game before Tuesday was Jan. 10, a span of 24 games.
An unimpressive 4-9-1 run following the Olympic break should have been disastrous. The Kraken would be out of the playoff picture entirely if not for the mediocrity of the Pacific Division.
The Utah Mammoth are essentially locked into the first wild-card spot in the West because the Central Division’s top three are so good, but the Mammoth could very well outperform the Pacific Division winner. That happens some years when the circumstances hit just wrong, but the seeding ramifications are seen by many as unfair.
Asked about losing no ground in the playoff race in spite of his own team’s middling results, Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid had the sound bite of the week.
“We’re fortunate to play in this division…it’s a bit of a pillow fight right now,” McDavid said.
The Kraken have absolutely benefitted. They’re halfway through a winless six-game road swing but only three points behind the cutoff. The Tampa Bay Lightning are up next on Thursday.