Though the Arizona Coyotes are eliminated from postseason contention, they’ll play an outsized role in the Seattle Kraken’s playoff push, beginning when the Coyotes visit Seattle on Monday.
In a quirk of the NHL schedule, all three games between the Coyotes (27-37-13, 67 points) and Kraken (41-26-8, 90 points) have been saved for the regular season’s final two weeks. Following Monday’s game, the two clubs meet again in Seattle on Thursday, then in Tempe on April 10.
With the Coyotes mired in a seven-game winless streak (0-5-2), the Kraken must view these games against struggling competition as a boost to their chances of clinching a playoff berth. Seattle holds the top Western Conference wild-card slot, but the Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators are all in close pursuit.
A top-three finish in the Pacific Division may now be realistically out of reach following the Kraken’s 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. Despite holding the Kings to just 19 shots, Seattle missed a chance to gain ground on a team ahead in the standings.
“It was a tight game. Both teams checked really well,” goaltender Martin Jones told the Seattle Times. “It’s that time of year, teams are ramping up for the playoffs and there’s just not a lot of room out there. Neither team was really able to break free and make a lot of plays offensively.”
The Kraken are one of the NHL’s best at limiting shots this season, and they have outshot opponents by a 168-98 margin over their last five games. However, Seattle has a modest 2-2-1 record in those five games due to a feast-or-famine offense. The Kraken have 11 goals in the two victories, but only three goals over the three defeats.
Consistency on the power play has been hard to come by for Seattle this season, but the Kraken have recorded an extra-attacker goal in three of their last four games. Facing Arizona might continue to spark the Kraken’s power play, as the Coyotes have killed just 15 of 26 penalties over their last six games.
That leaky penalty-kill unit contributed to the Coyotes’ 7-2 home loss to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. The Sharks were 3-for-7 on the power play.
“(We had) no emotion, no life, no spirit, nothing … We’re disappointed, especially in front of our fans,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said.
Clayton Keller’s 14-game points streak came to an end on Saturday. With 82 points and five games left on the schedule, Keller still has a chance to top Keith Tkachuk’s record of 86 points (from the 1996-97 campaign) for the highest single-season point total since the Coyotes franchise moved to Arizona in 1996.
Ivan Prosvetov was stellar in his first three starts of the season, but the goaltender stopped only 24 of 31 shots against San Jose. Tourigny said Prosvetov will play again during one of the Coyotes’ two games in Seattle, though Karel Vejmelka or Connor Ingram might be likelier to start Monday’s game.
Since the Kraken also play at the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, Jones and Philipp Grubauer figure to start the back-to-back games in some order.
The Kraken are 2-6-1 in their last nine home games.
–Field Level Media
