Kraken @ Avalanche PREVIEW: Bruised Squids take on surging Avs

Just the Facts

• The Time: 6pm PT
• The Place: Ball Arena, Denver, Colorado
• Place to Watch: ROOT Sports Northwest, Altitude, ESPN+/SportsNet+ out of market
• Place to Listen: KJR 93.3FM
• An Opposing Viewpoint: Puck Yeti

Know Your Enemy

• The Avalanche are 8-3-0, and have 16 points; which is good for 1st in the Central Division.
• The Avs are currently undefeated at home, with 4-0-0 being their record at Ball Arena.
• Colorado’s most recent game was a 6-3 beatdown of the New Jersey Devils, an appropriate revenge from the game before where they got absolutely atomized by the Vegas Golden Knights.
• The Leading goalscorer for the Avs is not Nathan MacKinnon for once, instead it is Mikko Rantanen, who’s got 8 goals in 11 games. He also has the point-lead with 17 points in 11 games.
• Ryan Johanson and Mikko Rantanen are the leaders of power play goals for the Avalanche; they both have 3.
• Alex Georgiev is the overwhelming starter for Colorado, having started all but one game for the Burgundy and Blue. That said? His SV% is nothing to write home about; an .897 SV% through 10 games.

Game Preview

This…has been a deeply disappointing season. I don’t think I need to tell you that.

What’s been even more disappointing is that the Kraken are now extremely injured. As Zaiem noted, Jordan Eberle took a skate to his quad and will be out for quite awhile, and an undetermined second player will likely be out day to day after getting beat up a bit during the Yotes game, possibly Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. As a result, Ryan Winterton and Shane Wright are now on the team.

Wright has been playing like a man possessed in CV as Mark previously noted in his update; having 4 goals and 2 assists in 7 games. Ryan Winterton meanwhile has had 3 goals 2 assists in the same amount of time. Frankly, not hard to see why they’d be first call for a team that has been struggling to be anything resembling consistent as they’ve been early and vital parts of the Firebirds’ early success.

As for whenever they end up in the lineup? Soon to be determined. But they’ll have to be ready to contribute quick, because the Avs are still a very good hockey club and they have to keep their momentum going; the Central Division has a number of teams no further than them in the standings than 2 points, and they need to find some distance from the crowd. The Kraken meanwhile desperately need to find any kind of form; they’ve been struggling with any number of different things over the past couple of games, so hopefully this injection of youth could find itself contributing early.

This game should be good either way; the Avs are playing some fun, high-event hockey these days, and this silly team is always ready for a hard-left into being good for a night.

LET’S GO KRAKEN