The Need to Knows
Time: 6:30pm PT (note the time difference!)
The Place: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, California
Place to Watch: ROOT Sports Northwest+, Bally Sports West/KCAL TV, ESPN+/SportsNet+
Place to Listen: KJR 93.3 FM
An Opposing Viewpoint: Jewels from the Crown
Know Your Enemy
- The Kraken play the Kings between games against the Sharks and Ducks. Two of those teams are very bad, and the third is the LA Kings.
- The best player this season for them is defenseman Drew Doughty, who is still playing at a very high level despite being 115 years old (or 34—same thing). Three players are tied for the team lead with 66 points: Anže Kopitar, even older at 135; Kevin Fiala; and Adrian Kempe.
- LA is in a fight for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. They are around 90% to make it right now per Moneypuck. Their most likely reward? Another first-round playoff matchup with the Edmonton Oilers, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs in the first round the previous two years.
- The Kings play a 1-3-1 defense which has recently created a lot of discourse. The 1-3-1 is a trapping defensive style where one player stays in front, then three players kind of in a line behind him, and the final fifth player behind him. It aims to clog the neutral zone and is a style of hockey that a lot of people find aesthetically unappealing. So much so that, one time many years ago, the Flyers protested the Tampa Bay 1-3-1 by just… choosing not to play hockey.
Recently there has been discussion of the Kings 1-3-1 after comments by Nikita Zadorov and Leon Draisaitl. The Kings 1-3-1 isn’t new and the ROOT broadcast even talked about it last year:
I think the whole thing is overblown. It’s not an unbeatable system by any means. But players don’t like playing against it, and every now and again coaches and players complain. The Kings are the complaint flavor of the month.
Game Preview
Recently the Kraken have been beating the bad teams (Ducks, Sharks) and losing to the good teams (Stars). Or perhaps it’s more simple than that: the Kraken were 3-11-2 without Vince Dunn this season. Well, he’s back and he really makes a big difference in driving the offense.
The other addition from last game was Shane Wright, who has leveled up from his not-quite-ready-for-the-NHL self last season. He had over 15 minutes of ice time against San Jose on Monday, scored a goal, and was Seattle’s best player.
The Kraken are clearly giving the youths more ice time to see what they have. Wright, Ryan Winterton, Ryker Evans, Logan Morrison, and Tye Kartye are all just starting out their NHL (or NHL-adjacent) careers. Morrison didn’t dress for the last game, but I would be very surprised if Winterton/Evans/Wright/Kartye were healthy scratched.
The best thing for Seattle’s draft lottery odds is a regulation loss, but I can’t quit this team and I really enjoy watching them win. So I’m approaching this game as a win-win: either they lose and that’s good for the team, or they win and that feels good for the team.
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