Kraken Can’t Add To Early Leads In Latest Loss

SAINT PAUL, Minnesota – Kraken head coach Lane Lambert looked and sounded postgame like a man realizing his team’s sixth consecutive defeat pretty much epitomizes this strangest of seasons.

The Kraken had battled the Minnesota Wild to a standstill most of the opening two periods Tuesday night, much as they’d held a playoff position for more than 100 days before this recent nosedive. But the way this latest 5-2 loss ended is also somewhat symbolic of how the season has also gone downhill fast and the Kraken coach was clearly trying his best to contain how bluntly he put it all into words.

“I do actually think we played pretty good tonight,” Lambert said. “We out chanced them. We just can’t get out of our own way. We make mistakes that are inexcusable.”

Things might have gone differently in this one had the Kraken built off of first period goals by Brandon Montour and Adam Larsson that put them ahead by one at intermission. Bobby McMann missed a breakaway chance right at period’s end and then the Wild tied it off a turnover 38 seconds into the second period when Marcus Foligno was left open cruising toward the net front, took a pass and converted in close on Joey Daccord.

Minnesota’s first goal had also been off a defensive breakdown that led to an odd man rush and Matt Boldy scoring on a rebound that bounced off his chest and then his stick right before crossing the goal line.

But even with those setbacks, the Kraken still nearly regained the lead when Jaden Schwartz scored midway through the period on a shot from deep in the left circle only to have it called back on a challenge that Freddy Gaudreau interfered with netminder Jesper Wallstedt in his crease.

Lambert’s team seemed to sag from there, yielding a go-ahead goal by Vladimir Tarasenko after Daccord lost sight of a rebound and then the 200^th goal of onetime Kraken forward Marcus Johansson’s career in the third when he was left all alone at the side of the net. Joel Eriksson Ek sealed it with an empty net goal in the final minutes as the Kraken fell to 5-14-2 since the Winter Olympic break.

“The disallowed goals that we’re getting take momentum away from us, especially when we’re fragile,” Lambert said. “I mean, we want our guys going to the net. Freddy (Gaudreau) does a good job of going to the net, we make a good play. But regardless of that, we can’t turn the puck over at the start of the second period. We have a protocol on that rush. There’s no way that guy (Foligno) should be alone in front of the net.

“The fourth goal, Marcus Johansson is standing off to the back side by himself. It’s things that have to change. And you know, there will be a lot of soul searching.”

That seems inevitable given a 1-8-2 mark the last 11 games and 3-12-2 record going back the last 17 contests.

Kraken defenseman Montour, whose slap shot from the point opened the scoring just one second after the expiration of a power play chance, said the team can’t stop pressing in the wake of setbacks.

“It’s coming at us in a wave, a big wave here,” he said. “It’s unfortunate.”

Montour said a realistic team goal going forward is play as a team, show some fight and not give up. Jamie Oleksiak had taken the fighting part literally in the first period, going after Foligno for a hit on Ryker Evans. 

The bout was the second in just 10 days for Oleksiak, who hadn’t had a prior one in 2 ½ years. The two big men mostly wrestled and traded some blows evenly before Oleksiak took him to the ice.

But that aside, Montour, like his coach, said the Kraken need to stop doing themselves in with gaffes.

“Obviously, the mental stuff needs to be cleaned up,” Montour said. “It’s just too easy, too easy. I’m not saying we’re giving up at all. We’re fighting. Obviously, we’ve shown that. But there are silly mistakes, mental mistakes that hurt us every night and hopefully we can use the last five (games) to clean them up.”

Schwartz, who assisted on the Montour goal, agreed the Kraken “owe it to each other to dig in” and not just keep losing the rest of the way against a formidable lineup of opponents.

“We owe it to each other, the fans, to really dig in,” he said.

But to do that, as the team did for much of the opening half of this game, the Kraken can’t undo it all by committing killer mistakes when the pucks “seem to be king of bouncing the wrong way right now.”

Lambert was asked postgame why the mistakes keep happening and whether physical or mental fatigue had anything to do with it.

“I’m going to pass on that question,” he said.

Lambert said he felt Daccord did what he could to keep the Kraken in it, other than losing sight of the puck on Tarasenko’s goal after making an initial stop. BBut the Kraken have scored two goals or fewer in 15 of 21 games since the break and won just one of those in going 1-13-1. 

“He did what he had to do,” Lambert said of Daccord. “But others around him have to do what they have to do defensively. And we have to put the puck in the net. We have 2-on-1s and we don’t execute. A power play where we’re passing into guys’ feet. It’s just not acceptable.”