Kraken Game Facts
Wednesday Night: Seattle Kraken at Los Angeles Kings
Where: Crypto.com Arena
When: 6:30 pm pacific
TV/Radio: Root Sports / FM 93.3
Key Factors:
Starting goalies: Philipp Grubauer vs. Cam Talbot
The Kraken can add to the Kings’ woes. LA has lost three games in a row and enters action just three points ahead of the St. Louis Blues for the final Western Conference wild card spot.
The Kings have missed 2nd-line center and power play contributor Phillip Danault the last two games due to an upper body injury and he’s considered a game-time decision Wednesday evening.
Seattle is coming off a 4-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks on Monday to start their three-game California road trip.
Kraken D-man Vince Dunn returned to the line-up after missing 12 games to injury, played 23:04 and had an assist. Prospect forward Shane Wright joined the fray vs the Sharks after getting called up from the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL and scored the game winning goal for Seattle.
Recent call-ups Ryan Winterton has played in four straight NHL games while center Logan Morrison played in three before getting replaced by Wright in the line-up two nights ago.
Seattle picked up three of a possible four points head-to-head against Los Angeles back in mid-December, losing at home in a shoot-out 3-2 on the 16th and then beating the Kings in regulation 2-1 in LA four nights later. This game concludes the season series.
The Kraken have just seven games remaining on the season after this one.
Who’s Hot? And Not?
The Kraken haven’t been producing a lot of offense lately other than in the three games against teams trailing them in the standings.
Eeli Tolvanen, Jaden Schwartz and Oliver Bjorkstrand (pictured) all had two points in the win over the lowly Sharks. They each had one goal versus the Ducks during the back-to-back wins against Anaheim at Climate Pledge Arena last week.
Tolvanen has a grand total of five points over his last four games.
‘Not hot’ would describe forward Andre Burakovsky, with just two points over his last eight games, both coming against the Ducks last Thursday.
The great Slovenian centerman Anze Kopitar (pictured) is always one to watch for LA. The 36-year-old has six points over his last five games and 13 over his last nine. He, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe all share the team lead in points with 66.
21-year-old winger Quinton Byfield is streaky, most recently with no points in two, after a single point in four straight, after no points in two.
Center Pierre-Luc Dubois is pointless in three straight.
Special Teams
The Kraken went 0-for-2 on the power play against the Sharks Monday night and have a respectable success rate of 21.2% for the season. San Jose went 1-for-2 on their PP against Seattle, a club that successfully kills penalties 79.3% of the time.
It was a clean night in Winnipeg on Monday. The Kings didn’t receive a power play opportunity and the Jets went just 0-for-1. On the season, Los Angeles has the 12th best PP in the league at 22.4% and the 2nd best penalty kill with a 84.6% success rate.
Coming In:
Kraken: 31-30-and-13, in 5th place in the Pacific Division with 75 points, having beaten the San Jose Sharks 4-2 on Monday night.
Kings: 38-25-and-11, in 4th place in the Pacific Division with 87 points. They lost on the road to the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 on Monday night.
Recent Kraken:
— Kraken Hope Big WHL D-Man Lukas Dragicevic Has A Big Future
— Kraken Need To Start Looking Ahead; Lots Of Work To Do
