The Need to Knows
- The Time: 7pm PT
- The Place: Beautiful Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle
- Place to Watch: KHN, Amazon Prime (PNW only), KONG
- Place to Listen: KJR 950 AM
We just saw these guys a few days ago in a 5-4 loss, but preseason record doesn’t matter. What matters is seeing the team improve from each game to the next, and the Kraken have largely done that. Throughout the preseason, we’ve seen a mishmash of CHL, AHL, and NHL talent going against each other. The majority of even-strength goals the Kraken have given up this preseason have been with defensemen on the ice who won’t be in the lineup on opening day. So I wouldn’t take away too much from the team’s preseason record of 1-3-1.
The Oilers and Kraken are in different spots right now. While the Oilers also haven’t had their full NHL roster for a preseason game so far, Edmonton is trying to ramp up to the finely-tuned machine that went to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Their core is established and very, very good. They started extremely poorly to start the regular season last year, and though they were able to dig themselves out of a huge hole, they don’t want to kick things off again with a bunch of losing again. That’s playing with fire.
The Kraken are figuring out a new coach, a new system, and what they have in their new players.
But what they do have in common is most (but not all) of the rosters are settled after being largely unsettled throughout the preseason, which is how preseason tends to go. Here is what I’m watching for with the Oilers:
- The not-gentlemanly German Leon Draisaitl*, who is both one of the very best players in the NHL and yet implausibly not the best player on his own team, is centering a new line with Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner. Draisaitl’s needed help on the wing as the second line center, and the Oilers signed those two free agents to ostensibly do exactly that. They’ve only played one preseason game together so far. How does that line look?
- Defenseman Darnell Nurse, cousin of Sarah Nurse, has not yet played this preseason due to injury. Will he return for this game? He’s been “cleared for game action,” so that sounds like potentially a yes. Or they could wait until their preseason finale against Vancouver. I don’t know. This isn’t an Oilers site and we are getting way into the weeds here, especially for a preseason game.
- Literally anything Connor McDavid does because you can’t not notice him when he’s on the ice and failing to include him here would be malpractice. It’s not just the goals and assists; he creates so much gravity with his skating.
He’s not the most outgoing guy but he seems like a perfectly decent human being. I have some issues with the Oilers as an organization, but none of that is on McDavid. Any time I get to watch an absolute megalegend like Connor McDavid, I’m going to.
What about the squids?
The Kraken, who started out camp with 60 players, are now down to 24 players by my count. This will be much closer to what we will see on opening day. No longer will we see the power play units run by a mix of AHL and NHL talent. We can more precisely evaluate how the lines and defensive pairings look. These were the lines/pairs in practice yesterday (Tye Kartye is dealing with “an ailment” and did not practice):
That Tolvanen-Wright-Bjorkstrand line sounds fun. I love the idea of Wright and Bjorkstrand on the same line. Wright’s hockey IQ is already so high and he processes the game very quickly, as does Bjorkstrand and I think they could play well off each other.
I also really like the idea of pairing Chandler Stephenson and Andrรฉ Burakovsky together. Burakovsky has been the best Kraken this preseason. I just hope he stays healthy, because if he is healthy, I think we will see Burakovsky in his final form.
There is nothing to figure out in goal; there is a clear gap between goalie #2 and #3 in the organization. Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord will be your goalies in some order barring injury.
Just one more game until these things actually count. After tonight, we’re off for six whole days before the very early season opener.
*Note to any Oilers fans reading this: I don’t think Draisaitl was in the wrong in the interview and being asked “why are you so pissy?” is a completely ludicrous thing to ask. It’s an all-time bad question. I just wanted to use the wordplay since Philipp Grubauer is the “German Gentleman.” Please do not get mad** at me.
**or pissy