Changing of the Defensive Guard

Hockey coaches are always looking to put the right combination of players together. Judging from Tuesday's practice, Kraken fans can anticipate some tweaks in defensive pairings on the ice for Wednesday's matchup with Chicago.
Captain Mark Giordano appears to be paired with Haydn Fleury, while Jamie Oleksiak alongside Jeremy Lauzon. Adam Larsson moves from Lauzon as his partner to join a pairing with Vince Dunn.

"There's no manual in terms of shifting things, we've made changes regularly," said Hakstol Tuesday. "Just an overall evaluation, we had the full day [Monday] to take a look and run through our last five games [on video] and look at different opportunities to get a little bit better."
Up front, Yanni Gourde centered a line with Tanev and Colin Blackwell on the wings during Tuesday's full practice (the Wednesday morning skate was optional). Alex Wennberg stayed on a line with Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle while Jared McCann was in the middle of Calle Jarnkrok and Marcus Johansson. The other line is Morgan Geekie centering Ryan Donato and Joonas Donskoi.

Facing Chicago

While Chicago has won three straight under new coach Derek King, like the Kraken, the Blackhawks are digging out of 4-9-2 trough. Chicago is just one point ahead of Seattle in the playoff standings.
Talking to the media Wednesday morning, Chicago players Seth Jones and Kirby Dach discussed the deficit but focusing on the game at hand rather than dwelling on being eight points behind St. Louis with five teams between them and the Blues.
Jones said Chicago needs to "look at each opponent and the challenge" and not worry about the upcoming schedule on its Western road trip. Dach referred to the trip at "do or die," adding his team needs to approach "each and every night trying to survive."
The comments are similar to what Kraken fans are hearing from Mark Giordano talking about "five-game segments" presented by the coaching staff to not get too overwhelmed by the standings margin and Jared McCann acknowledging the cliché but saying it anyway, to take one game at a time.
"Our heads are on Chicago. We play the Blackhawks and it's two big points," said Brandon Tanev Tuesday. "We're in front of our home crowd and we want to get off to a fast start."