Seeking a successful end to the homestand: previewing the Kraken hosting the Senators, December 17th, 2024
By Charles Hamaker and Silvia Leija-Rosas
Seattle, WA - With their four-game homestand against all Atlantic Division teams at Climate Pledge Arena coming to a close, our Seattle Kraken are looking to get two critical points against an Ottawa Senators team that has been red hot during the month of December. With the Kraken sitting solidly out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference, Seattle needs to stack points to try and climb up the rankings towards a Wild Card spot. With a roster that’s largely outside of team captain Jordan Eberle out for at least three months due to Pelvic surgery and veteran forward Yanni Gourde still largely working back from a lower body injury (Considered Day-to-day), the Kraken are again searching for means of consistent offensive production and generally consistent execution in their play, as often times Seattle is a team that will beat the top rosters around the NHL but fail to take care of some of the “lesser” talented groups. With that being said, the month of December has largely been kind to the Kraken, and they’ll need to continue the strong performances they’ve been able to continue early into this last month of the 2024 calendar year.
Looking at Ottawa
The Senators (15-13-2) are looking to cling to their Eastern Conference wild card spot as they enter tonight’s game. Ottawa is coming into Seattle hot with a 7-2-1 record in their last 10 games and are currently on a three-game win streak, powered by goaltending from Linus Ullmark. That hot stretch is even more impressive when you note that the Senators have collected the most points (Eleven) so far in the month of December. Over his last five wins, starting goaltender Linus Ullmark posted a .950 save percentage, allowing just five goals combined. His consistency, since being acquired in a blockbuster trade this offseason with the Boston Bruins, is the key to Ottawa’s defensive structure. On the offense, Brady Tkachuk (15 goals) and Drake Batherson (13 goals) lead the charge, but it's the Senators’ ability to shut down opponents that makes them a threat tonight. They have held teams to one goal or fewer in four of their last five wins, and that can easily be emphasized against a Seattle Kraken team that has struggled to generate consistent offensive play for three of their four seasons in NHL existence. The Senators will come into Climate Pledge Arena tonight looking to continue their strong stretch of play going.
Looking at Seattle
The Kraken (15-15-2) are aiming to bounce back after a 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, December 14th. On Saturday, Seattle dominated early with a 7-0 shot advantage and the first goal of the game as Brandon Montour unleashed a power play bomb, but faltered later as they managed just one shot over 17.5 minutes. Against a defensively solid Ottawa team, simplifying plays and returning to their strategy of creating chaos in front of the net will be essential tonight. The Kraken have largely played well defensively over the course of this homestand outside of that Tampa Bay loss, that saw the Lightning really pull away later in the game after Seattle had kept things close for the majority of the first two frames, and the home side will require that sort of defensive intensity and execution if they are going to get a win tonight against a red hot Ottawa Senators team. With Yanni Gourde likely looking like a gametime decision at best, it seems like Daniel Sprong and Josh Mahura will remain scratches for Seattle while young Ryan Winterton should be staying in the lineup as he’s had a longer call up from the teams AHL affiliate Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Giveaway item/promotional or group nights
After a slight stretch of games for the Kraken at home where we haven’t had a giveaway to look at (The last one was November 27th when the Buoy bobblehead was given away), Seattle has another giveaway tonight as the first 10,000 fans tonight into Climate Pledge Arena will receive a Kraken themed Trapper hat! This is a great giveaway considering the cold, wet, windy weather that the area of the Pacific Northwest has been facing. There are no other group tickets or promotional nights taking place during this game.
Morning skate/lineup notes
This morning, our Seattle Kraken held an optional morning skate at the Kraken Community Iceplex with a limited showing that didn’t provide too much insight
Starting goaltender matchup
For Seattle, Joey Daccord was working on rink two (Smartsheet) with goaltender coach Steve Briere for the majority of today’s optional morning skate, so we imagine that he will be tonight’s starting goaltender tonight against his former team. Daccord, who was originally drafted by Ottawa with the 199th overall selection in the 2015 class, has an all time record of 1-1-0 with a 1.53 GAA and .951 SV% in two career appearances versus Ottawa. Joey has looked good as of late, recording a 2.00 goals against average in his previous three starts including a 0.93 mark with a .970 save percentage against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers in the last game that he started. Daccord has the chance to help the Kraken close out the homestand with a win, and with five of eight possible points on this homestand, and to potentially heavily influence this result for Seattle if he’s able to play a strong game against the team that drafted him and then left him exposed in the expansion draft a few years later. Joel was incredibly strong in that game against the Panthers, recording a 2.01 goals saved above expected as he was the primary reason that the Kraken forced overtime against Florida.
