After a tough win over the Anaheim Ducks last night in Edmonton, the Oilers hopped on a plane down to Seattle for their first matchup of the season against the Kraken.
Remember when Seattle made the playoffs in their second season in the NHL? What happened to that? Back in 2022-23, the Kraken snuck their way into the post-season and even beat the Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in seven games. When that happened, a lot of hockey fans thought that run might be the start of something in Seattle, but nothing ever materialized beyond that one series win.
I know it’s still early in the campaign and that there are a lot of games left to be played, but there’s no way the Kraken are happy about already being seven points out of a wildcard spot. Even with half the games left on their schedule, being outside looking in from the playoffs at this point can be incredibly difficult to overcome. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but we’ve all heard the American Thanksgiving numbers, and there’s no way Seattle is where they expected to be at this point in the campaign.
Of course, as we’ve seen plenty of times over the years, how bad a team is or has been doesn’t necessarily impact the outcome as you’d expect. That exact thing nearly happened last night. If the Oilers are going to beat the Kraken and extend their winning streak to three games, they’ll need to find a way to bring out their A-game. That may not be easy after playing last night, jumping on a plane, and getting into Seattle past everyone’s bedtime.
Given how the Oilers struggled to get going Friday against the Ducks, it’s fair to be concerned about how the boys will respond a night later after travelling south and getting in late. I wouldn’t think much about a back-to-back weekend when Edmonton is at their best, but that sentiment changes when they struggle through the first half. Would you not agree that’s fair, given how our side was outworked and outshot by the Anaheim Ducks for the second time in five days?
Of course, what happens in one game doesn’t always translate into what we see in the next, and that’s the attitude the Oilers must bring into Saturday’s contest. Coming into tonight’s game, the Kraken have lost seven of their last 10 and will likely be desperate to get themselves back in the win column, meaning the Oilers should expect another hardworking opponent. As we saw against the Ducks, getting outworked can equal the gap in skill, and that’s something the boys will need to be aware of.
Considering the Kraken have a 3-5-2 record over their last 10 games, I expect them to play with all kinds of desperation as they aim to secure a win on home ice. While Seattle lost their last game 5-4 against the Canucks in overtime, they rallied from being down 4-1 with under five minutes to play in the third period to push the game to extra time. While they may not have gotten the result they wanted, you’d have to think the late game heroics to secure a point will give them some confidence going forward.
Let’s see what the numbers say…

THE NUMBERS

OILERS
KRAKEN
RECORD
23-12-3
17-19-3
WIN/LOSS STREAK
W2
L1
LAST 10 GAMES
7-2-1
3-5-2
GOALS FOR
124
114
GOALS AGAINST
107
123
POWER PLAY%
23.7
18.3
PENALTY KILL%
76.4
78.9
AVG. SHOTS/FOR
31.8
27.0
AVG. SHOTS/AGAINST
26.5
28.3
TEAM SAVE%
.911
.901
CORSI FOR%
53.64
47.86
PDO
0.993
0.991
TEAM SHOOTING%
8.17
9.03
EXPECTED GOALS FOR%
53.68
45.78
Numbers courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (Sv%, CF%, PDO, Shooting%, xGF% all at 5×5)
  • Saturday’s game marks the first of four meetings between the two clubs this season, with the next coming up at Rogers Place on January 27th. The Oilers have won six straight games over the Kraken and each of their last five trips to the Climate Pledge Arena. Seattle is 2-8-1 all-time vs. Edmonton, including a 1-5-0 mark at home.
  • Evan Bouchard, Derek Ryan, and Connor McDavid lead all active Oilers in career games played versus the Kraken (11), while Leon Draisaitl leads all active team members in career points (23) against Seattle.
  • Since being acquired by the Oilers from the Nashville Predators, Mattias Ekholm has a +86 plus/minus rating in 138 games which is the best plus/minus rating amongst all players in the NHL in that span. In addition to his eye-popping plus/minus in that span, he also has tallied 66 even-strength points which is 10th most by a defenceman trailing only Quinn Hughes (91), Cale Makar (87), Josh Morrissey (84), his defence partner Evan Bouchard (79), Devon Toews (73), Erik Karlsson (72), Roman Josi (70), Zach Werenski (69) and Noah Dobson (68).
  • For whatever reason, the Seattle Kraken are 0-4-0 this season when playing against teams on the second half of a back-to-back.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Oilers

Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Brown
Podkolzin – Draisaitl– Arvidsson
Kapanen – Janmark – Hyman
J. Skinner – Henrique – Perry
Nurse – Stecher
Ekholm – Bouchard
Kulak – Emberson
Pickard
Given that the Oilers played last night, we likely won’t get any lineup updates until closer to puck drop, so what I’ve got listed are the lines from Friday with the exception of Calvin Pickard getting the start. As always, I’ll be sure to jump back in and make the edits once news becomes available.

Kraken

Schwartz – Beniers – Kakko
McCann – Stephenson – Burakovsky
Tolvanen – Wright – Bjorkstrand
Kartye – Gourde – Tanev
Dunn – Larsson
Oleksiak – Montour
Evans – Mahura
Grubauer
Looking at Seattle’s stats page, the first thing that stuck out to me is how they have 13 players in their lineup with 15 points or more. By comparison, the Oilers have only eight. That tells me the boys will need to do a better job of protecting the puck than they did against Anaheim or run the risk of getting burned. With points coming from throughout their lineup, Seattle may not have the high end offence the Oilers do, but they still have more than a few guys who can chip in with offence if you’re not careful.

TONIGHT…

GDB Connor McDavid Edmonton Oilers photoshop vs Seattle Kraken
Photoshop by Tom Kostiuk at Handmade by Tom
Game Day Prediction: The Oilers keep the good times going with a joyful 7-2 win.
Obvious Game Day Prediction: Adam Larsson scores against us because it’s painful, and that’s how the Hockey Gords toughen us up.
Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: Mattias Janmark opens the scoring with a first period goal.

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