Kraken open road trip with loss to Predators

Kate Shefte, The Seattle Times on Mar 19, 2026

Published in Hockey

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Freddy Gaudreau scored the lone Seattle goal as the Kraken kicked off a six-game road swing with a loss to one of the teams trying to force them out of the last playoff spot in the West.

The Nashville Predators won, 3-1, and jumped into a three-way tie with the Kraken and the Los Angeles Kings. The Kraken have a potential tiebreaker — regulation wins — over both teams. But they needed the Kings to lose to the Philadelphia Flyers in regulation later Thursday to finish the night in a playoff spot.

The Kraken dropped their second straight game.

Draped in Predators defenders, Gaudreau protected the puck as he crossed the blue line late in the first period. He got the puck to Chandler Stephenson. Gaudreau’s bodyguards dispersed and Stephenson sent it right back to him for Gaudreau’s fifth goal of the season and first since Jan. 5.

Fourteen seconds into a Jamie Oleksiak interference penalty, Ryan O’Reilly put back a Filip Forsberg rebound for a 2-1 lead the Predators were able to protect for the better part of two periods. Forsberg put in an empty-netter.

Bobby McMann was an inch away from extending his goal streak to four games — one in each of the games he’s played for the Kraken since coming over at the trade deadline from the Toronto Maple Leafs. But he hit the left goalpost 20 seconds into the second period. The three-game point streak to kick off his Kraken tenure ended as well.

Eeli Tolvanen missed a second game with an upper-body injury, and fellow forward Ryan Winterton sat out due to illness. The Kraken recalled Jani Nyman from Coachella Valley of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis, and he played his first NHL game since Dec. 22.

The 21-year-old winger started the season with the Kraken and appeared in 24 games. After Seattle sent Nyman down, his production picked up. Even though he’s appeared in half the Firebirds’ games this season, Nyman is tied for fourth in points and third in goals.

As the Kraken pushed for the equalizer, coach Lane Lambert pulled back on his deployment of Nyman. He only saw the ice for one third-period shift.