The Need to Knows
- Time: 12:30 PM PT
- Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle
- Watch: ESPN, ESPN+/SportsNet+
- Listen: KJR 93.3 FM
The Stats
The Detroit Red Wings are good at scoring goals this season as they’re currently sixth in the league at doing so. The key to this game for the Kraken will be defense against a team with balanced approach to winning and a roster with veteran player presence. The Kraken special teams will need to strike hard with a strong eye towards defense.
Here’s how the teams currently stack up:
What to Look For
The Red Wings are currently on a 1-game winning streak after defeating Calgary on Saturday. Before that, they lost to Vancouver, 1-4 and Edmonton, 4-8.
Detroit and Seattle last played in October of 2023 and the Kraken won that game 5-4. The Kraken are coming off a two-game winning streak, including the notable defeat of Boston, in Boston, 4-1. This game will the the first in a long stretch of home games.
Injuries
There’s not a lot to report about player injuries for Seattle. Two key injured players we’ve been waiting for—Philipp Grubauer and Pierre-Édouard Bellemare—are both eligible to play again.
Detroit’s Ville Husso (G) is out as of February 15 due to a lower body injury.
Key Players
We, of Kraken Nation, love to talk about goalkeeping since Joey Daccord is currently ranked 3rd in the league in Goals Against, bested only by Conner Hellebuyck of Winnipeg and Adin Hill of Las Vegas. Now that Grubauer is active again and Daccord has been putting in the bulk of the minutes played, we’ll see who ends up starting against Detroit.
Detroit added Alex DeBrincat at the beginning of the season and it seems to have paid off as he’s second in both goals and points. Dylan Larkin continues to be an asset to the Red Wings. He’s scored 31 and 32 goals in the past two seasons and continues to be lead in goals and points.
Finally, some insight into who’s got the most penalty minutes so far this season:
Fun Facts
If you’re the type of person who visits the sports drama side of hockey social media, you might have read about Red Wing’s defenseman Jake Walman and his recent griddy celebration after scoring a winning goal in overtime against Vancouver. There were rumors that the NHL was displeased by his celebratory dancing and would issue warnings to both teams as a result. However, it seems those rumors are false and players can feel free to try out silly Fortnite-style dances on ice to celebrate.
Griddy away, boys. Griddy away.
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