Still, the shorthanded version keeps finding a way. Vancouver led 2-0 after 2 periods on Thursday and never scored again, and Florida tied it with 2 in the 3rd before winning 3-2 after regulation. That was the Panthers' 2nd straight win. The game before was a 7-3 thumping of Columbus on the back half of a back-to-back, a day after a 5-3 loss in Buffalo.
Seattle has also shown it won't fold late. In Tampa, the Kraken trailed twice in the 3rd period and answered both times through Jared McCann and Matty Beniers. They forced overtime before Victor Hedman ended it 2:07 in. They put 27 shots on Andrei Vasilevskiy and got 3 past him, which is a real night's work against that goalie. The team that gave up 6 at home to Vegas in early October has looked much tighter on the road since.
The Kraken's blue line is the thing to watch. Ryan Lindgren is out 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury, and Brandon Montour came out of the Tampa game listed day-to-day. Losing both would leave Seattle without 2 of its regular defensemen against a Florida team that just scored 10 goals in 2 games before the Vancouver comeback. Florida has injury questions of its own, especially in goal, so these are 2 depleted rosters, and the deeper bench will probably decide it.