One: Confidence for Matty
Kraken center Matty Beniers scored for the third consecutive game in Thursday’s shootout loss to Vancouver and is also riding a four-game points streak. Prior to that, he’d gone 19 consecutive games without a goal, and the drought was clearly weighing on him.
“He’s playing with a lot more jump and a lot more confidence because that puck has gone in the net,” Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma said.
The power play goal against the Canucks was the first for Beniers all season.
Beniers had scored 19 goals in his Calder Trophy-winning rookie season before being laid out with a concussion on a hit behind the play by Tyler Myers of the Canucks two years ago this month. Up until this three-game scoring stretch, he’d managed 24 combined goals since the Myers hit – with the Kraken waiting for his production to catch up to the rugged two-way work he’s been putting in.
And as goes Beniers, so does the Kraken offense. They’ve scored three or more goals in every game in which Beniers manages a tally – posting a 3-1-2 record.
The Kraken are also 9-5-2 this season in games in which Beniers manages at least a point. They are 8-14-1 in all other games.
Two: Support for Grubi
In keeping with the theme of Beniers being key to the offense thriving overall, that increased team goal production hasn’t hurt the record of Kraken netminder Philipp Grubauer either.
Grubauer has looked better this recent stretch of games in the absence of injured Joey Daccord. And the fact the Kraken have scored at least three goals in each of the prior three games hasn’t hurt his record much: Grubauer is 5-2-1 under such circumstances, while 0-8-0 when the Kraken fail to score at least three times.
In fact, Grubauer is just 2-6-1 this season in games in which he’s allowed three goals or fewer – losing three of those starts after allowing just two goals.
So, a key for the Kraken? Score at least three times when he’s in net.
Three: Know Your Foe
Look, for the Kraken to improve their Pacific Division hopes overall they’ll need to start performing against its best teams. They are 5-18-2 lifetime against Edmonton and Vegas, owning just a 2-8-1 lifetime mark when facing the Oilers – having not beaten them since two years ago on Friday. The only time they’ve ever beaten the Oilers at home was three years ago last month.
Sure, the Oilers are a great team. They came within a victory of a Stanley Cup championship last June. And yeah, the Kraken have played them tough at times – six of the games have been decided by two goals or fewer.
But for Pete’s sake, the Kraken need to stay out of the penalty box against a team with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The Oilers have 10 power play goals in 33 opportunities against the Kraken lifetime, good for a 30.3% success rate that would rank No. 2 in the entire NHL this season if used as their team stat.
The fact the Oilers entering Friday ranked only 13th overall with a 22.9% power play success rate after a slow start to their season should fool nobody. Do not tempt fate with these guys. They’d gone 9-2-1 in their last 12 games as of Friday with 11 of their 22 power play goals this season coming that stretch, so any cumulative stats should be taken with some hefty salt cubes.
McDavid and Draisaitl, as of Friday, were also each riding 12-game points streaks during this winning run. McDavid had three goals and 20 assists that span, while Draisaitl had 10 goals and 14 assists.
