^{Seattle brings some stinky fish smell to the Delta Center while Cooley injury news stinks}

The big news for Utah fans is the prolonged absence of Logan Cooley. It was announced that the star center will be missing 8 weeks with a lower body injury. We’re not exactly which part of his lower body was injured, but experts assume it’s somewhere between “right above his knee where he hit the post” and “right below his knee where he hit the post”.

Yikes. Utah’s already been struggling to create a dynamic, explosive game from what should be a fast and skilled team. Losing Cooley takes away a major component to the offense, and worse, forces pieces into positions they don’t naturally fit. Or fit at all.

Utah’s been a few games without Cooley, though, so we’re getting familiar with the current lines. However, Seattle has some news of their own. Jared McCann, one of the Kraken’s dynamic scorers, will be out tonight after an injury he faced in Los Angeles on Wednesday. McCann’s injury is different than Cooley’s, as his knee seemed to be hyperextended by the pad of King’s goalie Anton Forsberg, whereas Cooley’s was more from direct contact (twice, once by knee, once by post…). Additionally, Seattle will be without winger Jaden Schwartz, making their top 2 point producers per game unavailable for tonight’s game.

Now that the pleasant injury news is out of the way, what can we expect from Seattle?

Seattle has struggled a bit of late, after a solid start. Heading into Thanksgiving, Seattle was 11-6-6, good for 28 points and tied with several teams for 8th best points record, and 10th best points percentage record in the league. They were one of the lowest scoring teams in the league, with just 2.57 goals a game – but also one of the best defenses in the league, with the same goals against. A decent power play, but bad penalty kill, a lot of shots against, but just a few for – the Kraken were an interesting team with a good shooting percentage, and good defense at 5v5 (just 34 goals allowed) but not on special teams (18 goals against).

Something happened to the Kraken just before Thanksgiving that has them struggling badly. The injury to Schwartz is significantly impacting them, and since the holiday the Kraken have just a 1-4-0 record. Seattle has been blown out and embarrassed by the Oilers twice (9-4 and a 4-0 shutout), and losing to Minnesota and the Red Wings as well. Wednesday was their only win, an OT victory against LA they stole after McCann went down late in that game.

The Kraken were home for 5 of their last 6, away for Edmonton and their 9-4 loss. That followed a rough road trip for the Kraken, who struggled to score on the road in November – logging 3 regulation goals or fewer in every contest, though still managing a 3-2-1 record away.

Tonight marks the 14th game away for the Kraken, and they are 5-5-3 this year. They’re giving up a more goals on the road than at home, though that includes the 9 against in Edmonton. Accounting for that, in 12 games they averaged 2.75 against on the road, good enough for 11th defensively on the road.

Their special teams is where Seattle lives and dies on the road, though. Sporting just a 62% PK – yes, that’s right, sixty-two, only the Senators are worse. They’ve given up 14 goals, roughly 1/3rd of all goals against. On the flip, their power play is humming at 23%, scoring 11 of their 34 goals with the man advantage. This also accounts for 1/3rd of all their scoring.

Seattle is led by former Islander and one of my favorite players, Jordan Eberle. Eberle enters the match with a team leading 9 goals and 18 total points, while responsibly sound and keeping opponents’ lines in check. He is responsible for 12 goals against at even strength for the year.

Eberle’s center, Matty Beniers, and defenseman Vince Dunn round out the top 3 point producers for Seattle.

Look for Eeli Tolvanen, Chandler Stephenson and Mason Marchment step up in their places to try and turn around the skid for Seattle.

Key points to secure a victory today:
Give some to get some With Seattle’s abysmally low penalty kill rates, and Utah’s abysmally low power play rates, one of those will have to give tonight. Seattle gave up goals in all 4 PKs against Edmonton.

With Utah’s fantastic penalty kill, and Seattle’s fantastic power play, one of those will have to give tonight. Note, Seattle has given up 3 shorthanded goals this year, including one last game to Edmonton.

Testing Seattle’s PK more than having their own PK tested will be important. Discipline, no stupid penalties, and using what speed advantage they have to draw Seattle into mistakes will likely be the most important key to the game.

Keep em’ floundering While the Kraken have been solid defenisvely most of the year, their past away game had Edmonton roll all over them. Previously, they lost a shutout, 1-0 to the Islanders in a shootout loss.

They’re capable of either event hockey on the road – which team shows up will be interesting to see. Joey Daccord is in net tonight for Seattle. Daccord is having a slightly down year, with a 2.94GAA and just a .893 save percentage. He was shelled for 5 goals in just 25 minutes of play last week, and giving up more than 3 on average since, so he’s beatable.

Get Daccord rattled early, the Kraken will be fishing for an equalizer in an area that they struggle – 5v5 – and be forced to rely on drawing penalties heavily as the game goes on.

The not so perfect cast With significant injuries to both teams, Utah failed to capitalize against Florida. Another team, the Kraken, are playing shorthanded.

With teams not at full strength, Utah needs to take advantage and rack up points until Kerfoot and Cooley return.

Suddenly center Nick Schmaltz has been playing poorly, and needs to step up. Daniil But has been buzzing, but silent on the score sheet. Clayton Keller has been close a few times, including getting robbed, but hasn’t made much of a mark lately. Sergachev has one goal since Thanksgiving, and has been on the ice for 10 goals against at even strength in that stretch.

One of the Mammoth above needs to step up and have themselves a good game. Whether that’s Sergachev keeping 5v5 scoring against to a minimum, the power play clicking with a Keller one-timer, or getting Cheeks on the board, we need one of these cast members to take the spotlight for a night.

Projected Lineups:
Updated as of 1:30PM MST

TUSKS UP!