LOS ANGELES — Getting resettled during their recent homestand was precisely what the Seattle Kraken needed to stabilize after teetering toward trouble.

But finding ways to generate points and claim a few wins playing elsewhere than Climate Pledge Arena will ultimately determine what this season becomes for Seattle.

The first test in being better on the road was failed on Saturday when the Kraken fell 2-1 to the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.

Beginning a stretch of five straight games to close the month against Pacific Division foes, the Kraken (10-10-1) lost their fifth straight away from home on an afternoon where good scoring chances were limited, and mistakes were amplified.

"Teams like these, so close in the division, we're going need to beat these guys to get in, you know, at the end," defenseman Brandon Montour said. "I thought our energy level most of the game wasn't there. And again, how close we're going to be right to the end, we got to bring a better effort."

Los Angeles is a difficult matchup for most teams because of its defensive system that suffocates space on the ice. The Kraken were choked in developing chances off the rush and limited to 20 shots.

Whether it's the Kings, Canucks, Golden Knights or even the Oilers, they are the teams the Kraken need to find success against if they're going to evolve from being a team on the fringes of the playoff conversation to a team that's firmly contending for one of the top three spots in the Pacific Division.

That means being better on the road where the Kraken have earned just six of a possible 18 points through their first nine road contests.

"It seems like it's going to be tight. The first 20 (games) were tight," Montour said. "We gave them one there. These games we have got to be up for. Anaheim is up next. We got to come with that desperation and get those points."

Evolution has been a theme for Seattle of late.

When Seattle was last on the road three weeks ago, the response to adversity wasn't what coach Dan Bylsma wanted. Whether it was the performance in Toronto, Ottawa or Boston, the Kraken were not showing the resolve the head coach expected.

That's why what happened the first two games of the recent homestand were so important. In both games — against Vegas and Columbus — the Kraken fell behind 2-0 before rallying to win both times. That was overcoming adversity. So was losing captain Jordan Eberle to injury against Chicago and still grinding out a 3-1 win. So was falling behind 2-1 to the Islanders by giving up a short-handed goal in the third period, only to come back for a 3-2 victory.

"We came home and had five games at home to react and I thought we were much better both reacting game-to-game and reacting in-game with the circumstances and the events that happen in the game," Bylsma said before Saturday's game.

The circumstances of what happened against the Kings called again for a response by the Kraken — and this time it came too late.

"We got lulled into the game, I'll say, just by the way the Kings play," Bylsma said afterward. "They're a really good, structured, defensive team and they can force you into playing a slow, methodical game. We got lulled into the game that way."

Los Angeles struck 4:19 into the second period when Alex Turcotte whipped a pass off the wall past three Seattle players and onto the stick of Adrian Kempe in the slot. It was the first clean look for the Kings since the opening moments of the game and Kempe didn't miss, beating Joey Daccord for his 10th goal.

It was the first goal allowed by Daccord in nearly 100 minutes of ice time following his 24-save shutout of Nashville on Wednesday.

Less than a minute later, Yanni Gourde was penalized for charging into Kings goalie David Rittich and 60 seconds later it was 2-0 Los Angeles when Quinton Byfield beat Daccord to the short-side on the power play.

Even with a couple of power-play chances late in the second period the Kraken were unable to cut into LA's lead and only Daccord stopping a two-on-zero breakaway for Los Angeles kept the deficit from being even larger.

It was the best of Daccord's 19 saves.

"You can't speak enough about how his season is going. There's kind of a definition of how our team needs to play," Montour said of his goalie. "Him and (Philipp Grubauer) have been our backbone here."

Seattle pushed early in the third, including a great chance for Daniel Sprong that was saved by Rittich. Sprong and Montour both had terrific chances about midway through the third, with Montour hitting the post with an open net after Rittich made the initial save.

Montour finally got his goal with 1:34 left and Seattle's net empty to pull within 2-1. That created a chaotic final 90 seconds and Jared McCann had perhaps the best chance but his slap shot was kicked out by Rittich.

"Every guy in our room has better and can play better, myself included," center Matty Beniers said. "We didn't play our game, didn't get to our game fast enough. We know when we do that we have success and we didn't do that."

(c)2024 The Seattle Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.