It’s game day! The Seattle Kraken (4-5-2) welcome the Calgary Flames (2-7-1) to Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken (winners of their past 2 games) are looking to get to .500 with a victory tonight. Calgary are second to last in the Pacific Division standings, and will be desperate for a win and any sort of positivity.
For the Kraken, things started off slow this season but they have started heating up. For Calgary, nothing seems to go right and they look like a team with last place aspirations and focusing on one of the lottery picks in next season’s NHL Entry Draft.
Kraken goalie Philip Grubauer has continued his strong play and has seemingly won the favor of the coaching staff, as well as his place as the starting goalie. Neither team has officially named tonight’s starter but it looks like the Kraken will role with Grubauer while Calgary should be playing Jacob Markstrom. It’s Saturday night! Let’s take a look at the 3 Keys to Victory for Seattle Kraken vs Calgary Flames.
Seattle Kraken needs to play like they are the better team
The Seattle Kraken are not just the better team in the Pacific Division standings. They are they better team on paper and how they play. Tonight, they need to play like they are the better team. Good teams beat the teams they should, and bad teams don’t. The Kraken are a good team, they need to play like it tonight.
Respecting Calgary and not playing down to their game is the first key to victory. This has all of the feelings of a snoozer for Seattle. A team like Calgary is typically the game that good teams would overlook as they should win, only to end up upset by the underdog. That simply cannot happen tonight.
The Kraken are a better team in all of the three phases of the game (goaltending, defense, forward group). As mentioned they are heating up. The single biggest key to winning this one is for the team to play to their ability and not down to Calgary’s. If the Kraken come out and punch these guys in the mouth, it will be game over for the Flames.
Seattle Kraken big guns need to break out tonight
Sleepless in Seattle? More like sleepy in Seattle for forwards Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle. To simply say that these two stars have under-achieved through the first 11 games is an understatement. Beniers appears to be experiencing a true sophomore slump after a stellar rookie of the year season. Beniers has yet to score a goal, and has just 3 assists/3 points this season. Eberle has scored 1 goal, 2 assists, and 3 points in 11 games. Terrible numbers for players who were supposed to be the guys carrying the offensive load.
Because of their poor play and inability to break out of their slumps, the coaching staff has broken up the top lines and the team has responded with a few wins here and there. Tonight would be a great night for these two to get their groove back. Calgary sucks, their goalies are two of the worst in the NHL and this is the cure for what ails them.
If Beniers and Eberle both score tonight, the Kraken will walk away with a win.
Seattle Kraken need a big game from their defense
The Seattle Kraken have one of the deepest defensive groups in the NHL. Led by Vince Dunn and Jamie Oleksiak, the team has at times this season been lights out. If the Kraken are going to exert their will on the Flames, it starts with their defense smothering any hopes that Calgary has.
This should be pretty simple. The Flames really don’t do anything well, so for Seattle it should be an easy matchup. None of the Calgary forwards exactly strike fear in the Kraken so Oleksiak, Dunn, Will Borgen and company should have no problem shutting them down. Limiting Calgary’s quality shots, keeping the house clear, and not giving the only real player on this team (Jonathan Huberdeau) room to move will guarantee a win for Seattle.
The Kraken should continue their hot play and finally get back to .500 tonight. Things are ‘startin’ to come together Pepper, startin’ to come together’. Sorry, I love the movie Major League. The puck drops at 7:00 PM PDT on ROOT-NW.
Fear the deep!