The Need to Knows
- The Time: 7:30pm PST
- The Place: Climate Pledge Arena in Beautiful Seattle, WA
- Place to Watch: KONG, KHN, Amazon Prime, TSN-2, RDS
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
Game Preview
It’s been a couple of days, but now the Kraken are back in action, and are setting up for a genuine test of their mettle against a team that’s not just made a step, but rather a pretty significant leap forward in terms of being a quality NHL team again; the Montreal Canadiens.
After just barely squeaking into the playoffs last year and giving it a helluva run, The Habs hit the 2025-26 season running; being 7-3-0 through 10 games and leading the Atlantic Division. While the Habs don’t really control the puck all that much, they are absurdly talented as a team; Nick Suzuki and his miniature goalscoring turret in Cole Caufield have been an otherworldly presence early on, but are only the tip of the iceburg; Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson have helped turn a roster with sort of middling depth on paper into a force to be reckoned with, and have boosted the development of Juraj Slafkovsky, Zach Bolduc, and Oliver Kapanen into being genuine threats. Their style is loose, and often very erratic, but it’s definitely something that these young players feel comfortable in, and that’s what matters most; allowing them the grace to screw up while also encouraging their strengths.
Of course, it helps all of that loosey-goosey play has largely been mitigated by their man in net; Jakub Dobes, being an honest to god brick wall. He’s yet to be beaten in any of the games he’s started, sports a .940 SV%, and finished up a helluva game against the Canucks above .900 somehow.
What the Kraken need to be careful of, perhaps more than anything else beyond that incredible transition game they exhibit, is keeping their foot on the gas. As their northern neighbors found out the hard way, and they themselves found out in brutal fashion, the Habs simply do not care if they are down; they believe they are good enough to take you to OT where the one-on-one matchups favor their skills, and they will happily go there if they need to. Only two other teams in the league are better at coming back from a goals deficit than the Habs, and none have come back unscathed. Keeping pace and not allowing Montreal to find a groove will be critical.
It’s a big matchup in a young season, let’s see how the Kraken respond!
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS