Seattle Kraken fall to Canucks 5-2 for fifth straight loss
The Kraken played their first game of 2022 on Saturday night. It could have offered a fresh start, a chance to break a four-game losing streak and reverse the season’s troubling trend.
Instead, old habits followed them into the new year.
Seattle once again found itself playing from behind, falling behind by two goals in the first period before losing to the Vancouver Canucks 5-2. And, for the third straight game, the Kraken gave up a third-period goal less than a minute after scoring.
This time, it happened after Will Borgen scored the first goal of his NHL career to pull the Kraken within 3-2 at the 10:43 mark of the third period. Just 48 seconds later, Conor Garland found the back of the net to push Vancouver’s lead back to two goals.
“Trust me, we’re trying not to get scored on,” said defenseman Adam Larsson. “It’s a hard league. It’s something we really need to figure out. It’s been an issue for us. We have talked about it. We should expect the push and I don’t know, it’s frustrating but at the same time we have had some answers to those goals, too. It goes to both ways.”
While the response goals continued to plague his team against Vancouver, head coach Dave Hakstol said that was far from his biggest defensive concern.
“We put two pucks directly on their tape in scoring areas,” Hakstol said. “There’s reasons that those plays came about. Those can’t happen. That’s the bottom line. You look at the first goal and the third goal, those are pucks that are in our possession that ended up on their tape without really a whole lot. of pressure. Those are really tough plays to put on your goaltender.”
Seattle has now dropped eight of its last nine games and seven straight at home. It remains in last place in the Pacific Division — 12 points out of a playoff spot. It’s not the Kraken’s first slump of the season, which hasn’t made it any easier of the players to swallow.
“You go through ups and downs as a team and as an individual,” Larsson said. “It’s how you respond. Obviously, we’ve dug ourselves a little hole here but there’s a lot of fire on this team and I’m sure we’re going to respond the right way. It’s rough but we’re going to get through this together.”
Vasily Podkolzin started the scoring by capitalizing on a Will Borgen turnover to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead a the 8:53 mark of the first period. Nils Hoglander then followed with a power-play goal to hand Vancouver a 2-0 advantage heading into the first intermission.
Calle Jarnkrok got Seattle on the board at the 9:10 mark of the second period, and he’s now registered points in three straight games for the first time this season, totaling two goals and three assists in that span.
Vancouver led 2-1 heading into the third. Tyler Motte scored early to make the score 3-1 before Borgen and Garland traded goals. Vancouver then added an empty netter to produce the final score.
“After you score a goal or even if you get scored on, the next shift is super important and it’s important not to get scored on right away,” Jarnkrok said. “We’ve had it happen three games in a row now, which is not acceptable.”
The Kraken will now face the Ottawa Senators at home on Thursday before starting a three-game road swing. They’ll have a day off on Sunday before three days of practice.
“We just got to keep battling,” Hakstol said. “That’s the bottom line. We were our own worst in enemies in a couple of areas tonight. I talked about it coming in, when you have challenges through injuries and availability in the line-up it’s an opportunity for people to step up and step in and do a good job. Both individually and collectively, we have. to have people taking advantage of those opportunities.”
This story was originally published January 1, 2022 at 10:17 PM.
