Just the Facts
- The Time: 10pm EST
- The Place: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington
- Place to Watch: NESN, KONG, Amazon Prime (if you’re local to Washington), SportsNet
- Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Davy Jones’ Locker Room
Game Preview
So those Kraken, a team a lot of people sort of wrote off as directionless with too many albatross contracts and too few high-end scoring talents…appear to be third in the division and have one of the best
records in the Pacific over the last ten games.
This season’s theme is “wait, really?”
So yeah! The Kraken are….good, I guess? They’ve managed to be a prototypical Lane Lambert team in that they love their low event games, but manage to get enough chaos from their young talent and from their vets to create decent net-front chances. They’re extremely easy to keep to the outside…most of the time. Their craftiness in stretching out defenses (especially not great ones) is what’s made them a difficult beat recently and got them somehow back into the picture out west. The Pacific Division is less a monkey knife fight and now just a bunch of apes taking swings at every jugular they can find in a room full of mirrors; it will be a miracle if anyone in that division escapes it unscathed.
Riding some highs of Jordan Eberle, Eeli Tolvanen, Matty Beniers, and Chandler Stephenson of all people has also made their attack extremely difficult to gauge; they usually take few shots and get fewer high danger chances…but they also drag you right down into that as well, meaning every single scoring chance suddenly counts for a lot more than it did previously.
Oh yeah, and they have better than average goaltending. That definitely feels pretty Lane Lambert.
The Kraken already played Grubauer against Calgary, but right now neither of their goalies are easy beats. Daccord usually goes about four or five games before his first clunker of a game (and he already finished that against Vancouver), and Grubauer, someone we all assumed was washed, is now rocking a SV% that could, and I swear to god this is true, be close to league leading among goaltenders who’ve started at least 12 games. This team is much like this NHL Season, in that they defy a lot of conventional wisdom about the sport in order to be successful, and Boston cannot take them for granted.
The Bruins meanwhile…are actually kind of figuring things out again. While having fallen out of a wildcard spot, they’re riding high on beating Edmonton and Vancouver in extremely impressive fashions. Part of it is yes, they do have at least one of their stars playing lights out, but now they’ve got a little extra help in Fraser Minten, who’s got 4 points in 2 games. Once again it will require the Bruins to find a way to break open the game and absolutely not get suckered into playing Lambert hockey. Lambert hockey will absolutely force some of the stragglers on the Bruins to try and make plays…and recently that’s been a bit of a mixed bag. They need to get this game moving fast, they need to force Daccord to make big saves, and keep him moving. He’s a very active goalie and the Kraken defense isn’t very mobile, so catching him while he’s out of position is a great way to score on him. Keep hammering the net, and if your best is on the ice, give them the room to make the magic happen. That does apparently include Fraser Minten, for what it’s worth.
Oh yeah, and you’ve got absolutely zero excuse if you can’t score on the Kraken during power plays. They’ve absolutely earned their 32nd in the league PK. If you gotta get even, get even on the power play. Any missed opportunities can and should be judged harshly. Trust me.
Will the Bruins even the all-time series against Seattle and come home with a song in their hearts? Or will there be more bubbling discontent?
Let’s find out tonight!
