The Need to Knows
- The Time: 4pm PST
- The Place: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
- Place to Watch: KHN, KONG, Amazon Prime
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Silver Seven
Game Preview
The Kraken may not have a perfect gameplan for the year, but man if it isn’t working wonders for this squad. Matty Beniers is once again the 200-foot stalwart he’s been in seasons past, Jared McCann seems near automatic for a point a game, and even the new guys seem to find a way to be impactful. Even loses right now make you kinda miss the chance of getting to go. Combined with a division that seems pretty hellbent on having The Most Ugly Opening Season, things are looking up in the Deep!
So! With how the Kraken are responding to the new season, let’s ask a different question: how’s it going in Ottawa?
Uh oh!
Yeah, the Sens have not gotten off to a great start this year, and by far it’s two biggest weaknesses are it’s goaltending, which appears to have cratered, and it’s defense, which appears to have gone past cratering and gone straight through the other side of the planet. The even more screwed up part is that the Sens are still dominating possession most of the time; their PK is just atrocious, and their goaltending cannot keep up with what is rapidly becoming a trend of their team being completely and utterly hapless in their own end.
That said, this is a unique opportunity to get a live fire drill on your power play in a game that counts for points; It cannot be overstated how bad Ottawa’s work on the man-disadvantage is right now; a heady combo of mismatched penalty killers and oodles of space in dangerous parts of the ice are effectively up for grabs. That means that this particular aspect of the game, which has eluded Seattle for quite some time, has a chance to really flex it’s muscle, and they should make an effort to make something out of their chances while at 5-on-4.
Further, they need to be wary; Ottawa has been the subject of get-right game after get-right game for some time now, and Seattle just dropped their first game of the season. A close one to be sure, but a loss all the same. This cannot be how they wanted their season to go, and as such one can only imagine the Sens are looking to finally get one over on their opponent; especially on a back-to-back, where fresh legs will be at a premium.
Still, keep attacking the net in close, and draw penalties where you have to? Do those two things and it’s pretty clear so far this year that the Sens are just not ready for it. Seattle has proven capable so far, let’s see if they can prove capable of it again.
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS!