The Need to Knows
- The Time: 6:30pm PT
- The Place: Rogers Arena, Edmonton, Alberta
- Place to Watch: KHN, KONG, Amazon Prime, ESPN+ (If you’re out of market)
- Place to Listen: Kraken Audio Network via KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: uhh…we don’t really have one. RIP Copper and Blue.
Know Your Enemy
- The Oilers are 31-15-3 and have 65 points in the standings, which is good for second in the Pacific Division, and 3rd in the Western Conference.
- While Connor McDavid is of course playing like a man possessed, it’s Leon Draisaitl who’s really come into his own as an absolutely to be reckoned with; he’s got 74 points in 49 games, and also leads the Oilers in goals with 35.
- While a number of players are encroaching on 20 points, most of the goalscoring in Edmonton appears to be done by either Draisaitl, McDavid, Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman. They’re the only ones with 15 or more goals in Blue and Orange.
- It might shock you to learn the Edmonton power play is pretty good, though not really where you’d think it’d be! It’s actually 7th in the NHL right now with a 24.6% success rate.
- Goaltending in Edmonton is more of a throwback to the 80’s where it didn’t matter as much; Stuart Skinner has a .902 SV% in 33 starts, but he’s had a child recently, so it will be Calvin Pickard in net instead. He’s got an .899 SV% in 16 starts.
Game Preview
Much ado was made about Connor McDavid finally getting caught doing one of the many dumb things he does and being penalized for it by the NHL, and the fact that it A) came so late and B) did send a message that even the stars aren’t safe from the judgement of the league. We’ll see how that goes when Tom Wilson or Mark Stone goes and does their usual thing.
Naturally, the response in Oilerland was loud and very angry. After all, the Oilers have in the past demonstrated that they do tend to suffer when Connor can’t play, and of course the usual concern of why star players are required to go do something like cross-check Tyler Myers if they want to continue to have long-term success in this league, it’s been a bit of a mess.
So, did the Oilers have a rough time with him out?
Not really. Went 2 of 3 in wins over the last week.
As it turns out, Leon Draisaitl is on a helluva pace of points this year, and getting your star suspended then immediately turning around and playing Washington, Vancouver and Buffalo doesn’t exactly cause them to fall off as dramatically as you’d like. They didn’t even get blown out against the Caps in the only loss they suffered under the suspension, instead playing a pretty tight game.
Now? Connor’s back. Making the prospect of beating the Oilers, already a difficult task on it’s best day, even harder. So what can Seattle do?
Well, the obvious issue the Oilers fight against is their own goaltending, which hasn’t exactly been any better than Seattle’s, but the Oilers defense has been…better as of late, and as such the Kraken are going to need to find separation however they can get it; be it through physical play or by smart play recognition. Further, they must be playing with their heads on a swivel all night; the Oilers love small passing plays in tight with one another that force backcheckers to consider their star players in order to open up lanes at speed. They cannot be caught playing slow, or it will doom them.
At this point in the season, the Kraken are showing a lot of improvement here and there, and as such the goal here is continuing to build upon that process. Even if it means they get badly outshot, they need to be able to keep being a nuisance. Being annoying is where Seattle historically has found it’s niche in the division, and recently they’ve found plenty of ways to do it; whether taking the puck away or from being aggressive backcheckers. If they can keep that up, then there’s a real competitive contest in here.
Oh yeah, and if they can find a way to keep Leon Draisaitl off the scoresheet, that’ll probably give the Kraken a much-needed boost. That Teutonic Terror commands quite a bit of respect.
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS.