Kraken Drop Another, Fail To Move Up In Playoff Race

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour has won a Stanley Cup, lost another and been through enough postseason battles to know what the required desperation level looks like.

And a frustrated Montour, standing in the losing locker room after a 5-2 defeat Saturday to the Columbus Blue Jackets, said his team needs to find another level. That much seemed obvious after a ninth Kraken loss in 13 games since the Winter Olympic break, one in which they mustered only 17 shots and just two goals from Vince Dunn and Kaapo Kakko after they already trailed by three.

“We can make plays,” Montour said. “We’re good enough to make plays and we’ve shown it. I think just a little desperation – obviously more desperation. They wanted it. They seemed like they wanted it more.”

Danton Heinen, Damon Severson and Mathieu Olivier all scored first period goals on Joey Daccord to put the Blue Jackets up three before Dunn got the Kraken on the board by firing a slap shot past Elvis Merzlikins.

Kaapo Kakko then scored with a short side snapper eight minutes into the middle frame to cut the deficit to 3-2 and give the Kraken hope with half a hockey game to go. But the Kraken barely a minute later yielded an odd-man rush finished off by an uncovered Kent Johnson at the net front to restore a multi-goal advantage the visitors never recovered from.

Cole Sillinger put things out of reach with an empty net goal in the final minutes with Daccord pulled for an extra attacker. The Kraken managed just five shots in each of the final two periods and have scored five goals their last three games combined.

They’d hoped to get an offensive boost with the lineup return of Eeli Tolvanen on Saturday. But no sooner was he activated than the Kraken scratched Jared McCann after the pregame warmup with a lower body injury.

What’s increasingly frustrating for the Kraken is a playoff spot is dangling right in front of them ready to be taken. Despite the loss, they are only two points behind the Nashville Predators and one behind the Los Angeles Kings in the race for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

They also remain just five points behind Vegas for third place in the Pacific Division with a game in-hand and one more to play against the Golden Knights. Finishing third would gain them automatic playoff entry regardless of conference standing and allow them to avoid facing one of a trio of Central Division behemoths in Colorado, Dallas or Minnesota in the opening playoff round.

But they must make the playoffs first. And regardless of how poorly teams all around them in the standings are performing right now, the Kraken will eventually need to start stringing wins together for any of it to matter.

“It’s just not going to be easy,” Montour said. “We’ve been harping all year about getting people to the net, throwing pucks to the net. For a team that struggles to create offense, we need to throw as many pucks to the net, get into the dirty areas. That’s how you score nowadays.”

Indeed, the first two Columbus goals came off point shots either redirected or that sailed through net front traffic. The third goal came on a net front scramble.

Kakko’s goal also came from right at the net front, but it was an exception for the Kraken more than the rule.

“I mean, that was our mindset before the game – we’ve got to get there more,” said Kakko, who also drew the primary assist on Dunn’s goal. “We’ve got to get shots from the blue line and get more bodies to the net. I think there were some good chances, but we’ve got to do it more.”

One problem Kakko mentioned, other than his team running around in its own end too much to start the game, was an inability to push the puck through the neutral zone. 

“We didn’t even get to the offensive zone that much,” he said. “So, it’s hard to get to the net front. I mean, they played more in the offensive zone today and that’s why they won the game.”

Kakko attributed some of that to the Blue Jackets playing well.

“They played better than us today,” he said. “They had the puck. They moved it around. I mean, we defended and once in a while we did a good job with that as well. But if you’re defending the whole shift and you get the puck, you don’t have much (energy) left. And then you kind of dump it and change. And I think that was the game today.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert didn’t like his fourth line of Jani Nyman, Ben Meyers and Jacob Melanson getting scored on three times in the opening period.

“We need more out of those guys,” he said.

Nyman was initially going to be a healthy scratch before Lambert said McCann “tweaked something” during the warmup and couldn’t go. 

“That’s just the way it’s going,” he said. 

Lambert said his team got players to the net at times, but shots weren’t taken when openings were there. 

“So, somewhere, the disconnect has to get connected fast,” he said.

Lambert said his team was making “young mistakes” at times but also wasn’t prepared to “rip on” his players for needing more desperation or intensity. 

“That’s up to them to do that,” he said. 

Montour was asked about the seeming disconnect between the Kraken talking about getting more players and pucks to the net and actually doing it. 

“I think we know,” he said of what needs to happen. “We know. We’ve obviously got to keep working on it. Take away what we did good tonight. I think, obviously, we’re a desperate team. But we’ve got to be even more desperate now.”