The Need To Knows
- The Time: 10am PT
- The Place: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
- Place to Watch: KING-5, KONG, KHN-affiliated channels, ESPN+ (out of market), MSG-Sports Network
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM via Kraken Audio Network
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Blueshirt Banter
Know Your Enemy
The Rangers have had a bit of drama recently. They’ve had a disappointing start to their season and GM Chris Drury said he was going to shake things up. And shake things up he did by trading their captain (!!) Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks. They were going to potentially put him on waivers if a trade didn’t happen. They wanted him out.
This is particularly funny because in May, Trouba won the Mark Messier Leadership Award, the award given to the best leader as selected by specifically Mark Messier. I guess the Rangers thought that Trouba was more of the Vancouver flavor Mark Messier leadership. Regardless, Trouba is gone.
Also of note this week is the Rangers signed their world-class goalie Igor Shesterkin to an eight-year, $92 million ($11.5m AAV) extension and is now the highest paid goalie in NHL history. He’s very good. I don’t know if any goalie is worth $11.5 million a year good, but if any goalie is worth that money, Shesterkin would be a strong candidate.
New York’s Artemi Panerin is on a pa-tearin’ with just 32 points in 25 games (15g, 17a).
Game Notes
I don’t know which Kraken team we will get today. Everything is a mystery box. The Kraken dropped 3 out of 4 to the Sharks/Ducks, then proceeded to play out of their minds against a good Hurricanes team, completely dominated a medium Islanders team, and played with a lot of feistyness against the Devils being on the second day of a back-to-back (while the Devils had been resting for the previous three days).
The Rangers have historically given the Kraken fits, particularly their goalies. Both Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick have had good outings against the Kraken, and Seattle has gone 1-6-0 all-time against them, getting outscored 12 to 25 over those games. That’s not great!
What is great is that everyone Dan Bylsma healthy scratches seems to get the message, or at least that has been the case so far. After Oliver Bjorkstrand and Shane Wright were scratched, they’ve come back with a vengeance. Wright has 7 points in his 7 games being scratched, and Bjorkstrand has 11 points in 14 games since his scratch. Now it’s André Burakovsky’s turn, who returned from his banishment with a beautiful goal.
The Kraken are in a state of flux as they figure out who they are, as the coach figures out who he has, and which approach works with the players. So far it’s been bumpy, but Coach Bylsma started sending messages by saying he isn’t afraid to scratch veterans, and it looks like that message has been received. The Kraken aren’t talented enough to get by good teams by just outtalenting their problems, so they have to make up for it with effort.
I can’t imagine they love the 10am starts very much. Let’s hope the Kraken wake up for this one.