Penalties Kill Kraken Chances

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – A grim Kraken head coach Lane Lambert laid it out bluntly after a fifth consecutive loss in which the bounces were not on his side.

“We’ve got to stop the bleeding,” he said. “For me, it’s about pride right now.”

Prior to Monday night’s 6-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, it had been about Lambert shuffling his top forward lines and splitting up his familiar defensive pairings trying to find any spark possible. And it worked early on, as Jordan Eberle scored only his third goal in the last 19 games to open the scoring in a game in which the Kraken stifled Winnipeg’s offense for most of the first period.

But then three successive penalties by the Kraken led to a tying power play goal by Jonathan Toews in the first and then two more from Gabriel Vilardi and Kyle Connor midway through the second put the Jets ahead to stay. Jared McCann got one back early in the third with, like Eberle, only his third goal in 19 games, but Lambert’s nephew, Brad Lambert, scored soon after. Connor then added his second of the night and Vladislav Namestnikov sealed it with an empty netter late.

And that left Kraken coach Lambert pondering the immediate future Tuesday night in Minnesota after a game in which his team played fairly-well at 5-on-5 but saw the league’s second worst penalty kill flounder again under the weight of some missed opportunities and bad hops. The Kraken are just 1-7-2 their last 10 games. 

Philipp Grubauer was replaced in goal by Joey Daccord after suffering an apparent injury with 6:40 to go in the second period following the third Winnipeg power play marker. At the time, the Kraken were being outshot 13-1 in the period and would finish at a 14-4 deficit for the frame. 

Lambert, who had no Grubauer update postgame, had shuffled his lineup considerably for this one. He pulled McCann off the top line and inserted red hot scorer Bobby McMann there instead alongside Eberle and Matty Beniers. He also split up the top defensive pairing of Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson, putting Cale Fleury up top with Dunn while Larsson went to the second pairing with Ryker Evans and Brandon Montour bumping down to the third duo with Ryan Lindgren.

It seemed to pay dividends initially as Eberle scored on a backhander against Connor Hellebuyck after a terrific second effort on a rebound of his initial shot attempt. The Kraken had used strong work to keep the puck in Winnipeg’s zone and seemed to be outhustling the Jets in the early going the way they had in a 3-0 win at Canada Life Centre back in October.

But then Berkly Catton took a penalty, and the Jets tied it when a long shot rattled off the end boards, ricocheted back over Grubauer from behind and right to Toews for the net front goal. Lambert felt his team “could have at least tried to get a shot block” on the play but the Kraken still finished with a 13-7 shots edge by intermission in what Lambert felt was one of their better starts in a while.

Two of the Winnipeg shots had come on the same Mark Scheifele breakaway attempt four minutes in, with Grubauer making a glove block of the initial attempt and then smothering a rebound try as well. 

Still, the penalty kill couldn’t get it done from there. The Kraken finished the game with a penalty kill rate of 71.7%, just a tick ahead of Vancouver’s 71.6% for the NHL’s worst efficiency. Lambert would have liked to see a bit more “commitment” beyond the non-shot-blocking ahead of the Toews goal.

Vilardi’s goal came after the puck bounced right to him off Lindgren’s skate in the crease area. Connor’s power play goal came when his shot deflected off Lindgren’s stick and in.

“Like I said, we’re not getting any breaks,” Lambert said. “But you make your own breaks too.”

Kraken forward McCann mostly echoed those comments after his 19^th goal in just 49 games, on a high slot shot using Namestnikov as a partial screen, left him one shy of reaching 20 goals in a fifth consecutive Kraken season. McCann felt his team controlled a lot of the opening period action but couldn’t catch a break on the penalty kill.

“I can’t give you a reason why it’s not going our way,” McCann said. “It’s frustrating for everybody. We all see it. We’re trying to stay positive.”

And they’ll need to keep staying positive, he added, to change any momentum for his team in the remaining games to come.

“We’re all pretty frustrated with the way things have gone the last month,” he said of the team’s 5-13-2 record since the Winter Olympic break. “But we’re going to stick together and stay as a team.”

Kraken forward and penalty kill specialist Freddy Gaudreau was on the ice for the Connor goal that deflected in off Lindgren. Gaudreau agreed the bounces weren’t on the Kraken’s side but said the penalty kill typically works much better in tandem when things are going well for it.

“I mean, yeah there were bounces,” Gaudreau said. “But when things are going right you feel like everybody’s connected and on the same page. I think it’s a question of confidence, too. When we’re just thinking about killing it instead of being on your heels and hoping for them not to score. It’s two different mentalities.”

And like McCann, Gaudreau would like one mentality to take hold over the entire team the final six regular season games.

“It’s about the culture,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re at. You’ve just got to keep going with your identity. The most important part for me is to stick together, be together doing it as a united team.”

Which is about all Lambert wants as well. His team didn’t get a single power play chance of its own for that struggling special team unit to redeem itself in this one; typical of how things have gone down the stretch.

“We have to find a way to dig in,” Lambert said. “Right now we have an ownership that gives us everything that we need. We have a fan base that is behind us all the way through good and bad. We have to find a way to be professionals here, show up and play to the best of our abilities. No excuses. And that’s about personal pride.”