Kraken Injury Woes Show In Latest Loss

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kraken captain Jordan Eberle sought some positives after this one, referencing a late push by his team on another day and ensuing night when the injury snowball grew a tad bigger.

The Kraken entered Tuesday night’s game looking to snap a string of futility from last season on the tail-end of back-to-back contests but also knowing that imposing winger Mason Marchment had just been lost day-to-day to a lower body injury. That absence, along with five other missing regulars, loomed large in a 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on a night when Eberle’s team failed to make enough plays and lacked cohesion.

“I mean, we’re definitely being tested,” Eberle said. “We’ve had some adversity, some big guys out. But ultimately, you go through a season where on every team there’s injuries and guys need to step up and need to play more minutes. And right now, that’s the case for us.

“Up until the last couple of games, it’s kind of been going well,” he added. "But you know, it’s not always going to be a smooth season. You’re going to have times where adversity happens. And that’s right now.”

The pushback Eberle liked in this one came when Jaden Schwartz finally broke the Kraken scoring ice just under nine minutes into the final period, pouncing on a carom off the end boards that hopped on to his stick with the net wide open. The Kraken were already down 3-0 right before that happened, with the Caps getting a first period Nic Dowd goal and then two more from Ryan Leonard and Jakub Chychrun the opening 1:33 of the middle frame.

After Schwartz’s goal, the Kraken nearly scored again on an immediate power play chance but ultimately couldn’t close the gap. Tom Wilson scored on an empty net in the final minute to seal a second straight Kraken defeat in regulation that dropped them to 3-2-2.

The Kraken went 0-12-0 on the tail end of back-to-back games last season and made a point all summer of saying they needed to do better in such matchups.

But the absences of Marchment, Jared McCann, Brandon Montour, Freddy Gaudreau, Kaapo Kakko and Ryker Evans showed throughout this one as the Kraken turned the puck over a few too many times. The Kraken now have one game remaining on this six-city road trip on Thursday night in Winnipeg.

For his part, Eberle said the team has no choice but to regroup and open the Winnipeg game the same way they finished here.

“They put a lot of pressure on us the first two periods and we had a tough time handling that,” Eberle said. “They started rolling around in the offensive zone and we kind of defended well. But we just gave them too much O-zone time. I thought in the third we had a pretty good push. We had a chance to make it 3-2…so, yeah, I liked the pushback. I liked the effort. But there are definitely some things we need to clean up.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert agreed, saying his team needed to give itself a better opportunity before the late pushback was needed.

“We inflicted pain on ourselves by turning pucks over and not making plays quickly enough, certainly earlier on in the game,” Lambert said. “And we can’t do that. We have to get better.”

While not making excuses, Lambert agreed the team is going through its share of adversity.

“Certainly, maybe there’s a chemistry when you have your players in there as opposed to when you don’t,” he said of the injuries. “But that’s just the way it goes.”

The past two games were in stark contrast to how the Kraken opened the season and this trip. In going undefeated their opening five contests, culminating with an overtime victory in Toronto on Saturday night, the Kraken were competing for 60 minutes, scoring timely goals and preventing them with structured defense.

But since that win in Toronto, they’ve also lost wingers McCann and now Marchment. And they’ve scored only three goals in two games since after potting 16 in the opening five matchups.

“Look, we have an opportunity here,” Lambert said. “We can lament on the last couple of games. But we have an opportunity in Winnipeg to go .500 on this road trip through the adversity that we’re going through. And that’s our focus.”

Lambert liked what he saw from Ben Meyers, a centerman called up earlier in the day from AHL Coachella Valley to play the fourth line. And he commended the effort by backup goalie Matt Murray, making his first Kraken start and stopping 30 of 33 shots sent his way.

“They made it difficult for me,” Murray said of easing back into game action against a physically tough Capitals team that won for the fifth time in seven tries. “That first period, they were throwing everything at the net and just causing chaos -- getting bodies there. And that makes it more difficult to find your timing.”

While Murray looked shaky on the third Caps goal by Chychrun, the defense in front of him appeared disjointed at times. The opening goal by Dowd came on a lost puck battle up against the wall in the Kraken end, leading to a 3-on-1 for Washington right in front of Murray that the goalie had no chance on.

“If I’d made a save there early in the second period, maybe there’s a different flow to the game,” Murray said. “But I love the way that our guys battled out there and we defended hard. For a team going through a lot of adversity right now, I loved our compete level.”

Just as Eberle did late. The trick now, Eberle said, is to get more of it early on once the puck drops in Winnipeg.

“It’s as simple as looking forward to the next game,” Eberle said. “Obviously, we’ll look at video and try to clean some things up. I like the third, I like the push that we had. But ultimately, you’d like to come out on the right end of that.”