Despite a 2-6-0 record since the Olympic break, the Seattle Kraken somehow held on to the Western Conference’s second and final wild-card playoff spot.
That is, until Thursday night.
The Kraken suffered a 5-1 home loss to Colorado while San Jose won at Boston, putting the Sharks into a postseason position.
Seattle will look to regain that spot and its momentum when it plays Saturday at Vancouver, a squad which has the fewest points in the league.
“We’re falling out of the playoffs right now, so (we’ve) got to figure it out and hopefully claw our way back,” Kraken center Chandler Stephenson said. “Put some points together.”
This will be the fourth and final regular-season meeting between Cascadia rivals. The teams split shootout decisions on Dec. 29 and Jan. 2, the Canucks winning the former 3-2 in Seattle and the Kraken taking the latter 4-3 in Vancouver.
The host Kraken won 5-1 on Feb. 28 as captain Jordan Eberle had two goals and an assist, Stephenson contributed a goal and two assists and Joey Daccord made 27 saves.
That last matchup opened a six-game homestand for the Kraken. They followed that up with an emotional 2-1 victory against Eastern Conference-leading Carolina, but have lost four straight since.
The Kraken allowed three first-period goals against Colorado on 15 shots, with coach Lane Lambert pulling Daccord after 20 minutes.
“It was not any reflection on Joey,” Lambert said. “Our team needed a wake-up call.
“You can’t spot that team that many goals. We’ve gotta wake up. We’re doing things that are absolutely mind-boggling to me. It’s gotta stop.”
The Kraken are still awaiting the debut of forward Bobby McMann, acquired from Toronto at the March 6 NHL trade deadline. McMann’s visa paperwork is still being processed.
“It’s extremely disappointing right now, the uncertainty,” said Lambert, who is familiar with McMann from his time as a Maple Leafs assistant prior to joining the Kraken this season. “We traded for him for a reason, to help our hockey club. Having him not be available to help our hockey team hurts our hockey team.”
The Canucks are 2-4-2 since the Olympic break after a 4-3 shootout victory Thursday against visiting Nashville.
Defenseman Filip Hronek scored the tying goal with 1:01 remaining in regulation as Vancouver rallied from a 3-1 deficit.
“We needed this one,” said Hronek, who also had an assist. “We entered the game with a really good effort and then somehow we got scored on. I’m really happy that we didn’t give up and battled back.”
Marco Rossi had a goal and two assists, Brock Boeser added one of each and Nikita Tolopilo made 16 saves — then stopped all three Nashville tries in the shootout.
Jake DeBrusk converted his shootout attempt to give the Canucks the victory.
“It’s a boost of confidence, for sure,” Hronek said. “It’s never fun to keep losing so it’s really good that we get that taste of winning. Hopefully we can build on it.”
Canucks forward Evander Kane returned Thursday after missing one game with an upper-body injury.
