Kraken (26-31-4) vs Wild (35-22-4) | 7:00 p.m.

One: Ride Daccord just a little longer

The Kraken have goalie Philipp Grubauer back from his AHL stint, and he’ll dress for this game, but Joey Daccord will likely be the one starting in goal for the ninth time in 10 contests. Daccord made some key stops against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night ahead of the Kraken rallying to victory, so his team will look to ride that momentum a bit longer.

But given a workload that will see Daccord making his 17^th start Tuesday night in the team’s last 19 games, it’s likely important he get spelled more from here on.

It was around the All-Star Break a season ago that Daccord’s performance dipped after shouldering a similarly hefty workload. A year later, he’s given up three goals or more in five of his last seven contests dating back to the start of February and eight goals in his last two outings – which only spanned just under 90 minutes played of a possible 120 after being pulled early against St. Louis.

As mentioned, Daccord looked very good at times, starting and finishing Saturday’s contest, but Grubauer’s return should see the team start providing consistent backup help once again. Grubauer’s struggles before his AHL stint were a reason the Kraken used Daccord so often, and he’ll get a break this coming weekend as the team plays back-to-back games in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, starting Saturday.

Grubauer himself on Monday hinted at just how unusually often Daccord has been playing, referencing how his own AHL demotion gave him needed ice time to work through some things.

“It’s tough if you sit on the bench for 25 days and then you have to play,” Grubauer said.

Kraken coach Dan Bylsma repeatedly referenced Monday how Coachella Valley goaltending coach Colin Zulianello assured him Grubauer was playing like “an NHL goalie” during his Firebirds stint. Bylsma also suggested Grubauer would get one of the back-to-back games this weekend.

There’s another back-to-back set two weeks from now in Chicago and Minnesota, but if Grubauer is really back to being at an NHL-caliber level, it might behoove the team to stuff another game in there for him ahead of those. In other words, ride the momentum of Saturday’s win for one more night with Daccord and then get back to a tandem that allows both goalies to finish their seasons in peak form.

Two: Keep it strong up the middle

Don’t look now, but three of the top-six Kraken point-getters are all centermen. Chandler Stephenson had an assist against the Canucks and leads the team in those with 31 while sitting three points behind Kraken leader Jared McCann with 41.

Shane Wright had two assists and now sits tied for fourth in points with Oliver Bjorkstrand at 36. And right behind them, you have Matty Beniers with 33 points after he scored against Vancouver.

Berniers had 37 points all of last season when he was the team’s top-producing center with the Kraken’s sixth highest total. Two seasons ago, Beniers and Yanni Gourde were the top-producing centers with 57 and 48 points, respectively, for the team’s fourth and fifth-best totals.

The only season in which the Kraken finished with three centermen among their top-six point-getters was the debut 2021-22 campaign with Gourde at No. 2, Alex Wennberg at No. 4 and Ryan Donato at No. 6. But they had only 48, 37, and 31 points, respectively.

It's far different this season with Stephenson on pace for 56 points, Wright for 48 and Beniers for 44. Strong play starts up the middle of the ice and it’s hardly coincidental the Kraken tend to win when multiple centermen get in on the scoring.

Of the Kraken’s nine victories since the New Year, all have seen some combination of at least two of Stephenson, Wright, and Beniers notch points on multiple Kraken goals in those games.

Three: Know your foe

The Minnesota Wild arrive here amid a playoff push helped by 40-year-old veteran netminder Marc Andre-Fleury – who has said he’ll retire at season’s end. Fleury is 5-2-2 with a .924 save percentage lifetime against the Kraken while playing for the Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks prior to that.

Fleury this season has been limited to a backup role behind Filip Gustavsson, who blanked the Bruins 1-0 on Sunday. But Fleury is expected to start the game here, which would give the Kraken one final chance to notch a regulation victory against him at Climate Pledge Arena.

Their only home win of any kind against Fleury was a 3-2 shootout triumph over Chicago three seasons ago that snapped a nine-game losing streak for the Kraken just ahead of the goalie being dealt to the Wild.

Minnesota just traded a second-round pick to Nashville over the weekend to re-acquire one-time Wild forward Gustav Nyquist. That move came with Minnesota forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek both out with injuries and the Wild having lost three straight to imperil their third-place positioning in the Central Division ahead of beating the Bruins 1-0 on Sunday.

The Wild are only two points ahead of Colorado and would fall into a wild-card spot if the Avalanche pass them.