The Vancouver Canucks travel down to Seattle to face the Kraken as they play their first matchup of the season against their Pacific Northwest foe.
Monday’s game kicks off a back-to-back, with the Canucks back in Vancouver on Tuesday to face the Philadelphia Flyers.
Linus Karlsson, Marco Rossi, and Drew O’Connor scored in Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Rossi scored his first goal as a Canuck in the game, while O’Connor and Karlsson continue to have a hot scoring touch.
Karlsson has scored three goals in his last three games, while O’Connor has scored goals in back-to-back games.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- The Kraken come into Monday’s game riding a three-game winning streak, and sit a few points out of a wild-card spot in the Western Conference with their 15-14-6 record.
- They are 7-7-3 on home ice this season.
- Monday’s game is the second of a back-to-back for the Kraken; they host the Flyers on Sunday night.
- Jordan Eberle leads the Kraken with 13 goals and 23 points this season. He is playing on the Kraken’s top line alongside Kaapo Kakko and Matty Beniers.
- Vince Dunn leads the defence corps with 19 points and is averaging 22:32 of ice time per game.
- Joey Daccord is the projected starter for Sunday’s game against the Kraken, meaning that Philipp Grubauer is expected to be in net on Monday. Grubauer has a 5-3-1 record with a .911% save percentage and a 2.59 goals-against average.
- The Kraken are 6-0-1 when scoring first on home ice.
- They are 1-7-2 when the opposition scores the first goal of the game on home soil.
The Story: New-Look Lines
The team skated on Sunday with some new lines.
Nils Höglander and Aatu Räty skated in the team’s bottom-six, while Jake DeBrusk and David Kämpf came out of the regular line rushes.
“We’re getting a couple guys healthy there, so seeing a connection, trying to find a connection there,” said Head Coach Adam Foote.
The head coach spoke about DeBrusk coming out of the lineup for Monday’s game.
“It’s a team thing, right?” said Foote. “Jake was great about it, like he understands, and he’s frustrated [with] some of the things [that] have been going on with himself. He was good about it. He knows what he has to do to get back, but he’s not the only one.”
Foote said there have been some tweaks to the team’s game plan and defensive structure while Höglander was out with an injury, and he wants to continue to get the Swedish forward some reps as he gets his legs back under him for game action.
Regarding Räty, the coach discussed what he expects from him as he returns to the lineup.
“Keep continuing to do what he has been doing; play fast, play physical,” said Foote.
Liam Öhgren moved up the lineup to skate with Rossi and Conor Garland.
Elias Pettersson has Evander Kane and Brock Boeser on his wings.
O’Connor joins Räty and Kiefer Sherwood.
Höglander skates alongside Max Sasson and Karlsson.
Canucks’ Top Performers over the Last Five Games
Filip Hronek: 0g-6a-6p
Linus Karlsson: 3g-2a-5p
Conor Garland: 1g-3a-4p
Kiefer Sherwood: 3g-0a-3p
Liam Öhgren 2g-1a-3p
When and Where to Watch
Monday’s game is at 7:00 p.m. PT, and you can watch the game on Sportsnet or listen to Brendan Batchelor’s radio call on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.
