Kraken (20-18-9) vs. Blues (24-20-2) | 7:00 p.m. | Seattle Kraken
One: No One Missing Playoff Picture with St. Louis in Town
The NHL locker room at the Kraken Community Iceplex was designed in concert with GM Ron Francis, who likely suited up in less spacious and creature-comfort digs during his Hall of Fame playing career. And no doubt there was no gigantic video screen that often projected a live sporting event on mute (football on fall/winter weekends, World Cup soccer, tennis among others).
But Thursday’s programming after practice was a single image showing the Western Conference standings with the three teams each in the Pacific and Central that would automatically qualify if the season ended Thursday morning across the upper half of the screen. The bottom half detailed the records, standings points, regulation wins (first tiebreaker), and ROW (regulation and OT wins, second tiebreaker) among other data for the seven teams in contention for two wild-card spots to fill out the West playoffs bracket come mid-April.
The giant graphic had one more feature that couldn’t be missed by any player heading out to the rink or arriving back to find their seats in the locker room after practice. Marked in green highlighter were “St. Louis Blues” and “Seattle Kraken” with the Blues the first team under a bold red line showing the current wild-card cutoff (LA and Nashville are above the red line). Arizona is next under St. Louis, then Seattle. Both the Coyotes and Kraken have amassed 49 points but Arizona has two more regulation wins and two more ROW.
As it turns out, St. Louis has 50 points with a game in hand, too, compared to the Kraken. Defeating the visiting Blues Friday night in regulation would boost Seattle past a surprising St. Louis squad thought to be in a rebuilding year. Winning in OT or shootout evens the two teams but doesn’t help with tiebreakers (STL has three more R and three more ROW).
The players in the Kraken locker room know Friday night is not do-or-die or even must-win but the coaching staff clearly wanted to indicate opportunity knocks with Friday’s 7 p.m. puck drop.
“Without dominating your thought process, it’s really important to know and to understand where you’re at on a daily and weekly basis,” said Hakstol Thursday. “Just make sure you have the right perspective, the right mindset. Then from there, it comes to the job at hand … tomorrow night we’re playing a team we’re right there [with Seattle] in the standings. They’re part of this playoff race and there’s going to be a lot of these games down the stretch. It puts a little bit of extra emphasis and little extra importance on these games and these points.”
Two: Gourde Returns
Alternate captain Yanni Gourde didn’t care to talk much Thursday about whether he deserved a two-game suspension for a high hit on Edmonton defenseman Mattias Ekholm or was surprised by the league’s discipline decision. Gourde, ever the seasoned pro, said he wouldn’t be tempted to try to do too much in his early shifts to sort of make up for his absence over the first two games of a homestand that finishes with Columbus Sunday.
“I will go out there, try to keep it simple and get my legs back in it,” said Gourde, who stayed an extra 20 to 30 minutes each time he was on the ice this week. “Get my hands back in. I’ve been practicing all week. I just got to go out there and bring some energy, bring some passion, do what I do to help my team win.”
The veteran center is set to return to work with usual linemate Oliver Bjorkstrand, though fellow linemate Eeli Tolvanen is a bit of a question mark since he was held out of practice Wednesday—same for Jaden Schwartz. Dave Hakstol did not opt to categorize “maintenance days” for both players, instead saying Friday morning would tell more about the game-night status for both Tolvanen and Schwartz.
Three: Know the Foe: St. Louis, Interim Coach Riding Three-Game Win Streak
The Blues came back to beat Calgary Tuesday, then ousted Pacific Division leader Vancouver in overtime Wednesday with rookie Joel Hofer in goal. Stanley Cup winner Jordan Binnington will likely face ex-champ teammates Jaden Schwartz and Vince Dunn and the rest of the Kraken on Friday. St. Louis is 6-3-1 in the last 10 games and 11-6-1 since AHL affiliate coach Drew Bannister took over as head coach in a move that to date worked to shake up Blues players. Bannister, a former NHL defenseman with 164 appearances, replaced Craig Berube, who led STL to the 2019 Cup in his six seasons behind the bench.
