Seattle Kraken, Philipp Grubauer

Kraken Game Day: Grubauer Gets The Start, Stale Legs?

The Seattle Kraken will try to find their legs as quickly as possible at Climate Pledge Arena against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Philipp Grubauer will get the start in net for the home team.

The Kraken haven’t played in six days, since their 6-5 shoot-out loss to the Canucks in Vancouver on Thursday, December 22nd. The Flames come in having played last night at home in a 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the always feisty “Battle of Alberta”.

Two factors benefiting the visitors: They’ll be ornery following the loss and they won’t be rusty from the Christmas break.

The first halves of the first periods in both the Edmonton/Calgary and San Jose/Vancouver games on Tuesday night were a bit sloppy and slow as the teams ‘found their legs’. The Kraken may be feeling a little bit of that as they get up to game speed and timing. It shouldn’t be a problem for the Flames.

The reciprocal advantage to that is of course the Flames played and lost a tough game last night and had to jump on a plane and fly into Seattle late. The Kraken will be fresh and should see a bit of an advantage as the night wears on.

It’s the fourth consecutive home game for the Kraken that sees the visitor playing the 2nd half of a back-to-back set. Seattle has won two of the previous three this month.

Kraken – No Changes

Thanks to multiple media pals for providing this chart prior to Seattle Hockey Insider rolling into the practice rink. Same line-up we’ve seen lately for the 3rd place Pacific Division Kraken as they come out of the break, with recently acquired Eeli Tolvanen as the extra forward and Cale Fleury as the extra D-man.

Jaden Schwartz – Alexander Wennberg – Andre Burakovsky
Jared McCann – Matty Beniers – Jordan Eberle
Ryan Donato – Yanni Gourde – Oliver Bjorkstrand
Brandon Tanev – Morgan Geekie – Daniel Sprong

Adam Larsson – Vince Dunn
Jamie Oleksiak – Justin Schultz
Carson Soucy – Will Borgen

Dan Vladar is expected to start in net for the Flames. They enter the evening one point behind the Kraken in the standings with Seattle having played four less games.

Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.