The Need to Knows:
- The Time: 7pm PT
- The Place: Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, WA
- Place to Watch: KONG, KHN, NHLN
- Place to Listen: Kraken Audio network on KJR 93.3fm
Know Your Enemy
- Kevin Lankinen, signed by the Canucks a mere six days ago, will get the start Friday night in Seattle. It’ll be the Finnish goaltender’s debut as a member of the Canucks. Last season, Lankinen averages a .905 SV% and a 3.07 GAA over his four seasons in the league.
- Vancouver split into a game group and a non-game group Thursday morning for practice, and it appears the Kraken will be facing a heftier lineup than they did at Rogers Arena on Tuesday. Expect Norris-incumbent Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, JT Miller, and Elias Pettersson opposite Seattle’s mix of NHL/AHL skaters.
- Former Kraken Daniel Sprong and Carson Soucy aren’t anticipated to be in the lineup, and neither is Vilmer Alriksson, should any of those encounters otherwise end up being a source of tension. Although, Dan Bylsma’s prepared for his guys to be the aggressor anyways. “You want to be present on the ice as an ultra-competitive team. You want the other team to know it as well,” he said Wednesday. “Hopefully we showed them what kind of competitors we are, playing with the puck and our execution and both are willingness to do it together. And we’re gonna get a chance to do it again Friday.”
Game Preview
Seattle is 0-2-0 so far through the preseason, but that’s not what Bylsma’s looking at– he’s assessing individual performances, and will be doing even more of that over these next two exhibition games. “Connectedness” is what he wants to see from his team overall, and that starts on an individual level with a strong adherence to systems, each man duly aware of his role and the necessary application of his skillset.
Since the Kraken last played, Berkly Catton, Carson Rehkopf, and Nathan Villeneuve have all been reassigned to their respective juniors teams for the upcoming season, leaving Eduard Šalé the only player with Seattle right now that is could likely return to juniors. Bylsma said Thursday that Šalé’s performance in Vancouver Tuesday night was a factor in his surviving of the latest wave of cuts. Forty-seven players remain from the original training camp roster.
Seattle is set to deploy another mixed lineup back at home, meaning that the NHL-exclusive group and the leftover group that practiced Thursday morning are inaccurate for determining who plays and who sits versus Vancouver. Whoever’s on the ice at the Kraken Community Iceplex bright and early will be competing– only the game group is set to skate Friday morning.
Keep an eye on improved defensive cohesiveness (the lack of which resulted in a 6-1 loss Sunday night), whether André Burakovsky is back in the lineup after two straight maintenance days, and, of course, whether John Hayden plays again. A move like that could indicate plenty about the kinds of responses Bylsma expects from his skaters in the event of another physical slight like the one suffered by Logan Morrison on Tuesday.