One: Forging Small Details, Puck Luck and Belief
LOS ANGELES – Jordan Eberle has been part of Kraken history over all five seasons. He’s answered hundreds upon hundreds of questions about the team’s fortunes. Shane Wright was selected fourth overall in 2022, now in his second NHL season and has played for a myriad of high-level teams across the sport, captaining a gold-medal winning Team Canada at World Juniors in 2023.
Both veteran and young-star-to-be know that small details win games, along with puck luck. Eberle pointed out how linemate Kaapo Kakko won a puck battle farther back on the ice to move the puck to Matty Beniers, who deftly found the captain for a game-winner. Monday night, star Philipp Grubauer said blocking out an approach by a Ducks forward helped him see an early-game puck clearly for an easy save that would have been much harder if that opposing forward had been screening him.
As for Wright, he called the game’s opening goal on a Kraken power play “kind of funny” because it started with a scoring try by Kaapo Kakko with the rebound bouncing to Wright, who shot the puck with Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal making the save but kicking it out to Gaudreau. The veteran forward lifted it over Dostal for his second goal of the game, a big grin emerging as he celebrated with teammates. Wright was smiling right back.
“We are just finding ways to win,” said Wright about winning two straight games via third-period heroics. ”Obviously, we’ve had a stretch here that hasn't been our best. But we feel like we've been in a lot of games. We feel like we've had a chance to win a lot of these games. And, yeah, in a couple of them now, a couple of bounces flip the script, go the other way. Now we’re on the other side of it, winning games. It’s about finding ways to win.”
“I think the belief is a magical thing,” said Eberle. “You’ve got to just believe. You know adversity is going to hit. We have it right now, not just on the ice. We've lost guys, key pieces, and we've still found a way. We're still in this thing. We got another chance to do it tomorrow [Tuesday].”
Two: Beware the Second Period
Kraken coach Lane Lambert was impressed with how his squad faced down the adversity that Anaheim brought in the middle 20 minutes, similar in fact to how Saturday’s comeback victory unfolded. The Ducks sent pucks and six high-danger shots to the net in the second period, but the Kraken didn’t break. “Our guys battled,” said Lambert. “There was again a lot of commitment. But we just spend too much time in our zone. It's not a recipe for success. Our goaltender was our best player tonight.”
Three: Know the Foe: Kings 4-7-4 at Home
While the Kraken were winning in nearby Anaheim on Monday, the Kings dropped a 3-1 final to Columbus at Crypto.com Arena in LA. The Kings are reeling lately, posting a 3-5-2 record in their last 10 games. They have particularly struggled on the power play. Adrian Kempe leads LAK in goals with 13, while Kevin Fiala sits at 12. By all appearances and summations, it is an opportune time for the Kraken to do more climbing in the standings.
Projected Lines (not official)
Kakko - Beniers - Eberle
Tolvanen - Stephenson - Gaudreau
Nyman - Wright - Winterton
Kartye - Meyers - Melanson
Dunn - Larsson
Lindgren - Oleksiak
Evans - Mahura
Daccord
