One: Trust the process – Yes, the Kraken will need to finish off chances a lot better in this Saturday afternoon affair than they did against the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. Thing is, though, they must keep generating those chances for anything to happen. On Thursday, they gave themselves opportunities by winning 63% of all puck battles according to SportLogiq. They generated eight high danger scoring chances, which was as many as Nashville had.
They just didn’t score on them. Other than Freddy Gaudreau redirecting a net-front Chandler Stephenson pass for his team’s only goal.
Gaudreau said postgame the Kraken will need to “trust the process” and keep doing what they did to create chances in a tight-checking game. And then, they need to finish. Scoring has been an issue for this team all season. They’ve acquired Bobby McMann, who now has a team high 23 goals, to help with the offense. Jared McCann is also healthy again. They’ve got players that can put pucks in the net.
Their team shooting percentage of 11.1% ranks 15th of 32 teams. Right about average, or median, or whatever you want to call it. It isn’t bad luck preventing the Kraken from scoring. It’s largely been the ability to create ample opportunities in close.
So, they need to continue the process of creating chances and hope some additional pucks cross the goal line through the natural flow of events. They did it 11 times in two games against Vancouver and Florida, so they have scored before. The chances may be fewer and tougher to come by when facing better teams in the playoff hunt. But at this elite level, when the created opportunity is good enough, a shot is a shot, and pucks should start going in.
Two: Avoid inopportune penalties – The Kraken didn’t help their cause against Nashville with the penalties they took. It wasn’t necessarily the volume, as they wound up killing off only three. But they would have had a fourth to fend off had Jonathan Marchessault not negated it by going after Ryker Evans for boarding a Preds teammate. Beyond the sheer number, the timing of the penalties hurt.
When you’re struggling for offense and missing penalty killers Jaden Schwartz and Eeli Tolvanen, the last thing you need is guys going to the box for lapses. Two successive penalties early in the second period of the Nashville game wound up deciding the contest. First, they helped kill off any offensive momentum the Kraken may have had scoring a late first period goal that evened things up by intermission. Second, the Predators scored the go-ahead goal on the second of those penalties.
The first one happened when a player jumped on the ice and the guy he was replacing decided not to come off right away. That’s on the guy jumping on, not the one who prolonged his shift.
Nashville has the NHL’s 11th best power play unit at 22.7%, so taking penalties against them was not a good idea.
As for Columbus? Their 20.7% efficiency is right below the Kraken at No. 16. So, about as mid-tier as it gets. Not great, but not horrible either. And when you’re struggling to score goals, you can’t risk giving any away by taking anything but a high-quality penalty that’s absolutely needed to prevent a scoring chance.
Three: Know the foe – You don’t have to look far on this surging Columbus squad to see the familiar face of winger Mason Marchment, who has 12 goals in 26 games after scoring just four in 29 games for the Kraken ahead of being traded.
The Blue Jackets are riding an 11-game points streak at 7-0-4 and have vaulted into third spot in the Metropolitan Division just one point behind second place Pittsburgh. The 83 points for Columbus would have been enough to lead the Pacific Division by five over Anaheim as of Friday morning (expect to hear more such divisional comparisons from all around the game if Pacific teams don’t start winning more).
Anyhow, that again means the Kraken have their work cut out for them against a team that’s a formidable 19-8-7 on home ice. Columbus has gone 16-2-4 since firing Dean Evason and replacing him with veteran head coach Rick Bowness. Adam Fantilli has been the biggest beneficiary of the swap, becoming a point-per-game player under Bowness compared to 28 points in 45 games with Evason as bench boss.
Connor Garland was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline and put up four goals in his first six games for Columbus. A bit like what Bobby McMann has done for the Kraken.
In what won’t be great news for the Kraken’s scoring woes, the Blue Jackets have dramatically reduced their goals against to 2.55 per game since Bowness took over – second lowest in the NHL that stretch. Their offense was struggling badly before the coaching switch but has now vaulted to No. 15 at 3.19 goals per game.
Zach Werenski of Team USA gold medal captaincy fame leads Columbus with 72 points, while Kirill Marchenko is second in points and tops in goals with 25. The aforementioned Fantilli is now fourth with 51 points and second in goals with 21.
Projected lineup (not official):
McMann-Beniers-Eberle
Nyman-Stephenson-Kakko
McCann-Wright-Catton
Meyers-Gaudreau-Melanson
Dunn-Larsson
Lindgren-Montour
Oleksiak-Evans
Daccord
