The Need to Knows
- The Time: 7pm PST
- The Place: Climate Pledge Arena in Beautiful Seattle, WA
- Place to Watch: KONG, KHN Networks, Amazon Prime (if local), MSG Network
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Blueshirt Banter
Game Preview
Let’s set the mood with a little music.
The Rangers are in a weird spot. They are unquestionably talented, any team with guys like Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, JT Miller (when his mood stabilizers are working), they have excellent goaltending that will give the Kraken a run for their money, they’re an absolutely stellar road team; only having lost twice in their 7 games away from Madison Square Garden, and they have exciting young talent that fans should be all about. Why be skeptical of them at all?
Well, for all their positives…they really can only get two or three players scoring right now. Taylor Raddysh, Adam Fox, and Mika Zibanejad lead the team in that one category.
Please let it be known that this is not some weird trick of their game; they are just hideously unlucky. Because outside of their odd triplet of goalscorers, they are doing most of the good things to score goals; Almost exclusively attack the middle of the ice and spend a good portion of the game fishing for rebounds in the slot if they aren’t bringing the puck to the slot themselves. They also have a pretty good defense that’s making Jonathan Quick and Igor Sheshterkin’s lives a lot better. They should be scoring like fiends doing this and winning games by the truckload…they just don’t, for whatever reason.
Of course, it’s a lot easier to do all of this when you’re actually trying, and the Rangers so far this year, have spent a lot of games looking like they’re kind of phoning it in this year. New York has noticed, and they are not happy about it. Granted, they just brought a hell of an effort to Edmonton, so one would expect that they’re finally getting the message…but it’s still very true of them that they can take a shift or two off.
The Kraken will have to use those lackadaisical shifts that the Rangers can put up in spades to keep the fight going in the right direction. Figuring out a way to beat either one of their goalies right now is a tall ask, and even if they get the Rangers’ skaters putting in a less-than-stellar effort, nobody should expect anything less than a very good game from either one of Manhattan’s netminders.
It’ll be a test, but it’ll be a good one to see how the Kraken handle a squad looking to reverse it’s fortunes. Now that Kaapo Kakko and Ryker Evans are finally getting some reps in at practice (albeit in no-contact sweaters), they can use the hope of help being on the way to fuel them.
Oh and keep your head on a swivel when it comes to Matt Rempe. If he instigates a fight? Congrats on the free win, he just doesn’t know how to win those. If he throws a hit? Be ready for something very dangerous; his hitting mechanics are sloppy at best.
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS!