Kraken Again Held To One Goal In Listless 4-1 Loss To Blues

The last-in-the-NHL San Jose Sharks have won 19 games this season. Five of those victories have come against Sunday's combatants at Enterprise Center.

That partly explains why both the Seattle Kraken and St. Louis Blues won't be participating in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite that, Seattle played its second straight weekend afternoon game on national television.

Viewers saw what's made Kraken fans wince all season - lack of offense in a 4-1 defeat.

Jared McCann scored for the second time in his last 17 games, briefly giving Seattle a 1st period lead. After that the Kraken offense again went cold.

It's the third straight game, all losses, in which the Kraken have been limited to exactly one goal.

1st Period

Getting you ready for a 10 am Pacific Time puck drop.

One lineup change for Seattle: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in, Tomas Tatar out. If Bellemare also plays the final two games of the season, he will reach an even 700 for his career. C'mon, coach Hakstol, do the right thing!

On the TNT cable broadcast, analyst Darren Pang calls out the "sleepy start" to a game kicking off at noon Central Time. St. Louis' Robert Thomas tells Pang during a timeout, "Not a great start for either team."

That review doesn't extend to Kraken goalie Joey Daccord, who looks sharp early. Brandon Saad and Braden Schenn have good looks from the slot. Daccord confidently turns away both.

Nor to Ryker Evans; the Kraken defenseman puts a shoulder into Sammy Blais, knocking the Blue to the ice.

One Kraken immune from their season-long scoring malaise is Jared McCann. He steals from Marco Scandella at the Seattle blueline, is off to the races, and finishes for his team-leading 29th goal at 14:24.

In three Kraken seasons, McCann has recorded 27, 40, and now 29 goals.

Jaden Schwartz has a close-in chance against the team whose sweater he wore for a decade. Blues goalie Joel Hofer, like Daccord getting his first signficant NHL playing time this season, has other ideas.

Moments later, Kasperi Kapanen ties the game for the Blues 1-1 at 18:18. Daccord gets a good piece of Kapanen's shot, but hangs his head because a good piece wasn't enough.

Zach Dean lifts his stick into Adam Larsson's face, earning a double-minor. On the power play, Andre Burakovsky hits the crossbar, which doesn't count as one of the eight Seattle shots in the period. St. Louis had six.

2nd Period

The Kraken start the period with 2:43 of power play time, the remainder of Dean's high-sticking double minor. For the four minutes total, Seattle gets one SOG, while St. Louis had two while shorthanded.

Trouble when Will Borgen stubs a shot, sending the Blues down ice. Robert Thomas' pass has Daccord swimming, down and out. Zack Bolduc shovels the puck under the goalie, but instead of finding the unguarded net, it hits the post. Bolduc holds both hands to his head.

There's a distinct Gateway City flavor to the TNT broadcast. Craig Berube, fired earlier this season by the Blues, is in the studio; Pang spent many years as a Blues broadcaster. When Pang interviews Seattle's Schwartz, they show him lifting the Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019. "I love it here," Schwartz says.

In the last two minutes, Daccord loses his goalie stick defending against a Blues rush, but St. Louis can't capitalize. St. Louis outshoots Seattle 13-6 in the 2nd, including the last seven SOG of the period when the home team noticeably tilted the ice.

3rd Period

St. Louis continues its late 2nd period dominance to take its first lead 59 seconds into the 3rd.

Goalies don't always put rebounds where they'd like, and sometimes they can't worry about that. Matt Kessel's right point shot thuds off Daccord's pad right to Jordan Kyrou, who buries his 31st for a 2-1 Blues advantage.

10-on-10 crime: Blues captain Schenn hooks Matty Beniers in the offensive zone. For the third time, the #20 St. Louis PK gets the better of the #17 Seattle PP.

On the first St. Louis power play with seven minutes left, Pavel Buchnevich, from the bumper position, rings the left post.

Seattle's Adam Larsson speeds down right wing with a quality scoring chance, which Hofer gobbles up. It's the Kraken's fifth SOG of the period.

Weird, weird goal puts this game out of reach. Schenn takes a stretch pass, outracing Kraken defenseman Justin Schultz to the net. Between Daccord's poke check and Schultz's pestering, Schenn never gets a shot off.

But with Daccord now sprawled, Schenn shoots again from an almost impossble angle. The puck banks off the goalie's skate and into the net. 3-1 Blues at 16:37.

An empty-netter finalizes the St. Louis 4-1 victory. Two more games on the road for Seattle to close the season, starting Tuesday in Winnipeg.