The need to know

• The time: 7pm PT
• The place: Climate Pledge Arena in beautiful Seattle, WA
• Place to watch: KONG, KHN Networks, Amazon Prime, NESN (Bruins feed)
• Place to listen: KJR 93.3-FM on Kraken Audio Network
• An opposing point of view: Stanley Cup of Chowder

Know your enemy

• The Bruins are in third place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 15-12-3 and 33 points overall.
• The Bruins’ leader in points is David Pastrnak with 28 in 30 games, and Brad Marchand leads the Black and Gold with 11 in 30 games.
• Despite their place in the table, the Bruins have one of the worst goal differences in the Eastern Conference; with -19.
• It’s been a strange year for the Bruins in net. They just paid Jeremy Swayman a lot of money after a big public fight, and he rewarded it with a 9-10-0 record, a .885 SV%, and um…just got 8 under by the Jets Pressure set -1 shellac. Instead, I suspect we’ll see Joonas Korpisalo, who posted a .909 SV% in 9 starts.

Game notes

The Kraken played as well as they could against the Panthers without winning, especially considering the fact that they lost Yanni Gourde in the third period and all of overtime and managed to escape with a point. I would have liked the second point, but that was an achievement I could be proud of.

And they’re going to need that moral victory to continue tonight because Boston is coming into this game very unhappy about what just happened to them on Tuesday.

Boston is no longer the possession-heavy giant it once was. They are doing much better after the sacking of Jim Montgomery, but the shine of the new coach is starting to wear off and the reality of what they have built is starting to sink in; They can still be a strong defensive player, but they lack finish in their squad. As mentioned, only David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand seem to be getting a good chunk of scoring, and Marchand himself has only recently returned to form. This leads to a number of players somehow…lacking the talent to score. That doesn’t mean they can’t, it just means they have to work three times as hard most nights to get there.

In recent years, if the Kraken want to beat Boston, I would suggest taking advantage of their special teams debacles or their propensity to turn the puck over at the blueline. This year? Even more than any other team the Kraken have faced, these Bruins are killed better by their skating speed than anything else. Their defense is playing well below their standards and, even worse, they are playing as if they are playing at 0.75 times their speed. If they can take advantage of that, the Kraken will face a goaltending corps; either Korpisalo or Swayman aren’t nearly as strong as they’ve been in years past (or maybe they’re just not getting any scoring support?), so if the Bruins give up a chance or two, be sure to get it quickly. When there is turnover, turn on the nozzles. And when the Peeke-Lohrei pair hits the ice, be prepared to receive a gift or two. Mason Lohrei and Andrew Peeke are an absolute nightmare pairing, and the fact that they keep seeing ice time is a stunning admission that the B’s don’t have much else.

However, if there are things the Kraken need to watch out for, it’s undoubtedly Boston’s leading scorers, who have the unenviable task of moving heaven and earth for this team without Hampus Lindholm to maybe get a little off the edge take. and so they will be relied upon to create the lion’s share of chances, Justin Brazeau; who was apparently bred in a lab with the sole purpose of being an exceptional Boston Bruin, and there is no way this game will go into overtime. At the moment, no one seems to have a clear answer to David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha in 3v3, and I don’t think the Kraken will be the first to figure it out.