The Need to Knows
- Time: 6:00 pm PT / 9:00 pm ET
- Place: Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, WA
- Where to Watch: KHN, KONG, MSGSN (NYC market), ESPN+ (other U.S. markets)
- Where to Listen: Kraken Audio Network on KJR 93.3
Know Your Enemy
The Rangers currently sit at 4th in the Metropolitan Division based on total points, but going by points percentage, they should actually be sitting at 3rd. Currently, the Metro Division seems to be splitting itself down the line pretty well between its playoff teams and its non-contenders, and the Rangers are quite comfortable in that top 4.
In my eyes, their biggest star is Igor Shesterkin. According to Rangers fans, Shesterkin almost feels fated to follow a similar path as Henrik Lundqvist, where he’s a goaltending superstar, but the team around him can never seem to capture the lightning-in-a-bottle phenomenon needed to help him earn the ultimate pinnacle: a Stanley Cup. Now, it’s still early enough in Shesterkin’s career to truly make the call on that. It’s up to the rest of the team, though, to see if they can do for him what Rangers teams of the past couldn’t do for King Hank.
It helps that the Rangers do have a good core to build around. Artemi Panarin is far and away the team’s best offensive player, with 10 goals and 13 assists. Chris Kreider has an interesting stat line in that he has 8 goals but no assists on the season so far. Almost in the reverse is defenseman Adam Fox with 13 assists but 0 goals. Even some of the younger players are fairing out well, such as Alexis Lafrenière’s 13 points to start the season. Mika Zibanejad, who is usually another name that ranks high for the Rangers, has started this season with a goal scoring slump. He hadn’t scored in 9 games, but finally potted a goal on Thursday against the Sharks. When Zibanejad is on a roll, he can be one of the most lethal scoring threats. See: that time he scored 5 goals in a game. No, he’s not going to do that every game, but it shows you what he’s capable of.
Game Preview
As is customary in a back-to-back, since Joey Daccord got the start in yesterday’s contest, Philipp Grubauer is due to start tonight. One trend that I would like to see the Kraken buck tonight is how they seem to refuse to give Grubauer any sort of goal support. In 6 games played this season, Grubauer has only recorded a win in one of them: the October 17th contest against the Philadelphia Flyers. Now, something that stands out about that game against the Flyers is that the Kraken put up 6 goals that night. In the other 5 contests with Grubauer in net this season, the Kraken haven’t scored more than 3 goals. Even more insulting, in 2 of those games, the Kraken put up a whopping 0 goals. Most of these contests were also only lost by a 1-or-2 goal differential, meaning these games weren’t hopelessly out of reach. There’s this sense that the Kraken are shooting themselves in the foot (or I guess in the tentacle?) whenever Grubauer is in net by not generating enough offense.
The Kraken have been rolling, though. They’re now on a 4-game winning streak, the longest of the season so far. While teams like Columbus and Chicago were much easier opponents, the Kraken did kick off this winning streak with a win against Vegas. These things do wonders for a team’s confidence. The Kraken may still be down their captain, but there’s other developments such as starting to see André Burakovsky pick up steam, and Daniel Sprong is officially back with the team. Plus, when the fourth line is contributing to the scoring pretty consistently, it’s a sign that things are trending in the right direction. Tonight could turn the tide and give Grubauer a chance to get back into the win column himself.