2024 Winter Classic odds, expert picks, jerseys: Kraken host Golden Knights in first West Coast Winter Classic

The NHL’s two youngest teams are set to battle in the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day when the Seattle Kraken host the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. It will be the first Winter Classic held in the Pacific time zone, and the first one held west of Dallas. Vegas is favored on the road with the total set at six goals.

Puck drop is set for 3 p.m. ET on Monday. TNT will broadcast the game in the United States while SportsNet will broadcast the game in Canada. It is the only game on the schedule.

The Seattle weather forecast calls for a high in the mid 40s on Monday with some sun in the morning turning to clouds. T-Mobile Park does have a retractable roof that can cover the surface if the forecast changes to include some rain. The winds are expected to be below 5 mph.

The Golden Knights are tied for first place in Pacific division with Vancouver while the Kraken are struggling early this season and are currently three points back of a Wild Card spot.

Joey Daccord has taken over the starting goalie role for the Kraken with Philipp Grubauer suffering a lower-body injury in early December. Even before the injury, Grubauer struggled with a save percentage below .900.

It doesn’t help that the Kraken are in the bottom 10 in goal-scoring this season league-wide.

Jack Eichel and Mark Stone lead the Knights in scoring this season.

Vegas won its first Stanley Cup last season in its sixth NHL season. The Kraken upset the Colorado Avalanche in the first round before losing to the Dallas Stars in the second round.

What are the odds for the 2024 Winter Classic?

Expert Picks

Seattle Kraken jerseys

It’s easy to see the throwback here. The Kraken will wear jerseys inspired by the 1917 Seattle Metropolitans, which became the first United States-based team to win the Stanley Cup. Yep, Seattle won the Stanley Cup more than 100 years before it got an NHL franchise. The Kraken logo with Kraken spelled out in it is a nice nod to the current team. The Metropolitans had Seattle spelled out in their crest.

Overall, it was an easy choice for Adidas and the Kraken to go this route.

Vegas Golden Knights jerseys

The Vegas Golden Knights will wear off-white faux backs to the early 1910s to match what Seattle is going for with their throwbacks to the Metropolitans. The gold is muted because the flashy gold that Vegas uses throughout their jerseys wouldn’t have been available in the early 1900s.