So far, 2025 hasn’t gone as the Seattle Kraken or Pittsburgh Penguins would have hoped.
Entering Tuesday’s matchup in Pittsburgh, the Kraken are 1-4-1 in January and the Penguins are 1-2-3, not exactly the starts they were looking for as both teams chase wild-card playoff berths.
The Kraken are in the midst of a five-game trip in which all three games thus far have finished with 6-2 scores. They lost Thursday at Columbus, rallied from a two-goal deficit Saturday in Buffalo and lost Sunday at Detroit.
“We just weren’t ready again,” said Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz, who is tied for second on the team with 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists), three behind Jared McCann. “We have to turn this around quickly, because it is unacceptable and there’s no one to blame but ourselves. It wasn’t like this started last game, we’ve been doing it a lot lately.”
Schwartz assisted on both goals, by Oliver Bjorkstrand and Matty Beniers, after Detroit built a 6-0 lead.
The streaking Red Wings, winners of seven straight, scored four times in a span of 4:31 in the first period Sunday and the rout was on.
“We’ve had so many bad starts lately. That’s something we for sure have to address,” Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson said. “We have talked about it, but we need to fix it too.”
The Kraken entered Monday in seventh place in the Western Conference’s wild-card race, nine points behind Vancouver for the second and final berth.
The Penguins, though in sixth in the Eastern Conference’s wild-card chase, were just two points back of the last playoff spot.
After beating visiting Edmonton 5-3 Thursday, the Penguins dropped a pair of home games over the weekend, losing 5-0 Saturday to Ottawa and 5-2 Sunday to Tampa Bay.
Sunday’s game was closer than the score indicated, as the Lightning scored the go-ahead goal at 16:57 of the third period before adding a pair of empty-netters.
“They’re two different games. I mean, (Saturday), we didn’t really give ourselves a chance at all,” said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who leads the team with 48 points (12 goals, 36 assists).
“(Sunday), I thought we deserved better, but you don’t get points for playing well. You’ve got to find a way to win games.”
Rickard Rakell had a goal and an assist and Kevin Hayes tied it for the Penguins with a power-play goal 2:17 into the third period.
“The team is competing hard,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “(Sunday) is another example of it. It’s unfortunate how the game unraveled there in the last couple of minutes because for the majority of the night, we really liked our overall team game.”
Added Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry, who made just 14 saves: “It’s tough. A loss is a loss, at the end of the day. But I thought the team played well. We did a good job. We were in their zone most of the night. Just the chances that Tampa got were good chances. They were grade-A chances. That’s what it was (Sunday).”
The Penguins have been without forward Evgeni Malkin, who was placed on injured reserve Sunday because of an upper-body injury that has kept him out the past four games. In addition, linemate Michael Bunting didn’t play Sunday after being involved in a car accident outside PPG Paints Arena before the game. Sullivan said Bunting didn’t sustain any serious injuries.
–Field Level Media
