The Need to Knows
- The Time: 4pm PT
- The Place: Canadian Tire Center, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Place to Watch: KHN, KONG, SportsNet-1
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM via Kraken Audio Network
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Silver Seven
Know Your Enemy
- The Senators are 5-5-0, which is good for 10 points, and 4th in the Atlantic Division.
- The leader in goals for the Sens is Brady Tkachuk; as you might expect their start to be. He’s got 6 goals in 10 games.
- Tkachuk and Tim Stützle are tied for their team’s lead in points; both have 14 points in 10 games. Stützle is also the principal assist-getter for the Sens; with 9 in 10 games.
- The Sens are a deep team when it comes to scoring; Adam Gaudette generally gets around 10 minutes a night, and is tied for 2nd on the team in goals with Claude Giroux with six, and Gaudette is also one of the top 5 play drivers in terms of the shooting metrics. Gonna need to keep an eye on this fella.
- Linus Ullmark played last night against the Rangers in their 2-1 loss, and so the expectation is that they will be playing Anton Forsberg tonight. Forsberg has started 5 games, has a 2-2-0 record, and an .895 SV%.
Game Notes
Well, the Kraken didn’t quite have it against one team in Ontario. Let’s try the other one!
The Sens at .500 are actually in a much better position than the Kraken are even with the single OTL differentiating the two; they’ve taken advantage of the Atlantic Division being kind of a mire of teams playing well below their pedigrees…even if they themselves have been kind of unable to truly build a foothold for themselves thanks to a number of games where their defense forces their goaltending to play the hero or risk being blown out…and getting blown out as a result. That shouldn’t be a sign of an easy win however; the Senators are pretty good at getting shots through all the way to the net, though they’re a bit mediocre at making them truly dangerous.
Where they are dangerous however, is on the power play. The Sens man-advantage is nothing short of lethal at the moment; standing at 2nd overall in the NHL with a 36.4% success rate. The Kraken, if they want to beat the Sens, must ensure that they are squeaky clean in the referee’s eyes (not an easy thing to do in this league) or that their penalty kill, which has been pretty solid, is on their A++ game. If they can do that? They can give themselves a chance. Where they can go next to pull up a win is the upper slot; which the Sens are curiously bad at defending. Their net-front defense is stout, and so trying to crack that will be tough, but just outside of it? Early returns from the last ten games suggests that it’s easier to get shots in from the middle of the ice than you’d expect. After that, it’s about establishing a possession and transition game that stymies the Sens. This is a talented team to be sure, but they are exceptionally mortal; even with their upgrades in net.
Should make for a fun matchup, either way! Let’s get back in the win column!
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS!