SEATTLE KRAKEN NOTES:
CURRENT INJURIES – (MAN GAMES LOST: 76
Jaden Schwartz (upper body; LTIR) – 11 games – week-to-week
Andre Burakovsky (upper body; IR) – 8 games – week-to-week
Philipp Grubauer (no designation; IR) – 7 games – week-to-week
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (lower body; IR) – 2 games – week-to-week
GAME NOTES
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
• Tonight is Seattle’s 200th regular-season game in franchise history. Adam Larsson is the only player to appear in each of the team’s 199 regular-season games thus far. • Tonight’s game is the first time the Kraken are playing in Calgary this season. The two teams will next face off again in Calgary on March 4, 2024, their final regular-season meeting of the year. • A win or overtime loss tonight would give the Kraken points in seven consecutive games for the first time this season. It would mark the team’s longest point streak since they won a franchise-best eight consecutive games from Jan. 1 to 14, 2023. • A victory tonight would also give Seattle wins in three straight games for the first time this season. • Vince Dunn has three points (one goal, two assists) in his last two games against the Flames. • Yanni Gourde has five points (one goal, four assists) in five career road games against Calgary. • Matty Beniers (April 12, 2022), Jordan Eberle (Oct. 7, 2010), Jared McCann (Oct. 7, 2015) and Kailer Yamamoto (Oct. 4, 2017) all made their NHL debuts against the Flames. • Oliver Bjorkstrand has six points (three goals, three assists) in his last five games played. • The Kraken have gone 24-for-26 on the penalty kill dating back to Dec. 7 vs. the New Jersey Devils. Their 92.3 percent success rate on the penalty kill during that span ranks fourth in the NHL. • Tye Kartye has scored six goals this season, which is tied for seventh among all NHL rookies this. He is on pace to finish the season with 15 goals, which would mark the first time an undrafted rookie scored at least 15 goals in a season since Tanner Jeannot had 24 goals for the Nashville Predators in 2021-22. 2023
ROAD RECAP
• Tonight is the final game the Kraken will play on the road in 2023. Entering tonight’s game, the Kraken had a 23-13-8 road record this year. • Seattle ranks in the top 10 in the NHL in 2023 in road wins (23, tied sixth), points (54, fourth), points percentage (0.614, ninth) and goals for (137, seventh). • The Kraken have gone 106-for-131 on the penalty kill when playing on the road in 2023. Their 80.9 percent success rate on the penalty kill since Jan. 1, 2023 when playing on the road in the 10th-best mark in the NHL. • Entering tonight’s game, Vince Dunn (seven goals, 30 assists) and Jared McCann (23 goals, 14 assists) were tied for the team lead in road points in 2023 with 37 points each. o Both players played in 43 road games in 2023. • McCann has scored 23 goals when playing away from Climate Pledge Arena since Jan. 1, which ranks fourth among all NHL skaters this calendar year.
KRAKEN’S RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OT (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK]
1-10: 3-5-2 (8), 24/33, 7/28, 20/26
11-20: 4-3-3 (11), 29/37, 8/33, 24/35
21-30: 2-6-2 (6), 24/28, 4/33, 22/24
31-40: 3-0-2 (6), 17/11, 3/12, 14/16
CALGARY FLAMES NOTES:
TONIGHTS STORYLINES & STATS This is the third of four meetings this season between the Flames and Kraken. The Flames have won both prior meetings this season. This is a Pacific Division matchup; the Flames have a record of 5-3-1 against Pacific Division teams and a record of 9-9-2 against Western Conference opponents.
LAST MEETING WITH THE KRAKEN: The Calgary Flames last met the Seattle Kraken on Nov. 20. Calgary would come out of the gates flying, leading to Elias Lindholm breaking the ice just 1:16 into the contest to put the Flames up 1-0. From there, the teams would trade goals in the opening frame, with Vince Dunn evening the score, before Jonathan Huberdeau gave the Flames the lead back to make it 2-1 through 20. In the second, Seattle would net a pair of unanswered goals from Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann to go up 3-2 through two periods. The Flames would outshoot the Kraken 16-3 in the final stanza, leading to Andrew Mangiapane tying the game with under five minutes left in regulation to force overtime. In the extra frame, Rasmus Andersson saw his wrap-around attempt stopped, but collected his own rebound and scored to give the Flames a 4-3 victory.
KILLER CONFIDENCE: Blake Coleman scored the Flames ninth shorthanded goal on Dec. 23 at LAK which gives them the most in the NHL so far this season. Calgary has scored a league-leading six shorthanded goals over the month of December, led by Blake Coleman who has the most markers on the Penalty Kill since the start of December in the league with four. Five different skaters have tallied while a man-down for Calgary this season, with Sharangovich (2), Andersson, Lindholm, and Backlund all joining Coleman.
WORKIN’ ON A COLE MINE: Blake Coleman scored two goals on Dec. 23 at LAK for his third multi-goal game as a Flame. Coleman scored on the power play and shorthanded to become the first Flames player to score a shorthanded goal and power-play goal in the same game since Noah Hanifin on Nov. 25, 2018 (2-0—2 at ARI). Coleman’s shorthanded goal was also his fourth of the season, trailing only Simon Holmstrom (5) for the most in the League. The last Flames player to score more shorthanded goals in a campaign was Mark Jankowski (5) in 2018-19
FLAMES FIRSTS VS. SEATTLE: A pair of Flames marked firsts of their NHL career against the Seattle Kraken this season. Martin Pospisil scored his first NHL goal at Climate Pledge Arena against the Seattle Kraken earlier this season on November 4th while defenceman Nick DeSimone recorded his first NHL point that same night.
LOOK BACKS AT IT: With his assist on Rasmus Andersson’s overtime-winning goal in their last meeting, Flames captain Mikael Backlund scored the 500th point in his NHL career against the Seattle Kraken and became the 11th player in Flames franchise history to achieve the milestone. Prior to Backlund, the most recent Flame to record his 500th point as captain was Mark Giordano who did so with an assist on April 4th, 2021, against Toronto. Backlund has also skated in the third-most games in franchise history with 942, just seven games away from tying Mark Giordano for second-most (949).
FLAMES RECENT INJURIES (Total man games lost – 120)
Jakob Pelletier – upper body injury (34 games, 10/11/23 – pres.)
Kevin Rooney – upper body injury (34 games, 10/11/23 – pres.) \
Oliver Kylington – (34 games, 10/11/23 – pres.)
Adam Ruzicka – upper body injury (4 games, 10/26/23 – 11/7/23)
Jacob Markstrom – upper-body injury (2 games, 11/10/23 – 11/ 14/ 23)
Connor Zary – lower body injury (1 game, 11/22/23)
Jacob Markstrom – Illness (1 game, 11/27/23)
Jacob Markstrom – fractured finger (7 games, 12/5/23 – 12/16/23)
Chris Tanev – upper-body injury (3 games: 12/12/23 – pres.)
