The Need to Knows
Game Preview
Anything I could say about the San Jose Sharks from the stats is going to be useless to you. I’m sorry to say.
Because if this was any other team, then maybe we’d talk about the fact that the Sharks are steadily improving themselves despite their general aversion to having the puck. Maybe I’d bring up how the team has completely rallied around Macklin Celebrini, a three punch combo of Dmitri Orlov, William Eklund, Tyler Toffoli and a Will Smith but not that Will Smith but a different Will Smith. I could tell you that they’re playing games so very close regardless of their relative lack of shooting because of this influx of talented youth.
But we’re not talking about say, the Wild and the Sharks. Oh no. This is Sharks-Kraken. Unlike Kraken-Jets where Seattle always seems to find a way to play a weirdly competitive game…recent history for Kraken-Sharks has been absolute madness. Not a single goddamn thing makes sense about these games anymore other than the chaos surrounding them. Both sides have shut each other out. Both have ended up in penaltyfests that end with a penalty box resembling a sardine can. Both sides have blasted the other directly out of the water. It does not matter how either team is doing when they come here, because when they come together, there is no telling what will happen. Blowout? Boat race? Conga line to the box? All of these things are possible in hockey games, but in Seattle-San Jose, they become exponentially more probable for whatever reason.
I would call it a rivalry, but I think it’s more accurate to describe these games as a desperate knife fight we get into with a Californian team four nights a year. It’s confusing, there’s a lot of struggle, you walk out covered in blood and your eyes wide as dinner plates.
If there’s anything I can suggest the Kraken do, given where the Sharks are right now at least on paper, is ride the wave of chaos if it comes to it? Because that’s where they could potentially come out the biggest winners.
Either way, let’s have a little fun, learn nothing from this game, and see what new and exciting sights we get to be shown.
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS