The Seattle Kraken (1-4-1) hit the road to take on the Detroit Red Wings (5-1-0). Detroit is a tough team, who is playing amazing hockey right now.
What a difference a game makes. Seems to be a recurring theme this season. The Kraken are coming off a loss to the New York Rangers 4-1, and really looked like a team that is playing desperate hockey and it is really out of sorts.
Detroit enters this game 5-1 and have won their last three games by scores of 6-2, 5-2, and 6-3. They are playing great hockey, scoring a ton of goals in the process. Normally this would be a great game for the Kraken to try to get back on track with, but not this Detroit team. They really do not have many weaknesses (if any), and like I said, are playing hockey like it is the middle of the season.
This game is going to be a tough one, and the Kraken will need to be on their A game in order to leave Motor City with a win. Let’s look at the 3 Keys to Victory for Seattle Kraken at Detroit Red Wings.
Seattle needs to score (the theme of the season) more than 4 goals
I am calling it right now. If the Kraken are going to win this game, they need to score more than 4 goals. The Kraken have scored 1 or fewer goals in all but one game this season. If that is not a sign of struggling, I am not sure what is. Seattle’s offense needs to find its scoring touch, and fast.
For some reason, the team is stuck in rut and look like they are starting to believe that they cannot score. They have spurts of offensive zone pressure, but in the last game they looked lost after the Rangers tied it up. This cannot happen in this game, not against Detroit. The Kraken will not recover if they go down early. The team needs struggling Matty Beniers to find his game. It is starting to look more like a sophomore slump than it is a cold streak.
If the Kraken can take an early lead, and score 4 or more goals, they will walk away with a win.
Seattle needs to shut down former Kraken Daniel Sprong
I am going to go ahead and bring up the elephant in the room. Daniel Sprong signed with Detroit this past offseason and has been worth every penny for the Wings. The former Kraken 4th liner has 2 goals, 2 assists, and 4 points in 6 games. He would be the second leading scorer this season, with that stat line.
This just feels like a revenge game for Sprong. If he scores in this one, it will be much more detrimental to the team mentally and emotionally than it will be on the scoreboard. Typically these types of things do not impact a team all that much, but with the fragile state of this team (yeah I said that, look at their demeanor the last game-defeated looks all around) I feel a Sprong ‘screw-you-goal, would flatten this squad.
Have to keep him off the board.
Kraken goaltending has to be tough
Last game was a blip on the season for the Kraken goaltending. Philipp Grubauer coughed up 4 last game raising his goals against average to 3.04 on the season. He is much better than that. Joey Daccord was solid enough to get the team’s first win in his last start, making several big saves against a good (but overrated) Carolina squad. The former Sun Devil Daccord has shown this season that he is capable of pushing Grubauer for playing time.
Whoever mans the crease tomorrow needs to bring it if the Kraken are going to win. The Kraken could go with their main man Gru in net but we will see tomorrow. If Daccord gets the call, expect the Kraken to roll with the hot hand as they are desperately looking for a spark this season.
Kraken Injuries
Branden Tanev IR- Lower Body
Andre Burakovsky OUT- 6-8 weeks- Upper Body
Detroit has been playing well, but if the Kraken are able to find their game tomorrow night, the team could slow down the Red Wings and come up victorious. The puck drops tomorrow night at 5:15 PM PDT on ROOT-NW. Let’s go boys!
Fear the deep!