New Jersey Devils vs. Seattle Kraken: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 1/19/2023

Time: 10 p.m. ET

Venue: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA

Where to watch: MSGSN, ROOT-NW

DraftKings: NJ -130, SEA +110

FanDuel: NJ -126, SEA +105

BetMGM: NJ -125, SEA +105

Caesars: NJ -141, SEA +118

Devils: 29-12-3

Kraken: 26-14-4

The New Jersey Devils will try to win their 6th consecutive game when they travel to Seattle to take on the Seattle Kraken at climate pledge arena on Thursday.

 

Just when you thought the world was ending in New Jersey when the devils began playing some mediocre hockey, they come back winning five in a row, albeit against some pretty easy competition. If you take out the win against the Rangers in overtime on January 7th and the win against Carolina on January 10th then it got a little easy.

 

New Jersey just swept a California road trip thanks to a 4-3 shootout victory over the San Jose Sharks on Monday. Jack Hughes scored the tying goal with 10 seconds remaining, and they eventually went on to win in the shootout competition thanks to two goals in the third. Nico Hischier also added a goal for New Jersey, and Vitek Vanecek made 29 saves.

 

"It was an awful way to win, but that's what good teams do," forward Tomas Tatar said. "Obviously, we had to overcome the fatigue. It's the third game in four nights, and we didn't get much rest."

 

Ultimately, New Jersey has won seven of its last 10 which is about is on par is where you could have hoped they would be this time of year. They haven't cooled off from their hot start to begin the year and now that they have won five in a row they have found ways 2 get victories whenever they've seen bleak. Not only that, but the over has cashed for New Jersey in the last six games and they are 7-2-1 with the over in their last 10.

 

Not much can be said for their counterparts on this night. After winning eight in a row and sweeping a 7-game road trip, Seattle has lost two in a row thanks to a loss at home to the Tampa Bay Lightning in which they should not hang their head, but then followed that up the next night with a 5-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton on Tuesday.

 

Daniel Sprong scored on the power play in the first period, and Vince Dunn added a goal early in the third but the firepower of Edmonton just proved to be too much for this group to handle. Martin Jones, who was the player of the week last week, gave up all five goals on 33 shots.

 

"We gave up two right inside the blue paint in the second period, and that's the difference in the hockey game in a lot of respects," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "There are two things that stand out: too many rush opportunities that came off our play, especially our play on the wall in the second period, and the two from the blue paint. In games like this, you have to have everybody going, and we had several guys below the bar tonight."

 

Seattle is still had a good run in its last 10 games, going eight and two on the money line. But this kind of lull that Seattle is on had to be expected given how much energy they use in each one of those road games. Seattle is still a very good team and is definitely going to challenge for the top spot in the Pacific division, as well as the top spot in the Western Conference. But they are going to have moments like these last couple of games where they are entitled to a clunker because of how good they have been.

 

I want to like what Seattle does returning home against a very good opponent and the thought of this being a Stanley Cup final just became very tantalizing in my head. I don't think it will happen, but there's a lot of young talent on these rosters that's going to make this game fun. In the end, I'm going with the road team. Devils 4, Kraken 3

Kraken are 7-1 n their last eight off one day of rest.

Kraken have won six of their last seven against Eastern Conference teams.

Ondrej Palat -- Nico Hischier -- Jesper Bratt

Erik Haula -- Jack Hughes -- Tomas Tatar

Nolan Foote -- Yegor Sharangovich -- Miles Wood

Jesper Boqvist -- Michael McLeod -- Dawson Mercer

Jonas Siegenthaler -- Dougie Hamilton

Ryan Graves -- Damon Severson

Nikita Okhotiuk -- Brendan Smith

Vitek Vanecek

Andre Burakovsky -- Matty Beniers -- Jordan Eberle

Ryan Donato -- Alex Wennberg -- Jared McCann

Eeli Tolvanen -- Yanni Gourde -- Oliver Bjorkstrand

Brandon Tanev -- Morgan Geekie -- Daniel Sprong

Vince Dunn -- Adam Larsson

Jamie Oleksiak -- Justin Schultz

Carson Soucy -- Will Borgen

Martin Jones