The Seattle Kraken (14-14-9) kick off 2024 in hot form and have a chance to register a fifth consecutive win in Monday’s Winter Classic against the Vegas Golden Knights (22-10-5).
Bookmaker Pinnacle has the odds at +121 for the Kraken to win, while the odds for the Golden Knights victory stand at -136. The total is at 6.0, with the odds for the over at +102 and the under at -117.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: December 31st, 6:00 P.M. (EST)
Seattle has started to turn the season around after having a couple of very poor months at the start of the campaign. Six of the team’s 14 victories have come since Dec. 12, and the team is also riding an eight-game point streak ahead of Monday’s special outing.
The Kraken will play in their first outdoor game, and the clash at the T-Mobile Park will also be the first Winter Classic game to take place in a stadium with a retractable roof. Vegas has previously appeared in one outdoor game, losing 3-2 to Colorado at Lake Tahoe in 2021.
The Golden Knights head into battle after going 1-4-0 across their last five outings. The team has struggled defensively lately, allowing 22 goals over the five-game span, but the defending Stanley Cup champions did register a morale-boosting 3-2 victory last time out against a very good Kings team.
After enjoying an incredible start to the campaign, Vegas was bound to run into a tougher period. Bruce Cassidy saw his team go 11-0-1 in the first 12 games, a run which started with a 4-1 home win against Seattle. The result gives the Golden Knights three consecutive wins in the match-up, with Seattle scoring just once in all of the games.
The Kraken team has also struggled for goals in 2023-24, lightning the lamp only 2.65 times per game, but the offense has received a timely boost ahead of the Winter Classic with the return of Andre Burakovsky. He played in only his sixth game of the season on Friday when Seattle defeated Philadelphia 2-1 in overtime.
Burakovsky, who will suit up for his fourth career outdoor game, is a proven scorer in the league, and his ability has definitely been missed this season.
Meanwhile, Vegas has suffered a fresh injury blow ahead of Monday’s contest, with defenseman Ben Hutton going down against the Kings with an upper-body injury and ruled week-to-week. The Golden Knights backline has already been without star blue-liner Shea Theodore and goaltender Adin Hill, who was between the sticks in this season’s first meeting with Seattle.
