Mason Marchment Injury Disrupts Kraken’s New Top Line
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Seattle Kraken forward Mason Marchment (27) skates agianst Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen (96) during the first period at Climate Pledge Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images [/caption]
The Seattle Kraken are down another forward.
Just days after it was announced that Jaden Schwartz would miss six weeks with a lower-body injury, Kraken coach Lane Lambert confirmed Mason Marchment would not play in Thursday’s road matchup against the Edmonton Oilers due to an undisclosed injury.
“He’s not going to travel. He won’t play tomorrow,” Lambert said after Wednesday’s practice. “And we’ll see. We’re hopeful he’ll play Saturday.”
Marchment’s absence shouldn’t be as long as Schwartz, and there’s never a good time to lose a regular contributor to injury, but it’s certainly bad timing for the Kraken based on how well Marchment was clicking with his recent line mates.
While the Kraken are looking to break out of a three-game losing streak, Marchment’s line alongside Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle has arguably been Seattle’s best so far this season.
While they weren’t grouped together until recently, the trio has already played the second-most amount of any Kraken line combination this season, with 100:47 of time on ice at 5-on-5 across eight games, according to Natural Stat Trick. Only Schwartz, Chandler Stephenson and Eeli Tolvanen (102:19) have more time together.
While the latter line has a 44.76 Corsi For Percentage and has been outshot 55-41 with four goals scored and four goals against, the Marchment-Beniers-Eberle line has been much more efficient than practically any other combination Lambert & Co. have rolled out this season.
The trio boasts a 53.64 Corsi For Percentage — implying they spend more time in the opponent’s offensive zone than in their own end — while outshooting opponents 37-33, out-chancing them 40-29 and outscoring them 4-0. Those are just a few simple metrics, but ones that suggest those three were shaping up to be a reliable top line for the Kraken.
“I think there’s a time and place for it, for sure,” Lambert said about statistic models, including expected goals, on Nov. 25. “It does tell a little bit of a story, but also you have to be very careful. It doesn’t tell the complete story, but there’s certainly some of the areas and some of the things that we will look at.”
With that in mind, it appears the real key is the pairing of Beniers and Eberle, who have played the vast majority of the season together with a rotating cast on the left wing. With nearly 60 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time playing alongside both Jared McCann and Berkly Catton, each combination has a Corsi For Percentage above 50, which can’t be said about the four most-common lines that don’t include Beniers and Eberle.
The biggest difference is Marchment-Beniers-Eberle have outscored their opponents at 5-on-5, as opposed to when they’ve played alongside Catton (2-2) or McCann (3-3), albeit not in a massive sample size.
With Marchment spending much of the first 20 or so games trying to find his footing in a new system, it appears Seattle has found the best place for him. Only with his absence on Thursday and possibly beyond, the Kraken will have to find another solution after getting blanked by this same Edmonton team on Saturday.
According to line projections from Wednesday, McCann will be reunited with the duo.
“Obviously they’re two very skilled players,” McCann said about Beniers and Eberle after Wednesday’s practice. “Easy guys to play with. In past years here, I’ve been with them for awhile, so it should be pretty seamless.”
