Just the Facts
The Time: 7:00 PT / 10:00 ET
The Place: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA
Where to Watch: KONG
Where to Listen: KJR 93.3 FM
An Opposing Viewpoint: Nucks on Goal
Know Your Enemy
Coming off of last season, the Vancouver Canucks don’t exactly fare out to be a much better team than before. Sky’s season preview of the Pacific Division touches on some more of these finer details, but the short of it all is that the Canucks still have work to do to dig themselves out of a major hole and become a competitive force again.
But this is preseason, where the lines are made up and the points don’t matter! It may be good to keep an eye on certain players for general scouting purposes, such as if Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, or newly-minted captain Quinn Hughes are part of the lineup. For the most part, though, expect half of this Canucks squad to be people you won’t see in an NHL jersey again for a while.
Game Preview
The Kraken just completed a split-squad series against the Calgary Flames, allowing most players at training camp to get some game time already. Not everyone got the chance to skate, however. I would expect to see the players who didn’t play in either game, like Yanni Gourde, Jaden Schwartz, and Oliver Bjorkstrand, get their preseason reps in sooner rather than later.
If some of those veterans still sit tonight, it’ll all be to further evaluate the talent of those who are on the brink of roster cuts. The Kraken made their first round of cuts on Tuesday, sending a group of players that include the likes of Lukas Dragicevic, Jagger Firkus, and Eduard Šalé to back their respective junior teams and assigning three players to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. While there’s still four more preseason games (including this one) to evaluate the training camp talent, every precious second counts for those on the cusp to make a good impression. After all, the coaches generally know what kind of talent they have with their returning players. The prospects and AHL-lifers don’t have that luxury to fall back on.
There may only be so much to learn about the strength of the team itself in preseason, but it’s how individual players rise to the challenge of these games that matters.
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