“Stay out of the box”. That’s a great starting point for the Kraken. There’s simply no reason to wake up the Edmonton Oilers power play, and as our ace reporter Glenn Dreyfuss pointed out on our postgame “Kraken Reaction” on Thursday night; “the best penalty kill is staying out of the box in the first place.”
True dat!
At this point in time, big picture and/or little, there’s no reason to get in a special teams battle with the Oilers. Power play opportunities are a big reason the Kraken are 1-7-and-1 all-time in visits to Rogers Place in Edmonton. The Seattle lads’ lone win there came in early January of 2023.
That said, the Oilers have been discombobulated this early season as they adjust to new head coach Mike Babcock, who took responsibility for the club’s early season defensive liabilities.
The Oilers lost to the Vancouver Canucks at home on Tuesday night in overtime 6-5, then beat the Canucks in Vancouver two nights later 9-7. Yep, that’s not a typo. That’s simply a sign Edmonton didn’t have its you-know-what together in two matches against a franchise in a mega-rebuild.
Cue the Kraken. Although it was against the Flames, a discombobulated team in its own right, figuring out whether it’s rebuilding or not, Seattle looked aggressive, focused on systems, and dominant in its 6-1 victory in Calgary on Thursday night.
Discipline to systems and assignments is just as important, if not more so, than discipline in terms of not taking needless penalties.
Take care of both of those things, and the Kraken have a solid chance to pick up win number-two all-time in Edmonton, against an Oilers team that is clearly still trying to determine its way.
Earlier Kraken:
— Kraken GM’s Faith In Advisors Triggered Trades
