Kraken (4-2-0) at Flyers (0-5-2) | 4 p.m.

One: Keep the balance going – No NHL team has shown the offensive balance the Kraken have to this point. The Kraken as of Monday were the only team in which every forward who has played at least three games has at least three points. A total of 12 such forwards had accumulated those numbers.

They have 10 players overall with at least four points and 15 players with at least three points.

Much of this has to do with a very productive fourth line of Freddy Gaudreau, Ben Meyers and Ryan Winterton, who have amassed six goals and nine assists for 15 points between them.

And some very offensive-minded defensemen, with Vince Dunn and Brandon Montour collecting 11 points between them while Ryker Evans has three.

On the advanced stat side, the line of Berkly Catton, Kaapo Kakko and Shane Wright leads the team in generating chances with 4.55 expected goals per 60 minutes between them according to MoneyPuck. Next is Matty Beniers, Jared McCann and Mackie Samoskevich at 3.59, followed by Gaudreau, Myers and Winterton at 3.26 and Chandler Stephenson, Bobby McMann and Jordan Eberle at 2.52.

In case you were wondering, the Kraken entered Monday with the No. 2 ranked offense in the entire league at 4.33 goals per game behind only Colorado and Edmonton. The Oilers, of course, had that absurd start in which they scored 14 goals in two games against Vancouver, which is what’s largely carried their total.  

The power play isn’t hurting, having clicked at a 23.5% efficiency rate, good for 10^th overall.

Sure, it’s still early, but the Kraken being nearly 1.6 goals per game ahead of last season’s 2.73 sure is a positive sign. 

Two: Stay out of the box – Heading into Philadelphia usually means some rough stuff so the Kraken need to do themselves a favor and avoid the penalty box as much as possible. They were able to blank the Washington Capitals’ power play the other night but still entered Monday with a penalty kill unit at 75%, which is tied for only 23^rd best with Columbus.

Not that the Flyers have a lights-out power play or anything. It’s been sputtering along in 26^th place at 9.5% as of Monday morning. Still, you don’t want to tempt fate on a road trip that’s gone very well. 

Speaking of tempting fate, guess who led the league in penalty minutes entering Monday’s action? You guessed it. The once mild-mannered Kraken have somehow become the league’s bad boys with an NHL-high 88 minutes so far. Hey, aggressive offense and defense tends to begat more penalties just as a matter of course. And the Kraken have been veryaggressive. They just need to avoid the needless stuff. Take the good penalties, just not the lazy or retaliatory ones. 

Three: Know your foe – And speaking yet again about tempting fate, the Flyers have yet to win a game this season. The 0-5-2 start is the worst in franchise history and is already prompting chants of “Fire Tocchet!” – as in head coach Rick Tocchet – from the home stands. Remember, he’s the coach who once shed blood and sweat for them as a fan favorite, pugnacious scoring forward on two Stanley Cup finalist teams in the 1980s and also won them a playoff series from behind the bench last spring. 

In other words, please do not expect the Flyers to go calmly into the night in this one. They have the league’s fifth highest penalty total and should be in a downright nasty mood by the time the puck drops. 

Everything that could go wrong for them has in the opening week-plus, starting with a 7-0 loss to arch rival Pittsburgh on opening night. In fact, since taking an opening round playoff lead of 3-0 on the Penguins last April, the Flyers have dropped 13 of 14 games including suffering a second round sweep by Carolina.

Flyers forward Trevor Zegras has just two assists thus far after signing a four-year, $36 million contract extension over the summer. The team has been outscored 28-6. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, after Carolina beat them 4-1 at home Sunday night – having done the same by a 3-2 overtime score earlier this month – the Hurricanes social media team posted: "We've won more games in Philly in the last nine days than the Flyers, Eagles, and Phillies combined this month."

But no, the Flyers are not this bad. And woe be any Kraken player that comes in here thinking this game will be a cakewalk.

The fact the Flyers have played some very good teams in the Hurricanes, Penguins, Lightning, Senators and Bruins thus far – sporting a combined record of 20-7-2 – likely explains a lot about Philly’s winless record. So, yes, once again from the rooftops – ignore the record and do not take this team lightly.

Projected lines (not official):
McCann - Beniers - Samoskevich
McMann - Stephenson - Eberle
Kakko - Catton - Wright
Meyers - Gaudreau - Winterton

Dunn - Larsson
Evans - Montour
Ottavainen - Mahura

Grubauer