Just the Facts:
- The Time: 7pm PDT
- The Place: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle
- Place to Watch: ROOT-Sports Northwest
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: On the Forecheck
Know Your Enemy:
We saw these two teams play in game 2 of the season in Nashville where Seattle was shut out 3-0 when they were in the midst of a really bad shooting slump to start the season. Nashville, under new coach Andrew Brunette, has eschewed the “Smashville” style of hockey where they try to grind the game down to a halt and win ugly games. The Predators have three skilled forward lines who can skate and they weren’t supposed to be good, but they kind of have been with good expected goal share numbers 5-on-5.
Nashville, like Seattle, has also been underperforming relative to expectation with their shooting percentage.
The players to watch for Nashville are:
G Juuse Saros:
He’s a smaller goalie at 5’11”, but is still one of the league’s best. He tracks the puck well and he’s very athletic, and he’s capable of some truly incredible goalie play:
Josi is a mobile, puck-moving defenseman with very good offensive instincts and a wicked shot. He won the 2020 Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman. Josi is elite.
I think he’s been one of the more underrated players in the league because he gets overshadowed by the absolutely nonsense top tier of centers in the NHL with McDavid, MacKinnon, Matthews, Draisaitl and that’s just in the West. But he’s a great playmaker, a smooth skater, and he’s a wizard with the puck on his stick.
Game Preview
We saw these two teams in game 2, when Seattle was shut out 3-0. Since then, the Kraken offense has picked up and while the Kraken have not been great at protecting leads recently, they have been able to put the puck in the net much more consistently.
Joey Daccord got three starts in a row on the road trip, which was a little surprising since Philipp Grubauer is ostensibly the firm starter. Normally I would say this is a Grubauer start, but coach Dave Hakstol has been mixing things up recently.
Both of these teams have had very low shooting percentages this season, something that we should expect to pick up as we get more games and build a larger sample. It’s one game, and one game is hard to predict too much, but Nashville does look to be a much-improved team this year and they aren’t as easy an out as I think people thought heading into this season.
It would be remiss not to mention Eeli Tolvanen, who was inexplicably placed on waivers by Nashville last year and gave Seattle a quality forward, a move that then-Nashville GM David Poile admitted may have been a mistake.
Regardless, it’ll be good to be back home — and on John Forslund bobblehead night!
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