Kraken Shoot Early, Not Dangerously Enough

Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour, coming off a team-high six shots against the NHL’s hottest goalie, admitted after this defeat that not enough of them came with players obstructing the netminder’s vision.

That was pretty much the story of Tuesday night’s 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators, with the Kraken firing five shots at opposing goalie Linus Ullmark in the opening three minutes and 15 by the end of the first period. But Ullmark had clear vision on most of them, and then the Kraken shot volume dried up considerably in the final two frames after the Senators opened the scoring on Joey Daccord midway through.

“That’s kind of the story – I think we’ve got to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Montour said. “I don’t know how many times we’ve been shut out, but we’ve played less than 35 games, and we’ve been shut out six or seven times with the skill that we’ve got on this team.

“Obviously, you’re going to have some times when things don’t go your way, but it’s too easy for these goalies. Again, we had some looks. But the shots don’t matter if the goalie sees them all the time.”

For the record, the Kraken have been shut out only five times in their first 33 games, though they’ve also managed just one goal in five other contests – losing all 10 of those. They were outscored 5-0 by Ottawa in both games played this season, taking a 2-0 defeat against backup goalie Anton Forsberg last month on the road before being blanked by the red-hot Ullmark in this one.

The way Ullmark has been playing of late, racking up a 7-0-1 record and .957 save percentage the past few weeks, the Kraken seemed somewhat deflated after Shane Pinto opened the scoring eight minutes into the middle period on a shot through Daccord’s legs. And momentum swung decisively when Noah Gregor scored a second Ottawa goal before the period ended and then Tim Stutzle added a breakaway goal five minutes into the final frame that Daccord would have liked to have back.

Daccord made an initial stop but the puck rolled up over his shoulder and behind him into the net. The way Ullmark was playing, it was game over at that point.

“I think the goal going in kind of just added to the frustration of not having looks, not getting shots in, and Ullmark coming up big repeatedly in the first period,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said of Pinto opening the scoring at a time the home side held a 20-10 shots advantage. “The goal going in kind of exacerbated that.”

By the time the third Ottawa goal was scored, the Kraken had taken only eight additional shots in 24 minutes after the first intermission. But even when they had been putting an abundance of pucks on Ullmark – named the NHL’s 3^rd Star of the prior week and now having allowed just three goals in the past four games – Bylsma felt they “probably had to come a little more dirty (at the net front) than we gave them.”

The Kraken will now head out on a tough four-city road trip to Chicago, Colorado, Vegas and Vancouver, having dropped two in a row to finish the homestand 1-2-1 and fall back to a game below .500.

“I think you’ve just got to take a look at the scenario and the setting that we’re at in the season,” Bylsma said. “And I think that desperation has got to creep into our game on a nightly basis. And when it’s not, it’s evident.”

Some of the chances were of quality, with Jaden Schwartz deflecting a Montour shot into Ullmark’s body from in close. Mitchell Stephens then fanned on a perfect pass to him at the net front by Brandon Tanev with an open right side staring him in the face.

But for the most part, Ullmark’s quick glove hand took care of the rest with little standing between him and pucks off Kraken sticks.

“We didn’t get in his eyes,” said Kraken forward Jared McCann, who tested Ullmark with the second-most shots at five. “I know that’s something we kind of said we should do before the game. But you know, we’re just kind of a one-and-done team right now. We’re trying to just score off the rush or make a back-door play or whatever. But when things aren’t going well, you’ve got to get to the front of the net and bang one home.”

McCann knows his team played very well on its last tough road trip, winning three of four against quality East Coast teams. They then returned home and took three of four points from Florida and Boston before turning in some lackluster outings against Tampa Bay and Ottawa here.

“It’s just a matter of getting our leadership group together and trying to figure out what’s missing,” McCann said.

A key member of that group, a key veteran leader, Montour, said that stellar road play needs to continue now that the Kraken “would like to get a few back” from a homestand that began well but then faded.

“We have a couple of tough road games where we have to kind of fix things up and get back to over .500.”