Minnesota Wild vs. Seattle Kraken Prediction, Preview, and Odds
Two struggling Western Conference teams go head-to-head as the Minnesota Wild take on the Seattle Kraken on Sunday at 9:00 p.m. EST in Climate Pledge Arena. Seattle has lost seven games in a row and are currently 6th in the Pacific Division with 23 points in 28 games. Minnesota is 7th in the Central Division with 22 points in 25 games and they are riding a two-game losing streak heading into this contest. The Wild are still favored at a -130 while the total is set at an even six goals.
Wild Wilting
Minnesota was outscored by the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in their most recent game. Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist while Brock Faber and Marcus Johansson had a pair of assists each. Joel Eriksson Ek had the most shots with four including one goal while Marc-Andre Fleury had 36 saves out of 40 shot attempts.
The Wild are ranked 18th in the league in goals per game with an average of 3.08 and 18th in shots per game with 30.5. Minnesota is 30th in the NHL in face off percentage with a 45.6% win rate and they are 21st in the NHL with a 18.2% success rate on the power play. Mats Zuccarello has the most points with 27, but Eriksson Ek has a team-high 13 goals while Mats Zuccarello has a team-high 21 assists. Marcus Foligno has a +6, highest among forwards. Brandon Duhaime is leading all skaters with 36 penalty minutes while Kirill Kaprizov is averaging an even 21 minutes per game of ice time. Six of Eriksson Ek's goals came from the power play and Zuccarello has 12 assists on the power play. Eriksson Ek leads the squad in shots with 91.
Minnesota currently ranks 15th in shots against per game at 30.2, but they are 26th in the NHL in goals against per game with 3.44. They are dead last in killing penalties this year with a kill rate of only 70.8%. Gustavsson and Fleury have split the 26 games the Wild have played, and their stats are nearly identical despite Gustavsson earning a few more starts than Fleury. Gustavsson has an 89.4% save percentage and a 3.26 GAA while Fleury has a 3.29 GAA and an 88.6% save percentage. Brock Faber has the most points among Minnesota's defense with 12 and Jonas Brodin leads in ice time with 23:59. Jake Middleton has four goals to his name while Faber has 11 assists. Calen Addison and Jared Spurgeon each have three power play assists to lead the blue-liners. Brodin has the most shots among defenders with 48. Dakota Middleton has the most penalty minutes with 28 and Jonas Brodin has the best +/- ratio with a +7. Minnesota has two players listed on the injury report. Brodin is out indefinitely, and Zach Bogosian is questionable to play in this contest.
Kraken Cracking Under Pressure
Seattle suffered another defeat, but they were able to salvage a point with a 4-3 overtime loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Jordan Eberle had two assists on the day while Oliver Bjorkstrand, Jamie Oleksiak, and Jared McCann were the goal scorers. Ryker Evans had the most shots on goal with four and Philipp Grubauer stopped 21 of 23 shots while Joey Daccord stopped five of seven shots.
Seattle's offense ranks 14th in shots per game with 30.8, 21st in the league with a 49.1% face-off win rate, and 29th in the NHL in goals scored per contest with 2.62. What has saved them so far is their power play, ranking 14th in the league with a 21.1% success rate. Oliver Bjorkstrand leads the forwards in points (21), assists (13), and power play assists (6). McCann has the most shots on the squad with 80 while Yanni Gourde owns the most penalty minutes among the forwards with 35. McCann has scored on the power play five times this season while Eeli Tolvanen is the only player on the Kraken to have a +/- greater than 0. McCann is also the only player for Seattle with double digit goals with a total of 13. Matty Beniers has the most average ice time among forwards with 18:28.
The Kraken have been subpar in the back end, ranking 24th in goals against per game with 3.39 despite ranking 7th in shots against per contest with 28.8. They are also 23rd in the penalty kill with a 76.3% kill rate. Vince Dunn leads almost every category among the blue-liners of Seattle. He has a team-high 22 points, four goals, 18 assists, eight power play assists, sixty shots, 23:49 of average ice time, and 37 penalty minutes. Oleksiak and Evans are the only defenders to have a ratio of at least 0. Grubauer has taken the majority of reps in goal for the Kraken, but Joey Daccord is not far behind. Both have relatively even stats, with Grubauer posting a 3.25 GAA compared to Daccord's 2.99 and an 88.4% save percentage to Daccord's 89.4%. Andre Burakovsky and Jaden Schwartz are the only players listed on the injury report for the Kraken. Schwartz is out until the middle of January while Andre Burakovsky is out indefinitely.
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Seattle is at a disadvantage since they played against the Lightning last night and have zero days of rest. The loss of Schwartz is also significant because he is one of Seattle's top forwards. Minnesota has won their last four of six meetings between themselves and the Kraken while the Wild are at least 13-9 against the spread. While they are still towards the bottom of the standings, they have a .500 record in their last ten games with a 4-4-2. Before their two-game losing streak, they had won four in a row. Seattle has had trouble scoring this year and considering the Wild limits the shots of their opponent to earn a top-15 ranking, I feel confident taking them.
Take Minnesota with the money line.
Prediction: Minnesota Wild Money Line (-130)
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Since the inception of the Kraken as a team, these two teams have totaled six goals or under in five of their six meetings. The Wild have averaged a 2.00 GAA in their last five games and Seattle isn't that much higher at 2.33. Both squads have struggled to score throughout the season with both ranking in the bottom half of all teams. Minnesota has hit the under in four of their last five and has totaled six or under in every other game for the last six matches. Seattle has scored only 13 goals in their last seven games played.
Prediction: Under 6
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