The Need to Knows
- Time: 6:30 pm PT / 9:30 pm ET
- Place: Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, MN
- Where to Watch: TNT, MAX
- Where to Listen: Kraken Audio Network on KJR 93.3
Know Your Enemy
It wasn’t that long ago that the Kraken last faced the Minnesota Wild. In fact, it was just earlier this month on March 4. Yet, with everything that has happened in hockey since that date, it feels like a lot more time has passed between these two contests. When it comes to the Kraken, Yanni Gourde, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Brandon Tanev were all still regulars in the lineup. It would be the next day after that game against the Wild that Gourde and Bjorkstrand were shipped off to Tampa, but it doesn’t feel like that was only two weeks ago. However, this is the know your enemy section, so let’s review what the Wild have been up to.
At the trade deadline, the Wild didn’t do anything too overly flashy. They acquired three players into the organization in Justin Brazeau, Gustav Nyquist, and Vinnie Hinostroza and traded away Marat Khusnutdinov and Jakub Lauko to the Boston Bruins. A lot of why they couldn’t make some of the flashier moves that other Central Division teams made came down to salary cap restraints. (Though, let’s be real, no one was going to make a flashier move in the entire league than the Dallas Stars acquiring Mikko Rantanen). GM Bill Guerin didn’t have as much wiggle room to play with to allow the Wild to do more than tinker around with the margins.
The Wild still appear to be locks for the playoffs. They’re currently in the Western Conference’s top Wild Card spot, but their 81 points give them a decent amount of headway against the second Wild Card team and all the other teams that are caught up in the race. Basically, unless the Wild epically collapse during this final month of the regular season, they’re due to play some late April hockey. Yet, fans might have wanted the Wild to make more trade deadline moves to bolster the roster not necessarily for the playoffs themselves, but to weather the storm that the remainder of the season is sure to bring.
Part of why that is is that the Wild are continuing to suffer through injury woes. Two of their best players, Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek, continue to sit on the injured reserve list. It was announced back on January 28 that Kaprizov was undergoing surgery, and while the initial timeline projected a 4 week recovery, it’s quickly approaching almost 2 months without him in the lineup for the Wild with no real sense of when he could return. There are also some injury updates surrounding Jonas Brodin and Marcus Foligno, who are both currently considered day-to-day. Brodin has been out since February 28, but there’s a feeling that he could be ready to return to the lineup soon after seeing him participate in skates with the team. It could be tonight against the Kraken, or it might not. As of the time of me writing this, the Wild haven’t held a pre-game skate for there to be these kinds of updates. As for Foligno, he was a late scratch in the Wild’s contest against the Kings on March 17. There’s been nothing I’ve seen reported as to severity of the upper body injury, so it’s again hard to determine his availability for tonight.
Again, there’s still enough of a buffer that the Wild aren’t in immediate danger of slipping out of the playoff race. Yet, it’s hard not to feel like the restraints Minnesota are in cap-wise put them in a position that’s going to wear them out by the time the playoffs arrive. Continuing to play without top players and without being able to bring in any reinforcements is a tough battle to face.
Game Preview
Tonight’s contest is the second half of a back-to-back with travel for the Kraken. Last night saw the Kraken jump out to a definitive victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on the back of what was actually a good second period. Now the team travels from one Midwest state to another as they arrive in Minnesota.
Now, it can be easy to dismiss some of the more recent victories that the Kraken have pulled off. Scoring 6 goals against the Blackhawks feels like a task pretty much most teams in the league should pull off considering how abysmal their season has been. Beating the Flyers is also an easy task lately considering Philadelphia just went only 1-for-7 in their most recent homestand and haven’t scored a goal in their last 2 games. Yet, the Kraken are also proving themselves against the bubble teams that are in the playoff hunt. They recently beat the Montreal Canadiens (who pulled into the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference last night) and the Utah Hockey Club (who are hovering within shooting distance of a Western Wild Card spot). Of the games they have dropped recently, they were against the best teams in each conference (the Washington Capitals and the Winnipeg Jets), and while it would have made a statement to beat either of them, there’s no shame in losing to the best.
Minnesota ranks a bit higher in that playoff hunt than Montreal or Utah do, but with the injuries piling up for them, this could be a chance for the Kraken to continue to prove themselves. It may be a lost season for the Kraken, but there is still one thing that each player on that roster can play for. After all, Ron Francis shipped out quite a few players at the deadline. Everyone who he kept around needs to prove that they are worthy of that honor. After all, it feels as if the organization is experiencing more pressure than ever to turn the Kraken into a winning team. While this part of the season is also time for auditions for prospects such as Jani Nyman, it’s also time for the veterans to re-audition. It’s hard to say that anyone’s place on this team is guaranteed anymore, so they’ll all need to fight for it.