Which teams deserve some “luck of the Irish” down the stretch?
On this St. Patrick’s Day, Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna decided to give some teams a little Irish luck in the final weeks of the season on Daily Faceoff Live.
Mike McKenna: I’m pretty hot on the Seattle Kraken. It’s not a sexy team to pick because they’re the newest team in the NHL, but-
Frank Seravalli: They’re also maybe the luckiest.
Mike McKenna: Yeah! But I mean, a little more luck here. Think about it, they haven’t even gotten particularly great goaltending. Jones has struggled big-time the past month and a half, and Grubauer has taken over. He’s 5-1-1, but he’s only got a .902 save percentage.
But if they’re healthy, if they got Burakovsky back, if Donskoi’s back, especially with the power play and how that helps out, I think this team can be dangerous, and I’d love to see a little bump in there. I’d like to see a storyline from a place that you don’t expect it. For me, that’s been the Kraken all year long, I’d love to see it, and I think they just got to be a little bit better at home. They’ve been so good on the road, 22 of their 38 wins there. If they can be a little bit better at home, get a little bit more goaltending, they could be dangerous.
Frank Seravalli: Yeah sorry, I’m not giving the Kraken any more luck than they’ve already had. Look at the shooting percentage for some of these guys, it’s been off the wall ridiculous how much they’ve exceeded in the range that they should be. I think they’ve had plenty of luck this season, maybe not so much in the goaltending department, but they’ve also been pretty healthy for the bulk of the year too.
I’m going to give the Winnipeg Jets a little bit of luck. We talked about this team last year, you and I both picked them to win the Stanley Cup and they missed the playoffs. I just liked the courage of conviction they had to change up the coach and otherwise bring just about everyone else back. There were people pounding their fists on the table saying someone has to go, Wheeler, Scheifele. They stripped Wheeler of the captaincy, and they were one of the most consistent teams in the league really up until mid-January, and since then, the wheels have kind of fallen off.
You look at their last 20+ games, they’ve really struggled. It hasn’t been what had gotten them to this point. Connor Hellebuyck’s save percentage has fallen, they went through a 10-game stretch when they gave up almost 40 goals, and I just think for a team that’s hanging by a thread in the Western Conference playoff race, which has opened the door and let a team like the Nashville Predators that sold off right back into the race, just a little extra luck of the Irish might do them pretty well to get in and seal up that playoff spot, although it would certainly remove quite a bit of drama from the playoff chase in the West.
You can watch the full episode here…