3 Game Essentials | Kraken at Wild | April 22

One: Eberle on Learning to Win

Monday night, following a Kraken clean sweep of the recent homestand producing the franchise's first three-game win streak, every reporter in the room wanted to ask Eberle a question about how good it feels to win, what's different that the team is holding onto leads and, this homestand had to be fun, right?
The Eberle session went longer than usual for that reason, prompting coach Dave Hakstol to joke, "You don't need me, Ebs was in here long enough."
Eberle knows winning and losing, not just from this expansion season. During his first NHL season with Edmonton in 2010-11, the Oilers' record was 25-45-12. By his last season with EDM, the record was 47-26-8.
Traded to the New York Islanders in the summer of 2017, the Isles were 35-37-10 in Eberle's first season out East. The next regular season was even better at 48-27-7 but NYI was knocked out of the playoffs in the second round. In 2019-20, the team advanced to the Eastern Conference Final.
"We're learning," Eberle said about his current squad, which lost six regulars at the trade deadline. "Winning and losing is such a fine line in this league. When you're on the losing side, you tend to think the world's ending, but you understand how close you are to actually being there [on the winning side].
"When you finally start to get leads and then you blow them, you're just getting that much closer. You learn how to win, that's just how it is in this league. You learn the little individual plays, the wall plays, battles in front, that doesn't appear to make a difference... you play the game long enough, you understand those are the plays that get you over the hump to get the win. That's what it comes down to in the playoffs."

Two: Kraken Focus: Rask-Wennberg-Lind Line

Hakstol liked what he saw from Alex Wennberg centering Victor Rask and Kole Lind. The positive impression started with the rookie Lind scoring 72 seconds into the game out of a breakout play that, as puck luck would have it, caromed off the boards behind the Colorado net right to Lind's forehand.
"Kole was building speed to get that goal," Hakstol said. "He played a good 200-foot game. He played with simplicity and hardness. That line with Rask, 'Wenny' and Lind got a load of good chances."

Know the Foe: Minnesota Wild (49-21-7, 2nd in Central Division)

The Wild are vying with the Blues for which team will get home-ice advantage in their first-round playoff matchup. Minnesota is fifth in the NHL in goals scored (Monday's opponent, Colorado, is second). Kirill Kaprizov (44 goals), Ryan Hartman (32) and Mats Zuccarello (23) form a top line on the verge of scoring 100 goals as a three-man unit.
Second-line center Kevin Fiala has 32 goals this season with nine goals and 16 points in his last eight games. Rookie Matt Boldy has turned heads with 15 goals and 21 assists in 42 games since being called up in January. Boldy leads all rookies in points per game average (.86) with larger sample sizes than Matty Beniers (who is currently at 1.0).
Wild goalie Cam Talbot played in Thursday's 6-3 home win over Vancouver. The Kraken, in town Thursday and rested, will most likely face Marc-Andre Fleury in net on Minnesota's second night of
back-to-back games
. Fleury was last seen by Kraken fans slamming his goalie stick on a Climate Pledge Arena goal bar after losing in a shootout in a Chicago uniform.