Weary Kraken Can’t Close Out Strong Road Trip

SUNRISE, Florida – A somewhat bewildered Shane Wright stood trying to dissect what happened to the Kraken in a road trip finale in which he scored the only goal that could have mattered for his team.

Wright’s tying first period conversion of a Berkly Catton net front pass in Saturday’s eventual 8-3 loss to the Florida Panthers nearly got a sluggish looking Kraken team to the first intermission on even footing. But then a pair of Carter Verhaeghe goals with roughly two minutes to go in the period and another by him to complete a natural hat trick along with a Niko Mikkola marker the opening seven minutes of the middle frame put this one away.

“Hard to pinpoint just one thing,” Wright said of what went wrong. “Just not our night. They were obviously a much better team. We’ve got to get home and forget about them.”

Forget about the Panthers certainly, on a night they became the first team in NHL history to record natural hat tricks of three uninterrupted goals in three consecutive games between Verhaeghe’s effort here and two prior contests that saw Brady Tchachuk accomplish the feat. Sam Bennett had a Florida hat trick as well and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers while Freddy Gaudreau and Ryker Evans countered for the Kraken along with Wright.

Kraken goalie Joey Daccord gave up a career high eight goals on 38 shots though the fact he was left in for the duration is an indicator few, if any, were truly his fault.

But the Kraken won’t want to forget much else about a five-city, 10-day road trip that saw them go 3-1-1 as they now return for six of the next seven contests at Climate Pledge Arena. And though none of the Kraken, including head coach Lane Lambert, was citing fatigue as a factor after this one, the reality is it looked like this trip had dragged on about two days too long.

The Kraken had done well to build their record early in the trip as the mileage they incurred began piling up. After regulation wins in Detroit and Washington, D.C., they blew a two-goal, third period lead in Philadelphia ahead of prevailing in a shootout, then mounted a late rally for an overtime loss at Tampa Bay before the forgettable outcome here at Amerant Bank Arena.

“I mean, it’s seven out of 10 points so it’s not that everything’s bad news right now,” Wright said. “Obviously, it sucks to end that way but I think that overall, as a whole, the road trip was good for us. Really a lot of good points for us.”​

Veteran teammate Gaudreau agreed after taking over the team lead in goals with his fifth of the season. Gaudreau felt the team was “disconnected” throughout Saturday’s loss and allowed too many “very, very dangerous chances” unlike prior games in which they built some leeway for a lone stinker such as this.

“Seven points, I think that’s good,” Gaudreau said of the trip’s standings accumulation that lifted the Kraken to 5-3-1 overall. “Good for team chemistry, when you go on the road right away like that you get closer.

“That’s our team,” he said. “Everybody loves each other. Everybody wants to play with each other and that’s the biggest takeaway: To keep doing it for one another and to be that kind of team. That’s when we’re at our best.”

Kraken coach Lambert, while saying he needed to see “a lot more of everything in this game” refused to use a lack of “physical energy” as an excuse, blaming a lack of execution and less-than-smart decision making at times. But he nonetheless praised the trip overall ahead of some key home games to come.

“If you look at the trip as a whole, tonight was not that good but the trip was good,” Lambert said. “Seven out of 10 points, and we’ll move on.”

The Kraken won’t go on the road again for nearly two more weeks before playing a lone Oct. 30 contest at Calgary. All the other games are at home ahead of the Kraken departing for a pair of mid-November matchups in Finland against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Meaning, the results of what loomed as a potentially daunting early season East Coast trip has bought the Kraken some insurance against their remaining pre-Thanksgiving schedule amounting to an uphill climb.

For Kraken winger Wright, whose line with Catton and Kaapo Kakko has emerged as one of the team’s most dangerous offensive threats, there was a lot of good to come out of the 10 days. Wright enjoyed a number of net front chances in recent games ahead of converting on one here for his third goal of the season when it was still a contest.

“I’m getting looks and I’m getting chances,” Wright said. “I’d be concerned if I wasn’t getting looks. So, yeah, keep shooting, keep putting myself in good areas and keep trying to create.”

A mantra his team overall followed as a successful road trip recipe throughout this 10-day sojourn. Wright feels Tampa Bay and Florida, as two of the league’s best teams, are at a level the Kraken have shown they can match when they play up to their potential.

“That’s the speed and intensity that we need to get to,” he said. “But yeah, we’ve shown we can play with those teams. We’ve just got to do that on a consistent basis.”