Panthers eye 4th straight win; Kraken try to halt 8-game skid

It would be fitting if Chris Driedger was in goal Tuesday night when the Seattle Kraken play host to the Florida Panthers.

Whether the Kraken goalie gets that opportunity remains to be seen. Seattle is mired in an eight-game losing streak (0-6-2), one shy of the franchise record.

Driedger, whose last NHL start was May 1, 2022, was selected from the Panthers in the 2021 expansion draft. He split goaltending duties with Philipp Grubauer during Seattle's inaugural season.

But Driedger suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament while playing for Canada in the gold-medal game at the 2022 IIHF World Championships and missed nearly all of last season. He was sent to Coachella Valley of the American Hockey League to rehab and served as the backup to Joey Daccord as the Firebirds made it to Game 7 of the Calder Cup final last spring.

Beaten out by Daccord in training camp this fall, Driedger returned to Coachella Valley and went 9-5-1 with a 2.20 goals-against average. He was recalled by the Kraken on Sunday when Grubauer was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.

Though Driedger's return against the Panthers would seem almost poetic, Kraken coach Dave Hakstol is more concerned about getting his team back on track.

The Kraken suffered back-to-back losses over the weekend, 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday -- a game in which Grubauer was hurt in the closing seconds of the second period -- and 3-0 to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.

Daccord kept the Kraken within 1-0 until there was about 7 1/2 minutes left and the Wild later added an empty-net goal.

"We're 50-plus minutes into the game and (Daccord) has done a nice job keeping it at one," Hakstol said. "We've got to get one for him. We're talking very highly of his performance."

At one point this season, the Kraken had blown leads in 16 of 17 games. At least they were getting leads back then. They've had just one during their skid.

"We have to start better," Hakstol said. "Early in the season, probably 10 of our first maybe dozen games, 10 of our first 15 games for sure, we scored first. That's something that when looking statistically in this league, it's important to play with the lead."

Kraken players seem at a loss to explain the reasoning.

"We're doing a lot of good things, but the puck doesn't seem to go into the net," defenseman Adam Larsson said. "It's not easy right now, but we're gonna keep fighting."

The Panthers have won three in a row, including a 5-2 victory Sunday at Columbus in which Sam Reinhart had a career-high four assists. Aleksander Barkov added a goal and two assists and Gustav Forsling, Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk also tallied.

"He's so detailed with everything he does," Verhaeghe said of Reinhart. "He makes awesome passes and he can score, he's a complete player. ... You see it night in and night out. He's putting up the points right now, but even when he's not, he's really effective."

This will be the Panthers' second stop on a five-game trip.

"We wanted to have a good start to this road trip and were ready to play the right way (in Columbus)," Forsling said.