Kraken Still Look Sluggish In Another Road Loss

ST. LOUIS, Missouri – A frustrated Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour stood in the losing locker room Thursday night talking about how his team had “wasted” two precious road games with only two dozen contests to go in the season.

This latest affair, a 5-1 throwaway loss to the struggling St. Louis Blues, once again saw Montour’s team outbattled for pucks in close, outhustled in other parts of the ice and badly outscored for a second consecutive game. The Kraken are obviously struggling to get their feet back under themselves after the Winter Olympic break, most notably missing some of the energy and work ethic that enabled them to pile up crucial January points.

“Yeah, it was another game that we were sleepy in,” Montour said. “It’s coming off a break and we should show some excitement and be ready to play. It’s important games from here on in and obviously we’ve wasted two games here.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert had warned heading into this finale of back-to-back matchups that the Blues were very similar to the shorthanded Dallas Stars squad that dismantled his squad the prior evening. Despite one of the NHL’s worst records, the Blues are decent at home at 14-11-6 and, as Lambert noted, have a propensity for going to the net hard with some of their big, strong bodies.

But instead of moving those bodies out of harm’s way, the Kraken were out-muscled at key moments all night.

The game was effectively decided, as it had been in Dallas, by an early second period flurry. Jordan Kyrou snapped a 1-1 tie on a close-in passing play just over a minute in and then Dylan Holloway poked home a loose puck in the crease just 23 seconds later for his second of three goals on the night.

The Kraken appeared to have gotten a goal back on a Ryker Evans shot through traffic midway through the period. But the Blues challenged for an earlier offside that was missed and video replay confirmed this was true and the goal was taken off the board. 

Pius Suter added another Blues goal early in the third period to put things out of reach. Holloway then capped his hat trick with an empty net goal with three minutes to play and Philipp Grubauer lifted for and extra attacker.

Kaapo Kakko scored a first period goal for the Kraken in his first game action since winning a bronze medal with Team Finland at the Winter Olympics. But it wasn’t nearly enough.

“You’ve just got to be ready to play,” said Montour, who drew an assist on the lone Kraken goal. “Yeah, we’re in the mix. We should be excited. We’re well rested. I thought we had a solid week of practice. Yeah, they’re tough teams and it’s tough on the road to start. But obviously we didn’t show up for it.”

The St. Louis goals weren’t the result of close-range tip-ins as the Stars managed. But they did generate most through hard work down deep, starting with Holloway’s first period strike on a one-timer from the left circle after a nice Jonatan Berggren pass from behind the net.

Kyrou’s goal resulted off a big numbers rush in which he and Pavel Buchnevich got in deep and completed a nifty two-way passing sequence. And then, as that goal was still being announced, a net front scramble resulted in Holloway poking the puck home from the crease with three or four Kraken defenders standing in the immediate vicinity.

Something else that looked awfully similar to the prior night was the Kraken needing just under half of the opening period to register their first shot on goal. In Dallas, they’d needed just more than seven minutes from the start of the game.

Prior to that initial Kraken shot and right after the opening goal, Kraken defender Adam Larsson got belted by Nathan Walker along the side boards and ended up partway onto the Blues bench. It was an example of the Blues laying on the body and outhitting the Kraken throughout. 

The visitors did recover somewhat before the end of the period, unleashing a five-shot barrage in just a couple of minutes at backup Blues netminder Joel Hoefer. Kakko popped home a rebound off one of those shots to tie the game up. But further Kraken chances in close were rare indeed.

“Yeah, I think our whole team was always looking to make one more pass,” Kakko said. “I feel like that’s what happened the whole game.”

Kakko said the team will also “need to start better” than they have the past two games once they play the Vancouver Canucks at home on Saturday night. Kraken coach Lambert added afterward that his players also must start winning some puck battles against bigger opponents, especially in their own end, the way they had been doing before the break.

“I don’t think we handled it well at all,” Lambert said of his team’s net front defensive play. “I think these two games here against Dallas and St. Louis, we gave up more interior chances than we usually do. We’ve just got to be better. That’s the bottom line. We can say whatever we want. But we’ve just got to win more battles.”

And they need to do it soon lest they risk losing the war. The Kraken are now home for six straight games and eight of the next nine with the lone exception being an early March trip up to Vancouver.

The Kraken losses the last two days allowed the Nashville Predators – who they’ll face this next homestand -- to creep within two points of them for the final Western Conference playoff spot. Just 48 hours prior, the Kraken exited the break in third place in the Pacific Division and just a point out of second spot, but the standings change quickly when you come up empty consecutive nights.

“We’ve got to realize that these games are important,” Montour said. “This is a make-or-break homestand here for us. We’ve got to collect as many wins as we can. We wasted two here, but obviously we’ll get home, reset and be ready to go.”