Seattle Kraken fall to Minnesota as losing streak stretches to four games
The typically boisterous chants for Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer grew increasingly subdued as Minnesota expanded their lead on Saturday night.
The crowd at Climate Pledge Arena hasn’t had much to cheer about lately. With the 4-2 loss to the Wild, the Kraken have now lost four straight games and six out of their last seven. A quick glance at the standings shows Seattle in last place in the Pacific Division with the same nine points it’s had since defeating Buffalo on Nov. 4.
“Right now, the best thing for our team is to focus on the present and focus on what we’re doing right now in order to push ourselves out of this,” said head coach Dave Hakstol. “That’s where I want our team’s focus to be. If we start looking at the big picture and what’s coming down the road — there’s gonna be a time for that. I believe right now the time is to turn our attention to our next segment, turn our attention to our next game.”
When the Kraken take the ice for that next game, they’ll be looking to end an all too familiar trend — one that repeated against the Wild.
Hakstol has talked about how hard it is to come from behind in the NHL, and his players have repeatedly emphasized the importance of fast starts. Unfortunately for the Kraken, those conversations haven’t translated to the ice.
On Thursday, the Kraken fell behind Anaheim 2-0 before losing 7-4. Against the Wild two days later, Seattle trailed 1-0 after the first period thanks to a goal from Rem Pitlick — the first of his NHL career. Pitlick then added two more goals in the second period to secure his first hat trick, too.
Grubauer allowed three goals on 21 shots, a .857 save percentage.
“A couple of mistakes tonight came from guys trying almost too hard, trying to make something happen,” Hakstol said. “When things are going well, you take what the game gives you. You work for it, but you have to take what’s there. A couple of spots tonight, we pressed a little bit too hard and it cost us. I won’t fault our guys for their effort in any way, shape or form tonight.”
By the time the third period opened, the Kraken were in a 3-0 hole with no way out. Marcus Johansson prevented the shutout with a power-play goal, but Seattle never really threatened the Wild with a comeback. Minnesota added an empty-net goal with 5 minutes left to produce the final score.
“I love that we fought our (butts) off in the third period,” Hakstol said. “That’s part of the reason for taking the goaltender off at 5-plus minutes. We hadn’t scored five-on-five yet. We had generated good opportunities in the third, but those opportunities slowed down a little bit.”
Veteran defenseman and Kraken captain Mark Giordano has been through difficult stretches in his career before. He knows what it will take to stop the current slide — but it’s easier to say than to execute.
“You just got to win a game somehow,” Giordano said. “You got to find any way you can find a way to win a game and start feeling good about yourself again.
“You look at this game, you look at the past however many games, there’s so many good stretches and then there’s things we definitely need to clean up. You come to the rink and you got to really put in the work, put the time into those details and that’s how you get out of these streaks.”
The Kraken have four games remaining in their current home stand, starting with a match-up with Chicago on Wednesday. That will be Seattle’s next chance to stop its current losing streak.
“The results speak for themselves,” said defenseman Jamie Oleksiak. “We just got to see that if we work together and we stick to the game plan, we can get our chances and we can be an effective unit. It’s tough. When you’re in a tough stretch, you’re trying to make plays and you’re trying to get involved and whatnot. Sometimes, it’s best to just work together.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 10:46 PM.
