The Kraken spent 40 minutes trying to undo the first-period damage in Edmonton but never found a way past goaltender Connor Ingram.
They were shut out by the Oilers 3-0 on Tuesday night, the latest blow to their narrowing playoff chances. They spent much of the season in a playoff spot, but when it came time to lock it down, the Kraken started fading.
Moneypuck.com put Seattle’s odds of securing its second-ever postseason berth at 23.9% with nine games to play.
It was 2-0 after one period, and it could have been worse. In his 400th NHL game, the Kraken let Philipp Grubauer (21 saves) exhaust himself trying to keep the game close.
It would have taken pure, dumb luck for him to stop the first goal, a tip that went off the back of Edmonton’s Max Jones. Jones ducked to avoid the shot but instead sent it into the cage at a totally different angle.
On the second goal, Kasperi Kapanen pounced on a turnover and got behind the Kraken’s top defensive pairing. Adam Larsson appeared to realize Kapanen was about to take the two-on-one shot and headed over, but it was too late. Kapanen uncorked a hard shot that whizzed under Grubauer’s armpit.
The NHL’s top-ranked power play, which belongs to Edmonton (30.2%), was up against the second-worst penalty kill (73.4%). The Kraken spent the last two minutes of the first period holding on for dear life and did kill off an Eeli Tolvanen holding penalty, which turned out to be the only penalty they took all night.
“I didn’t think we played terribly in the first period, but we find ourselves down again, chasing a game. It’s not easy to do,” coach Lane Lambert said.
The Kraken man advantage, which sits 17th (20.7%) of 32 teams, had three unsuccessful chances. Seattle had the NHL’s worst power play conversion rate in the month of March at 11.1%.
“Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes there’s really no rhyme or reason to it,” center Matty Beniers said. “So we’ve just got to not get frustrated about that.”
Seattle closed the shot gap, which was 12-6 after 20 minutes. The Kraken got unlucky when Jordan Eberle hit the post early in the third period, but the Oilers largely held them to the perimeter otherwise.
Connor McDavid extended his goal streak to five games with the empty netter. Seattle forward Bobby McMann’s three-game goal streak ended, and he was held without a point for the third time in his first nine games with the Kraken after coming over at the trade deadline.
The Kraken see their divisional opponents frequently, and it rarely goes well. They are 4-14-1 all-time against Edmonton.
Edmonton has lost in the Stanley Cup Final two years running. The Florida Panthers blocked their championship run twice, but Florida is about to be mathematically eliminated from the postseason this spring, so there will be at least one new finalist in June.
The autumn Oilers and the spring Oilers are two different beasts, with the early showings usually uninspiring and the lead-up to the playoffs a reminder of what they’re capable of. They’ve had to deal with shaky goaltending at times throughout this title window, but Ingram was just fine Tuesday night, making 27 stops.
Kraken winger and alternate captain Jaden Schwartz returned to the lineup after missing 10 games, an outcome that would have sounded optimistic when he was kicked in the head during a game March 7. Center Shane Wright was a game-time decision and ultimately sat out with an upper-body injury sustained Saturday in Buffalo.
The Kraken finished their potentially make-or-break road trip 1-3-2 and remained two points behind the postseason cutoff. The teams already directly in front of them, Nashville and Los Angeles, were both idle.
Tuesday’s bad news came from behind. The San Jose Sharks re-entered the fray and tied the Kraken at 75 points with one fewer game played. The Winnipeg Jets managed to overtake Seattle and now have 76 points.
There are two home games coming up, starting Thursday night. There will be a belated celebration of Larsson’s 1,000th NHL game before the opening puck drop against the Utah Mammoth.