The Need to Knows

The Time: 1:00 pm PT / 4:00 pm ET

The Place: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA

Where to Watch: ROOT Northwest, ESPN+

Place to Listen: KJR 93.3fm

Know Your Enemy

We’ve seen the Oilers a couple of times this season, although if you blocked out the last time the Oilers came to Seattle on December 30, I wouldn’t blame you.

The headliner by far is Connor McDavid. There is a very real argument to be made that he is the most talented player ever. More talented than Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Mario Lemieux.

More talented than Wayne Gretzky.

Now, you may not believe he’s Gretzky+, but it is pretty indisputable that he is the best player in the world today.

For comparison, Vince Dunn leads the Kraken with 56 points.

McDavid leads the Oilers with 57 goals. He has 74 assists for a ridiculous 131 points. He’s out of this world.

The Oilers also have Leon Draisaitl, who is also one of the best players in the world. He, alongside McDavid, has won the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP.

LOOK AT THIS NONSENSE.

The story of the Oilers over the years has been their obscene top-end talent but not much in the way of forward depth. This year they made some moves at the trade deadline and their depth has really been showing up, which has made them a real problem for other teams. Boston and Dallas, both excellent teams, just got taken down by Edmonton.

Game Preview:

Seattle’s not had an easy time with home opponents recently, and Saturday will be no different. The Oilers are rolling right now, and only one point separates the Oilers from the Kraken in the standings.

The Kraken’s penalty kill, aside from the second game against Dallas, has been much better as of late — since the disaster against the Oilers on December 30th, incidentally. The game that caused Hakstol to change the PK structure and it’s been much better (tied for 12th among all teams since January 1st).

But the Oilers power play is ridiculous this season and leads the league at 31.5%. The difference between the Oilers and the #2 team (Toronto) in power play % is bigger than the difference between Toronto and the #23 team.

Stay out of the penalty box.

This is not an easy game by any stretch. The Kraken are still over 92% to make the playoffs with a loss, but a win would basically undo the losses to the Stars and Senators for Seattle’s playoff chances.

The Kraken have been hit-or-miss with very good teams this year, and the Oilers have leveled up to “very good.” Sometimes they look great, like their wins against Colorado, Toronto and handing Boston a 3-0 home loss, and sometimes they look really overwhelmed like the second loss to Dallas recently (a team I hope the Kraken don’t see again for a long, long time).

But if they can find their defensive game, stay out of the penalty box, and McDavid doesn’t have too many sicko mode moments, this is a very winnable game for Seattle.