The Need to Knows
- The Time: 6pm PT
- The Place: Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta
- Place to Watch: KONG, Amazon Prime Video, SportsNet West
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
Game Preview
IT’S HERE! HOCKEY IS FINALLY HERE! HOCKEY THAT COUNTS IS FINALLY, AT LONG LAST HERE!
And your Kraken are in it. So! Let’s discuss our foe for the evening; the Calgary Flames.
Coming off of terrible previous seasons, both sides in this contest are trying desperately to sell either hope or the prospect of becoming a playoff threat. Seattle won this series 2-1 last season, and while that is fun, it is now ancient history; Calgary will be orders of magnitude healthier than they’ve been, and are hoping for rebound performances from guys like Matt Coronato, Mikael Backlund, Dylan Strome, Simon Nemec, “Hey wasn’t that guy on the Flyers”, “Hey that guy was also on the Flyers” and “how many former Flyers are on the Flames!?”.
Analytically, I can understand why Flames fans are more than a little annoyed. They were an okay team under the hood that was hampered badly by multiple injuries, and also a seeming aversion for the net-front that stymied their ability to do much of anything when they had the puck. As a middle of the pack team in possession metrics, you really want to try and leverage your shots into the middle of the ice as much as you can…and Calgary didn’t do that. Missing Huberdeau, potentially for the rest of the year, could make that all the harder for these Flames. They were also weirdly bad at clearing the high slot, which I imagine their refreshed defense will be slightly better at this year.
The Kraken of course have one major issue that faces them in red; goaltender Dustin Wolf. Wolf is more than likely a superstar in the making with his team if they ever manage to figure themselves out; positionally sound and agile and a career .903 SV% on some not-great Flames teams. Seattle needs to solve him and quick if they want to leave tonight’s game with the season. They’re also gonna want to keep an eye on this Matvei Gradin character; a damn solid prospect who looks to make a major step as a member of Calgary’s top 6. He’s gonna try to make an impact and early to reward himself for making the cut.
So welcome to a brand new season, welcome to DJLR, lets go get two points, and LET’S GO KRAKEN!