Kraken’s success in L.A. ends with measly offensive showing in 5-2 loss to Kings
LOS ANGELES – One of the more bizarre streaks of the Kraken’s short history finally had its closing chapter written here Wednesday night by an offense that could barely get a shot off when it mattered.
There’d been little rhyme or reason for the Kraken’s prior four consecutive victories at crypto.com Arena, a streak dating back to the day after actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock onstage at the 2022 Academy Awards just up one of the many freeways from here. Anyhow, the longest such road streak against any opponent ended for the Kraken with a 5-2 loss to the Kings in which they managed just three shots in the opening period and 10 through two frames.
The loss also officially knocks the Kraken out of playoff contention.
Andre Burakovsky finally got the Kraken on the board with 14:20 to go in the final period, scoring on the power play after the Kings took consecutive penalties for dangerous hits and high sticks to the head.
By that point, a first period power play goal from Adrian Kempe and a pair of second period markers by red hot Trevor Moore on his way to a hat-trick had erased most doubts as to the game’s outcome. Kevin Fiala added some insurance with a nice breakaway deke on Philipp Grubauer with just over nine minutes remaining to make it 4-1.
Brian Dumoulin scored on a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle not long after Fiala’s marker. But Moore then completed his hat trick by outracing Jordan Eberle for a puck and putting a puck between Grubauer’s legs on the resulting breakaway to complete his hat trick.
The Kraken before Burakovsky’s goal had gone four consecutive periods without scoring on an actual goalie – Jared McCann getting a late empty-netter against San Jose on Monday – and 112 minutes without scoring at all against a playoff-positioned team.
The Kings play a 1-3-1 system designed to clog up the neutral zone and make life difficult for teams to get any offense generated without resorting to a dump-and-chase strategy by forwards. Vancouver Canucks defenseman Nikita Zadorov even criticized the system as unimaginative and bad for hockey last week after his team was stymied by it.
That’s another reason the Kraken’s uncanny success in this building never really made much sense. The Kraken at their best can grind out games with any team, waiting for a lucky break that can swing a 2-1 or 3-2 game in their favor.
But they’d also beaten the Kings 9-8 in overtime in one of the wins during the streak, which sort of tosses that entire theory astray. Not to mention, the Kings have been a playoff team for all three seasons covered by the streak while the Kraken had inferior records the whole time and made the postseason only once.
Anyhow, coach Dave Hakstol’s group has far bigger things to worry about, given they haven’t beaten anybody except San Jose and Anaheim since the trade deadline nearly a month ago. They’ve scored just 13 goals in their last 10 games played against anybody else – four of them coming in one contest against Vegas.
As with most other games in which Kraken scoring has come at a premium, they struggled to get pucks and players to the opposing net front until Burakovsky’s power play marker.
The Kings, meanwhile, scored all three of their initial goals directly in front of Grubauer. Kempe’s was from the slot on a nifty three-way passing play, while Moore’s came on a net front redirection and later him potting home his own rebound after Grubauer made the initial stop.