Kraken Game Facts
This Evening: Philadelphia Flyers at Seattle Kraken
Where: Climate Pledge Arena
When: 7 pm pacific
TV/Radio: ROOT Sports / FM 93.3
Key Factors:
Starting goalies: Carter Hart vs. Joey Daccord
The Flyers may be in a goaltending pinch on Friday night if netminder Samuel Ersson doesn’t recover from what was ailing him on Thursday night in Vancouver. The Swede played the first 42-minutes of the game, leaving with the lead and officially earning the win, but suffering from dehydration.
It’s not a question of who starts, that’ll be Hart, who finished up the 4-1 victory over the Canucks, but whether or not Ersson can join the line-up as the back-up.
More potential bad news for Philly: Top line winger Travis Konecny left the game on Thursday night and didn’t return.
The good news for the visitors; they’re 8-1-and-2 over their last 11 games.
The Kraken have also been one of the NHL’s hottest teams, having won three in a row and picking up points in seven consecutive games.
In terms of injuries, some long-term ones may be coming to an end for Seattle.
Andre Burakovsky has been skating with the club and did so again Friday morning. According to head coach Dave Hakstol, the Austrian winger is closer to returning than Jaden Schwartz, although Schwartz also skated in a white jersey and is shown below deflecting pucks. Neither are expected to be ready for Friday night.
4th-line center Pierre-Edourard Bellemare remains on injured reserve, as is goalie Philipp Grubauer.
Jaden Schwartz deflects pucks at the Kraken morning skate on Friday
Who’s Hot? And Not …
Owen Tippett is the hottest Flyer with seven points over his last eight games, including a beautiful assist on the game wining goal Thursday night in Vancouver. Winger Joel Farabee has back-to-back two point games with five points over his last four.
Top-6 winger Cam Atkinson hasn’t scored a goal in 19 games. Veteran bottom-six center Scott Laughton has just two points over his last eight games, both coming in the 7-6 shoot-out loss against the Red Wings a week ago.
For the Kraken Kailer Yamamoto has four goals over his last seven games after having just three in the previous 29. Center Matty Beniers went pointless in Calgary, but had five points over his previous three games.
Oliver Bjorkstrand will play in his 500th NHL game on Friday. He has a goal in three of his last six games.
D-man Vince Dunn, the club’s leading scorer with 29 points, has four points over the last two games.
The Yanni Gourde non-scoring watch continues; he’s tallied one point, an assist on December 14th, over his last 15 games.
Special Teams
By going 1-for-3 on the power play Thursday night in Vancouver, the Flyers went from having the NHL’s worst power play to having the league’s 2nd-worst power play, improving to 11.2% on the season and hopping 1/10 of a percentage point ahead of the St. Louis Blues.
Philly’s stalwart penalty kill, 4th best in the NHL at 86.1%, snuffed out all three of the Canucks power play chances.
The Kraken continue to hover around the 20% benchmark of acceptability on their season-long man advantage, now at 20.4% following an 0-for-2 night in Calgary. Seattle killed off 3-of-4 Flames power plays in nudging the penalty kill mark down to 79.1% for the season.
Coming In:
Flyers: 19-11-and-4 after a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
Kraken: 13-14-and-9 following their 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.
Recent Kraken:
— Kraken Winter Classic Paint Job, Some Surprises
— Simmer’s Holiday 9: Hot Kraken Back At It, Scotty Bowman, Lying PR
