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

One: Hold the lead – The Kraken have done a great job of starting out strong the last two games of this road trip. It’s the finish they need to work on. They’ve blown three leads in the last two games, two of them in the final period. Both times, they managed to come back and win the game late, first in Washington, D.C. against the Capitals on a Jared McCann goal in the final six minutes of regulation, then on Bobby McMann’s shootout goal in Philadelphia. 

In both games, the Kraken sat back looking as if they were trying to protect the lead rather than continuing the aggressive play that put them ahead in the first place.

Every home team usually makes a third period push when trailing so you would expect the Kraken to be on their heels a little bit. But by the time the Flyers scored their second goal of the third period on Tuesday night, they were outshooting the Kraken 6-1 in the opening 7:20 of the frame. The Kraken woke up from there and outshot them 14-2 the rest of the way in regulation and overtime.

That’s quite a disparity. 

“We’ve got to clean that up,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said. “We’ve got to continue to play on our toes. I thought there were times when we should have been forechecking and we were backing up. It’s just not going to work and it was pretty clear.”

Similar story against Washington on Sunday. After outshooting the Caps 22-18 the first two periods, the Kraken were outshot 18-5 in the final frame. Just prior to McCann’s winning goal, the shots were 11-3 for the home team – four of them taken in the opening minute when Boone Jenner scored the tying marker. 

That’s coming out flat and getting steamrolled. The Kraken had trouble in these types of situations last season and have gotten by this time around only because stellar goaltending kept a bad moment from escalating. But the Kraken need to do themselves a favor and keep playing the same way for three periods. 

Two: The puck stops here – As mentioned, the play of goalies Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer has contributed greatly to this 3-0 trip that had the Kraken tied for first place with Vegas in the Pacific Division as of Wednesday. Grubauer in particular has been outstanding in picking up two of the three wins, stopping 61 of 66 shots for a .924 save percentage. 

And it isn’t just the stats at play here, but the timing of them. He’s made the key saves when his team needed them most. 

Daccord was brilliant in the third period against Washington as well, stopping 17 of 18 shots. So, the two goalies between them on this trip have stopped 94 of 102 shots for a combined .922 save percentage. That rate of saves will usually win the game about 70-75% of the time. 

Overall, the Kraken have a .915 save percentage that’s tied with Minnesota for fifth best in the league.

While all that’s great, it would be nice if the Kraken could rely on the goaltenders just a little less frequently. Especially with games coming up against two good Florida teams. 

Cutting down on the 34 shots per game average given up on the trip would be a good place to start. The Kraken overall as of Monday had allowed the third most shots in the NHL at 214, which equates to 32 per game. And the two teams worse than them have both played one more game than the Kraken.

While not all shots are created equal and some are more dangerous than others, they could still stand to whittle that total a tad.

Three: Know your foe – The Tampa Bay Lightning last won a Stanley Cup six seasons ago, but they remain a formidable contender. Last season looked as if it might be their year until the Montreal Canadiens upset them in Game 7 of the opening round.

They’re back strong again this season, though it remains to be seen whether they’ll be as formidable. They take a 4-2-0 record into this contest with both losses having come against the surprising New York Rangers. Tampa Bay had won four in a row before the Rangers beat them on Tuesday.

The Lightning are 3-0-0 at home to start the season, and the Kraken have never won a regulation game at Benchmark International Arena. Both of the Kraken road victories here, last March and three years ago this month, came in overtime. 

Nikita Kucherov is tied for the Lightning points lead with eight in six games on a goal and seven assists. Brandon Hagel, who may have been their best player in the first-round loss last spring, has four goals, four assists. Jake Guentzel is next with three goals, three assists. But offense hasn’t been what’s carried the Lightning to-date, with only four of their players having four points or more. The Kraken have 12 such players. Not surprisingly, the Kraken as of Wednesday had the league’s third best offense at 4.00 goals per game compared to the Lightning at No. 21 at 2.83 goals.

Defensively is where the Lightning have excelled, ranking No. 8 in fewest goals allowed at 2.67. The Kraken, meanwhile, aren’t much worse at a 9^th best 2.71 allowed.

Hey, it’s still early. They haven’t even played 10% of the season yet. But these are still fun comparisons.

Andrei Vasilevskiy remains the big guy in nets, though he lost both games to the Rangers. He didn’t have the best playoff series against Montreal either, getting outdueled by Jakub Dobes. Vasilevskiy is 32, so we’ll see whether he can continue to carry the workload of roughly 60 games or so he’s had in recent seasons. His .886 save percentage thus far is far from his usual .916 career average. But again, it’s early. 

Longtime former Kraken alternate captain Yanni Gourde had off-season hip surgery, and the Lightning don’t expect him back until December. 

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

Dunn - Larsson
Evans - Montour
Ottavainen - Mahura

Daccord