Soon after the Kraken return from their sojourn to Helskinki, Finland, featuring two games against the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, the Seattle club will reach the quarter-point of its schedule.
That will mean 21 of the 84 to be played.
None are bigger than Wednesday night at Climate Pledge Arena against the Calgary Flames. After beating the Alberta boys twice by identical scores of 6-1 early in October, the Flames exacted a bit of revenge with their 6-2 victory on home ice over the Kraken on Friday night.
Honestly, neither team looked very good, but Calgary prevailed in a feisty match that saw Seattle, according to head coach Lane Lambert, play their worst 40-minutes of hockey since he got here.
Based on the strengths and weaknesses of the Western Conference, the Kraken, despite presently being in third place in the Pacific Division, line up to be a wild card bubble team this season. Games like the one Wednesday night against the revenge minded Flames will carry a lot of weight moving forward.
We’ll also get our first look at the Kraken sans Shane Wright, with Matthew Wood, who came the other way from the Predators in this weekend’s deal, getting his first action with Seattle.
A handful of conference teams are already on Seattle’s heels. Obviously it’s not the end all, at all, but this Flames match, the result and the overall performance, will be a strong indicator of the consistency, or lack thereof, that we should expect to see from the local boys as this season moves forward.
Just sayin’.
NOTES: — A regulation win for the Flames would move them to .500 on the season after a horrible start, one point behind Seattle.
— With a recent tear, the Calgary power play has moved up to 5th best in the NHL with an overall success rate of 30.6 percent. The Seattle penalty kill is third from the bottom in the league at 64.1%.
— It’s a toss-up as to who starts in the crease for the Kraken. Both Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer have had some low points lately. Dustin Wolf should get the start for the Flames.
Earlier Kraken:
— Ex-Kraken Wright: “I wanted more opportunity.”
Earlier Canucks:
