Seattle Kraken lose 8th straight in dreadful 5-1 defeat to Canadiens
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MARCH 24: Juraj Slafkovsky #20 of the Montreal Canadiens skates the puck against Eeli Tolvanen #20 of the Seattle Kraken during the first period at Climate Pledge Arena on March 24, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images / Getty Images)
SEATTLE - This is the kind of game that gets a head coach fired.
With the Seattle Kraken falling into a 4-0 hole in the first period en route to an eighth straight loss against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night, the spotlight is only going to get brighter on Dave Hakstol.
It didn't even matter that the Kraken actually created more opportunities in the opening period when seemingly every chance they allowed in their own end would up in the net. Montreal scored on their first two shots on net, Nick Suzuki converted a 2-on-1 breakaway, and Alex Newhook scored from right in front of the crease as the Kraken were outworked in all the tough areas of the ice.
That effort left Hakstol as openly frustrated with his team's performance as he's been at any time during his three years at the helm in Seattle.
"This game comes down to 20 guys battling hard, competing hard, working for one another and doing it from start of shift to the end of the shift and next group goes out," Hakstol said. "… "If you want me to go through each one, good and bad, I'll do that. But throw a blanket over it. That's what it comes down to. And we've got to make a really hard choice in here."
"You play this game with passion, you play it with heart, you play it for the guy next to you and we're not doing that right now and that's more than disappointing."
The eight-game losing streak matches a season high and is just one game behind the franchise record of nine games from the team's inaugural season of 2021-22.
The Kraken were a team that as recently as two weeks ago still held hopes of making the playoffs this season. But since the loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in overtime on March 12, the wheels have completely come off for this team. Less than 20 seconds from a big regulation win over Vegas, the Kraken allowed the tying goal to Jonathan Marchessault, and Jack Eichel delivered the overtime winner to realistically end the team's playoff hopes.
Any lingering doubt has been thoroughly doused over the ensuing six games with similarly listless efforts against Washington, Nashville and Buffalo. Those were followed by coughing up go-ahead of tying goals to Vegas and Arizona in back-to-back losses on the road to end last week.
"It's hard to see us fall off like this because of what is still on the line. Every time you put this jersey on, it means a lot. And right now we're not portraying that out on the ice," Hakstol said.
Newhook had a pair of goals for Montreal, Mike Matheson added a short-handed breakaway in the second period, and Cayden Primeau made 36 saves in the win for the Canadiens.
Eberle's snap shot over the glove-side shoulder of Primeau 56 seconds into the second period served as the goal of the night for Seattle. An offside challenge from Montreal negated a Matty Beniers power play goal as Beniers crossed the blue line just offside after dishing a pass entering the zone.
Seattle had some other quality chances, but playing from four goals down was insurmountable.
"You could say we had looks. You could do that kind of thing, but at the end of the day, I mean we gave them too much," Eberle said. "They had some odd-man rushes, they had good looks inside, and I thought we just failed to execute in a lot of areas."
Despite more than doubling up Montreal in shot attempts, 37-17, the Kraken were held to one goal or less for the sixth time in their last eight games throughout the losing streak.
The goal of reaching the playoffs is clearly out of reach, but that doesn't mean the Kraken can't put forth efforts better than this.
"It's got to come through, you know, us getting connected here and figuring out what we want to do. Because this stinks. Tonight, this stinks," Hakstol said.
Grubauer clearly wasn't his best, but the goals weren't all his fault either. The first two goals were redirected in front of the net - once by Jamie Oleksiak on Kaiden Guhle's opening goal, and then by Newhook on his first goal of the night. He was hung out to dry on the 2-on-1 break and couldn't bail the defense out, and Newhook's second came from a highly dangerous area.
"This group, you know, previous to the last week here, has battled so hard," Hakstol said. "They've scratched, they've clawed. We've been through a whole bunch of different things and we can't allow this to slide in this direction. So that's what it is."
Ryker Evans left the game in the first period after less than three minutes of ice time with a lower body injury and did not return. His absence came back to bite the Kraken in the second period while on the power play. Without Evans available to run the second unit, Hakstol turned to a five-forward look with Tomáš Tatar running the point.
But a pass from Jared McCann across the ice was picked off by Matheson, who beat Tatar for a breakaway that he finished by Joey Daccord to restore a four-goal advantage for the Canadiens.
Evans took a hit from Michael Pezzetta behind the Kraken net early in the first period that seemingly served as the culprit for his absence. He played one more shift after the hit and didn't return.
Despite only three years at the helm in Seattle, Hakstol is the longest-tenured head coach in the Pacific Division and seventh-longest tenured coach in the NHL as a whole. It's a league where turn-and-burn on the bench is not uncommon. And with the Kraken in a continued death spiral, the focus on Hakstol's job will only become more pronounced.
"It's very frustrating," Eberle said of the effort. "You know, you could look at the shot clock you could say, whatever, the chances, whatever, but the end of the day you're losing hockey games. You need to find a way to win.
"Whether that's, scoring early and then keep defending hard. Being on the same page. I think there's a reason why. I mean, this game has a way of, you know, if you cheat it, it's going to come back and haunt you. That's what we're doing right now."
The Kraken are clearly looking to make changes after that effort against the Canadiens. After the game, the team announced they are calling up forwards Ryan Winterton and Logan Morrison from AHL Coachella Valley ahead of Tuesday's game with the Anaheim Ducks.
It's safe to say the pair aren't coming up to Seattle to watch from the press box, which means someone will have to come out of the lineup to give them a shot to play. Winterton played three games earlier this year on the wing for Seattle while Morrison has also played center during his time in the OHL with the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Like Tye Kartye, Morrison was an undrafted free agent signing out of the OHL. In their first seasons in the AHL, Morrison has 15 goals and 25 assists in 60 games played for the Firebirds while Winterton has 21 goals and 12 assists.
If Evans is unable to play Tuesday, and Vince Dunn still isn't back from injury, it's likely they'll need to call up Cale Fleury again as well.