Kraken (16-19-2) vs Utah Hockey Club (16-13-6) | 5:00 p.m.

One: Shoot at the net, not at perfection

Anybody taking in the final five minutes of the Kraken comeback Saturday night against Vancouver couldn’t help but notice how different it looked and the results generated compared to the first 55 minutes. Among those noticing was head coach Dan Bylsma, who said the furious final minutes were a testament to the importance of shooting the puck when offered a chance rather than waiting for the perfect moment.

“Too often, I think we’re looking for perfection,” Bylsma said after Sunday’s practice. “We’re looking for the perfect play, and that doesn’t come very often, and so that can lead to frustration and to you questioning yourself, and it can lead to a lack of confidence.”

Bylsma added that Jaden Schwartz having the mindset of “getting the puck to the net in any way and any shape” paid off late as he got the comeback started with a bad angle shot from behind the goal line that deflected in off goalie Thatcher Demko. And he noted that Daniel Sprong helped start the sequence with a low-percentage shot from the middle of the ice and then headed to the net to keep the play alive inside Vancouver’s end.

We’ve seen Bylsma and Dave Hakstol before him preach about the need for having more of a “shooter’s mentality” across the board. While Sprong, Jared McCann and Eeli Tolvanen as well all have reputations for shooting first and asking questions later, the Kraken need others to adopt the mindset on a team sometimes prone to passing the puck around far too often.

Two: Shake the holiday spirit

Saturday’s game marked the second time in less than a calendar year the Kraken have come out of an in-season break looking as if they’d left their focus in a Christmas stocking. Last February, right out of the All-Star Break, they began a key East Coast road trip with an ugly loss in Philadelphia and another listless defeat in New Jersey. That prompted player meetings, much soul-searching and the usual public floggings and apologies before the team snapped out of it and elevated its play again.

Unfortunately, they still wound up missing the playoffs. Right now, coming out of the Christmas break, the Kraken aren’t nearly as late in the season as the last time, but at seven points out of the final wild-card position entering Sunday, they can’t afford to let any sluggishness linger beyond Saturday’s game.

They know to-a-man they were fortunate to win a game they nearly fell behind 5-1 in before a Vancouver goal was called back – leading to one of the league’s all-time great comebacks. But scoring three goals in the final 4:45 of regulation and winning in overtime is hardly a repeatable formula for success.

So, they need to elevate their post-break game a little quicker than they did after that February hiatus last season. Their next opponent, Utah HC, is the “easiest” on paper in a week ahead that includes a Vancouver rematch followed by matchups against Edmonton and New Jersey.

Not that Utah will be a cakewalk as they still own a better record than the Kraken. The schedule eases more significantly after the next week or so, but the Kraken must stay afloat in the interim by avoiding any more losing streaks. The margin for error will be much thinner going forward, and Kraken players, as Vince Dunn is sometimes prone to suggesting, need to start working “smart” and not just “hard” in order to maximize results.

Three: Know Your Foe

The Arizona Coy…er, Utah HC, may be a franchise that no longer plays in a 4,500-seat college arena in Tempe. But the relocated team seems a lot like the former one at times due to its inconsistent play.

The Coyotes last season hung around the playoff fringes for more than half a season with some well-timed winning streaks before losing 14 straight in late January. This season’s team, bolstered by the summertime defensive addition of Mikhail Sergachev, nonetheless lost six of seven early on -- the last of those defeats coming when they blew a 4-1 lead to San Jose with 4:32 to play in regulation and then lost in overtime. Sound familiar?

Anyway, they overcame that by winning six of seven in recent weeks to move up close to the playoff pack.

But coming in here, they’ve dropped three in a row – all at home -- and scored only three goals their last two contests.

This will be a homecoming of sorts for forward Dylan Guenther, who played 20 games for the Seattle Thunderbirds two years ago and leads Utah in goals with 16. Other maturing young talent includes second-year centerman Logan Cooley – drafted one spot ahead of Shane Wright at No. 3 overall back in 2022 and who sits third in overall team points with 31, right behind leader Clayton Keller at 36 and 32 for Guenther.

Another top young centerman, Nick Schmaltz, sits fourth in points with 28.

So, you can’t really sleep on these guys defensively, even though their 22nd-ranked 2.94 goals per game isn’t much better than the 23rd-ranked Kraken at 2.84. Again, consistency has been an issue for Utah.

On the defensive side, the team is strong as had been expected with Sergachev’s addition and despite early long-term injury losses of Sean Durzi and newcomer John Marino. They’ve posted the 13th-best goals per game allowed despite also missing No. 1 goaltender Connor Ingram for the past six weeks with an upper-body injury. His replacement, Karel Vejmelka, has put up a strong 2.32 goals against average and .917 save percentage.