Your Kraken needed more than liquid sunshine last night.

Waking up this morning in Seattle, there’s a distinct feeling like the clouds just rolled in a little heavier than usual. The Seattle Kraken fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 at home, and honestly, it felt like the kind of night where the puck just didn't want to find its way for us. Tampa Bay came out flying in the first period, with Gabriel Goncalves getting them on the board, and Nikita Kucherov adding another before the break. Kucherov then got his second just 57 seconds into the second, setting a tough tone.

We did show some fight though – Brandon McMann answered quickly, just ten seconds after Kucherov's goal, off a nice feed from Matty Beniers. Then Jared McCann, always a threat, brought us within two with a power play goal, assisted by Jordan Eberle and even Philipp Grubauer. For a moment there, you could feel Climate Pledge Arena starting to hum, that hope blossoming like cherry blossoms around the University of Washington campus. But the third period sealed our fate, with Anthony Cirelli and Brayden Hagel extending Tampa Bay's lead, and Kucherov completing his hat trick in the final minute. The shots were 25-18 in our favor, but sometimes, the scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story of puck luck.

This loss stings, pushing the Seattle Kraken's record to 31-27-9. We’re still holding onto that second Wild Card spot in the West, but our recent 4-6-0 run is a concerning trend. Every point matters now, and dropping games like this at home, especially against an Eastern Conference powerhouse, puts pressure on the next stretch. We’ve got to shake this off and re-focus because the road ahead won’t get any easier. The fight for the playoffs is real, and we need to find that deep-sea grit.

Fear the Deep — from the Emerald City, this is Z.

The MiTL morning crew is diving deep into this one — tune in live at mornings.live.