The Need to Knows
- The Time: 5pm PST
- The Place: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN
- Place to Watch: KONG, KHN, FanDuel Sportsnet-South, ESPN+
- Place to Listen: Kraken Audio Network via KJR 93.3FM
Know Your Enemy
- Okay, so get this: Last summer, the Predators spent a bunch of money on free agents in the offseason thinking they were a playoff contender, but those free agents didn’t pan out and the team is now in the mix for a top five draft pick. Ha ha can you imagine?
- Nashville is 22-32-7, good for 51 points and only the Sharks and Blackhawks have a worse record.
Game Preview
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: you will not see Yanni Gourde or Oliver Bjorkstrand, as both were traded away to Tampa Bay for draft picks. The Kraken do also get Tampa Bay 4th liner Michael Eyssimont back in the deal. It is unclear if he will dress for the game.
With the Kraken down two forwards, they’ve recalled Ben Meyers and Jacob Melanson from Coachella Valley.
But at least we get one more game with Brandon Tanev in a Kraken sweater, right?
Right?
There’s a real good chance that Tanev will be a healthy scratch for trade-related reasons. It is hard to imagine a world where the Kraken don’t trade him given his perceived value to other teams and contract situation, but if he gets injured before the trade deadline, that would be seen inside the building as a pretty big disaster. This assumes he hasn’t been traded by the time the game starts.
For draft lottery positioning, this is a pretty important game. The draft is topheavy this year, so getting a top 4 pick is really important if the Kraken want to correct their franchise trajectory. Seattle needs elite, top-end talent and the best way is through the draft.
The Kraken will play a hockey game tonight, and there will be a winner and a loser. But as these games tend to be around the trade deadline, the focus and attention and mood are entirely about events occurring outside the game.
Then Friday will come, the speculation will die down, players will be traded or not traded, and we will know who the Kraken will be for the rest of the season without the distractions or the specter of roster movement hanging over the players, and the game results will come back into focus as the only thing of importance.