Kings (34-26-19) vs Kraken (34-34-11) | 6:30 p.m.

One: Maintain your balance – We’ve seen the Kraken get contributions from multiple forward lines the past two games and they’ve resulted in a pair of wins. The top line of Matty Beniers, Bobby McMann and Jordan Eberle has seen each of those players score the past two games and that’s a plus because the team generally doesn’t go anyplace without the top line clicking.

But we’ve also seen Jared McCann, Berkly Catton and Freddy Gaudreau picking up third line points in each of the past two contests, while Chandler Stephenson scored for the second line in Saturday’s game. There were times the past two months when the fourth line was accounting for much of the team’s offense. 

The Kraken came into the season hoping their balance and depth across the forward trios would help offset the lack of an elite scoring threat. When that happens, you usually see the team score at least three goals. When they do that, they are 32-7-4. When they do not score at least three, they are 2-27-7. 

So, better they do things the balanced way and score three.

Two: Give the fans a show – This game is also Fan Appreciation Night, pres. by Starbucks. It’s an earlier than usual 6:30 p.m. start, which leaves extra time afterward for annual Kraken postgame awards in which things like the Pete Muldoon team MVP, Fan Favorite, 3 Stars points winner and Guyle Fielder Award for perseverance and dedication to hockey get handed out. Players will also again be taking their game jerseys literally off their backs, autographing them and then giving them out to lucky fans. So, it would be nice to be doing all of this after a victory as opposed to a loss.

And that’s the thing: The Kraken haven’t won on Fan Appreciation Night since their inaugural season. They’ve dropped the previous three, including a 6-5 overtime decision to the Kings a year ago. 

Not only that, but the Kraken can also set their franchise record for home points in a season with 45 if they nail down this final Climate Pledge Arena victory. They are 19-16-5 at home. Their best-ever home mark was 20-17-4 during the 2022-23 playoff season. The Kraken began this season hoping to do better at home so this would at least be a start and stepping stone to greater success ahead. 

Three: Know the foe – The Kings enter the game in a playoff position, which wasn’t looking all that probable as the final weeks of the season rolled around. But they’ve won four consecutive games and six of eight. Interestingly, five of their last six games have been decided by a goal with the Kings winning four of them – three beyond regulation

All those overtime and shootout games, win or lose, have paid off big for the Kings. They’ve played a league high 27 such games beyond regulation and collected an extra 19 standings points just for the ones they lost. 

The Kings also enter with only 21 regulation wins – five fewer than the Kraken and tied for second worst in the NHL with Chicago. Only Vancouver has fewer with just 15. And even with the Kings' 13 overtime and shootout victories factored in, their season winning percentage is still only .430. Yet somehow, they are holding down the second wild card spot in the Western Conference! Yes, it’s been quite a season.

They lost top-end forward Kevin Fiala to a season ending broken leg suffered playing for Switzerland at the Winter OIympics. But they’d also just traded for top New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin right before the Olympic break. In 23 games, he’s collected nine goals and 17 assists for 26 points – including the only goal in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Edmonton.

He’s already eighth on the team in scoring. Factor in his Rangers totals he’d have 83 points and be leading the squad by a dozen over Adrian Kempe.

Projected lineup: (not official)
McMann - Beniers - Eberle
Schwartz - Stephenson - Tolvanen
McCann - Gaudreau - Kakko
Catton - Fisker Molgaard - Winterton

Dunn - Larsson
Lindgren - Montour
Evans - Oleksiak

Kokko