The effort wasn’t bad, but the execution was horrendous for the Kraken in a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning that took yet another little nibble out of Seattle’s continuously declining playoff chances.
After spotting the Lightning a three spot in the first 21 minutes, the Kraken came alive in the second period and made a game of it heading into the third after goals by Bobby McMann (his fourth goal and sixth point in three games as a Kraken) and Jared McCann.
But the class of the Lightning was too much for a Seattle roster that has to play a borderline perfect game to beat top teams in the NHL, and the Kraken were far from that on this night. Tampa Bay ultimately pulled away, riding massive nights from Nikita Kucherov (three goals, two assists), Brandon Hagel (one goal, three assists), and Anthony Cirelli (one goal, two assists) to what proved to be an easy win.
Here are Three Takeaways from a 6-2 Kraken drubbing by the Lightning.
Takeaway 1: “Catastrophic” mistakes
I’m going to first give the Lightning credit, because there’s a reason that Jon Cooper has lasted as long as he has and had the success he’s had as Tampa Bay’s coach. Sure, there’s a ton of talent on the Lightning roster, but in the five years I’ve watched this team beat up on the Kraken, they have consistently swarmed to pucks as well as any team in the league.
In the first period especially, it felt like every time Seattle got control of the puck in its zone, there would be two or three Bolts on the puck carrier, either forcing a turnover or pressuring the Kraken player into making a loose play and handing it to Tampa Bay.
Case in point: the first goal against, which was ultimately scored by former Everett Silvertip Gage Goncalves. On this one, Seattle won the puck away, and it landed on McCann’s stick at the top of the defensive zone. He initially made a good play to cut to his right and gain some space, but then he should have chipped it off the glass and simply gotten it out of harm’s way.
Instead, McCann tried to do too much and painted himself into a corner. He looked to gain ground up the boards but ran right into Darren Raddysh, so he instead tried to go backward and ran into Goncalves. The puck came right back down the Kraken’s throats and ended up in their net to put them into chase mode at 5:45 of the first period.
#SeaKraken having a hard time getting out of their zone when they've gotten the puck.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 18, 2026
Here, McCann tried escaping a few different directions instead of chipping it off the glass. Ran out of space and turned it over in a dangerous spot.
Former Everett Silvertip Gage Goncalves… pic.twitter.com/ECDVS00fy3
“It started with me. Obviously, the first goal [against] there, I turned the puck over at the blue line, and they scored. So, that’s on me,” McCann said.
The second goal against—Kucherov’s first of three on the night—came when Ryan Lindgren tried to push the play up ice quickly but misconnected with Ben Meyers, and Meyers ended up handing it to Kucherov. He and Hagel came back on a quick-developing 2-on-1, and Philipp Grubauer was hung completely out to dry after a nifty give-and-go play, a theme throughout the evening.
While the #SeaKraken failed to generate much of anything in that 1st period, they were also extremely inefficient at getting the puck out of their zone.
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 18, 2026
Case in point, this Nikita Kucherov goal to make it 2-0. pic.twitter.com/BQyrgEhHDA
“For the most part, it was a fairly even game,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Our mistakes were really catastrophic, obviously some really, really poor decisions… The turnovers, going backwards in our own zone, the second goal, we can just… we’re changing. We should just stay behind the net, get organized. So we’re making some mistakes here that you can’t make. I’m not even going to say they’re uncharacteristic, because apparently they are at the moment, but you can’t make these mistakes.”
Those plays in the first period, a bad change early in the second that created a 3-on-1, and another turnover by Matty Beniers early in the third were enough to do in Seattle in this game. The Lightning tacked on a couple more just for good measure and pulled away for a lopsided result.
Takeaway 2: Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand make their returns
Former Kraken forwards Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand made their returns to Climate Pledge Arena for the first time since being traded away at last season’s trade deadline.
Both players got brief welcome-back videos and gave cordial waves to the home crowd.
And Yanni Gourde gets a nice ovation with his welcome back video. #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/iPPN8TxsUB
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 18, 2026
While Bjorkstrand had a quiet night, Gourde showed a couple of flashes of what endeared him to fans during the course of his four seasons in the Pacific Northwest.
In the first minute of the third period, Jacob Melanson—who has, in a way, replaced Gourde as Seattle’s resident pest—laid a heavy hit on Gourde along the half wall. Gourde popped back up, and from the way he was looking around, you could tell he was incensed and out for a pound of flesh.
He got his revenge within seconds, catching Meyers with a high hit and sending him flying. Meyers then chased down Gourde and challenged him to a fight, which Gourde definitely won.
https://t.co/dimRnEq6S0 pic.twitter.com/AYclwwbX0W
— Sound Of Hockey (@sound_hockey) March 18, 2026
“Just a hit, just kind of heat of the moment,” Meyers said. “I didn’t really see him coming, so it just happened quick.”
Did that sequence reignite Tampa Bay after they lost momentum in the second? It’s hard to say, but plays like that by Gourde certainly made him a fun player to watch at times with the Kraken.
Takeaway 3: Pillow fight to the finish?
It’s wild that the Kraken are still in the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference, despite having won just four games out of 11 since the Olympic break. But that’s the conference they’re in, and while they continue making it harder and harder on themselves, they’re somehow still alive and well, holding on by the hair on their chinny-chin-chins.
They now head out on a two-week road trip through Nashville, Columbus, Florida, Tampa Bay (to face these same Lightning… yikes!), and Buffalo. Then they’ll come home for an off day and go back on the road for one more game in Edmonton.
With the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings continuing to do their part, the Kraken just need to string a run of wins together, and they can still (somehow) set themselves right back up as a surefire playoff team.
Losses like the one on Tuesday don’t help their cause, though.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
I turned on the game half way through the first period and the Kraken had zero shots and just as the have done all year, they cannot beat teams of the same quality or better. The first line got played and they had no offensive answer for teams with good defenders, I will keep watching but I am not confident in their ability to make the playoffs or even if they do, they will not advance.