Kraken (16-14-9) at Sabres (17-19-4) | 4:00 p.m.

One: On The Road Again

After some mental and physical rest over the past few days, the Kraken left the Pacific Northwest and headed to the East Coast. In what feels like a throwback to last season, the Kraken start a new calendar year with their longest trip of the season – this time tackling six games over the course of 12 days away from home.

But being the visiting team hasn’t been cause for concern. The Kraken have a winning record on the road thus far (7-6-6) and have been victorious in their last three games in away whites.

One of the ingredients for that success has been Seattle’s depth. When you’re the road team, you don’t have the luxury of controlling on-ice matchups as much as the home squad which always gets the last change during stoppages. But the Kraken’s ability to deploy four strong forward lines reduces the impact of dictating who plays against whom.

“We want to be confident in any group that goes over the boards to compete against anybody and be effective doing it,” Dave Hakstol said about road matchups. “That’s a big piece of true depth.”

Two: Going Deep

Speaking of depth, the Seattle roster is getting deeper and deeper these days.

Andre Burakovsky has been back on the ice for three games and scored his first goal of the season Thursday versus Ottawa, and Jaden Schwartz has been a full participant in the last few practices and seems nearer and nearer to returning. When the assistant captain returns to play, that brings back the skater who led his team in scoring chances and shot quality at the time of his injury (Nov. 28).

As players return, Hakstol cautioned that the next step will be to “take advantage” of that depth and identify the best possible line combinations game to game. The head coach said those trios may change as each combo looks to find chemistry.

Another addition to the team’s depth came Monday as defender Ryker Evans was called up from the AHL team in Coachella Valley. This marks another prudent move by the front office and coaching staff. Having seven defenders available when you’re far from home is a sound strategy when it comes to always having six blue liners available and ready to play.

Three: Know the Foe – Buffalo

Tuesday’s game marks the first of two times the Kraken will see the Sabres this season. Buffalo isn’t happy with where it’s sitting in the standings (7^th in the Atlantic Division), but while they are without their captain Kyle Okposo (lower body), the Sabres have a 5-4-1 record over their last ten games. They’ve also welcomed the return of 22-year-old forward, Jack Quinn who has four goals and one assist in the eight games he’s played after recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

On the blue line there are weapons too like All Star Rasmus Dahlin who leads his team in power play points (3-7-10) and is second only to Casey Mittelstadt in total points (12-20-32).

As a group, the Sabres can attack with speed. According to Sportlogiq, they create the tenth most scoring chances off the rush (6.6 per game) and they will also limit shots against – allowing just 30.7 per game – that’s the tenth lowest in the NHL.