The Need to Knows
- Time: 1:00 pm PT / 4:00 pm ET
- Place: Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, WA
- Where to Watch: KHN, KONG, Sportsnet Pittsburgh, ESPN+ (all other U.S. markets)
- Where to Listen: Kraken Audio Network on KJR 93.3
Know Your Enemy
I’ve already written much about the Penguins’ story this season in my preview piece when the Kraken were playing in Pittsburgh. Not much has changed in terms of their floundering fates. The Eastern Conference playoff chase I was referring to before has started to separate out the true contenders for those Wild Card spots from the pretenders, and the Penguins are looking like they’re in the latter category. The playoffs seem to be slipping away from them once again, spelling that the golden years in Pittsburgh might not be coming back anytime soon.
One major change, however, is that Tristan Jarry was re-assigned down to the Penguins’ AHL team in Wilkes-Barre. Honestly, the writing was on the wall for a while that Jarry’s days in Pittsburgh were running out. For years, Jarry’s play had been inconsistent, but he continued to play just well enough that the team didn’t feel forced to move on from him until now. In general, his .886% save percentage and 3.31 goals against average this season weren’t up to par, but Jarry was also committing a bizarre but worrisome trend of letting teams score on him on the first shot he saw. It happened 6 times in the 22 games he played, and if it wasn’t the against the first shot, he often let in any of the ones immediately after. In the game on January 14, Chandler Stephenson scored on Jarry on what was the Kraken’s second shot of the game: and it was while the Kraken were shorthanded, to boot. When Jarry was in net, it felt like opposing skaters were turning into hockey’s version of Kyle Schwarber hitting lead-off. I have no idea if there’s any other goaltender who was so consistent in just not being ready to stop shots at the start of a game, but it’s certainly not what any team wants. Another poor start and a 4-2 loss to the Kraken turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, because Jarry was on the waiver wire the next day. And it may have been the right move, because his first game with WBS turned out similarly.
On the injury update front, it should be noted that Bryan Rust was not at practice on Friday, and Coach Mike Sullivan announced that he is day-to-day. He never returned for the third period during the Penguins’ contest against the Ducks on Thursday night.
Game Preview
Keeping the injury theme going, Coach Dan Bylsma stated during practice on Friday that Stephenson, Jared McCann, and Ryker Evans are all game-time decisions for tonight. Stephenson didn’t return in Thursday’s game against the Capitals, and McCann at one point had his hand banged-up. Beyond that, that’s all the info known about their statuses. Adding to the fact that Yanni Gourde and Jordan Eberle are still out, and it feels like the Kraken might need Buoy to step in at forward.
Beyond that, the goal is for the Kraken to duplicate what they had done when they were in Pittsburgh. It’ll be harder to do while more players are injured, but wins still matter even though the team is all but officially out of playoff contention. The best thing for the Kraken is to keep on playing as if they have something to fight for, because it’ll instill better habits for the team for next year. That, and it’s still more fun for the local fans that are still showing up to CPA to come home with a win.