Kraken Game Facts
This Evening: New York Islanders at Seattle Kraken
Where: Climate Pledge Arena
When: 7 pm pacific
TV/Radio: ROOT Sports NW / FM 93.3
Key Factors:
Starting goalies: Semyon Varlamov vs. Philipp Grubauer
Both clubs blew two-goal leads Wednesday night and both ended up losing 4-3 in overtime, the Islanders in Vancouver against the Canucks and the Kraken in Edmonton against the Oilers.
Both teams have been a bit discombobulated this season which would explain the Kraken being in 5th place in the Pacific Division and the Flames being in 7th place in the Metropolitan. Both teams have 14 points. New York has played two fewer games than Seattle, as has much of the NHL. The Kraken have played 17 games this season, more than any other team.
Seattle had nine different point getters in Edmonton, maybe a sign of some balanced scoring returning to the club.
Who’s Hot? And Not …
Winger Jordan Eberle has an assist in each of his last two games, one before his leg injury and one after. He missed three games after suffering a skate cut to his leg at practice on November 8th.
Winger Eeli Tolvanen is a point-a-game player over his last six.
Defenseman Vince Dunn has a four game point streak.
Centre Matty Beniers is still struggling to find the scoresheet, pointless in his last three games after scoring his first goal of the season on November 9th at Colorado.
For the Islanders forward Bo Horvat has a three game point streak, including a goal last night against his former team the Canucks.
Defenseman Noah Dobson picked up an assist in Vancouver and leads the Isles in scoring with 13 points in 15 games.
Special Teams
In four head-to-head match-ups since the Kraken came into existence, the Islanders have never scored a power play goal. They’ve only had a grand total of five power plays, which means Seattle has shown some discipline against the team from Long Island.
Overall the New York power play is 17th in the NHL at 20%, the acceptability benchmark. They went two-for-two against the Canucks. The Kraken are better than that at 23.1% or 9th best in the league, despite going 0-for-5 in Edmonton on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Seattle penalty kill held the Oilers off the board on the man advantage, killing all three Edmonton power plays and improving their season efficiency rate to a still substandard 73.1%.
The Isles are even worse at 71.2%. The Canucks went 3-for-6 on the power play vs. New York.
Coming In:
Islanders: 5-6-and-4 after coughing up the lead and losing to Vancouver in OT last night.
Kraken: 5-8-and-4, after doing the exact same thing in Edmonton against the Oilers.
Seattle is 2-and-2 all time against the Islanders.
Recent Kraken:
— The Kraken On The Brink Of A Slippery Slope
