WINNIPEG, Manitoba – A grim Kraken head coach Lane Lambert laid it out bluntly after a fifth consecutive loss in which the bounces were not on his side.
“We’ve got to stop the bleeding,” he said. “For me, it’s about pride right now.”
Prior to Monday night’s 6-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, it had been about Lambert shuffling his top forward lines and splitting up his familiar defensive pairings trying to find any spark possible. And it worked early on, as Jordan Eberle scored only his third goal in the last 19 games to open the scoring in a game in which the Kraken stifled Winnipeg’s offense for most of the first period.
But then three successive penalties by the Kraken led to a tying power play goal by Jonathan Toews in the first and then two more from Gabriel Vilardi and Kyle Connor midway through the second put the Jets ahead to stay. Jared McCann got one back early in the third with, like Eberle, only his third goal in 19 games, but Lambert’s nephew, Brad Lambert, scored soon after. Connor then added his second of the night and Vladislav Namestnikov sealed it with an empty netter late.
And that left Kraken coach Lambert pondering the immediate future Tuesday night in Minnesota after a game in which his team played fairly-well at 5-on-5 but saw the league’s second worst penalty kill flounder again under the weight of some missed opportunities and bad hops. The Kraken are just 1-7-2 their last 10 games.
Philipp Grubauer was replaced in goal by Joey Daccord after suffering an apparent injury with 6:40 to go in the second period following the third Winnipeg power play marker. At the time, the Kraken were being outshot 13-1 in the period and would finish at a 14-4 deficit for the frame.
Lambert, who had no Grubauer update postgame, had shuffled his lineup considerably for this one. He pulled McCann off the top line and inserted red hot scorer Bobby McMann there instead alongside Eberle and Matty Beniers. He also split up the top defensive pairing of Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson, putting Cale Fleury up top with Dunn while Larsson went to the second pairing with Ryker Evans and Brandon Montour bumping down to the third duo with Ryan Lindgren.
It seemed to pay dividends initially as Eberle scored on a backhander against Connor Hellebuyck after a terrific second effort on a rebound of his initial shot attempt. The Kraken had used strong work to keep the puck in Winnipeg’s zone and seemed to be outhustling the Jets in the early going the way they had in a 3-0 win at Canada Life Centre back in October.