{"id":460774,"date":"2025-01-14T12:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T17:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=460774"},"modified":"2025-01-14T12:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T17:04:10","slug":"nhl-predictions-kraken-vs-penguins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/14\/nhl-predictions-kraken-vs-penguins\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions: Jan. 14 Pittsburgh Penguins vs Seattle Kraken"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> host the Seattle Kraken<\/a> in a Monday night match-up at PPG Paints Arena. Welcome back to NHL Predictions<\/a> here on Last Word on Hockey! Each day, we provide in-depth analysis, insights, and predictions for all the NHL\u2019s games. In tonight\u2019s game, the Penguins aim to gain some much-needed ground in the wildcard race. Meanwhile, the Kraken seek to shake off a bad stretch recently and gain some momentum.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Seattle Kraken<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Head-to-Head:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguins 0-0 Kraken<\/h4>\n

Time:<\/strong> 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)<\/p>\n

TV:<\/strong>\u00a0SportsNet Pittsburgh; Root Sports Northwest; ESPN+<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh enters this game reeling from embarrassing losses back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday. After a strong showing against the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>, Pittsburgh struggled defensively in a crucial pair of games. The Seattle Kraken<\/a> find themselves near the bottom of the conference, fourth last in the standings. For a team with playoff aspirations, the 10-point gap between Seattle and Calgary<\/a> in the second wildcard spot is a steep hill to climb. They\u2019ll hope to start tonight.<\/p>\n

The Penguins\u2019 Story<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Following back-to-back regulation losses over the weekend, the Penguins fell to 18-19-8 on the season. Where a week ago the team was tied for a wildcard spot, they now find themselves four teams behind Columbus<\/a> for the coveted spot. Sidney Crosby<\/a> leads the team with 48 points in 45 games. He\u2019s looking for a 20th<\/sup> straight point per game season, and playing a team struggling like Seattle may be exactly what Crosby needs. Rickard Rakell<\/a> has continued to stay hot, and is up to 22 goals and 38 points in 45 games. Bryan Rust<\/a> is behind him with 16 goals and 33 points in 38 games. The trio will need to generate the bulk of the Penguins offence with Evgeni Malkin<\/a> and Michael Bunting<\/a> questionable for the game.<\/p>\n

The Penguin\u2019s goaltending situation has taken a disappointing turn. Tristan Jarry<\/a> has lost four straight, including losses due to blown leads against teams like the Panthers and Blue Jackets. Alex Nedeljkovic<\/a> was chased from his net over the weekend against the Ottawa Senators.<\/a> With both goaltenders coming into this game cold, the team will need to do their best to insulate their netminder.<\/p>\n

The Kraken\u2019s Story<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Kraken in the midst of a rough stretch, losing seven out of their last 10 games. The Kraken are a young team with expectations of making the playoffs. However, key regressions and disappointing performances have changed these plans. Free agent signing Chandler Stephenson<\/a> has only scored five goals and 29 points in 43 games. He was expected to be a premium play driver such as in Vegas, and hasn\u2019t been able to replicate it just yet.<\/p>\n

Franchise cornerstone Matty Beniers<\/a> has struggled offensively as well. He has just 23 points in 44 games. A bright point of the offence has been recent acquisition Kaapo Kakko<\/a>. The former second-overall pick has scored eight points in 11 games with the Kraken. The Kraken will need players like Beniers to step up to defeat this Penguins team.<\/p>\n

In net, Joey Daccord<\/a> has been a fascinating story. Even with a losing team record, Daccord is 13-9-2 with a .912 save percentage. He has been fantastic in spite of the team\u2019s struggles. Philipp Grubauer<\/a>\u00a0 meanwhile, has numbers far more in line with the teams record. He is 5-14-1 with an .870 save percentage. Grubauer\u2019s struggles have been a significant problem with these playoff hopeful Kraken.<\/p>\n

NHL Prediction<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Something has to give in Pittsburgh. The team tends to do the best when chasing for a playoff spot from behind. Expect them to play better on home ice than they did this weekend and defeat the Kraken.<\/p>\n

Prediction:\u00a0Penguins win 6-2.<\/em><\/p>\n

Prop Bet for the Night<\/strong><\/h3>\n

FanDuel\u2019s<\/a> Total Goals Over 8 (+330)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Penguins feel due to for a scoring outburst, especially if Grubauer gets the start, making this a good prop bet to place.<\/p>\n

Main photo by: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n

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Please play responsibly, check for your local rules and age restrictions, some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Gambling\u00a0problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Pittsburgh Penguins host the Seattle Kraken in a Monday night match-up at PPG Paints Arena. Welcome back to NHL Predictions here on Last Word on Hockey! Each day, we provide in-depth analysis, insights, and predictions for all the NHL\u2019s games. In tonight\u2019s game, the Penguins aim to gain some much-needed ground in the wildcard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5231,"featured_media":460805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4547,4548,12,4524,5369],"tags":[1061,1885,544,3508,7359,8020,6123,724,7170,140],"class_list":["post-460774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-penguins","category-nhl-predictions","category-seattle-kraken","tag-bryan-rust","tag-chandler-stephenson","tag-evgeni-malkin","tag-kaapo-kakko","tag-matty-beniers","tag-philip-grubauer","tag-pittsburgh-penguins-predictions","tag-rickard-rakell","tag-seattle-kraken-predictions","tag-sidney-crosby"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460808,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460774\/revisions\/460808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}