Kraken (28-34-4) vs Utah Hockey Club (29-25-11) | 7:00 p.m.

One: Keep the power running

Wednesday’s win over Montreal was a huge step for the Kraken power play, which accounted for two goals in the final 10 minutes of regulation to tie things up ahead of a Brandon Montour overtime winner.

Helping the cause was the Kraken getting off quick shots.

One of those was by newcomer Jani Nyman in his NHL debut, one-timing a pass from Jordan Eberle. The other saw Matty Beniers redirect a Vince Dunn one-timer at the net front.

Nyman also hit the post on a first period power play one-timer that had the goalie completely beaten. The Kraken have shown before that they can move the puck around as well as or better than in prior seasons. What they haven’t shown is the willingness to shoot as quickly or as often as coach Dan Bylsma would like.

Utah HC is the NHL’s fifth most penalized team at 9.5 minutes per game. If the Kraken get power play opportunities, as expected, they need to put pucks to the net early and often.

Two: Give Grubauer a home game

The last time Philipp Grubauer started a game at Climate Pledge Arena was back on Jan. 28 when he yielded five goals against the Anaheim Ducks. Much has happened since, including a demotion to AHL Coachella Valley where Grubauer is said to have gotten his game back to an acceptable NHL level.

He demonstrated that in a 4-1 win in Philadelphia last weekend, his first Kraken appearance since the Ducks contest.

And now, it appears time for another.

Kraken regular netminder Joey Daccord has posted sub-.900 save percentages in five of his last six outings, which is very uncharacteristic for a guy still at .909 for the season. The four goals Daccord allowed on 25 shots almost cost the Kraken the game against Montreal and included a questionable short side strike by Juraj Slafkovsky. There was also a net-front tap-in by Alex Newhook on a cross-ice pass in which Daccord was so deep in his crease that he appeared to be standing behind the goal line and was unable to intercept the puck.

That’s not the Daccord we’ve seen for most of the past two seasons.

His save percentages the last six games read: .840, .870, .879, .800, .903., .762. Those look pretty similar to what Grubauer was posting ahead of being sent down so he could get more playing time.

Daccord’s problem isn’t too little time on the ice. But it may be too much time. Since Grubauer’s demotion, Daccord has started 12 of the last 14 games.

Overall, Daccord has started 19 of the last 21 games since Jan. 14.

Heading into that marathon stretch, he’d been 13-9-2 with a .912 save percentage. But things have slowed considerably and over Daccord’s last 10 games, he’s 4-5-1 with a .882 save percentage.

The Winnipeg Jets are in town on Sunday. Play Grubauer against Utah and let Daccord rest up to face the NHL’s No. 1 overall team.

Three: Know the foe

We can’t call them the Coyotes anymore, or even reference that Arizona franchise’s stats when it comes to relocated Utah HC. They apparently don’t like being called the “Clubbers” either despite their Hockey Club “HC” initials, so we’ll stick with “Utah” for now.

The Kraken defeated Utah 5-2 the only previous time the franchises met earlier this season at Climate Pledge Arena.

Former Seattle Thunderbirds junior talent Dylan Guenther leads Utah with 24 goals and has an equal number of assists. Clayton Keller has a team-high 51 assists and 74 points, while Nick Schmaltz and Logan Cooley round out the top-scoring threats.

In other words, they’re the Coyotes in different uniforms. Well, and they’re also just two points out of a playoff spot behind Calgary. So, that’s also a bit different. And with one regulation loss in their last eight games, going 5-1-2, Utah appears to have that playoff spot firmly in their sights.

They’re also 16-12-4 on the road compared to 13-13-7 at home, so that’s a bit different than when the Coyotes used to win the vast majority of games playing in their college-sized home rink.