The Need to Knows
The Time: 2pm PST
The Place: UBS Arena, Elmont, Long Island, New York
Place to Watch: KONG, KHN Networks, Amazon Prime, MSG SportsNet, SportsNet
Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
Game Preview
So! Kraken had themselves a fun time in Pittsburgh!
Let’s forget all about that and lock in, because the Islanders are good now.
The Isle got a massive windfall in the 2025 First Overall pick, and got Matthew Schaefer out of the deal. Schaefer’s nightmare draft season didn’t deter anyone, and it appears that Long Island has been rewarded richly for their faith in this player and their squad rebounding; The Islanders are 3rd in division, 6-3-0 in their last 10, and a good portion of what positives they had last year are still intact; maybe even a little better.
Bo Horvat has in fact relearned he’s good at hockey, so has Mathew Barzal and Kyle Palmieri. Schaefer has played this season like he’s a 4 year vet, and Emil Heineman has found another gear while surrounded with these impressive talents. Combined with their defense finally finding a little balance with Schaefer being able to push other talents down the lineup, and Ilya Sorokin slightly returning to form, the Isle has once again come to dominate the New York ice hockey conversation. They even seem to like each other and like hanging out together, something that is somehow unique to themselves and the NY Sirens in the PWHL when it comes to NY State based hockey clubs.
Mercifully, if their 5v5 efforts are impressive, it’s counterbalanced by two things: Their power play being honestly pretty bad, and the goals largely coming from individual efforts. They’re 31st overall in the league right now with a measly 13.7% success rate. If there is any hope of the Kraken putting their Penalty Kill on the right path again, it’s probably against the Islanders.
Second, the Islanders are enormously talented…but as a team, getting to the net is a real issue. They can shoot from just about everywhere…minus the immediate net-front. The Kraken can take ample advantage of this to keep their most dangerous players isolated from one another, and force them to be the heroes on shifts. That kind of thing kept the Islanders off the board last night until almost the third period when Anders Lee got the rare chance in front of the Blues netminder.
If the Kraken want to finally break their woes regarding back-to-backs, catching a reeling team on their own back-to-back is the perfect way to do it. It’ll be sloppy, it’ll be wonky, it’ll be one Matinee-flavored Matinee game. Let’s go get those two points and get into the driver’s seat of this Honda Beat we call the Pacific Division. Even for just a day.
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS!!!!