One: Take care of business – The Kraken have registered points in eight of their last 10 games to keep pace in the Pacific Division. One of the two games where they didn’t pick up points was last week when the San Jose Sharks came into Climate Pledge Arena and rocked them 6-1 in arguably the worst Kraken game this season.
Many pundits and fans have already opined that last season effectively ended early for the Kraken when they did poor November job against the Sharks. The Kraken had been 11-11-1 at the time when they played a home-and-home series against San Jose, dropping the first game on the road 8-5 and then losing 4-2 at home. Just like that, the Kraken were never really the same.
Sure, the Sharks are a better team this season. But then again, so are the Kraken. San Jose just lost 2-0 in Calgary the other night to a struggling Flames team and despite an impressive 8-7-3 record are still a squad the Kraken need to be able to beat at home. The Kraken, incidentally, are 5-1-3 at home and going a long way towards giving themselves the kind of advantage at Climate Pledge that’s been missing the past several seasons.
The only regulation blemish on that home record? You guessed it. The Sharks. Time for the Kraken to take care of business and give themselves five of a possible six home points this mini homestand. Joey Daccord got hurt in that first Sharks game and is expected back shortly, but it will likely be Matt Murray going in this one as he was first off the ice at Saturday’s morning skate.
Two: Get down to work – One reason the Kraken took down the Winnipeg Jets in a bit of a stunner on Thursday night was their willingness to get down and dirty with the offense. They went to the tougher areas, exchanged blows with some of the rougher Jets players and didn’t back down. The fourth line again did plenty of the strong work, resulting in a net front goal by defenseman Vince Dunn after Ryan Winterton nearly scored on the initial attempt. But there was also work by others in getting to the tighter spaces and throwing their weight around.
Kaapo Kakko won’t play Saturday or anytime soon, with Kraken head coach Lane Lambert describing him Saturday as “week to week” with a lower body injury suffered soon after scoring his first goal of the season in Thursday’s win. Jani Nyman is a similarly big-bodied wing that will likely now be back in the lineup after several games as a healthy scratch. The Kraken did not take line rushes Saturday, but you’d expect Nyman to either replace Kakko’s line spot directly or be stationed on the fourth line as has been the case previously.
It was nice to see Eeli Tolvanen rewarded with his second goal of the season in less than a week Thursday on one of his typical one-timed shots. Tolvanen has been one of the more physical Kraken players all season and so getting to the dirty areas has not been an issue with him. Mason Marchment came away with a pair of assists in the game and has seemed more engaged the last few games than in the dozen prior. The Kraken badly need him to start delivering on the production in-tight that he was reputed for when they traded for him over the summer.
Freddy Gaudreau was said by Lambert to be a “gametime decision” for Saturday, though he was working with the penalty kill unit at morning skate and that’s usually a sign he’s going to play. We’ll go with that for now and see come gametime. Having him back won’t hurt when it comes to getting some of the tougher work done on both the forecheck and penalty kill.
Between Gaudreau and Marchment, that’s 40 goals worth of hard-working offense from last season that’s accounted for only one Kraken goal thus far and zero since opening night. Gaudreau has an excuse in that he’s been hurt, but the sooner he and Marchment start adding to the team’s goal totals the better off the entire squad will be.
Three: Know the foe – As mentioned, the Kraken know the Sharks all too well and need to start changing the dynamic. San Jose has a young, fast team and laying some extra body on them early and often when possible will go a long way towards slowing them down. One thing the Kraken need to avoid is getting caught out of position on transitions because getting into a track meet with these guys won’t help their cause.
Macklin Celebrini, the former No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft, had a goal and two assists against the Kraken last week and leads the team with 10 goals and 26 points — looking every bit the No. 1 centerman star he was touted to be. After that, there’s the talented Will Smith at seven goals and 17 points, having been taken No. 4 overall by the Sharks the year before Celebrini was drafted. And then after that, winger William Eklund is third in team scoring with 11 points after being taken at No. 7 overall in 2011.
This is, of course, the byproduct of having some very bad teams during a teardown. The Sharks have drafted high and picked up some premium talent now starting to emerge.
Throw in veterans such as Tyler Toffoli, Dmitry Orlov and former Kraken centerman Alex Wennberg and the Sharks can hang around games nowadays.
The Sharks had their longest points streak in nine years snapped at seven games by the Flames the other night. They have also allowed two goals or fewer in eight of their last 10 games, including the Kraken scoring just once on them. So, it will be up to the Kraken to try to score some early goals and not allow the Sharks to hang around and beat them again.
Projected Lineups (not official)
Marchment-Beniers-Eberle
Schwartz-Stephenson-Nyman
Tolvanen-Catton-Wright
Kartye-Gaudreau-Winterton
Dunn-Larsson
Lindgren-Montour
Evans-Oleksiak
Murray
