Kraken Game Facts
This Afternoon: Seattle Kraken at Montreal Canadiens
Where: Bell Centre
When: 4:30 pm pacific
TV/Radio: ROOT Sports NW / FM 93.3
Key Factors:
Starting goalies: Philipp Grubauer vs. Samuel Montembeault
The Kraken are desperate to pick up two points with a win at their final stop on the four-game roadie. So far they’ve lost in regulation to the Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators with a shoot-out loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs sandwiched in between.
Historically the Kraken have done well at the Bell Centre, beating the Canadiens in both previous visits.
All-time the Habs are 0-for-14 on the power play head-to-head against the Kraken, the only NHL team yet to score a PP goal against Seattle since the club came into existence.
With veteran winger Jaden Schwartz out of the Seattle line-up for six weeks with a lower body injury, Firebirds captain Max McCormick will play his second game with the big club since being called up from Coachella Valley.
Meanwhile, veteran energy winger Brandon “Turbo” Tanev returns to the line-up.
The forward units from morning skate at the Bell Centre via Root Sports:
Tye Kartye – Matty Beniers – Jordan Eberle
Jared McCann – Alex Wennberg – Brandon Tanev
Eeli Tolvanen – Yanni Gourde – Oliver Bjorkstrand
Max McCormick – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Kailer Yamamoto
Winger Andre Burakovsky is on the trip, skating, but not quite ready to play. Expect to see him back in action during the upcoming Kraken homestand.
Who’s Hot? And Not …
All Kraken point streaks ended with the shut-out loss in Ottawa two nights ago.
McCann had six points over the previous five games and seven of his 11 goals this season have come on the road. He tallied twice against the Maple Leafs.
Grubauer has won his last four starts against the Canadiens.
The Kraken 4th line clearly isn’t what it was last season. Yamamoto has one goal in his last 15 games. Bellemare has one goal in his last 17.
Canadiens center Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist vs Detroit on Saturday and has 20 points in 24 games for Montreal. It’s expected he’ll be teamed with right winger Cole Caufield, who has four points over his last five games.
Veteran pest Brendan Gallagher has just nine points in 24 games while playing in the bottom-six.
Special Teams
The Kraken have the distinct edge in the power play department, ranked 15th in the NHL at 21% while the Habs sit 24th with a success rate of just 16.9%. Over the weekend, Montreal went 1-for-5 against Detroit while Seattle went 0-for-3 in Ottawa.
Seattle snuffed out all three Senators power play chances in their last game to improve slightly to a still subpar 75.7% penalty kill rate this season. Montreal stopped three of four Detroit man advantages and have the sixth worst PK in the league at 73.9%.
Coming In:
Kraken: 8-11-and-6 after Saturday’s 2-0 loss to the Senators in Ottawa.
Canadiens: 10-11-and-3 after losing at home in overtime 5-4 to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night.
Recent Kraken:
— High Energy Kraken Radio Man Fitzhugh Rolls Into His 3rd Season
— The brand new Kraken podcast with play-by-play man John Forslund …
The amazing thing about the fourth line last season was that they were together for most of the season. To have consistency on the fourth line is bonkers, so there was no way that it could happen two years in a row. Imagine if the Bellemare/Kartye/Yammamoto line had stayed intact all year. It would have been filthy, right? A matchup nightmare. But no, Kartye and Yammamoto have to fill in for Burakovsky, Tanev, and Schwartz. Now Tanev is back, and Burakovsky is almost ready. Maybe we are about to get that nasty fourth line from yesteryear back.