There’s plenty of strategy left for Dan Bylsma to implement with his new team. As for time? Not so much. The regular season presses itself against the glass of today, and the new Kraken head coach is feeling the pressure.
“There’s Xs and Os of systems and there’s habitual tendencies of systems. And it takes– what do they say?– 21 days to form a habit,” he recalls. “You can get the Xs and Os in seven days. The tendencies take a little bit longer to drive into the team.”
Sixteen days remain until the Kraken’s home opener versus the St Louis Blues. The first exhibition game is tonight, following just four days of training camp.
Bylsma may not have the time he prefers to sharpen the roster to his tastes. He may not need it to make an impact. While the on-ice product may look the same as last year’s– with the majority of the roster returning, few spots to truly battle for, and overarching continuity clear between former and current systems– execution is renewed.
Training camp sessions touching on defensive zone coverage, puck breakouts, and speedy transitions display a newly decisive, confident team. Bag skates test the likes of Chandler Stephenson, a 10-year veteran, and Shane Wright, on the cusp of his own career, equally. There is no shortage of bag skates with Bylsma.
“We’re all trying to return to play at the start of training camp,” Bylsma said of his extensive use of conditioning. “For the most part, everyone dug in. They may not have liked it, but I love to see it.”
Nobody’s exempt from hard work.
Not Will Borgen, Yanni Gourde, Brandon Tanev, and Eeli Tolvanen, stuck running drills with prospects. Not Brandon Montour, whose celebrations of meaningless camp goals already resemble mid-season form. And certainly not Berkly Catton, with his assignment to an experienced group of campers– he spent nearly twenty minutes after Saturday’s sessions shooting and teeing up teammates.
“[Dan] brings passion,” Jordan Eberle said. “He loves being at the rink, he loves being around the guys. For me, personally, I love playing for coaches like that, that have energy and passion. They want you to compete, they want you to work for each other . . . what’s good for the team is good for you.”
“Having Dan and Jess here is just incredible, and I think it’s great for our room,” Joey Daccord observed. “You can already feel a little bit of a culture shift.”
On paper, Seattle’s ceiling has hardly budged.
Big ticket free agency acquisitions give Seattle the potential for six skaters totalling over 50 points, seeing as Stephenson’s gone three-straight seasons beating that number and Montour scored 70 within the last two. Otherwise, offensive improvements will resemble a return to form rather than renovation, a scoring-by-committee style of production living and dying by the initial contributions of top skaters.
That is, Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, Vince Dunn, and Oliver Bjorkstrand cannot afford to collectively slump this season.
Lines can and will change, as Bylsma is using camp and the preseason to explore options, and new specialty teams coaches will allow power play units a longer strategic leash. But ultimately, Seattle will be the same team they’ve always been. Bylsma’s revitalisation of the Kraken’s culture, work ethic, and passion for the game is promising anyways.