The Need to Knows
- The Time: 4pm PT
- The Place: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
- Place to Watch: KHN, KONG, FanDuel Sports Network – Ohio
- Place to Listen: Kraken Audio Network via KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: The Cannon
Know Your Enemy
- The Jackets are much improved from when we last saw them. They’re 18-17-6; which is good for 42 points in the standings, and are currently in the 2nd Wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.
- Kirill Marchenko leads the Jackets in goalscoring with 17 in 41 games.
- Zach Werenski is having a great year for a defender, having a league-leading 46 points in 41 games
- The Jackets have crept into the Top 10 of power play percentage; sitting pretty at the #10 spot.
- Columbus has used three goalies throughout the year, but they’ve chosen Elvis Merzlikens as their principal starter; who has an .887 SV% in 27 starts.
Game Preview
The Kraken, to be perfectly frank, are in a rut.
They’ve been able to put together some decent recently better results, but that still hasn’t involved a win. Part of it is some truly unacceptable defensive performances, but they gesture at perhaps being better than they are right now. One hopes that they can in fact find their form against the Blue Jackets, who are…good now?
Well, they’re definitely better than they were; they’ve settled on being a young, chaotic team that plays high-event, back and forth hockey. That makes them deeply difficult to truly pin down. They’ve been great over the last 10 games, but the games they’ve lost they’ve lost in big, flashy, hideous ways. Part of that is their goaltending across the board being kinda…bad, but also to a deeply uneven defense that either helps a lot in creating offense or absolutely tanks the young guns’ valiant efforts.
As a Kraken fan, I can relate.
The key here at this point is a solid defensive effort; the performances against New Jersey and Edmonton were simply not even close to good enough and these players are capable of far better. From there, it’s something I’ve said over and over and they still very much need to improve upon; and it’s getting off the half-walls and attacking the net. They’ve gotten close, but puck security has doomed their ability to keep that up consistently, and that will be the final key to a victory; they must stop being so cavalier with the puck and make the most of their shifts.
We get there? We’ve got a win coming.
LET’S GO KRAKEN. LET’S GO SQUIDS