Surely, the Seattle Kraken would find a way to defeat the Nashville Predators this time, right? Considering the situation entering the game—with the Kraken barely grasping the last wild-card spot and holding a two-point lead over these same Preds, who overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat Seattle just nine days prior—there was just no way the Kraken could lose this one.

But lose it they did.

It wasn’t because they didn’t try hard. They tried. Coach Lane Lambert was complimentary of the effort, in fact. It wasn’t because they didn’t stick to their structure. They defended well in a lot of ways. The Kraken lost, and have continued to lose this month, because they simply don’t have a talented enough group to elevate their game when it matters most. They can’t score when they need a goal, and with their lack of offensive prowess comes close losses to teams they can beat and drubbings by the league’s upper echelon.

Instead, the Predators again rose to the occasion more than the Kraken, drew level in the standings, and knocked Seattle back out of the playoff picture.

Ryan Ufko—who now has two career NHL goals, both against the Kraken—scored first. Freddy Gaudreau tied it, but then a power-play goal by Ryan O’Reilly in the second and an empty-netter from Filip Forsberg were all Nashville needed against Seattle’s paltry offense.

Here are Three Takeaways from an infuriating 3-1 Kraken loss to the Predators in a critical, must-win game.

Takeaway 1: Not good enough

With this latest loss to the Predators, the Kraken—who entered the Olympic break in third place in the Pacific Division and seemed to be riding high toward their second playoff berth in franchise history—have sunk to 4-8-0 in 12 games since returning to action on Feb. 25. Of those four wins, two have come against the last-place-in-the-entire-NHL Vancouver Canucks.

So what’s the problem? Why can’t they start rattling off wins and taking advantage of the fact that they “control their own destiny,” as Lambert has said?

Plain and simple, this team just doesn’t have the players. Sure, there are guys who can put the puck in the net here and there, and Bobby McMann has been a nice addition so far in that area. And when they’re at their best and staying within Lambert’s system, they’re a staunch defensive unit that can steal wins. But if they aren’t at their best, they seem to have no chance—and this team has not been at its best since January.

The lack of top-end players who can generate goals when the Kraken desperately need them—even against what figures to be a non-playoff team like the Predators (well, they were a non-playoff team until they had the good fortune of facing the Kraken twice in nine days)—has plagued this franchise since Day 1.

They must play borderline perfect hockey to win, and now that teams are playing with more emotion and desperation, Seattle’s imperfections are being magnified even more.

By the way, Nashville had its starting goalie get injured in morning skate and was forced to turn to Justus Annunen at the last second. So with their season effectively on the line, what did the Kraken do? They scored one goal against the Nashville backup with a .894 save percentage.

Takeaway 2: Freddy gets off the schneid

This game brought one (1) moment of joy, when Chandler Stephenson set up Freddy Gaudreau for a beautiful goal. It was Gaudreau’s first since Jan. 5, snapping a 25-game goalless drought.

It was a slick play, too. Gaudreau fought his way into the offensive zone and dropped the puck off at the blue line to Kaapo Kakko, then drove to the net. Kakko passed to Stephenson in the left circle. Stephenson delayed, drew two defenders toward him, then threaded the needle back to Gaudreau, who had an open net.

It was a rare glimpse of creativity that tied the game 1-1 at 18:40 of the first period and gave Seattle fans hope that the Kraken could come up with a desperately needed win. That hope was dashed when the Kraken took two penalties in quick succession in the second.

The Gaudreau goal was a nice moment for good guy Freddy, but one goal is not enough to win in the NHL.

Takeaway 3: Rest of division also stinks

What continues to be maddening about this slide is that if the Kraken had just taken a couple more of these winnable games, they’d be in a prime playoff position. But they keep losing and making fans tear their hair out.

Maybe there is something in the universe keeping this team alive, though, because the Pacific Division continues to stink and keep Seattle on life support.

On a night when the Kraken lost their “must-win” game in Nashville, the Vegas Golden Knights lost 4-0 to Utah, the San Jose Sharks lost 5-0 to Buffalo, and the Edmonton Oilers lost 4-0 to the Florida Panthers.

THE KRAKEN PRODUCED MORE OFFENSE THAN THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS, SHARKS, AND OILERS COMBINED?!

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers, so Seattle fell one point out of the playoff bubble.

It is still possible that the Kraken could get hot and win the division. That’s insane. How are they even in the playoff conversation at this point?