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:
Expected starting goalies: Dan Vladar vs. Philipp Grubauer
The Kraken are the first NHL team to the quarter mark of the 82-game season, hopping that invisible line between game 20 on Monday and game 21 on Wednesday against the San Jose Sharks.
Given the club’s slow start it would be a happy time at Climate Pledge Arena if they could finally reach the .500 mark with a win against the Flames.
Calgary beat Seattle at CPA 6-3 back on November 4th with Vladar in net. It’s also the game that saw Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane draw a match penalty and a game misconduct for cross checking Jared McCann in the back of the neck when he was down on the ice.
One might expect a fight this evening.
Seattle winger Brandon Tanev was injured and missed the last meeting. Tonight he’s in the line-up to face his older brother Chris, a defenseman for Calgary.
The Kraken are 1-and-7 all-time against the Flames.
Who’s Hot? And Not …
Winger Jordan Eberle is coming off a three-point game and has six points over his last four. Otherwise, it’s the Eeli Tolvanen show. The Kraken’s Finnish winger has eight points over his last eight games and is looking for his first ever four-game assist streak. He scored a goal the last two times he’s played the Flames.
Is Calgary forward Jonathan Huberdeau finally coming around? He has three points over his last two games.
Nazem Kadri and rookie Connor Zary each had two assists in Calgary’s shoot-out loss to the Islanders on Saturday night.
Mikael Backlund is one point away from 500 for his career.
Special Teams
Head to head on November 4th the Flames went 1-for-2 on the power play while Seattle went 1-for-3.
It was an 0-for-3 night for Calgary against New York on Saturday. Overall the Flames are a very respectable 22.9% on the season which is good for 11th best in the NHL.
The Seattle power play is even better, 7th ranked at 25.4%. Officially the Kraken went 0-for-3 on Saturday against the Canucks, but they did score a goal one second after a Vancouver penalty ended.
For the season there’s a huge gap in terms of penalty killing. The Flames rank 6th in the league with a success rate close to 86%,
The Kraken are 6th worst at 72.9%. They’ve also been taking unnecessary penalties on home ice and Monday night would be a great time to break the habit.
Coming In:
Flames: 6-8-and-3 after a 5-4 shoot-out loss at home to the New York Islanders on Saturday evening.
Kraken: 7-8-and-4 with a two-game win “streak” after Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Canucks in Vancouver.
Recent Kraken:
— Simmer’s Sunday 9; Kraken Opportunity, Media Ban, Hockey Manslaughter?