For Ottawa, it’s projected that the Senators will go with Linus Ullmark in net tonight against Seattle. Ullmark has an all time record of 2-1-1 in four games with a goals against average of 2.23 and a save percentage of .919 versus the Kraken in his career, with his last game against Seattle serving as a shootout loss at Climate Pledge Arena back on February 26th, 2024. Linus has been on a tear recently, going 5-0-0 with five goals Against, a 0.99 goals against average, a .966 save percentage, and one shutout in the last five games that he’s played. Ullmark has been so good recently that he earned the third star in the NHL’s “three stars of the week” and had the lowest goals against average of the four “NHL top goalies of the week” with a 0.99 goals against average. The 31-year-old Ullmark, who has earned points in each of his past seven starts dating to Nov. 27 (6-0-1, 1.55 GAA, .950 SV%, 1 SO), owns a 10-7-2 record, 2.52 goals-against average, .910 save percentage and two shutouts through 20 total appearances this season – his first with Ottawa. He won’t be easy to play against or score on, but Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma said that Seattle can’t get deterred early on by how well Ullmark may play.
Key players to watch on both teams
Our key Kraken players to watch are Matty Beniers and Oliver Bjorkstrand, two forwards that have been impacting Seattle in different ways so far this season. For Beniers, he’s expected to appear in his 200th career NHL game tonight, becoming the third skater (after Cole Sillinger & J.J. Moser) from the 2021 NHL Draft class to reach the milestone. Out of those three, Beniers leads across the scoresheet with 120 (46 goals/74 assists) career points. His 17 points this season rank fifth while his 13 assists are tied for third among all Seattle skaters. Matty also has three points (One goal/Two assists) in six career games against the Ottawa Senators. For Bjorkstrand, “The Maestro” has nine points (Four goals/five assists) in 17 career contests against the Senators, and currently sits two assists away from the 200 NHL assists mark. Bjorkstrand is one of four Kraken skaters nearing the 200 career NHL assists milestone, as forwards Yanni Gourde and Chandler Stephenson are one back while defenseman Brandon Montour needs two. Oliver has been the highest producing Seattle skater since the month of December began, totaling eleven points through the first few weeks of the month and really making an impact for the Kraken since being a healthy scratch earlier in the season. We’re looking for those two to create some offensive havoc for Seattle, whether it’s Beniers getting his own attacking game going on a better pace or Oliver continuing his strong month of December.
Our key Senators players to watch are Drake Batherson and Brady Tkachuk. Batherson enters tonight’s game ranked second in points (33) and assists (20) while being tied for second in goals (10) among all Senators in his 30 games this season. He has six points (Four goals/Two goals) in his last five games, including a goal in Ottawa's contest on December 14th against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Batherson leads all Senators in power-play points (16) and has two points (One goal/one assist) in six career contests against Seattle. Tkachuk, the younger of the brothers as the Kraken saw Mathew earlier on this homestand when Florida came to town, has been playing well so far this season and currently sits at 32 points (15 goals/17 assists) through 30 games played on the campaign. Batherson and Tkachuk are two of Ottawa’s three point per game players, and they play together on the same line, creating a 69% expected goal share when on the ice together this season. That line will largely be of importance when watching this game, and this is where a defensive forward like Matty Beniers will play a critical role for the Kraken in tonight’s game.
Key storylines to watch
Can the Kraken generate chances like they did against Tampa Bay?
