Kraken Game Facts
This Evening: Seattle Kraken at New York Islanders
Where: UBS Arena
When: 4:30 pm pacific
TV/Radio: ROOT Sports / FM 93.3
Key Factors:
Starting goalies: Philipp Grubauer vs. Ilya Sorokin
Sorokin is 2-and-1 in three career games against Seattle, with a 1.69 goals against average and a .945 save percentage.
Grubauer hasn’t played since December 9th when he was injured in the 4-3 OT loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Climate Pledge Arena. He owns a 5-9-and-1 record with a 3.25 goals-against average and an .884 save percentage in 17 games this season
The Kraken lost Monday night 3-1 to the New Jersey Devils and have fallen to the .500 mark for the season.
D-man Justin Schultz returned to the Kraken yesterday, but didn’t play. He missed Saturday’s game due to personal reasons. Rookie Ryker Evans filled his spot for both games.
We should see the two playing together on Long Island since 3rd-pair veteran Brian Dumoulin was injured in the 1st period last night in New Jersey.
Center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare appears healthy, but has yet to return to the line-up having missed 19 games.
Matty Beniers, despite his offensive production woes, has been reinserted on to the top line during this road trip with Jordan Eberle and Tomas Tatar, a pair that found some chemistry with “emergency plug-in” center Jared McCann during the club’s injury/illness rash.
Repeat: The simple calculations in our story from before the break remain in place. Essentially, the Kraken need to win two out of every three games moving forward through the end of the season to make the playoffs. There is now literally no room for deviation from this.
This is the first time they’ll face the Isles since they added new head coach Patrick Roy. The Hockey Hall of Fame goalie is 3-3-and-1 with New York since taking over on January 20th.
Overall, the Islanders have the worst penalty kill in the league.
Who’s Hot? And Not?
McCann picked up an assist Monday night and has 15 points over his last 12 games. D-man Vince Dunn is averaging a point-a-game over his last 14.
Winger Eeli Tolvanen (pictured), is one point away from tying his career high (31) for a single season, set last year.
Beniers has one point, a goal, over his last eleven games.
For New York, defenseman Noah Dobson, particularly productive on home ice, has eleven points over his last ten games.
NHL All-Star Mathew Barzal (pictured) was a minus-3 against the Calgary Flames on Saturday night, but has seven points over his last five games and ten over his last eight.
Captain and 2nd-line winger Anders Lee has just one point over his last eight games and three in his last 13.
Special Teams
Monday night the Kraken went 0-for-3 on the power play for the second straight game with the season percentage slipping to 20.8%. The penalty kill gave up one Devils goal in five chances and stands at 78.8% on the season.
The Islanders went 0-for-1 on the power play on Saturday at home against the Flames, while their opponent went 1-for-1. New York has the 12th best PP in the NHL at a solid 22.5%. On the flip-side their PK operates at a dismal 71.3%, worst in the NHL.
Coming In:
Kraken: 21-21-and-10, in 6th place in the Pacific Division with 52 points. Seattle lost on Monday night 3-1 to the New Jersey Devils.
Islanders: 22-18-and-12, in 5th place in the Metropolitan Division with 56 points, after their 5-2 loss at home to the Flames on Saturday.
Recent Kraken:
— Simmer’s Sunday 9; Kraken Crunch, Canucks Reality, USA Crushed
