The Need to Knows

The Time: 7pm PST

The Place: Climate Pledge Arena in beautiful Seattle, Washington

Place to Watch: KONG, KHN Channels, Amazon Prime, FanDuel Sports Network-Detroit

Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM

An Opposing Viewpoint: Winging it In Motown

The Game Preview

The Kraken need a reset badly.

They’ve lost their last three games, they just got their doors blown off by the Oilers, and they have slipped out of the playoff spot they had when American Thanksgiving rolled around.

If there’s any consolation, it’s that the Pacific Division has been hit by the same Parity hammer that the rest of the NHL, so even going on these kinds of bad losing streaks can be rectified with only a couple of wins. Everybody is good enough, but nobody is perfect, and thus nobody is ever out of it.

So the Kraken come back to CPA while facing the storied Red Wings; who are…pretty good, all things considered?

I mean, they’re an Atlantic Division team, so by default they have some crippling flaw somewhere, but they are otherwise a perfectly strong team when they’re feeling it. They’re only really out of a playoff spot because they don’t score as much as the Habs, Bruins or Lightning, and have the talent to absolutely make the difference; once again Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin have found themselves leading the pack in Detroit with 31 points each; two men making a solid case for themselves once the Olympics start.

If there is a positive for the Kraken, it’s that the Wings aren’t necessarily all that great at defending their net-front or really the middle of the ice in general, and so should try cutting to the inside as much as possible; their goalies are currently hovering around the NHL SV% average for the year, which is currently sub-.900, so anything maximizing those shots will come in handy.

Also, it was largely lost in the malaise that settled over me during the Oilers game, but one thing the Kraken did very well against Edmonton that they should try to do is anticipate rebound opportunities; too many offensive shifts lately have shorted out because the second chance shot was too far ahead or behind the trailing forward.

Oh yeah, and they need to backcheck like they mean it tonight; not whatever the hell that was on Thursday. Detroit’s another team with a lot of “North-South” speed; transition chances will be extremely dangerous, and they need to be On Those Chances like angry hornets.

LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS