Extra, Extra

Kraken fans who attended open practices at Kraken Community Iceplex during the inaugural season likely noticed Morgan Geekie staying on the ice later than most of his teammates. He might have been taking extra faceoffs (typically against veteran Riley Sheahan) and almost always would collect a bunch of pucks to work on his shot.
File that extra work under "education of a young center." Geekie, who turns 24 in July, doubled his NHL career-high in games played this past season, appearing in 73 Kraken games. The marathon schedule never dissuaded him from staying late on practice days.

"For me, the main thing is I was always taught 'practice is for everybody,' " said Geekie, standing in the Kraken locker room at the Iceplex in early May. "You're not going to cover every base in practice. There are specific things I look to work on [in extra time]. I watch the game from night before to decide what I personally need to work on."
For instance, Geekie referenced a stretch of the season "struggling to get puck in the net." He stayed late during practices and morning skates to take shots from the locations on the ice where he most ended up during game play. The repetition helped him both with the physical act of shooting and "seeing the puck in the net more mental than physical."
At season's end, Geekie was invited to play for his country, Team Canada, at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships in Finland. The tournament is currently in the round-robin stage. Geekie scored a goal and added an assist Monday in a 5-1 win over Slovakia. Undefeated Canada (3-0) faces Kazakhstan (0-3) Thursday looking to stay tied with Switzerland (4-0) in the Group A standings.

Once the Worlds are over May 29, Geekie anticipates "taking a couple weeks off-not super long­-to go outside, take some hikes to get away from the rink, not touch the ice."
Then, not surprisingly given his penchant to improving his game, Geekie will start skating again. "Not anything intense," he says, referring to June.
On the docket for July and August: "My shot is always a work in progress. This summer, I will work on getting it off as fast as I can. I think I have a good release and I can manipulate it a bit [his shot per location, spin, speed-think how pitchers send baseballs and softballs to home plate]. Timing is something I've got to work on this offseason."

No doubt Geekie will be looking to continue his quest to be a center who plays effectively in all zones, what Kraken GM Ron Francis and coach Dave Hakstol call "200-foot players." During the season, Hakstol more than once referred to Geekie's elite playmaking ability and urged the young forward to keep pursuing the concept that good defense (forechecking the offensive zone and backchecking when the opponent has the puck in the Kraken end) leads to offensive opportunities.
Hakstol praised Geekie's extra work on faceoffs and improvement on the dot as the season progressed. Geekie admitted his faceoff work in early-season games "didnt start very well at all."
He credits Kraken faceoff consultant and former NHL player Paul Gaustad (727 games, 56.3 percent faceoff wins) with a marked improvement that led to a 52.5 percent win percentage by season's end. That mark, based on 669 or roughly half of league leaders in faceoffs taken, would put him among the top 20. Of course, doubling the number of faceoffs requires keeping the pace, a definite checklist item for Geekie.

"[Winning faceoffs] is something I started to take pride in, especially as a right-handed centerman, which is a little more rare," said Geekie. "I see a lot of righthanded centers stay in the league a little longer just because they can win faceoffs.
"I watch lots of video on faceoffs, seeing what other guys are going to do. Paul has been awesome. He changed my mentality. That's where I kind of turned it around, honestly. My mentality used to be there are two things I can do. If they don't work, try again next game. Now it's about getting really good at what I am good at doing [stick and body work in the faceoff circle], but also reading the other player, getting better at that."
Kraken fans instantly took a liking to Geekie's style of play. Scoring in the Kraken's first-ever game to tie Vegas, 3-3, in the third period didn't hurt. Nor did the fun surname. The "Geek Squad" tweets and memes and signs at practice started during the preseason, Sept. 26 to be precise.

Geekie says the fan support is "really humbling": "It's nice to have my name not be a bad thing [laughs]. It's nice to have people on your side."
There's one more summer item: Geekie plans to join his family in Montreal for the 2022 NHL Draft. His brother, Conor, is a top prospect ranked No. 5 overall among North American skaters (forwards and defensemen) in the NHL Central Scouting group's final rankings of draft-eligible players.
Conor scored 24 goals and notched 46 assists for 70 points in 63 games for the Western Hockey League Winnipeg Ice this regular season and has added three goals and six assists in 10 playoff games to date. He is expected to be a first-round pick and there is healthy ongoing media debate about whether he will be selected in the top 10.
"We're going in [Montreal] on Wednesday [the first round is Thursday, July 7]," said Geekie. "It's cool. It doesn't happen very often [for brothers to be drafted by NHL teams]. All of us in the family want to be there for him."