Kraken Game Facts
Friday Night: Seattle Kraken at Arizona Coyotes
Where: Mullett Arena
When: 7 pm pacific
TV/Radio: Root Sports / FM 93.3
Key Factors:
Expected starting goalies: Joey Daccord vs. Karel Vejmelka
The Kraken have lost four games in a row while the Coyotes are 5-and-5 in their last ten. This has all the makings of a game of shinny between two non-playoff teams that both have a dozen or so matches to go. It could finish up with a 6-5 final score.
The other possibility in a situation like this is that the teams, or at least some of the players, take out their regular season frustrations on one another, although that somewhat common scenario in the “olden days” (1980’s, 1990’s), is much less likely in 2024.
Meanwhile, the only difference between this arena and the haircut is an extra “t”. Both are out of style these days: a bad ‘doo’ and an NHL arena that only holds 5,000 patrons. The Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes franchise for the most part has been a running joke for quite some time now. Kind of like a mullet.
Top defenseman Vince Dunn remains out of the line-up for the Kraken with no timetable for his return.
Seattle is 4-0-and-1 in its last five games against the Coyotes, a team missing bottom six centers Barrett Hayton and Travis Boyd.
Who’s Hot? And Not?
It would be difficult to describe any of the Kraken as ‘hot’ right now considering they’ve scored a grand total of five goals during this four-game skid. Forward Eeli Tolvanen had two assists in the game against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night, a 6-2 Seattle loss. So we’ll put him down.
‘Not hot’ would describe Seattle’s two highest paid forwards Andre Burakovsky and Jaden Schwartz. That would apply to the entire season, one in which they’ll both be paid $5.5-million.
Burakovsky, who missed significant time due to a lower body injury for the second straight season, has posted a grand total of 12 points in 35 games played, while Schwartz has two goals over his last 17 games.
Clayton Keller is always the one to watch for Arizona. The club’s leading scorer has 60 points in 65 games played this season with seven of those points over his last five games. He recently reached two career benchmarks; 500 NHL games and 400 NHL points.
Nick Schmaltz has 19 points over his last 15 games.
Alex Kerfoot has just two points over his last ten.
Special Teams
The Kraken went 1-for-3 on the power play against the Golden Knights last night and have a respectable success rate of 21.5% for the season. Vegas went 1-for-5 on their PP against Seattle, a club that successfully kills penalties 79.1% of the time.
Arizona went 0-for-1 on the power play on Wednesday in Dallas while holding the Stars to an 0-for-2. For the season the Coyotes have the 13th best PP in the NHL at a solid 22.3%. Their penalty kill is a very substandard 76.2%.
Coming In:
Kraken: 28-28-and-12, in 6th place in the Pacific Division with 68 points, having lost to the Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 on Thursday night.
Coyotes: 28-36-and-5, in 7th place in the Central Division with 61 points. They lost to the Dallas Stars 5-2 on Wednesday.
Recent Kraken:
— Kraken Need To Start Looking Ahead; Lots Of Work To Do
