3 Keys to Victory for Seattle Kraken at St. Louis Blues
The Seattle Kraken (0-2-0) look to get their first win of the season against the St. Louis Blues (0-0-1) tonight on the road. Both teams are looking to get their first win of the season. The Kraken are hoping to end their early season offensive struggles and right the ship. This is a team that scored 289 goals last season, have scored 1 this year. Goalie Philipp Grubauer is getting a night off, so we get to see Joey Daccord for the first time this season.
Things haven’t been working for the Kraken so hopefully the coaching staff has been able to work out the kinks. St. Louis is an interesting team. They are never great, but always seem good enough to be annoying to play against. Their goalie Jordan Binnington might be one of the biggest jerks in the league, but can be one of the better goalies when he is on.
The Blues are a team that should not be very good this season. In spite of this, they are 4-2-0 all-time versus the Kraken. Let’s take a look at the 3 keys to victory for Seattle Kraken at St. Louis Blues.
It’s time for the Seattle offense to wake up
Game 3 is going to come down to the Seattle Kraken offense getting it going. Time to snap out of the sleepy, uninspiring hockey from the first two games and come out swinging. This is a must win game for Seattle. Not in a ‘our season is on the line’ way, but in the sense of good teams winning the games they are supposed to.
We are supposed to win this game.
It all starts with the offense. Matty Beniers, Jared McCann, and Jordan Eberle need to get it going, I know I sound like Stephen A. Smith gushing over LeBron, but it could not be more true. These three have got to get it going. The depth in our forward group should be able to light up this weak Blues team, but it needs to start from the opening faceoff.
I would love to see Oliver Bjorkstrand and André Burakovsky light the lamp as well. I predict that former Blues Jaden Schwartz and Vince Dunn will score against their former team tonight. This group looks and feels like a sleeping giant. Tonight needs to be the night they wake up.
Power Play needs to do something
The Seattle Kraken have gone 0-6 on the man advantage this season, including a 5-minute major in Game 1. They have looked lost, flat, and nobody has been on the same page. This needs to change tonight. Playing a team like the Blues, who will most likely be physical in their attempts to slow us down, should commit more than a few penalties in this game (meaning we will get power play opportunities). We need to capitalize on them.
It’s pretty simple really; we score on the power play, we get some swagger, we score more goals, and boom! Just like that we break out of our slump. Who is it going to be? Dunn has the talent to quarterback the first unit, while Justin Schultz has proven capable as well at times. Get it going tonight fellas. Please though, for the love of all things holy, do not put Eeli Tolvanen out there tonight. It has not worked.
If we can score 1 or more goals tonight on the man advantage we will beat the Blues.
Goalie Joey Daccord needs a big game
Seattle has given backup goalie Joey Daccord the nod tonight. This should not come as a surprise to anyone as starter Philipp Grubauer has been in net the past 2 games and they team will want him fresh for the home opener/revenge match against Colorado on Tuesday.
Daccord earned his spot on the team and should come out ready to get the first win of the season. He is good enough to be a great backup goalie (come in for spot starts like this one, and get a win), with the potential to push Grubauer for playing time.
Last season goaltending was our weakest position group and this season it’s been our strength. We cannot take a night off in the net, just because the team is giving Gru one. Martin Jones was able to play just good enough to win a lot last year, and the team somehow scored a zillion goals in each of his starts. Tonight, we need to show Daccord some scoring love as well.
If the Kraken and Daccord can make the routine saves tonight, as well as come up with a few big ones throughout the game, the team should walk out of St. Louis with a W.
Brandon Tanev is still listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury (head).
The puck drops at 5:00pm PDT from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, on ROOT-NW. Let’s go Kraken!
Fear the deep!