Game 6 Essentials | Stars at Kraken (DAL leads series 3-2) | 4 p.m.

One: Keep the Faith - and Aggressiveness
Along with much noted Kraken scoring depth, one of the team's pillars is to play aggressively in all zones, creating offense from forechecking, disrupting the rush in the neutral zone if not sooner, getting sticks and bodies in front of shots in the defensive zone, reducing Grade-A chances to "B" or "C" levels and winning puck battles along the full 200 feet of ice. Even in Saturday's must-win game - and perhaps most importantly because it is the season-extender or breaker, Seattle needs to play the way that propelled the franchise to this magical season to date.
"You want to play aggressive, you want to play on your toes, you want to skate, that's the way we want to play," Jordan Eberle said in his most recent media scrum. "We want to be a quick team, but we have to be smart about it too. We can't be diving in everywhere and giving them odd-man rushes and opportunities to score. It's just having the smarts and veteran presence to know when to do that and when not to do it."
"I think even if you're 98 percent sure and two percent off, the two percent are the ones that end up in the back of your net ... we have to try and find a way to continue to play aggressive without giving them grade-A chances."

Dave Hakstol has preached staying with the Kraken's style of play all season, with Colorado coach Jared Bednar crediting consistency of "winning pucks" as a big reason why the defending Cup champs were ousted in seven games by the second-season Seattle franchise. Hakstol said Friday he expects his squad to bounce back in front of a raucous home crowd at Climate Pledge Arena that has national broadcast media buzzing.
"We're a confident group," coach Dave Hakstol said before the Kraken departed their Dallas hotel Friday. "We haven't ducked reality or ducked the truth at any point in time through this year, and we won't now. ... The reality is, to win the series we have to win two in a row, but you can't really worry about two right now. We've got to go home and get one."
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##### Two: Looking for a Difference-Maker
When Jared McCann scored in Thursday's Game 5 he became the 18th Kraken player to score a goal this postseason. A 40-goal scorer in the regular season, McCann looked more himself pretty much with each new shift in Dallas. There is every reason to project McCann as a potential hero Saturday night. Yanni Gourde, who has two goals and four assists in his last six postseason games, is another differentiator pick and big-game performer.
##### Three: Talk Amongst Yourself, Take 2
Part of the fun of a playoff run is talking it over with fellow fans and friends. Some material for discussion Saturday:
- Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer was chased from the Game 5 loss, giving way to Martin Jones to start the third period. But Dave Hakstol is clearly sticking with Grubauer in the Game 6 later-afternoon matinee: "I don't know that there's a bad goal [in Game 5]. Grubi's been rock solid for us, he's been better than rock solid. I wanted to get Jonesy in there. The score was stretched out, good opportunity to get Jonesy some minutes. We have all the confidence in the world in Grubi." - Kraken D-man and 2022 summer free agent Justin Schultz is tied for third among NHL defensemen in postseason scoring with nine points (three goals, six assists). His nine points make the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs the second-highest scoring postseason of his career, trailing only 2017 when he had 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 21 games during Pittsburgh's 2017 second of back-to-back Cups. - Schultz and his fellow Seattle defenseman have scored nine goals this postseason, tops in the NHL. - In the second round of the playoffs, Kraken rookie Tye Kartye leads the league in hits with 29, including eight in Game 5. The 21-year-old clearly offers more to Dave Hakstol than just his scoring prowess and elite shot.