NHL Game of the Week: Bruins vs. Kraken
On Thursday, Jan. 12, the top team in the league, the Boston Bruins, are set to face off against the surprisingly surging Seattle Kraken. The game will be played in Boston at TD Garden and is set for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
The Boston Bruins are back home after the Winter Classic at Fenway Park and a west coast road trip where they swept the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks.
The Bruins are on a four game win streak and are going to be looking to stay hot with forward David Pastrnak leading the scoring with 58 points on the season and a +20 rating.
Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark has had an extremely successful second season thus far with the Bruins, recording a 1.87 goals against average and a .938 save percentage.
The Bruins also have a record of 19-0-3 at home this season, making them undefeated in regulation at home.
For the away side, the Seattle Kraken are currently on a win streak themselves of six games and are 5-0 in their last five road games.
The Kraken are coming off of a hot 4-3 win on Jan. 10 against the Buffalo Sabres, where forwards Jordan Eberle and Matty Beniers both recorded two point games with a goal and assist each. Both forwards also currently have a +12 rating and 34 points on the season.
Martin Jones has taken most of the load for the Kraken between the pipes, posting a 2.78 goals against average and a .894 save percentage.
Seattle has a 0-1-1 record against the Bruins all time and are going to try their absolute hardest to get their first franchise win over Boston and hand the Bruins their first regulation loss at home this season.
On the home side of this matchup the Bruins are looking to move up to 3-0-0 over the Kraken all time and hold a 20-0-3 record at TD Garden this year.
For injuries, Seattle is currently healthy while the Bruins could possibly be without AJ Greer, who is listed as day-to-day and is looking like a game-time decision.
This is the first meeting between these teams this 2022-23 season and it is set to be a great game with players who are on hot streaks, and two sides that are both in the top ten in the NHL.
Fans should get ready for and anticipate a high scoring matchup as this game is currently projected to have over six goals and Boston is coming in as the heavy favorites.
The next time these two teams will meet will be on Feb. 23, at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
Christopher Machado is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him please email cvm6238@psu.edu
