Just the Facts
- The Time: 4pm PT
- The Place: Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario
- Place to Watch: KHN, KING-5, KONG, Sportsnet, ESPN+ (out of market)
- Place to Listen: Kraken Audio Network via KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Pension Plan Puppets
Know Your Enemy
- The Toronto Maple Leafs are 5-4-1 in their first 10 games, which is good for 11 points and 3rd in the Atlantic Division.
- William Nylander is the leader in goals for the Leafs, with 6 in 10 games.
- The leader in points for the Leafs right now is Mitch Marner; who has 11 points in 10 games; all but 1 of those coming from assists.
- Auston Matthews is actually going through a bit of a slow start this year; He’s got 8 points split between 4 goals and 4 assists. Says something that this is considered a slow start for him; he’d be in a lot of team’s top 3 in points right now.
- The Leafs, in spite of all their offensive might, are next to useless on the power play so far; they’re 30th in the NHL on the man-advantage. They’re 10th in the league when it comes to the PK, however.
- Toronto’s goaltending has set somewhat around Anthony Stolarz, who has a 4-2-0 record with a .916 SV%. Outside of him? Well, Joseph Woll and Dennis Hildeby are currently sub-.900 SV%, so one would expect the Leafs to probably try to get Woll back in net if they want him to be a
Game Notes
It’s a Seattle Spook-tacular! oooOOOOOooo!
The Kraken have turned around their recent losing streak after slaughtering the Habs 8-2, and are moving on to the NHL’s biggest media market; at least in terms of sheer passion; the Toronto Maple Leafs.
How are the Leafs doing? Just about as well as Seattle is, actually, but with fundamental difference in how that start has been perceived. Out here in the Pacific time zone, that means you’re caught in a dead heat with the Flames and Canucks and it looks like, at least right now, that this is how the early season is going to be; jockeying between 3rd and the Wildcard. From where Seattle was last year? I think we’d call that tremendous improvement.
In the Atlantic, Toronto is furious with their start. After finishing the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night, the Leafs went 3-2-1, and it feels like the general tone of their fanbase is one of bewildered frustration. Part of why is how they’ve gotten there; losing to Columbus, getting blown out by St. Louis, and then having their struggling modern rival crush their hearts in OT will make anyone a little on edge; even when they got to be the first team to actually hand Winnipeg their first L of the year. Part of it is that members of the Core 4 are not as gamebreaking as they are perhaps expecting to be, and while many of their free agents and their promoted prospects have been alright, and as a whole their defense looks better…a lot of the same issues with attention to detail and defensive breakdowns are present, as well as the Core 4 being the arbiter of their offensive ability; if they don’t have it on that night, they won’t have it period.
So, what do the Kraken have to do to beat a team that is very, very insistent that things are fine don’t worry stop hassling us guys? One that namely has not struggled with Seattle over their brief meetings between one another?
Well, the first thing they need to do is actively shut down the net-front for their own goalie; specifically on the left side just in front of the netminder, which has been a targeted point of attack for Toronto over the first ten games. The second, is take ample advantage of Toronto’s miserable power play and give them absolutely no reason to believe they’ve fixed it; don’t just clear the puck, find the openings in their power play and make them pay for it by going for a short-handed bid. Finally, as is with most Toronto teams since Marner, Matthews, Tavares and Nylander became Leafs…if you can suppress their ability to get anything done, they are then usually forced to rely on their depth to pick up the slack. Depth that has time and time again failed the Leafs, and has also escaped the fanbases’ ire in their near-fetishistic need for improvement on defense. That depth hasn’t changed much, and so it’s primed to do a lot of the same disappointing.
If the Kraken can also continue to improve on their power play, which shot up from 21st to 14th in the NHL through a single game against the Habs (lol. lmao.), then they can find another strong win for their resume. They’ll need it too; Calgary and Vancouver have recently taken hideous losses, so any chance they can get to pull ahead of their erstwhile divisional rivals is a chance worth taking.
Should make for a great game. And an exciting time for a good number of the larger hockey mediasphere to see how the Kraken have improved and maybe update their opinions of them now that they won’t be playing past their bedtimes!
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS!