One: Next Player Up
The Kraken announced on Friday that Jaden Schwartz is dealing with an upper-body injury and is expected to be out for approximately six weeks. That means there’s another role to be filled in the Kraken lineup as Seattle awaits the return to full health of Brandon Tanev (day-to-day) and Andre Burakovsky (who is skating with the team but there is no imminent return expected at this time).
So in a league that is all about the next player up and being ready, Max McCormick will be joining the Kraken from Coachella Valley (a move that was also announced Friday). It’s unclear if McCormick will draw into the game in Ottawa, but another new face that has joined the team from Coachella, Marian Studenic, earned positive reviews in his Kraken debut Thursday in Toronto.
“I think (Studenic) earned the trust of his teammates early in the hockey game and we consistently saw a good pace to his game,” Dave Hakstol said. “More importantly, we could see his poise with the puck. There's some tight spaces out there and his play off the wall, getting through the neutral zone, he did a nice job with it. He looked very comfortable, and he played with good pace.”
Two: Complete Play
After Thursday’s shootout loss in Toronto, the Kraken surely weren’t satisfied with just one standings point, but they were satisfied with how they had played. “We played one heck of a game,” Dave Hakstol said. And Eeli Tolvanen described the effort as one of the best 65 minutes the team has played this season.
That same effort will need to be on display in Ottawa if Seattle wants to crack a defense that limits shots on net, especially from dangerous areas. The Senators rank in the top 10 defensively in terms of disallowing offensive zone possession time, and shots from the slot and in the top five in terms of limiting rush chances against and rebound chances.
Three: Know the Foe – Ottawa
Going into Friday, Ottawa had the third-fewest standings points in the league (16) but that doesn’t tell the whole story when you consider the team has played the fewest games thus far (17). They have lost five of their last nine, but they are sure to be hungry to get in the win column at home and in addition to their defense, they are also a team that draws the most penalties per game (4.4) but the power play has struggled running at an 18.9-percent success rate (19th overall).
Things to take advantage of? The Senators also take quite a few penalties – almost four per game and their penalty kill ranks 26th overall. And if you can get through their defensive abilities, to create scoring chances you can work to test Ottawa’s goaltenders who have a combined .886 save percentage.
Another factor will be fatigue. For the second time this year, the Kraken will be facing a team on the second half of a back-to-back. The Senators lost 4-2 in Columbus Friday night and then flew back to Ottawa for Saturday’s game against the Kraken. The last time Seattle faced a team playing their second game in two days, they gutted out a win (New York Islanders, Nov. 16).
