Seeking continued momentum: previewing the Kraken visiting the Islanders, December 5th, 2024

By Charles Hamaker

Elmont, NY - Following their thrilling victory over the Carolina Hurricanes back on Tuesday, our Seattle Kraken have traveled North as they continue their four-game East coast road trip, battling the New York Islanders tonight in the first game of a back-to-back as Seattle takes on the New Jersey Devils tomorrow. This is the second and final battle of the regular season between our Kraken and the Islanders, as well as the eighth meeting all time between these two franchises who call different coasts of the United States home. New York is still a team that’s trying to get healthy, as four key players (Two defenseman and two forwards) remain on injured reserve for the Islanders, while the Kraken are a team that remain without their captain in former Islander Jordan Eberle but are largely at full strength as they look to build off the momentum of Tuesday’s win over the Hurricanes. Seattle and New York are two teams that are both searching for points to stack that will help them get back into a playoff spot, but they’re in different situations currently: despite sitting in last place of the Metropolitan division, the Islanders are just two points out of a wild card spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. Our Kraken were in a similar spot to that a week or so ago, but a rough stretch of games now sees them near the bottom of the Pacific division and five points out of a wild card spot. Each game remains ever critical for the Kraken moving forward, and this contest tonight against the Islanders won’t be any easier given the circumstances for both sides. With that, let’s take a look at different factors that could play into tonight’s contest with our game preview.

The Seattle Kraken celebrate their three goals during their win over the New York Islanders on Saturday, November 16th, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena in the first of their two head-to-head matchups. (Photos by Kevin Ng)

Looking at our Kraken

While Seattle did get star defenseman Vince Dunn back two games ago, they were without up and coming blue liner Ryker Evans last game as he deals with what we assume is a right hand injury that he suffered in last Saturday’s loss to the San Jose Sharks, an ailment he could be seen getting looked at on the bench during that game while in obvious pain. We’ll talk more about Ryker’s injury in the lineup and injuries tab of this preview and shift our focus back to the Kraken, who are surely feeling better about themselves after Tuesday nights satisfying road win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Seattle remains without their captain as Jordan Eberle is on LTIR following successful pelvic surgery, and while he can’t fully be replaced the Kraken have gotten solid minutes out of Ryan Winterton and Mitchell Stephens who were called up at the end of November and have been getting quality lineup opportunities since Ebs went down. Solving the teams inconsistencies offensively and their struggling power play will be keys to Seattle seeing sustained success, and that’s up to both the coaching staff and the players themselves to put things in motion and actually show that they aren’t just a middling team that will be too far out of contention for a real playoff spot yet too far away from tanking from a top pick in the upcoming draft, just as they were last season. If the Kraken are able to play the suffocating, stout defense that they displayed against a highly talented Carolina team, they’ll swiftly find themselves stacking points yet again and fixing the two aforementioned issues would make them a legitimate playoff team. That’s a few “ifs” and we’ll have to wait and see throughout this road trip and the month of December if Seattle can make any of those potential scenarios a reality, let alone all of them.

Looking at the Islanders

The New York Islanders continue to be in an interesting place, as they’re without key players in forwards Mathew Barzal and Anthony Duclair as well as defenseman Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly, but they are just a few points out of a wild card spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. Their strong goaltending tandem of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov has taken a hit as Varlamov is currently day-to-day, with the Islanders having to make another call to their AHL affiliate Bridgeport after doing so often earlier this season with the wave of injuries that they’ve been hit by early into this 2024-25 campaign. The Islanders have struggled as of late, losing four of their last five games including two of them in overtime (Om nom nom, loser point), and considering that they aren’t far out from a postseason spot despite being at the bottom of a competitive Metropolitan division, you know that New York will be fighting hard to scrape themselves together in order to try and build some much needed momentum.

