Seattle in Smashville: previewing the Kraken battling the Predators to close out opening road trip
By Silvia-Leija Rosas, edited by Charles Hamaker
Nashville, TN - The Seattle Kraken are in the “Music City” to face off against the Nashville Predators today, Tuesday, October 15th, 2024, to close out the teams opening road trip of the 2024-25 season. The game will take place at Bridgestone Arena with a puck drop at 5PM PDT. Amazon Prime members in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska can watch the game on Prime Video or on Tegna-affiliated channels, including KONG TV for Seattle-area viewers and it will be on the Kraken radio network including 93.3 KJR FM. Those in the Tennessee area can watch Bally Sports South and everyone else can watch on ESPN+.
Tuesday’s meeting is the first of three between the teams this season. Seattle enters this game coming off a loss to the Dallas Stars in the second game of a back-to-back, where a lack of offensive and small defensive mistakes compounded to being shutout with two goals against. Meanwhile, Nashville is still looking to mark their first win of the year after a 3-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. Despite the losing streak to being the season, those results don’t tell all of Nashville’s story.
The Predators were a playoff team last season who went 2-1-0 against the Kraken and outscored them 9-5 during those matchups. They also picked up some serious star power this past free agency in Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault. The latter has 13 points (9G-4A) in 12 career games against the Kraken. And between the pipes, they’ll have Juuse Saros, one of the NHL’s best goaltenders.
Against Nashville, Seattle will need to tighten up its defense and execute more efficiently on special teams. Joey Daccord, who’s only played against Nashville once, will most likely get the start tonight as head coach Dan Bylsma seems to be swapping goaltenders on and off each game to begin the season before he gets an idea of who could dominate the starts this year. His showing during the win against the Minnesota Wild was good, but it’s the Kraken defense who will have all eyes on them to not put their netminder in poor positions throughout the course of the game as they have to begin the 2024-25 campaign.
Nashville’s offensive depth will be a challenge for Seattle’s defense. Roman Josi, one of the most dynamic defensemen in the league, is a key playmaker from the blue line, and Filip Forsberg’s scoring ability always makes him a threat. Seattle’s ability to contain these players, especially in 5-on-5 situations, could be the deciding factor in the game, in addition to the Kraken’s own ability to get pucks to the net to improve upon their own scoring woes.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
For the Kraken, forward Jordan Eberle will once again be in the spotlight. Eberle is on a point-per-game pace with two goals and an assist to start the season. In his career against Nashville, he’s played in 36 games and has 29 points on 16 goals and 13 assists. His newly stitched ‘C’ seems to have given him some increased abilities, including finding shooting lanes, which has been key in these points. Former Nashville Predator Eeli Tolvanen is also a key player to watch in this matchup, as he has two goals across five career games when playing the team that put him on waivers back during the 2022-23 season.
For the Predators, keep an eye on Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi. Both are capable of taking over a game and will look to exploit any Kraken defensive weaknesses. Ryan O'Reilly’s leadership and two-way play could also play a significant role, especially in key faceoff situations.
Notes from morning skate
Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn was a participant in morning skate today after missing the teams road loss to the Dallas Stars with an upper body injury, and had the “day-to-day” label on him. During his media availability following the teams skate, Bylsma said that Dunn is a “gametime decision” and we’ll just have to wait until puck drop to see if he’ll be playing. Other notes include that Eeli Tolvanen will be getting some power play time, with Bylsma specifically referencing Tolvanen’s hard shot as a key factor on the man advantage, and Joey Daccord will get the start in net tonight for Seattle.
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