The Kraken kicked off a six-game road swing with a loss to one of the teams trying to force them out of the last playoff spot in the West.
The Nashville Predators beat their guests from Seattle 3-1 and jumped into a three-way tie with the Kraken and the Los Angeles Kings. The Kraken have a potential tiebreaker — regulation wins — over both teams. But they needed the Kings to lose to the Philadelphia Flyers in regulation later Thursday to finish the night in a playoff spot.
The Kraken dropped their second straight game. They’ve been in the thick of the playoff race nearly all season, but the push they need to finish the job has eluded them. Seattle has dropped eight of 12 games since the Olympic break.
“Can’t feel sorry for ourselves, or it’s going to be done before we know it,” center Chandler Stephenson said.
Draped in Predators defenders, Freddy Gaudreau protected the puck as he crossed the blue line late in the first period. He passed it off to Stephenson.
Gaudreau’s bodyguards dispersed and Stephenson returned the puck to him for Gaudreau’s fifth goal of the season and first since Jan. 5.
Fourteen seconds into a Jamie Oleksiak interference penalty, Ryan O’Reilly put back a Filip Forsberg rebound for a 2-1 lead the Predators were able to protect for the better part of two periods. Forsberg put in an empty netter.
Ryan Ufko sent a slap shot past Joey Daccord (24 saves) to open the scoring 6:14 into the first period. Ufko’s first two career goals have both come against the Kraken. He scored in the Predators’ 4-2 victory in Seattle on March 10, and again Thursday night.
Coach Lane Lambert insisted he was happy with the effort in Nashville, and that the Kraken generated enough scoring chances. He pointed out that Seattle was missing several penalty killers, and taking penalties in relatively quick succession – which happened in both the second and third periods – wore out an already depleted unit.
“You’ve gotta be smart,” Lambert said. “(A) too many men on the ice (penalty) is inexcusable.”
Bobby McMann was an inch or so away from extending his goal streak to four games — one in each of the games he’s played for the Kraken since coming over at the trade deadline from the Toronto Maple Leafs. But he hit the left goalpost 20 seconds into the second period. The three-game point streak to kick off his Kraken tenure ended as well.
Eeli Tolvanen missed a second game with an upper-body injury, and Ryan Winterton sat out due to illness. Jaden Schwartz remains out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. All three are forwards. The Kraken recalled Jani Nyman from Coachella Valley of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis, and he played his first NHL game since Dec. 22.
The 21-year-old winger started the season with the Kraken and appeared in 24 games. After Seattle sent Nyman down, his production picked up. Even though he’s appeared in half the Firebirds’ games this season, Nyman is tied for fourth in points and third in goals.
As the Kraken pushed for the equalizer in Nashville, Lambert pulled back on his deployment of Nyman. Nyman only saw the ice for one third-period shift.
Seattle can take some cues from its next opponent. Columbus has gone 7-1-4 since the Olympic break and surged into the third spot in the Metropolitan Division. The Blue Jackets won their third straight game Thursday and host the Kraken on Saturday.
“It’s playoff mode right now, especially for teams that are trying to get in,” Stephenson said.
Including Columbus, four of the five teams remaining on the Kraken’s road trip are jostling for a playoff spot. The Kraken took down the fading Florida Panthers 6-2 on Sunday. The playoff-bound Tampa Bay Lightning then beat Seattle by the same score two days later. The Kraken will visit both teams for a rematch next week.
Seattle will close out the trip against the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers, both of whom are in the top two spots of their respective divisions. By that point, there will be only nine games left to decide who makes the cut.
“There’s not a guy that’s happy with how things are going, result-wise. But we’ve gotta stick together,” Gaudreau said. “We’ve gotta focus on the right stuff.”