What: Seattle Kraken at Los Angeles Kings
Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA
When: Wednesday, April 27, 2022; 7:00pm PDT
Wait, who are we playing? Landlubber’s Guide to the LA Kings
Coverage
Local TV: ROOT Sports NW+
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: 950 AM KJR
SiriusXM: Channel 91
Last Time Out
After dropping their first two meetings with the Kings, the Kraken came out and dominated game three of the season series with a decisive 6-1 victory in Los Angeles. Alex Wennberg opened the scoring 14 seconds into the game with a nifty little backhand rebound. THe Kings tied it shortly thereafter with a goal on their fourth shot of the game, but Chris Driedger stopped the other 36(!) they put on net for the remainder of the contest. All told, 14 Kraken skaters went home with at least a point, including 11 of 12 forwards (Kole Lind being the only one kept off the stat sheet). This was the second time ever that Seattle scored six goals without the help of an empty netter.
Stats, Streaks, & Droughts
The Kings come into this one riding high on the back of a four game winning streak and a fresh playoff berth. This will be their first playoff appearance since 2018. It appears their rebuild is officially done, and they’ve moved back into competing territory. They are still a very beatable team right now, however, as three of those last four wins were all one goal games (if you exclude the empty net goal they scored against the Ducks). Jonathan Quick has been stellar in each of these four outings, posting a .948 save percentage over that stretch and allowing just five goals in total. It helps that the Kings’ defense has limited opponents to around 22 shots on net per game over that time too.
Meanwhile the Kraken have slumped a bit since earning the franchise’s first three game winning streak a week ago. They’ve now lost their last three games, but the good news is that all those losses came on the road, and they’re back in Climate Pledge Arena tonight — where they’ve still got an active three game home winning streak.
Players To Watch
The 34-year old Anze Kopitar once again leads the team with 66 points, and makes dangerous passes like this nightly…
The aforementioned Jonathan Quick has been stellar of late and will make it tough for Seattle to generate offense…
And then there’s defender Sean Durzi, who’s just happy to be here.
Injuries, Illnesses, Additions, & Scratches
The Kraken’s injury list is longer than usual right now. In addition to Brandon Tanev and Jaden Schwartz, who are both done for the year, Seattle will likely be without Haydn Fleury, Vince Dunn, and Kole Lind. Fleury has missed the last four games, while Dunn and Lind both sat out only last night. Dunn took a stick up high in Saturday’s game against the Stars, and his status is still unknown. Dennis Cholowski and Derrick Pouliot are likely to step in once again, and we will update further if anything changes in that regard. Joey Daccord got the start last night, so expect one of Chris Driedger or Philipp Grubauer in net for the Kraken tonight.
The Kings are without Drew Doughty, who underwent surgery in March and won’t play again until next season. They’re down another defenseman in Mikey Anderson as well, who is currently on LTIR. A couple youngsters in Jordan Spence and Jacob Moverare are expected to be filling in on the blue line. Moverare is still looking for his first NHL goal. Jonathan Quick is expected to start, but with the playoffs officially clinched last night they could opt to give him another rest day. We’ll update further when we know more.
Leave a tip to support our writers and staff!