One: The Power of Two
When Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour stole the puck inside the defensive zone and ripped up ice to the deep right corner of the Anaheim zone before dishing a perfect centering pass to goal scorer Mason Marchment, his coach, Lane Lambert, called it “an elite player making an elite play.” Up in the KJR 93.9 Kraken Audio Network booth, analyst Al Kinisky quipped, “No preseason games, no problem!” Montour appeared in midseason form despite missing most of training camp to undergo removal of a bursa in his ankle.
“It shows you what kind of player he is,” said Lambert. “He’s a top-end NHL defenseman … he did a lot of good things [Thursday]. He drives us, he drives us up the ice, he drives the offense. It’s certainly nice to see him involved, and he was desperately needed by our hockey team tonight.”
Montour took a maintenance day on Friday, but, along with fellow defenseman Vince Dunn, will be quarterbacking one of the two power play units when Vegas visits for the second divisional matchups to start the Kraken season. Dunn scored the game’s first goal – the third time in five years he has notched Seattle’s first goal of the season. The 2021 expansion pick from St. Louis missed 20 games last season, and injuries kept him out 23 games in 2023-24.
Keeping the two star defenders healthy this season projects as a significant difference maker for the Kraken’s fortunes. Dunn missed just one game in 2022-23, putting up a career-high 64 points (14 goals, 50 assists). Montour scored a career-high 18 goals last season in 81 games. The offensive juice of both Dunn and Montour personifies Lambert’s mantra that achieving defensive zone exits can be a primary way to pounce on opportunistic scoring chances. Dunn, partnering with Adam Larsson and Montour with free-agent signee Ryan Lindgren (who played alongside offensive-minded New York Rangers D-man Adam Fox), provides highly reliable defensive coverage when either Dunn or Montour takes to the O-zone.
Two: Taking Advantage of Man-Advantage
The Kraken were 0-for-2 on the power play Thursday. The units did create opportunities (including a slick pass from Jared McCann to Matty Beniers in a high-danger area near, but Beniers couldn’t quite corral the puck).
“For the most part, we did some pretty good things,” said Lambert post-game when asked about the Kraken’s man-advantage play. “I think there were a couple of opportunities in which we can shoot the puck and maybe not quite get too fancy. We entered the zone well and had some looks for sure.”
Lambert elaborated on his mentality about the power play after Friday’s practice: “Even today, you get into practice, you maybe don’t really want to shoot the puck at times. You don’t want to hurt your teammates [via a shot block]. But we’ve just got to concentrate on shot volume. Cale Fleury was at the top of one unit today. Montour had the maintenance day. [Fleury] shoots the puck, and it finds its way in the net. We’ve got good net presence, guys. We have to continue to shoot the puck.”
Three: Know the Foe: Vegas Inks Eichel, Lining Up with Marner
Vegas extended center Jack Eichel’s contract for eight more years beginning next fall. His average annual value (AAV) will be $13.5 million, while new linemate Mitch Marner is locked up for eight years at $12 million starting this year. The two look like a scary fit in just two games, with Eichel totaling six points (two goals, four assists) in two games, while Marner picked up a couple of third-period assists to get his new squad into overtime and subsequent shootout against the LA in the VGK home opener on Wednesday.
Lambert, who worked closely with Marner last season with Toronto, said his penalty killers need to be prepared for “a very, very good power play” along with an overall Kraken mindset to not let the visitors meet the physicality of Vegas in all zones and situations.
“[Marner] is an extremely talented player who sees the ice and has great vision,” said Lambert. They’re a big team. They will definitely try to wear you down in the defensive zone by controlling pucks. We’re gonna have to be hard on pucks and be hard in battles. We’re gonna have to make sure we play solid defense in order for us to be able to turn the puck the other way. When we got our legs moving last night, we managed the puck a little bit better. We’ll have to do that against Vegas. They’ve got a great transition game, but when we [stopped Anaheim’s transitions], we ended up getting a lot of scoring chances.
Projected Kraken lines/pairings (not official):
McCann-Beniers-Eberle
Schwartz-Wright-Tolvanen
Marchment-Stephenson-Winterton
Kartye-Gaudreau-Nyman
Dunn-Larsson
Lindgren-Montour
Mahura-Oleksiak
Daccord