The St. Louis Blues will visit the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday evening having won four games in a row and popping back above .500 for the season. They wore down the Canucks on Monday night in Vancouver for a 5-1 victory.
This is the second consecutive home game at Climate Pledge Arena that the Kraken will benefit from a team coming in on the 2nd game of a back-to-back.
Sunday evening Seattle came from behind to beat a Winnipeg Jets team that was also coming off a 5-1 victory in Vancouver the night before and had played three games in four nights and four in seven. The Kraken scored the game tying and winning goals in the third period.
Seattle enters action in third place in the Pacific Division with 37 points, just one ahead of the Edmonton Oilers, but with three games in hand.
He’s Dunn
Since becoming an NHL franchise Seattle hasn’t beaten St Louis in four tries. During the inaugural season the Kraken dropped the first ever meeting 2-1 on January 13th in Missouri, were shut-out 5-0 at home eight nights later and lost 4-1 on April 6th back on the road.
In the lone match-up this season the Blues won 4-3 in overtime on a Justin Faulk goal on October 19th at CPA.
For two Kraken players, it took a bit of time to get used to playing against St. Louis. That would be forward Jaden Schwartz, acquired by Seattle as a free agent in the summer of 2021 and defenseman Vince Dunn, selected by the Kraken from St. Louis in the expansion draft. They both helped the Blues franchise win its first ever Stanley Cup in 2019.
After a period of weirdness, now it’s just another game.
“The first time was pretty difficult, I can’t lie,” Dunn said Tuesday morning at the Kraken Community Iceplex. “It was really weird playing against them especially the career I had there before joining this organization, I think now it’s just a normal game. It’s a lot easier to just relax and focus on myself rather than who I’m playing against. It’s always exciting to play against them, still have a lot of friends on the team, staff, and the city. It’s exciting games for me and definitely want to get a win tonight.”
Kooky Stats
Although the Kraken have a much better winning percentage and are six points better than the Blues, the statistical comparison is remarkable in its similarities.
Both teams have won nine road games, both have leading scorers with 28 points — Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas for St. Louis and Andre Burakovsky for Seattle — and both have lousy penalty kills overall.
Although improved lately, the Blues have killed just 70.1% of opposing power plays this season while the Kraken are at 69.1%. That’s 29th and 30th ranked in the NHL. The Blues and Kraken perform similarly with the man advantage as well; 22.7% and 22.1%.
In their last 10 games the Blues are 4-5-1 and the Kraken 5-and-5.
Something’s gotta give. Have at it !
Enjoy the Hockey Action!!
