Kraken Find Their Shot, Not The Back Of The Net

EDMONTON, Alberta – Kraken alternate captain Matty Beniers insisted after his team’s latest defeat that now is not the time to lament missed shots, hit goal posts and any other misfortune to come their way.

With nine regular season games remaining, the Kraken are still two points out of the final Western Conference playoff spot despite a 3-0 loss Tuesday night to the Edmonton Oilers in which they turned up the offense from a six-shot opening period but could not find the back of the net. Beniers had one of several good looks for the Kraken in this one, particularly on a power play with six minutes to go in regulation but could not get the puck behind goalie Connor Ingram.

“We know where we are,” Beniers said of the standings. “Obviously, tonight was very important, and we didn’t get it done. But there’s just no reason to dwell on it now. It’s learn from it and win the next one. And then, it’s win the next one. And that’s the mentality that we have in here.”

The Kraken finished this six-city road trip at 1-3-2 and while the four points secured of a possible 12 didn’t exactly bury them playoff-wise, it did invite multiple teams to pull up alongside them and beyond in chasing down Nashville. Winnipeg leapfrogged them by a point after winning in overtime Tuesday and is now even with the Los Angeles Kings a point behind the Predators while San Jose is tied with the Kraken.

All that said, the gap between the Kraken and the playoffs is still rather small. But they need to start winning more games.

Edmonton hadn’t won four straight games all season until putting a pair of first period pucks behind Philipp Grubauer for all the offense needed. A Jake Wallman shot was going wide of the net until it struck a ducking Max Jones and deflected in, then a blueline mistake resulted in a 2-on-1 break the other way with Kasperi Kapanen beating Grubauer with a shot to the far post.

Connor McDavid cliched it with his 43^rd goal of the season on an empty net the final three minutes of regulation with Grubauer pulled for an extra attacker. 

Ingram stopped 27 shots, 21 of them the final two periods, to record his ninth career shutout on his 28th birthday. 

The Kraken switched things up after the ineffective opening period, bumping Jared McCann back to the top trio along alongside longtime linemates Jordan Eberle and Beniers. Eberle got the best looks of the group, missing point blank from the slot in the middle period and then hitting the post from 21 feet out early in the third.

“We definitely had our looks,” Beniers said of the reunited trio. “We definitely had a lot of chances in and around the net. Jared (McCann) had a few. Ebs (Eberle) hit a post and missed the net. We had our looks. But you’ve just got to score.”

Beniers said his team has little choice at this stage but to keep generating those looks and hope for better outcomes. He liked what he saw from the second period onward.

“I think (it was) just a little bit more desperation in our game,” he said. “Getting more pucks to the bottom. We had success there. We didn’t do that enough in the first and we started getting to that. Started getting more shots on net. More chaos. And you know, we had our opportunities.”

McCann likewise felt those chances were there and his team just failed to bury them.

“It’s easy to say that we’re just not scoring and that’s why we’re losing,” he said. “I feel like we’re doing a lot of good other things. We’re creating good offense and playing good defensively. But we’re just not finding the back of the net.”

McCann noted that there’s still time to turn things around if his team sticks to what it does well and doesn’t get too tight given the situation.

“We’ve got to worry about our game,” he said. “Obviously, the division right now is a little crazy with how things are going with all the teams and that they all have a chance still to make the playoffs. It’s obviously a blessing. And we’ve got to take advantage of it.”

Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said he moved McCann up to the top line and Berkly Catton down to the third trio to generate more offense after the sluggish start.

“I thought Matty’s line had a slow start to the game,” he said of the Beniers trio with Catton and Eberle. “I switched it up a bit to try to create a spark. I thought they created some opportunities, especially in the second period.”

The team’s power play, struggling of late and 0-for-3 here, was a microcosm of the offense in general. Some good looks but missed opportunities. Lambert agreed with Beniers and McCann that his team, which outshot the Oilers 21-12 the final two frames, did much of what it needed to aside from scoring. 

But he said his players, who scored only twice in Buffalo on Saturday ahead of getting blanked here, can’t allow the near misses to start getting in their heads.

“You’ve got to have short term memory here,” he said. “Like I said, I thought we did some good things in the hockey game, and we’ve got to build off that. And we’ve got to find a way to put the puck in the back of the net and get some wins.”

Beniers said it’s more a matter of willing better things to happen than merely hoping for a turn in luck.

“You’ve just got to bear down sometimes,” Beniers said. “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.”