The Need to Knows
- The Time: 7:00 pm PT / 10:00 pm ET
- The Place: Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, WA
- Where to Watch: KHN, KING 5, ESPN+ (out of market)
- Where to Listen: Kraken Audio Network on KJR 93.3
Know Your Enemy
Awaiting the Kraken back home as they’re finally done with their road trip is an extremely familiar formidable foe: the Vegas Golden Knights. Not only do the Kraken have an overall 2-9-1 record against the Golden Knights, the “older brother” expansion team is currently sitting pretty atop the stands of the Pacific Division with a 9-3-1 record and a .731% points percentage. While other teams have made themselves more bitter rivals (see: the Colorado Avalanche), the sheer success of Vegas is always going to be a thorn in the Kraken’s side. There’s always that reminder that the Golden Knights performed feats that expansion teams usually don’t do in both making the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season and being the fastest expansion team to win the Stanley Cup. While the league became much more savvy the second time around and didn’t hand the Kraken the keys to early success during their expansion draft, there’s still immense pressure to play some form of catch up. I think we can see this with how the Kraken were so quick to move on from Dave Hakstol and in the way that Ron Francis has suddenly started dishing out large contracts, both in dollar amount and term. It’s no longer acceptable to take your time to find your footing, and Vegas is to blame.
This year’s version of the Golden Knights isn’t exactly the same, with players both coming in and out (hi Chandler Stephenson, it’s nice to have you on this side of the rivalry). However, there are still some of the usual suspects to keep an eye out for such as Mark Stone and Shea Theodore. Jack Eichel is also a key player for Vegas, and Noah Hanifin has scored 3 goals in his past 2 games.
Game Preview
After jumping out to a scoring frenzy against the Canadiens to start off their (primarily) Eastern Time Zone road trip, the Kraken faltered at being able to generate any sort of offensive momentum. Against the Maple Leafs, Senators, and Bruins, the Kraken only scored 1 goal across those 3 games, and for the first time in franchise history, the Kraken were shutout in back-to-back contests. Against the Avalanche, the Kraken’s offense lit back up a little, but it wasn’t enough against an extremely talented offensive team.
Another wrinkle for the Kraken was the news on Thursday that Phillip Grubauer was out day-to-day courtesy of an “unfortunate accident at home.” No, I have no idea what this “unfortunate accident” could be, and I’m actually not sure I want to know what kind of accident it must be if there’s going to be no other further detail about it. All I know is that it’s enough to prompt the team to call up Ales Stezka from Coachella Valley. All signs point to Joey Daccord getting the start, but without a healthy Grubauer, a back-up is still needed.
Right now, my optimism that formidable foes can actually be defeated has been dampened a bit, but I’m still going to maintain my usual stance when approaching individual games: hockey is weird. The odds of a win tonight might be low, but they are never zero. If this were Zaiem writing this piece, he’d be able to provide a good comparison with a deck of cards. I couldn’t tell you what the probability is of drawing a King of Hearts on the first try, but the chance is there. Even if they don’t pull off the win, though, the hope is that being back at home can recharge the team a bit and allow them to get back into a groove. There have been flashes of what this group is capable of. It’s just about executing that consistently.