Seattle takes on the Second City

The need to know

• The time: 5:30 p.m. PT
• The place: United Center, Chicago, Illinois
• Place to watch: KHN, KONG, Amazon Prime
• Place to listen: Kraken Audio Network, courtesy of KJR 93.3-FM
• An opposing point of view: Second city hockey

Know your enemy

• The ‘Hawks are tied for last place in the conference with the Preds; They have a record of 11-19-2 and 24 points in the standings.
• Ryan Donato is the Blackhawks’ leading scorer with 11 goals in 30 games.
• Connor Bedard will definitely be the class of the conference… whenever the Blackhawks get him some help. He leads the Hawks in points and assists with 26 points and 19 assists.
• While most of the Hawks’ plays were pretty tough, their power play is actually pretty decent; The success rate is 22.6%, which corresponds to a good 12th place in the league. Teuvo Teravainen is the player who clicked with it the most; He has scored 5 power play goals in 32 games.
• Chicago had used Petr Mrazek in most of its starts…but now? He’s on IR, so it’s up to Arvid Soderblom and Drew Commesso to be the backstops for the Blackhawks. Soderblom has a .909 SV% in 11 starts.

Game preview

Man, what a few days it’s been; Seattle is having problems on offense for the millionth time, everyone is wondering if Ron Francis is actually going to do something to address the problem… and then BOOM! Kaapo Kakko is a Seattle Kraken.

Of course, they still have to try to win a game now; And even if the Hawks are an absolute top team in almost every capacity beyond the man advantage, they enter this game with a two-game winning streak. with Ws from the Islanders and the Capitals. They even controlled most of the game against DC, so don’t expect a team whose soul has already been destroyed; Despite the odds (and because they’re not Buffalo), the Blackhawks feel like they’re coming into this game.

Given the last few times the Kraken got to play an otherwise uncompetitive team; I think it’s incumbent on Deep Blue to play this game the way it matters. And it should! Even if the Kraken are doomed to remain in 6th place in the division for the rest of the year, they should at least try to maintain the balance they have somehow created. Who knows? Maybe they’ll find another heater to keep going and start scaring the Wild Card a little.

As for beating the Blackhawks, the reality is simple; There are many indications that the Kraken will have the vast majority in this game. So you have to attack the net front and force Arvid Soderblom or Drew Commesso to make tough saves. The Hawks defense is best described as “present,” if not “active participant.” So as long as they attack their backcheck quickly, they should be in a good position to take the lead and extend it. The big thing the Kraken desperately needs avoid At this point, a simple issue that cost them against Ottawa and Tampa; the gas is running out. They got off to a good start in the first 20 minutes but often fell into disarray after the opening period. They need to find another 60-minute shot, and if that means beating the Blackhawks to do it?

Well, the Squids need it just as badly as the Blackhawks.

Let’s go octopuses, let’s go squids!