2023 Game 3: Kraken vs. St. Louis

Just the Facts:

• The Time: 5pm PDT
• The Place: Enterprise Center, St. Louis, Missouri
• Place to Watch: ROOT Sports Northwest, ESPN+, Sportsnet+
• Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
• An Opposing Viewpoint: Blue Note Hockey

Know Your Enemy

The Blues have only played a single game thus far, a 2-1 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars. In this loss, their leading scorer (because they have only played and scored once) is defenseman Tyler Tucker, a 7th round pick from 2018. Never count out the longshot prospects! They have only played Jordan Binnington thus far, and he came away from that game with a respectable .971 SV%.

Game Preview

So! The Kraken are playing much worse than last year to start out! That kinda sucks! The good news, is that if Seattle’s going to be bad, then St. Louis is right there with ’em.

The Blues spent a long part of their game against Dallas getting absolutely hammered in the shot battle; only barely hanging on due to Tucker’s equalizer in the first and Jordan Binnington playing out of his mind. Binnington hasn’t been that goalie in a long time, so the idea of a renaissance from him is…troubling. Especially with the Kraken’s troubles on establishing offense. The good news is that for much of that game against Dallas, St. Louis effectively ceded the front of the net to the Stars, which if this is going to be a trend for them, will be the single biggest key for the Kraken to score. Research has shown that this area of the slot (and specifically the middle of it, sometimes called the “Royal Road”) is the best place on the ice to score, and they didn’t get there a whole lot over the course of their Vegas and Nashville games.

If the Kraken are gonna break some bad habits and get back in the win column, they need to attack St. Louis’ defense where it’s weakest and attack it hard.

It will be, if nothing else, a decent palette cleanser before coming home to face Colorado.

Let’s get this win.