The Need to Knows
- The Time: 7pm PT
- The Place: Climate Pledge Arena in Beautiful Seattle, Washington
- Place to Watch: KHN, KONG, MSG-Sports Network
- Place to Listen: Kraken Audio Network via KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: All About The Jersey
Know Your Enemy
- The New Jersey Devils are 24-15-3, which is good for 2nd in the Metropolitan Division, and for 51 points in the standings.
- Somehow, even with Hughes back, Jesper Bratt is still the lead points-getter for the Devils. He’s got 48 in 42 games.
- The leading goalscorer for the Devils is Nico Hischier; who has 19 in 42 games.
- The Devils are killers on the man-advantage; currently 2nd in the entire NHL in power play-% with a 28.9% rate of success.
- The Devils are a top 10 team in possession, but what really makes them so dangerous is their ability to get quality chances; only the Carolina Hurricanes have a better Expected-Goals For per 60 than they do.
- Their goaltending has Jacob Markstrom back in the saddle after a lengthy injury. He’s currently sitting on a .911 SV% on 29 starts. Backup Jake Allen was in against the Kings in a loss, so it’s reasonable to expect Markstrom to start tonight.
Game Preview
Welcome to the halfway point of the season, friends. And what a time to come into it.
A rapidly increasing number of injured players either going on the mend or being replaced by Coachella Valley Firebirds, an offense in disarray, a defense in shambles, and any hope of April hockey having been dashed into near oblivion, with even fellow moribund teams like Anaheim slowly beginning to find form and pull away from them. To say that whatever was expected of this season has not gone even mildly according to plan is severely understating it.
Mercifully, it appears that’s also true of the New Jersey Devils’ recent play.
Being away from Newark seems to have done something to the Devils over this road trip they’re on; they’ve lost every game they’ve played so far and while they’ve been capable of scoring, it appears that 2 goals is about as much as they’re capable of putting up even against bad competition like the Sharks. Something about the way they’re currently playing is going deeply awry and with only one player on IR, it falls to all that talent the Devils have accumulated, healthy as far as we know, to try and figure out what the hell’s going on in time for the Cryptid Cup.
So. What do the Kraken need to do in order to beat the Devils tonight.
Well, they need to make a serious effort towards attacking the net and the middle of the ice. The Devils are fast and ferocious, so every time they have the puck matters. Further, while Markstrom/Allen have been great players overall this year, the defense in front of them has been slipping considerably over the past week and change. The Kraken need to take full advantage of the Devils’ currently languishing efforts in their own end, and for god’s sake; get the hell off the half-wall in order to create chances. They’ve struggled with this mightily over the past two weeks and it’s never made sense for a team that loves moving the puck around like they do to try stop and start play like that. Keep the puck moving, force their defense to miss assignments…and there’s a winner in here.
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS