The Need to Knows:
- The Time: 6:30pm PT
- The Place: Ball Arena, Denver, Colorado
- Place to Watch: ROOT Northwest, Altitude (Avs feed), ESPN, TVAS, SportsNet, SportsNet 360
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
- Opposing Viewpoint: Mile High Hockey
What Happened Last Game?:
The Kraken beat the Avalanche in a 3-2 Barnburner! Here’s Jordan Eberle’s OT winner just to get your blood pumping again!
Game Preview:
It’s Game 5! A lot of people didn’t think we’d get this far and are still underrating the Kraken over and over based on all that star power the Maroon and Blue have. They just can’t screw things up enough to start taking themselves out of the lineup and forcing the Avs to reach into their depth after a bad game, right? Certainly they won’t be doing something so stupid that they’ll get suspended, right?
Game 5 is going to be gut check time for both squads: While Rantanen has been a terror for Seattle so far, the Avs have been having a hell of a time getting Nathan MacKinnon going at any decent clip, and now they need their blueliner depth to step up being time after Makar went ahead and got himself suspended.
Meanwhile, the Kraken need to continue to reinforce good habits they formed over the course of Game 4; namely absolutely hammering the Avs at even strength, cashing in on power play goals, and limiting opportunities for Colorado’s big guns…all without Jared McCann, whom they will be without for Game 5 and 6. It’s likely in this case that Jesper Froden (or someone on the Firebirds? Who knows!) slots in on the 4th line with some minor shuffling beyond that, as he’s been the extra forward at practices lately. Good opportunity for him, but also for guys like Jaden Schwartz to really shine in this situation.
The Avs are gonna be in front of their home crowd who will no doubt be trying to get these squids off their game early, trying not to crawl back into games like they’ve been. Truly, there’s no better time like playoff hockey, because this game is gonna rock no matter who comes out swinging first.
I for one, just hope it’s Seattle.
With all that in mind, LET’S GO KRAKEN, GO SQUIDS!
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