The Calgary Flames seem to be entering crisis-mode this early season as they get set to visit the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night. South Alberta’s team appears to lack “jam”, leadership, and the ability to score consistently.
They’ve lost six games in a row and sit next-to-last in the Pacific Division with five points.
Kraken Game Facts
This Evening: Calgary Flames at Seattle Kraken
Where: Climate Pledge Arena
When: 7 pm pacific
TV/Radio: ROOT Sports NW / FM 93.3
Key Factors:
Starting goalies: Dan ‘Planet’ Vladar for Calgary, Philipp Grubauer goes for Seattle.
The Kraken have their first back-to-back wins of the season after Thursday’s 4-2 home victory over the Nashville Predators. That came after a Monday night win in Tampa Bay to wrap up their four-game eastern road trip.
Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jordan Eberle have three assists over their last three games against the Flames.
Who’s Hot? And Not …
Seattle winger Jared McCann keeps it going. He has a three-game goal scoring streak and can match the career high four-game streak he set with Seattle last October. He has eight points over his last seven games.
A goal or an assist for Jaden Schwartz would extend his point streak to six games, matching his longest since 2019 when he was with the St. Louis Blues.
Seattle’s veteran defenseman Brian Dumoulin has scored a goal in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.
Top line center Matty Beniers is still looking for his first goal of the season.
Per Kraken PR, Flames home grown (2015 NHL Draft) winger Andrew Mangiapane is second on the team in scoring with seven points and is one goal away from having 100 for his career.
Flames 2nd line center Nazem Kadri has only one goal and three assists through ten games while his winger Yegor Sharangovich has just three points.
Special Teams
The Kraken power play went 1-for-4 against the Predators on Thursday, boosting the season total to 8 for 32 or 25%. That’s a very solid number.
The inverse is the penalty kill which continues to slide down a slippery slope after a red hot start to the season. Nashville went 2-for-5 on their PP, dropping Seattle’s PK to 74.2% through eleven games. That’s 25th best in a 32 team league.
The Flames man advantage clicks just 16.2% of the time, ranked 18th.
Calgary’s penalty kill has been their clear strong suit, 4th best in the NHL at a remarkable 91.4%. They’ve given up just three power play goals all season.
Coming In:
Flames: 2-7-and-1 after a 4-3 home loss to the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night.
Kraken: 4-5-and-2, coming off the 4-2 win over Nashville two nights ago.
“We’ve been in their spot,” Beniers said Saturday morning, regarding the Kraken’s slow start to the season. “We know how much desperation you need to play with and how much desperation they’re going to come out with, so we’ve gotta match that.”
Recent Kraken:
— Kraken NHL Friday: Day Off, Canucks Romp, Sharks Laughingstock
— Seattle Kraken Overwhelm The Nashville Predators 4-2