Last game for the Kraken

A goal just 19 seconds into the contest, the third fastest goal in Seattle franchise history, by Jaden Schwartz set the tone early as the Kraken used a suffocating defensive effort and two third period goals (From Yanni Gourde and Brandon Tanev, respectively) to get their first road win against Carolina ever while also snapping their three-game losing skid. That defensive effort by Seattle was so strong that it held the normally shot-heavy Hurricanes to just 18 attempts on goal in the game, tying their lowest shot total in a game over the past decade. The Kraken showed the sort of game that we’ve seen become a winning formula in the past: strong defensive play, a concentrated effort to get to the net, and scoring coming from all corners of the lineup. To play that sort of game and do it well, against a team like the Hurricanes who could easily be considered a Stanley Cup contender, is impressive and just the sort of answer that this team needed following a horrendous three-game stretch last week. Joey Daccord didn’t have to be spectacular in this game as Seattle’s skaters did an excellent job of blocking shots and limiting high danger opportunities for Carolina, while generating some nice offensive looks themselves against Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov in his first game back after suffering a concussion. This win over Carolina, especially on the road, should be the sort of result that propels the team forward and hopefully sees them go on a positive run after it. Only time will tell if that victory over the Canes was a turning point or just another blip for the Kraken in a continued streak of inconsistency dating back to last season.

Head to head between the teams

Our Seattle Kraken hold a 5-2-0 record all-time versus the New York Islanders, including a 2-1-0 mark on the road. The Kraken have also won three in a row and four of the past five against the Islanders. Seattle has fared well against the New York franchise in their franchise history, and their first victory over the Islanders was a historic one back on February 2nd, 2022. Philipp Grubauer recorded the franchises first ever shutout, as he made 19 saves against a New York team that had lost three of their last four games and were shut out for the fourth time at home that season. That win against the Islanders was a highlight in a season of few for Seattle during their inaugural season, as Jared McCann and Vince Dunn scored to build the lead before Mason Appleton scored an empty net goal, and Jordan Eberle played against the Islanders for the first time since being selected by Seattle in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.

To me, it’s one of the more disappointing games that I’ve coached as an Islander coach, to be honest with you. It was quite disappointing. We’ve had some games where we’ve got taken apart by a really good hockey team, but the effort’s there, maybe we made some mistakes, but I just didn’t think that our level of desire today was very good.
— Barry Trotz, New York Islanders head coach at the time, following the teams loss to the Kraken on February 2nd, 2022

Seattle lineup and injury notes

There isn’t much to report about for the Kraken lineup, as the team had a practice at UBS Arena yesterday and a morning skate this morning but there were no real updates on Ryker Evans’ hand injury, or if Daniel Sprong and or Andre Burakovsky would crack themselves into the Seattle lineup after being healthy scratches. With how head coach Dan Bylsma has operated with his lineup following victories, we have to imagine that the Kraken will be keeping their lineup the same from their win against the Carolina Hurricanes on the road Tuesday, with the old adage of “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” coming into play. Bylsma wasn’t asked any injury update or lineup update questions after this mornings skate, and we don’t normally travel so we couldn’t ask him ourselves, so it does seem like we’ll see the same lineup as was on the ice for the win over the Hurricanes on Tuesday. It was always going to be intriguing to see how Seattle handled their goaltender situation with this stretch starting of three games in four days and this back-to-back taking place today and tomorrow, and while we would’ve started Philipp Grubauer tonight against New York (4-3-0 with a 2.34 goals-against average, .922 save percentage and one shutout in eight career appearances versus the Islanders), the NHL’s projected lineup has the team starting Joey Daccord (1-0-0 with a 2.00 GAA and .917 SV% in one career appearance against the Islanders) in this game. That would set Daccord up well to play tonight’s game, get the next two days off from game action, then be ready to go for a start when Seattle battles the Rangers on Sunday afternoon.

New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin during his teams 2-3 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Saturday, November 16th, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Kevin Ng)

Starting goaltender matchup

The Islanders have a clear starter for tonight’s game already, with Ilya Sorokin in net for New York tonight with Marcus Hogberg (emergency recall) backing him up as Semyon Varlamov is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The Kraken don’t have a clear starter as there were no reports from today’s morning skate and it’s not totally clear how the Kraken may handle their goaltender situation with this current stretch their in, so all we currently have to go off of is the NHL’s projected lines which say that Joey Daccord is the expected starter i the crease for Seattle tonight. Looking at Sorokin, Ilya has a record of 2-2-1 in five games with a goals against average of 1.79 and a save percentage of .939 against the Kraken in his career, which include the last time that these two teams faced off back on November 16th when Seattle took a 3-2 victory at Climate Pledge Arena. Daccord has only played the Islanders once in his career, and it was also that game on the 16th of November as he made 22 saves while recording 1.07 goals saved above expected.

Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord got the start against the New York Islanders in his teams 3-2 win on Saturday, November 16th, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Kevin Ng)

Key players to watch tonight

Our key Kraken player to watch in tonight’s game is Oliver Bjorkstrand. “The Maestro” extended his point streak last game in Carolina against the Hurricanes to six games (two goals, five assists) after he picked up the primary assist on Eeli Tolvanen’s second period goal. Bjorkstrand co-leads active Kraken skaters in assists (11) and points (16) in 23 career games against the New York Islanders, playing the fourth most games against the franchise as compared to his current Seattle teammates. “Bjorky” has been able to produce offensively since the being a healthy scratch by Dan Bylsma as he looked to send a message, with both him and Shane Wright seeing improvements in their respective games since they spent time up in the press box. Another key player to keep an eye on for our Kraken would be Jared McCann, who has 11 assists and five goals in 24 games against the Islanders, which includes two game winning goals as well. McCann has undoubtedly been Seattle’s best offensive player in franchise history when you’re looking at statistics, and he’s doing that again this season as he leads the Kraken in goals (10) and points (23) and shares second in assists (13) through 26 games played in this campaign. “Canner” is one assist away from 100 career assists with the Kraken, and sits 12 assists away from 200 career NHL assists.

Our key New York Islanders player to watch in tonight’s game is defenseman Noah Dobson. Dobson currently leads the New York Islanders in points by a defenseman (one goal, ten assists) and leads all players with four power-play points (four assists). He is also the team leader in average ice time per game with 24:25. The New York blue liner has four career points against Seattle (one goal, three assists) in seven games, with those three assists tied for the team lead all-time against the Kraken. Another key player for the Islanders to keep an eye on is forward Bo Horvat, who is the currently New York leader in goals against the Seattle franchise with four, including a goal in his first ever game as an Islander which came shortly after that years all-star break.

Key stats

We’re gonna go with more of a player specific stat and it’s more of a milestone, as tonight will be Brandon Tanev’s 500th career NHL game played. A player that was largely known for his skating speed and penalty killing for the first three seasons of his time here with the Kraken, “Turbo” has found a bit more of a scoring touch so far this season including lighting the lamp in the teams last game when they beat the Hurricanes down in Carolina. Brandon Tanev has been able to bring that key penalty killing game and some surprise offensive production this year, making him an important forward for this team as they search for consistency and especially so considering that he’s often been part of the teams “Chaos line” alongside Tye Kartye and Yanni Gourde that has been one of if not the only line that brings the energy night in and night out when they are put together. If Tanev were to much or do better than the current pace that he’s on in terms of scoring, he’d record a career high 18 goals in a season and tie his 2018-19 season with Winnipeg for the second most assists he’s ever tallied in a single campaign, but with how Tanev hasn’t been a major goal scorer in his career I’m banking on that pace not continuing. I’d love to be proven wrong, as it would only boost Brandon’s trade value ahead of the deadline and yes, Seattle would be foolish not to trade him ahead of his impending free agency next offseason where he likely won’t re-sign here with the Kraken.

How to watch tonight’s game

For the large number of us who want to tune in but won’t be at UBS Arena, this game is viewable only on HULU and ESPN+ tonight. 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

Following tonight’s game against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, our Seattle Kraken will play the second game of a back-to-back against a team that plays roughly 37 miles away from where they are tonight. Seattle will take on the New Jersey Devils, another team on this road trip battling for the top spot in the NHL’s Metropolitan division, tomorrow, December 6th, 2024 with a puck drop time of 4PM PST at the Prudential Center. The Kraken won’t hold a morning skate ahead of their night game against the Devils tomorrow, before a day off on Saturday that comes ahead of the final game of the road trip. That final game of the road trip comes on Saturday, December 8th as Seattle battles the New York Rangers for the second time this season in a matinee matchup at Madison Square Garden with a flight back to the Pacific Northwest after the contest concludes. It’s a brutally tough road trip in the first place but especially so when you consider that it’s coming right after a horrible stretch of hockey for the Kraken, but thankfully a thrilling victory against the Canes to get this stretch started is a big confidence booster. In order for them to start stacking points again and dig out of the hole that is the bottom slots of the Pacific Division, it must start with this East coast road trip and through just the one game they’ve played, Seattle has started to get things moving in the right direction.

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Heading into the eye of the storm: previewing the Kraken visiting the Canes, December 3rd, 2024