One: Scoring More Yes, But Keep Solid \u2018D\u2019 Going\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Given the Kraken\u2019s offensive output over the last two games, two goals in the\u00a03-2\u00a0road loss at Buffalo Saturday and a shutout in Edmonton Tuesday, there is naturally concern about scoring goals. But make no mistake about\u00a0Seattle\u2019s need to get \\\\,\\\\the puck out of its own net Thursday against Western Conference wild-card leader Utah. The Mammoth\u00a0are\u00a0sixth best in goals for in the West, just a goal behind Vegas and three behind Minnesota.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Utah scores with\u00a0depth. Ten players are\u00a0double-digits\u00a0in goals, with\u00a0six skaters topping 20 or more.\u00a0Right wing Dylan Guenther has already notched a career-high 36 goals, while\u00a0points leader Clayton Keller\u00a0(22 goals, 51 assists) has six assists in his last five games.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his post-game comments in Edmonton, Kraken coach Lane Lambert pointed out his squad\u00a0\u201ckept their opportunities to a minimum\u201d in reference to an Oilers squad\u00a0that features\u00a0superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisiatl. In fact, one of the two\u00a0EDM\u00a0goals scored Tuesday was\u00a0tallied when a bottom-six forward, Max Jones, ducked\u00a0to avoid a shot from the blue line that caromed off his back and in. Credit veteran goaltender\u00a0Philipp Grubauer\u00a0for keeping his teammates close in both recent losses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back to scoring more goals. Matty Beniers properly dismissed talking too much about near-misses, such captain Jordan Eberle hitting a post in the third period at Edmonton. He\u2019s not positing excuses but instead a call to action that he and teammates get shots to the net and, perhaps even more vitally, bodies\u00a0netfront\u00a0for tips, deflections (any body\u00a0part will do), and rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For his part,\u00a0Lambert could well keep\u00a0Beniers\u00a0and Eberle with frequent linemate Jared McCann Thursday. He liked what he saw\u00a0from the trio in the final 40 minutes in Alberta.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did some good things in the hockey game,\u201d said Lambert about the\u00a0Edmonton road\u00a0game, and he could\u00a0have included the\u00a0Buffalo road\u00a0game in that comment. \u201cWe have to build off that and get some pucks in the back of the net.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Playing in front of the high-decibel fans at\u00a0Climate Pledge Arena will provide a boost for the goal hunt. The Kraken have a 17-14-5 winning home record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two: Celebrating the \u2018Big Cat\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Few Seattle players have proven any more consistent, reliable, and\u00a0tough than Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson. The original Kraken defender and long-time partner with\u00a0Vince Dunn, notched his 1,000th\u00a0NHL game\u00a0in Florida\u00a0and his 400th\u00a0game\u00a0with the Kraken on Tuesday in Edmonton, where he\u00a0played for five seasons.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Larsson will be feted pre-game with speeches, gifts, and more in a celebration worth making to your arena seats or screen by 6:50 p.m. to support\u00a0the \u2018Big Cat,\u2019 beloved by Kraken teammates and fans alike. The Swedish-born D-man has all sorts of family members\u00a0in town (including lots of little ones), and let\u2019s look for those teammates to have some extra energy to post a win on this special night.\u00a0While most of us would consider Larsson the quiet, serious\u00a0type, he is in fact, just the opposite in the locker room and\u00a0at home.\u00a0When Kraken players were asked to describe Larsson in one word, several simply said, \u201cfunny.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three:\u00a0Utah 4-5-1 in Last 10 Games\u00a0<\/p>\n
Utah has flagged a bit heading down the stretch of the regular\u00a0season, but\u00a0still are six points clear of wild-card contenders such as Seattle, LA, Winnipeg, and\u00a0San Jose. While Utah is a top-scoring team in the West, the Mammoth goals against stats are equally elite in the conference, with workhorse goalie\u00a0Karel Vejmelka posting 33 of the Central Division foe\u2019s 38 wins. As for\u00a0scoreboard\u00a0watching, the simplest way for Seattle to gain is by winning against Utah.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Next, it\u2019s a decision tree every game night from here out. Thursday\u2019s games present two clear rooting interests: Dallas over Winnipeg and Toronto beating San Jose. A third match-up is\u00a0take\u00a0your pick\u00a0with\u00a0Nashville\u00a0at Los Angeles; better for one team to win in regulation, but which one? So goes the next\u00a0two\u00a0weeks of April.<\/p>\n
Projected lineup (not official):
Catton-Beniers-Eberle
McMann-Stephenson-Kakko
Schwartz-Molgaard-McCann
Meyers-Gaudreau-Tolvanen<\/p>\n
Dunn-Larsson
Evans-Montour
Lindgren-Oleksiak<\/p>\n
Daccord<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One: Scoring More Yes, But Keep Solid \u2018D\u2019 Going\u00a0\u00a0 Given the Kraken\u2019s offensive output over the last two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[5,4188,4,2686,234,5318],"class_list":{"0":"post-535906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-kraken","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-kraken","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-kraken","13":"tag-seattlekraken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116333009017591690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}