Another Kraken comeback falls short with 4-2 loss to Oilers

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Jan 5, 2025

Published in Hockey

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SEATTLE — Ten seconds after the puck was dropped Saturday night at Climate Pledge Arena, the ice went dark. An inexplicable, likely accidental button push killed the illumination and caused an unexpected stoppage of play.

It was the first glitch of a night where there were too many malfunctions in the opening minutes by the Seattle Kraken to take down one of the best teams in the Western Conference.

The Kraken saw their modest three-game point streak come to an end with a 4-2 loss to Edmonton where a sloppy and somewhat lifeless first six minutes of the game left Seattle playing from behind yet again.

This time, there was no multi-goal comeback for the Kraken (17-20-3) to salvage a point. Not against Edmonton. Not against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

Last season’s Stanley Cup finalists made the 14-point gap in the standings between themselves and the Kraken seem even wider, improving to 10-2-0 all-time against Seattle with their seventh straight win over the Kraken.

Draisaitl scored in the closing minutes into an empty-net but he and McDavid were at the center of the chaos around Philipp Grubauer’s net that started immediately and only rarely let up.

It took all of 57 seconds for Edmonton to take the lead as Vasily Podkolzin was left unmarked down the right flank and finished an easy feed from Draisaitl. Two minutes later, McDavid — of all players — was left unmarked at the Seattle blue line and only a tremendous sprawling save by Grubauer kept Edmonton from taking a 2-0 lead. But that two-goal advantage arrived soon enough as Jeff Skinner skated behind Vince Dunn — playing in his 500th career game — and Adam Larsson and finished a pass from Kasperi Kapanen and unfairly left Grubauer exposed.

Puck management in key areas of the ice was one of coach Dan Bylsma’s talking points before the game and for the first five minutes his team did a dreadful job of following their coach’s instructions.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made it 3-0 midway through the second period finishing a play that was kept alive in Seattle’s defensive zone by McDavid.

It wasn’t a great sign when the loudest cheers by the home crowd for the first 30 minutes seemed to be for anthem singer Tommie Burton and a fan entertainingly eating an ice cream cone in the second period.

Chandler Stephenson finally provided an on-ice reason to cheer beating former Seattle Thunderbirds goalie Calvin Pickard 15:56 into the second period to pull within 3-1 on just the eighth shot of the game for the Kraken. It was Stephenson’s second straight game with a goal, continuing a strong recent stint from his line.

Jaden Schwartz pulled the Kraken within 3-2 with 12:33 left, collecting and finishing a rebound from a sharp angle after Dunn’s stick shattered into two-pieces on his slap shot attempt. Schwartz has four goals in the four games since the Christmas break.

The Kraken already led the league in multi-goal comebacks with five. But it wasn’t to be this time. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Shane Wright had great looks at a tying goal inside the final 10 minutes but neither was able to convert and Draisaitl ended the hopes of a comeback on this night with an empty-net goal with 1:58 left. It was his league-leading 29th of the season.

Grubauer was tagged with three goals allowed although it was one of his more impressive performances of the season with 28 saves.

The Kraken played without Yanni Gourde, who was scratched after appearing to test out a lower-body injury during morning skate and deciding it was best to rest. Gourde took a maintenance day on Friday and Bylsma said the center was a game-time decision. Ben Meyers was recalled from Coachella Valley and slotted into the lineup for Gourde.

Larsson also left the bench late in the second period and didn’t return for the third. Larsson has missed one game in his four seasons with the Kraken.

Notes

— Goaltender Joey Daccord is “progressing” in his recovery from an undisclosed upper body injury, Bylsma said. Daccord skated with the team during optional morning skate on Saturday and Bylsma said there had been notable progress made in the past couple of days. “He was at a stalemate there for five or six days, the last few days things have been turning the corner for him and his injury and he’s had a couple of sessions that showed that improvement and joined the guys for morning skate today. He’s now progressing and hopefully it continues that way.”

— The PWHL Takeover Tour hits Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday when the Boston Fleet face the Montreal Victoire. The teams held an open practice at Kraken Community Iceplex on Saturday and were in attendance at Saturday’s game.