The Need to Knows
- The Time: 4pm PST
- The Place: Centre Bell, Montreal, Quebec
- Place to Watch: KHN Networks, KONG
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
Game Preview
Oh look! Another gameday! This time, it’s an away contest!
The Kraken come to Montreal as the Habs themselves are clearly not taking anything for granted on their way up. They made the playoffs last year, and while they did in fact get stomped out early, they made a grand ol’ fight of it and have made a personal goal of getting right back there. So far? It’s been pretty good for them; they’ve absolutely dumptrucked the Detroit Red Wings, and handled the Blackhawks about as well as one can expect most semi-competent NHL teams to do. This has them 2-1-0 after a week of play, and are 3rd in the Atlantic Division. Sure, it’s still early, but they’ve established that they can, at the very least, hang in their division.
Kinda like Seattle has!
The thing that both sides need to get a little better at, which will likely decide how the game is controlled tonight, is how they play away from the puck. Seattle has had a couple of very slow starts, while Montreal’s defense is still as porous as it was last year, at least to start. They’ve gotten much better goaltending than years’ past and their depth is coming up huge, but a team with the right amount of gumption isn’t struggling to get to their goaltender right now. Even the Blackhawks were able to do it in a losing effort.
The critical point of emphasis for Seattle meanwhile, will be defending the break.
A team that’s committed itself to defense will have it’s hands full with Montreal, as a lot of their early goals that they’ve scored this year has come on either a lucky bounce, or from a breakout. It’s not the only way they’ve scored, their power play has shown a lot of promise, but they’re at their most dangerous when they can use their speed to their utmost advantage. The Habs know they have young,incredibly talented players on offense, and are going to let those young boys fly. It’s up to the Kraken to make sure that they keep their composure which they’ve had in spades through their first couple of games, and be patient; if they can force them into making mistakes and trying to force plays, they can turn it right back up ice and make them pay for it.
This road trip out east is a real test, and the Kraken need to be ready for it; there are some VERY unhappy squads early on, so getting your mojo rolling against a pretty decent squad to start with ought to put some much needed confidence into their game going across the breadth of Canada.
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS!