Kraken Game Day 73; West's Best - Hot Stars - Rivalry Alive

Kraken Game Facts

Saturday Night: Dallas Stars at Seattle Kraken

Where: Climate Pledge Arena

When: 7 pm pacific

TV/Radio: Root Sports / FM 93.3

Key Factors:

Starting goalies: Jake Oettinger vs. Joey Daccord

The Stars come in with the most points in the Western Conference and a six-game win streak. The Kraken have won two games in a row, both at home against the Anaheim Ducks. Seattle sits one game above modern .500 and outside of the Stanley Cup playoff picture.

Although they’re playing out the string on the season, the Kraken have made it clear they’ll be motivated for this one, with the Stars being the club that knocked Seattle out of the playoffs in the 2nd-round last spring.

“I think they’re racing for the President’s Trophy (best regular season record), so we have to be on our A-game if we want to have any success,” veteran Kraken forward Jordan Eberle said Saturday morning. “We have to find a motivational factor, for me it’s trying to ruin their chances for doing that. Last year they took us out.”

Seattle’s top D-man Vince Dunn skated with the team in a regular jersey (as opposed to non-contact) on Saturday morning, but won’t be in the line-up and is still considered day-to-day with an upper body injury.

Who’s Hot? And Not?

Veteran Stars forward and captain Jamie Benn is on a heater with an eight-game scoring streak and a six-game goal scoring streak. He notched the game winner against the Canucks two nights ago and reached his 900th career NHL point.

Dallas leading scorer Jason Robertson (76) has nine points over his last six matches.

Tyler Seguin has just four points over his last eight games, with three of those points coming in a 4-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday.

For Seattle, Eberle has a three-game point streak and is one point away from 700 for his NHL career and one goal away from 300.

Blueliner Jamie Oleksiak has a three-game point streak.

Jared McCann and Matty Beniers are both averaging two points a game over their last two contests.

Rookie D-man Ryker Evans scored his first NHL goal eight nights ago in a 2-1 road loss to the Arizona Coyotes and has filled in admirably the last eleven games for injured top pair D-man Dunn.

Although he’s an energy guy without much “finish”, and a penalty killing specialist, Brandon Tanev would probably prefer having more than two points over his last 23 games.

PR Note: Beniers and Stars forward Wyatt Johnston both have 98 career points and are competing to be the first player from their draft class (2021) to reach the 100-point mark.

Special Teams

The Stars went 2-for-5 on the power play in Vancouver on Thursday while holding the Canucks to an 0-for-2. Not surprising, the top team in the west has solid special teams, with the PP successful 23.7% of the time and the penalty kill at 81.4%.

The Kraken had a weird night on Thursday against the Ducks, going 3-for-10 on the man advantage while also giving up two shorthanded goals. The Penalty kill was a perfect 3-for-3.

The Seattle PP works successfully 21.6% of the time while the PK is at 79.9% on the season.