The 12-year veteran and 2008 first-round draft pick (22nd overall) of the Edmonton Oilers spent seven years with Edmonton before being traded to the New York Islanders on June 22, 2017, for Ryan Strome. He played four seasons with the Islanders before being selected by the Kraken in last summer’s expansion draft.

“It’s a huge honor being selected as the Kraken’s first-ever All-Star,” Eberle said. “Our fans have been so amazing this season. Climate Pledge Arena has been one of the loudest buildings in the league. Their support means so much. I’m excited to represent them in Vegas.” – via NHL.com

Eberle played in the 2012 game representing the Oilers after missing the 2011 game due to an injury. He leads the Kraken in points with 12 goals and 12 assists for 24 points. Eberle scored the first-ever Kraken hat trick earlier this season.

The 2022 All-Star Game will be Saturday, Feb. 5 at 12:00 pm PST and entail a three-game tournament, played in a 3-on-3 format, featuring four teams, one from each division. The All-Star Weekend will feature Eberle and other stars in the 2022 NHL All-Star Skills Presented by DraftKings Sportsbook event on Friday, Feb. 4.

All-Star Ebs has a nice ring to it!

Learn more about the #Seakraken‘s first-ever player representative → https://t.co/Fysr1n5VjA pic.twitter.com/LQjYvBpRwq

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 14, 2022

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After a long emotional day in which their former captain and franchise player was traded away, the Sabres came out expectedly flat. The Kraken peppered goalie Dustin Tokarski with 30 shots in the first two periods while only surrendering 11. The score was surprisingly close, though, and Buffalo even took a brief 2–1 lead late in the second on goals by Tage Thompson and Kyle Okposo.

Buffalo quickly ran out of gas following their second goal, and the Kraken ran away with the game on the heels of a natural hat trick by alternate captain Jordan Eberle in a 10-minute span of the second and third periods.

Jordan Eberle gets the first @SeattleKraken @Enterprise hat trick in franchise history! pic.twitter.com/BmATLAe7Er

— NHL (@NHL) November 5, 2021

Eberle’s feat—the first of its kind in franchise history—was sandwiched between goals by Morgan Geekie in the first period and a late third period goal by Jaden Schwartz, which ultimately put the game out of reach for the visitors.

Buffalo tried to mount a third period comeback, but the harder they pushed, the more goals ended up in the back of their net. They outshot the Kraken 10–8 in the frame, but gave up three goals on those eight shots.

Anchor points

It was the same old story for the Kraken until Eberle caught fire: The failure on the power play and the mediocrity in net. They were shut out on four power play opportunities for the night, which has them still sitting 29th overall at 8.3%. As far as Philipp Grubauer in goal, he gave up two goals on a paltry 11 shots in the first 40 minutes. He finished with 19 saves, which boosted his save percentage, but even .905 is not enough for a goalie due to make $35 million over the next six seasons. His reaction on Thompson’s goal just showed that he is not entirely on his game.

Another “same old story” for the Kraken is their failure at the face-off dots. They won only 41% of their face-offs as a team. This total has them 25th overall with a team face-off percentage of 46.9%, two spots ahead of Buffalo’s 46.1%.

Analytically, the Kraken led in 5-on-5 Corsi (shot attempts) and Fenwick (unblocked shots) with percentages of 54% and 61%, respectively. Their 5-on-5 expected goals for percentage was 65%. You can see where shots were generated below, which makes Grubauer’s play that much more suspect.

John Hayden tried (and failed) to put a big hit on Jamie Oleksiak in the first period, then came out swinging at the Kraken defenseman. As a reward, Hayden took about half a dozen Oleksiak fists to the side of the head and Geekie then scored two minutes later, clearly shifting the momentum.

Brandon Tanev continues to make himself noticeable. He had a shorthanded breakaway and always seems to be in front of the net causing chaos.

On a side note, can we just appreciate John Forslund as a play-by-play guy? He makes the games so much fun.

The Kraken have Friday off and will travel to Arizona to face the Coyotes on Saturday at Gila River Arena. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. PDT.

The post RECAP: Eberle natural hat trick powers Kraken to 5–2 win appeared first on The Rink.

According to head coach Dave Hakstol, Joonas Donskoi, Calle Jarnkrok, Marcus Johansson, Jared McCann and Jamie Oleksiak are all on the COVID-19 protocol list. They will need negative COVID-19 tests to return to team activities as opposed to 14-day quarantines that unvaccinated players would need.

