Kraken @ Dallas PREVIEW: Hittin’ the ol’ Dusty Trail

The Need To Knows

• The Time: High Noon, 12pm PT
• The Place: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
• Place to Watch: ABC, ESPN+/SportsNet+
• Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM, KTCK-AM in Dallas
• An Opposing Viewpoint: Defending Big D

Know Your Enemy

• The Stars are likely the Central Division regular season champions with a 50-21-9 record, good for 109 points. Given that they’re 8-2-0 and have 2 games to play including this one, I sincerely doubt it’s going to change.
• The Stars’ leading goalscorer and point-getter coming into this one is Jason Robertson; who has 78 points in 80 games. 28 of those points were goals.
• Right behind him is Joe Pavelski, who has 27 goals in 80 games. While not initially all that impressive, the gap between Robertson and Pavelski in age is 15 years. His agelessness is truly awe-inspiring when it is happening at anybody other than your team.
• The Stars are a possession nightmare; being the 5th overall team in Shot-Attempts for per 60 minutes of hockey at 63.72, 8th in unblocked shot attempts for per 60 at 45.16, but their ace in the hole is their shot quality; they’re 3rd in the entire league in Expected Goals-For % at 54.92%, behind only the Hurricanes and Oilers.
• Their Goaltending isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but Jake Oettinger’s been serviceable enough as a starter for Dallas with a .903 SV% in 51 starts. However, with the team so close to the playoffs, it’s likely we see Scott Wedgewood instead; he has an .899 SV% in 28 starts.

Game Preview

The last road trip before the offseason…and boy what an asskicking it’s shaping up to be; one last glob of spit in the eye from this accursed season.

The Stars have next to nothing to play for. They’ve already wrapped up a 100+ point season, have been a leading cause of goalie Save-Percentage to drop throughout the Western Conference, and get to finish out the regular season at home. Sure, they did just get dropped 3-0 to the Jets, but they don’t play the Jets in the first round of the playoffs; they got plenty of time to adjust. Unfortunately, the Kraken just so happen to be primed to be the unfortunate victims of a Get-Right game…but are you really going to exert that much effort when you’re at home for the rest of the season and you can start thinking of resting some players? Maybe…but maybe not. Really, they have the luxury of decisions here.

The Kraken on the other hand, do very much have something to play for here, even if it’s just for personal pride; denying the Stars the Season series sweep.

Seattle has yet to win a game against the Stars this year, and this is their last chance to do so. They won’t have help from the kids today, so it’s up to the main squad to forecheck for their lives, shoot at every opportunity they get, and defend like they’re under threat of a nuking, because if they don’t…

…it might just happen. These Stars are a juggernaut.

Oh, and it’s a Matinee game in a Matinee back-to-back. So you’d better decide which game you’d like to look better in more; this one or the Blues game tomorrow.

Still, should be an entertaining contest. Let’s go Kraken!