Despite the loss on Saturday, the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning marked the 3rd-most expected goals for that the Kraken have generated at 5v5 this season. Interestingly enough Seattle has lost all three of the games in which they have generated the most expected goals for at 5v5 (The home opener on October 8th versus St. Louis, November 30th versus the San Jose Sharks, and then Saturday’s loss to Tampa Bay.) which is quite odd. The Kraken must do everything greasy, dirty, grimy, and mucky they can to generate opportunities against Linus Ullmark, with the way that he’s been playing. The separation from best friend forever Jeremy Swayman on the Bruins hasn’t seemed to put much of a damper on Ullmark’s play, considering the sort of heather that he’s been on in the month of December. Seattle will have to show the sort of battle and compete to get to the net that they don’t show nearly often of.
Can Seattle’s power play continues it’s December surge?
Since the ugly loss on the road to the San Jose Sharks, that did net them two power play goals and both from Shane Wright, our Seattle Kraken have seen their power play rank sixth in all of the National Hockey League. Two weeks it’s much of a sample size to go off and Seattle can even still show some improvement in that department, but getting improvement from their generally “meh” special teams units could really sway some of their games in favor of them and that sort of thing is necessary if they are going to raise themselves from where they sit currently. You could add a look towards the Seattle penalty kill here as well, as the Ottawa power play ranks sixth on the season so far and that will be a big test for a Kraken kill that sits in the lower half of the league and has all season long.
How to watch
For those who won’t be joining us tonight at Climate Pledge Arena, this game is viewable on the Kraken Hockey Network and KONG in the local market and ESPN+ for those who aren’t in the local market. For those in the state of the Washington, here’s the list of Seattle Kraken audio network affiliates: Seattle KJR 93.3 FM (Flagship station), Spokane KIX 99.3 FM, Tri-Cities KJOX 1340 AM, Mount Vernon KAPS 660 AM and 102.1 FM, Port Angeles KONP 1450 AM and 101.7 FM, Forks KBDB 96.7 FM, Olympia KAYO 96.9 FM/KGY 95.3 FM, Bellingham KPUG 1170AM or KGMI 790 AM, Yakima KBBO 1390 AM, Shelton KMAS 1030 AM/103.3 FM, Colfax KRAO 102.5 FM, Ellensburg KXLE 95.3 FM, and Aberdeen KSWW 102.1 FM. For those in the state of Oregon: Portland KPOJ 620 AM, Astoria KCRX 102.3 FM, Hood River/The Dalles KIHR 1340 AM and 98.3 FM, Corvallis KEJO 1240 AM. For those in Alaska: Anchorage KTZN 550 AM, Juneau KTKU 105.1 FM, Ketchikan KTKN 930 AM and 95.7 FM, Kenai KSRM 920 AM, Sitka KIFW 1230 AM, Kodiak Is. KVOK 560 AM/98.7 FM, and Fairbanks KKED 104.7 FM. For those in Idaho, you can find it on St Maries KOFE 1240 AM and those in Montana can find it on Missoula KKVU 102.9 FM. If you want to watch the game alongside other Kraken fans or just be out of the house, you can click here for a list of Anchor Alliance bars including the home of Circling Seattle Sports, Rough & Tumble Pub!
What's next after this game?
The conclusion of tonight’s contest against the Ottawa Senators, the final game of a four-team homestand all against Atlantic Division teams, represents the first of four games for our Seattle Kraken before we get to the Holiday break. After tonight’s game, our Kraken will travel to Chicago tomorrow before their next game which comes on Thursday, December 19th at the United Center Arena for a 4:30PM PST puck drop against the Blackhawks that will be broadcast live on the Kraken Hockey Network and KONG. Seattle will then be in a stretch of game, day off, and then back-to-back games as they’ll head to Las Vegas for a battle with the Golden Knights on Saturday before the second leg of those two consecutive games when they wrap up the road trip before the holiday break with a stop against the Colorado Avalanche. This is another tough yet key stretch of games for the Kraken, as they sit six points out of a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference and six points out of a playoff spot in the Pacific Division, and they’ll be attempting to climb up the rankings. The best way for Seattle to do that is to stack points, whether that’s the full two points from a victory or a singular point from an overtime defeat, the Kraken must continue to execute and collect points.
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