3 Game Essentials | Kraken at Arizona | Nov. 6

One: Continue Disrupting

Finishing the scoring chances is a matter of "getting inside the blue paint" of the goalie crease, says Hakstol regularly, and hunting rebounds when goalies are most vulnerable and/or out of position. Well, that and maybe some puck luck too, says Hakstol. Both the coach and his hat-trick scorer Jordan Eberle emphasized the team is getting good looks and fans should fret only when those scoring chances dry up.
While those finishes are exciting and noise-worthy, what fans can look for Saturday against the Arizona Coyotes in Glendale outside Phoenix is how those scoring chances are getting started. A formidable share of the Kraken's offensive bursts begin with forechecking (forwards harassing opponents in the offensive zone trying and many times succeeding to get the puck back).
The forechecking can "lead to offensive benefit" as Hakstol noted about Eberle's late second period goal that tied the game 32 seconds after Buffalo went ahead 2-1 on a power play.
Another part of creating offense with good defense is taking away playmaking rushes by opposing defensemen, getting sticks on pucks and sticks on sticks in the center-ice neutral zone. This was particularly noticeable in disrupting young Buffalo offensive-minded defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. More of that against Arizona, please.

Two: Kraken Players in Focus

Seattle has scored three power play goals in 36 man-advantage opportunities, which calculates to an 8.3 percentage. Only Arizona at 8 percent (2 of 25) and Vegas at nil (0 for 19) are lower. To be fair, two important Kraken goals have been scored less than five seconds after the official end of the penalty time, which even Hakstol concedes is effectively a power play score. That improves the Kraken percentage to 13.9, which still parks them in the bottom quarter of the leagues power play units.
The Kraken are getting more shot quality in 5-on-5 play relative to man-advantage chances. Hakstol and assistant coach Paul McFarland (still in COVID protocol) have recently tweaked the power play formation to get more shooting "setups" and that enjoyed some success in the last two games. Players to watch: Yanni Gourde on the first power play unit and Vince Dunn and Morgan Geekie on the second unit.

Three: Know the Foe: Arizona Coyotes (0-9-1 before Friday's game at Anaheim)

Arizona played at Anaheim Friday in its 11th attempt to win its first game of the season. The leading scorer after the first 10 games was defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere with five assists. The D-man's career highs (13 goals and 52 assists) came in Philadelphia in 2017-18 when Dave Hakstol was coaching the Flyers.
Phil Kessel is a big-name player who leads the Coyotes with three goals and currently slates on the third line. Hockey fans know the name and remember any number of stories about the American scorer.
Arizona rookie goaltender Karek Veimelka has starred for Phoenix despite the team's pileup in the loss column of the standings. He and the Coyotes fell to the Ducks in Anaheim Friday, 3-1. It's entirely possible Scott Wedgewood, a competent NHL-caliber goaltender just picked on waivers from New Jersey, might get his first start in the desert on the second night of back-to-back games. He was 0-2-1 in three appearances with an .880 save percentage in three games with the Devils.