Kraken Down on Losing - The Skid Must Stop Against Seattle

The Penguins have almost reached terminal velocity with how fast they're falling. They aren't there quite yet, but a loss to the Kraken at home tonight would have Pittsburgh free falling at 9.81 meters per second.

Now at 18-19-8, Pittsburgh has fallen from grace in the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference to having cushion over just one team - the Buffalo Sabres. Woof.

Acquiring 44 points in 45 games now means the Penguins' point percentage is under 50% for the first time in a month. They've hung around, gotten themselves back in it, and backslid to where they were in the span of just 30 days.

Tonight's game against the Kraken is the final straw. There are no games in hand to work with (in fact games in hand are actively against them) and the team won't return home to Pittsburgh after tonight until February 1st. A seven game road trip that includes the west coast is on the horizon. It's not getting easier for Pittsburgh.

The Lowdown on Seattle - It's Very...Mid

The Kraken just...exist, unlike Ohio according to their Twitter social media admin.

The Kraken compete, and they have a chance to win every game, but they aren't an exceptional hockey team. They are 18-23-3 and losers of five of their last six (their only win was against the lowly Buffalo Sabres).

If I give you a random team stat for the Kraken and tell you to rank them in relation to the rest of the NHL, if you say anywhere between 20th and 25th, you'll be right about 80% of the time.

They aren't a bottom feeder. But they don't do anything particularly well. It's actually laughable how middling they are. They're bad enough to be in the bottom half of the NHL, but they're not bad enough to be actively tanking. That has a name: Mediocrity.

The Kraken's ONLY Saving Grace

Joey Daccord. That's literally it. Just Joey Daccord.

Daccord arrived on the scene for Seattle last season going 19-18-11 with a .916 save percentage. He had a brief stint on IR with an upper body injury at the end of December into the first week or so of January.

He has since returned and given up five goals on 58 shots (.914 SV%).

Joey Daccord is statistically the 10th best goalie in the NHL according to MoneyPuck.com. His counterpart, Philipp Grubauer, is...the worst in the NHL.

Grubauer's -11.7 Goals Saved Above Expected is dead last in the league (yes, even worse than Alex Nedeljkovic and Tristan Jarry who are 10th and 11th worst respectively).

The Detroit Red Wings scored three goals on four shots in the first six minutes against Grubauer on Sunday. Daccord came in and played the final 53 minutes giving up three goals on 19 shots.

Flip a coin on who the Penguins will get. Flip heads and win. Flip tails, and you'll have to earn your win.

The Bottom Line...

You want keys to win?

Here are some keys to win: Just win, baby.

The Penguin's TV broadcaster, Josh Getzoff, has said several times something to the tune of, "The Penguins have played a good game today, but they aren't getting rewarded."

At some point, good games have to translate to wins.

The excuses aren't viable anymore. It's time to actually win a dang game. In fact, it's time to win several games.

The tightrope is starting to thin. Another loss and it's going to snap.