In what was supposed to be the big announcement of the day, Mark Giordano was named the first team captain in Kraken history. Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde, Adam Larsson and Jaden Schwartz were named as Kraken alternate captains for the inaugural 2021–22 season.

Mark Giordano was named first captain of the Seattle Kraken on Monday. He will be Seattle’s on-ice leader when it begins its inaugural season against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) https://t.co/CGUdQjVniJ via @NHLdotcom

— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) October 11, 2021

As the news rolls in of more players in COVID-19 protocol, the Kraken claimed Tampa Bay Lightning forward Alex Barre-Boulet off waivers. Barre-Boulet played 15 games for a stacked Lightning team last season scoring three goals. The 5-foot-10, 181-pound, 24-year-old forward has shown he can put the puck in the net at the AHL level (69 goals, 67 assists, 0.94 points per game) and has been looking for a spot to take his shot in the NHL. This will be a great opportunity for him.

Alex Barré-Boulet, placed on waivers by TB, played 15 whole games that looked pretty good. Why not eh? pic.twitter.com/am6lQHwKJx

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) October 10, 2021

Stay tuned  for more news and follow us on Twitter: @TheRinkOfficial, @TheRinkSeattle, @KrakenHostile and @PuckinHostile

The post Kraken Anchor Points — Team captains, COVID-19 protocol, waivers appeared first on The Rink.

6:30pm CST
Nassau Veteran Memorial Coliseum
TV/Radio: NBCSN, NBCSCH

PROJECTED STARTERS

Chicago – Collin Delia (3–0–0, SV%: .957, GAA: 1.67)
New York – Thomas Greiss (12–7–1, SV%: .917, GAA: 2.63)

TEAM STATISTICS

Power Play
Chicago (14.8%, 26th)
New York (15.8%, 23rd)

Penalty Kill
Chicago (73.6%, 31st)
New York (77.5%, 21st)

Shorts for/against
Chicago (31.7, 16th; 34.2, 29th)
New York (28.3, 29th; 31.5, 16th)

Shooting %
Chicago (9.1%, T-20th)
New York (10.4%, 9th)

Faceoff %
Chicago (50.1%, T-15th)
New York (47.6%, T-29th)

Avg. height/weight
Chicago 6’1”, 198lbs
New York 6’1” 206lbs

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS

Chicago Blackhawks

Brandon Saad–Jonathan Toews–Dominik Kahun

Artem Anisimov–Dylan Strome–Patrick Kane

Alex DeBrincat–David Kampf–Dylan Sikura

John Hayden–Marcus Kruger–Brendan Perlini

Duncan Keith–Erik Gustafsson

Gustav Forsling–Brent Seabrook

Carl Dahlstrom–Connor Murphy

New York Islanders

Anders Lee–Brock Nelson–Josh Ho-Sang

Anthony Beauvillier–Mathew Barzal–Josh Bailey

Michael Dal Colle–Valtteri Filppula–Leo Komarov

Matt Martin–Casey Cizikas–Cal Clutterbuck

Nick Leddy–Johnny Boychuk

Adam Pelech–Ryan Pulock

Devon Toews–Scott Mayfield

Analysis

After a disappointing loss at Notre Dame Stadium to the Boston Bruins, the Blackhawks travel to Nassau Coliseum vs. the New York Islanders. Despite the loss, numerous Blackhawks players and coaches were quoted with their positive outlook on how the team has been playing of late.

Brendan Perlini found his stride during the Winter Classic, scoring his third goal as a member of the Blackhawks, and fifth for the entire season. The fourth line had great possession numbers and a lot of that was driven by Perlini’s play. Look for Perlini to keep rolling heading into Thursday night’s contest in New York.

The Islanders have won their last four games entering Thursday evening’s game. Three of those win have come against Dallas, Toronto and Buffalo, all quality teams at the halfway point of the NHL season.

Despite losing John Tavares during the offseason, the Islanders are only one point out of the final playoff spot (currently owned by the Montreal Canadiens) with two games in hand. This Islanders team has been playing well enough, despite Andrew Ladd, Jordan Eberle and Thomas Hickey all being injured. The “Guys from the Island” will pose a test for the Blackhawks.

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game tomorrow morning on the-rink.com.

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