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Kraken vs. Sharks PREVIEW: Marine Mayhem

The Kraken take on the team that had the most baffling season series lead over them tonight: the San Jose Sharks

The Need to Knows

  • The Time: 7:30pm PT
  • The Place: Climate Pledge Arena in Beautiful Seattle, WA
  • Place to Watch: ESPN, ESPN+
  • Place to Listen: Kraken Audio Network via KJR 93.3-FM
  • An Opposing Viewpoint: Fear the Fin

Know Your Enemy

  • The Sharks are 15-32-6, and are dead last in both the Pacific Division and Western Conference.
  • San Jose’s leading goalscorer is Tyler Toffoli, who has 17 goals in 50 games. Right behind him is their Wunderkind; Macklin Celebrini, who has 16 in 41 games.
  • Frankly if there’s a stat tracked this year, the Sharks are probably in the bottom 5, but their power play isn’t completely in the bog. They rank 26th in the league with one the man advantage.
  • The Sharks have put Alex Georgiev, Vitek Vanecek, and Yaroslav Askarov out there in net, and so far only Askarov has been able to manage a .905 SV%. Not great in the modern NHL, but far better than Georgiev or Vanecek.

Game Preview

With any other team that was as bad as the Sharks have been, I would be describing the state of the franchise, how they got here, what decisions led them here, and how that’s effected the team overall and their place in the NHL as a whole.

We’re not doing that with San Jose right now. Because San Jose happens to be up 2-0 in the season series against Seattle, and neither game has been especially competitive towards the team in Deep Blue.

The Kraken have begun what is hopefully a series of steps towards their future with the waiving of Philipp Grubauer, and one can only imagine a number of other moves are in the works. The Time of saving jobs is upon us, and the Kraken must find a victory against this Sharks squad. Scoring hasn’t been the issue: unacceptable defensive efforts on the other hand, has been issue #1.

If the Kraken can just play defense like it hasn’t been recently explained to them like they did in their last two meetings with the Sharks, then there’s a win here.

oh yeah and this game is on ESPN, so be wary of that.

LETS GO KRAKEN, LETS GO SQUIDS

Talking Points