Kraken Need One More Goal When It Matters

Tough to believe the Kraken went the first five months of this season without losing a game in which they’d taken a multi-goal lead. 

They were 24-0-0 after going up by at least two goals in any game played until Nashville arrived March 10 at Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken jumped ahead 2-0 only to see the Predators roar back and hand them their first blown multi-goal lead defeat, which has now happened three crucial times in a 23-day span. 

Buffalo beat them 3-2 in a shootout last Saturday after the Kraken took a 2-0 lead as did the Utah Mammoth, 6-2 on Thursday night, in overturning the same deficit. The Tampa Bay Lightning erased a 3-1 lead eight days ago, but the Kraken still recovered and prevailed 4-3 in overtime. 

There’s a common thread to the games the Kraken didn’t win as opposed to the Tampa Bay one in which they prevailed. 

Namely, they scored four goals against the Lightning. The other games saw them score just the two they began the contest with. 

And when it comes to analyzing this Kraken season and why an unexpected playoff run has slowed considerably, it isn’t really a propensity for blowing leads that’s the problem as much as not adding to them or even scoring enough to begin with. 

It’s no secret the Kraken have struggled to score at times. They are just 2-24-7 when scoring two goals or fewer compared to 10-6-2 when they add only one more goal and finish with three on the night. They are 20-1-2 when scoring four or more times. That tells you something. Plenty of teams have terrible records when scoring just twice but the Kraken reversal when adding one more goal is a real polar swing that is a testament to their strong defensive play. 

But getting that third goal has been a challenge. 

One reason could simply be wavering confidence. The Kraken have struggled to score at all since the Winter Olympic break ended, notching two goals or fewer in 12 of 18 games. They were fortunate to win 2-1 over Carolina, but the rest of those two-goal outputs produced a record of 0-10-1and it’s game over for playoffs if that continues as it means losing about two of every three games played.

As mentioned, that lack of add-on is as much responsible for blowing the multi-goal leads like we saw Thursday as anything else. When you’re struggling to score, frustration can set in given the already present confidence issues. Kraken alternate captain Matty Beniers addressed this after a 3-0 loss in Edmonton on Tuesday, stating his team, which played the Oilers and Buffalo before that very evenly chances-wise, cannot let it get to them when good offensive process doesn’t begat results. 

“You’ve just got to bear down sometimes,” Beniers said of the team’s mental approach. “Everyone wants to score, but you’ve got to hit the net. You’ve got to do those little things and get around the net, be there for the rebound. Second chance pucks. Tonight, it didn’t go in and that’s frustrating. But you’ve just got to keep going.” 

Easier said than done, clearly.  

Berkly Catton discussed this back in January when the 19-year-old finally scored his first NHL goal to end a 27-game drought that was the longest in his hockey memory.  

“When you’re in a drought like that, you start to think the puck’s not going to go in when you shoot it,” Catton said. “You think it’s going to hit something while it’s on its way in and stay out.” 

It can work that way for entire teams as well. When you aren’t scoring, it starts to feel hopeless when the world’s best goalies make professional stops. Small wonder the Kraken keep chiding themselves all season for passing up quality shot attempts in favor of lower percentage passes. 

We saw it again Thursday night when Kaapo Kakko had a partial breakaway chance but dropped the puck 20 feet behind him in a pass to seemingly no one rather than shooting it. Perhaps when your entire team is struggling to score, you start believing the puck won’t go in when you shoot. 

The Kraken looked to have solved that confidence portion initially against Utah netminder Karel Vejmelka, now a 34-game-winner, when Jordan Eberle beat him just 41 seconds in on the type of rebound chance Beniers had discussed. 

For Eberle, it was only his second goal in a 16-game span dating back a month. Both Eberle personally and the team itself seemed off-to-the-races. Catton was robbed by a Vejmelka glove save at the goalmouth, but Bobby McMann added a second Kraken goal minutes later by sticking with the play after an initial whiffed shot and putting a spin-move backhander into the net.

Again, another second chance play leading to a goal through extra effort. 

But the Kraken couldn’t sustain it. They did get a third goal that would have put them up 3-1 in the second period and maybe turned things decisively, but it was correctly called back due to goaltender interference. Tough break, for sure, but the Kraken, though mounting a push after that call, never could finish the job from there. 

This wasn’t the Edmonton game, where the Kraken probably should have had two or three goals based on shot quality and could have beaten the Oilers had those pucks gone in. Thursday’s advanced analytics from SportLogiq showed the Kraken could have had an extra goal against Utah – the one that was waved off comes to mind – but they also faltered defensively after the 2-0 lead and didn’t get the strongest games from goalie Joey Daccord or players battling for pucks. 

“It’s disappointing,” Eberle said. “The point of the season where we’re at, it’s frustrating. You’re trying to fight for your lives and you’re getting beat and run out of your own rink. It’s just disappointing.” 

Disappointing but not hopeless. We’re talking about scoring one extra goal when it matters. The Kraken had a third such goal on Thursday, but it was called back. You can talk special teams play and certainly the Kraken again not scoring with the man advantage while Utah did it three times wasn’t helpful. 

But power plays usually reflect a team’s overall offense. It’s rare to find teams with struggling offenses and great power plays. The same issues are there. You must think you can score and will it to happen. The Kraken looked to have overcome that obstacle early on but again couldn’t add and faltered late.  

“We have to find a way to be catalysts in the game and score goals and have a chance to win hockey games,” Eberle said. “It’s that simple and we’re not doing it.”  

That’s why a team meeting was called post-game. No one is asking the Kraken to score eight goals every night. They just need three when a game is still winnable. 

Find that one extra goal in time and this run just might have some life left in it.