Kraken Roadie
Entering action on Tuesday night the Seattle Kraken possess the 5th worst point total in the National Hockey League. What’s worse, the club’s current three-game losing streak involves losses to two of the teams they’re tied with, the previously referred-to-as-doormats San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks.
“You can’t lose two in a row to the San Jose Sharks,” went without saying. That’s exactly what Seattle just did, while being outscored 12-7.
The Kraken were out of the playoffs at American Thanksgiving, a traditional benchmark for indicating whether or not you’re eventually going to make it. Seattle isn’t.
Does this team have a nine-game unbeaten streak up its sleeve in December, something along the lines of an eight-game road win streak for January? It’s been done before, but it’s looking highly unlikely.
Please forgive the start-of-December doom-and-gloom, but I’ve been a realist since the preseason.
The roster is insufficient. It hasn’t been able to withstand injuries to key players. Tuesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, it’ll be without young defenseman Ryker Evans, a player who’s averaging close to 21-minutes a night. Minute munching marks the true value of a blueliner.
Most importantly, how long did we expect Joey Daccord to carry Philipp Grubauer around? Strain is showing, and guess who still has two years remaining at $5.9-million per.
So much for a game preview. It’s a monster match in more ways than one for Seattle. The Kraken have to have this game, against a team that’s 16-7-and-1 on the season, 9-and-2 at home, and one that dismantled Seattle 4-1 at Climate Pledge Arena back on October 26th.
It’s the start of a four-game road gauntlet.
