If there was a game that encapsulated the Seattle Kraken’s season, it might have come Tuesday night.
Playing against the injury-riddled Florida Panthers, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, the Kraken rallied from a three-goal deficit in the final six minutes of regulation only to lose 5-4 in a shootout.
It was the fourth straight loss for Seattle (31-29-10, 72 points), which dropped five points out of a Western Conference playoff spot heading into Thursday’s game against host Tampa Bay (44-21-5, 93 points).
“I thought our comeback and our resolve was really good. So, pretty happy with that,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “We’re just a little bit away from execution. We certainly had an opportunity to get looks. We had some, we could have more. …
“It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get the two (points). We walk out of here at least moving ahead in the standings. We just have to move on to the next game.”
The Kraken are 0-2-1 on a six-game trip that will conclude with games in Buffalo and Edmonton. They’re 2-7-1 over their past 10 games, the worst mark in the NHL over that span. Tuesday’s loss dropped them into fourth place in the conference’s wild-card standings, five points behind Nashville, which currently holds the second and final spot, and six points behind third-place Vegas in the Pacific Division.
Leading scorer Jordan Eberle (51 points) had a goal and an assist and Ryker Evans, Matty Beniers and newly acquired Bobby McMann also tallied in the third period Tuesday, but the Kraken only came away with one point.
“We were trying to push, trying to get momentum,” Beniers said. “We got that goal from (Evans earlier in the third) and it kind of sparked it up. We didn’t get the two points, but that was a good push at the end. … There was no quit at any point in that game. We just have to find a way to put ourselves in a better position going into the third period. We’re chasing a lot of games right now.”
The Kraken’s current skid started with a 6-2 loss to the visiting Lightning on March 17 as Nikita Kucherov had a five-point night (three goals and two assists).
Meanwhile, the Lightning are 4-0-1 over their past five games to narrow the gap on Atlantic Division-leading Buffalo.
Tampa Bay, however, will be without captain Victor Hedman against the Kraken, as the defenseman is taking a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons, the team announced on Wednesday.
Hedman logged just 4:44 of ice time before exiting Tampa Bay’s 6-2 victory versus the Vancouver Canucks last Thursday due to an illness. He has sat out the last three games for the Lightning.
Hedman, 35, has recorded 17 points (one goal, 16 assists) in 33 games this season. He has endured extended absences due to an undisclosed injury in November and elbow surgery in December.
Tampa Bay opened a seven-game homestand Tuesday with a 6-3 victory against Minnesota.
Erik Cernak scored the tiebreaking goal at 17:07 of the third period and the Lightning added a pair of empty-netters.
“We had a goal that we had to win tonight, so this was huge,” Cernak said. “They had a great start with two power-play goals and we knew we had to play better. We started putting pucks on the net, we were pressuring them and making the right plays.”
Darren Raddysh had a goal and two assists and Jake Guentzel and Brandon Hagel had one of each for Tampa Bay.
Kucherov, who leads the league with 120 points (40 goals, 80 assists), added a helper.
“Two good teams, two teams that have aspirations to go well into the spring,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s fun when you play teams like that.”
