Kraken (9-7-1) at Hurricanes (15-3-2) | 10:00 a.m.

One: Pick up the pace – As coach Lane Lambert and others noted after Thursday night’s loss, the Carolina Hurricanes don’t offer much opportunity for opposing shooters to actually get shots off. And when you do get the chance, you must not dilly around about taking one.

“That was clearly not good enough,” Lambert said postgame of his team’s 13 shots total in the game, with just one in the third period. “We had opportunities to shoot the puck. There’s a level of speed in which you have to play against them. And it doesn’t always have to be a perfect shot. We’ve got to get pucks to the net and generate some rebounds and things like that.”

His thinking hadn’t changed much by Friday morning. The Kraken watched video of the game and Lambert tried identifying areas for improvement they later worked on during an open practice held in front of thousands of fans, most of them Finnish and including many young children who turned out for a rare up-close look at NHL players.

“We didn’t feel like we played very well last night,” Lambert said. “And again, I said, ‘Give them credit.’ So, I’m not taking that away from them. But we feel like we can play better.”

The Kraken appeared ready to make some lineup changes based on what they did in Friday’s open practice. They had Jagger Firkus out on a line with Chandler Stephenson and Freddy Gaudreau. If that holds, Firkus will make his NHL debut against the Canes.

Lambert said injured defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Jacob Melanson, both out since the season’s opening week, are getting “really, really close” and will be gametime decisions.

Two: Let Freddy Cook – Not much of a surprise to see Gaudreau playing on a higher line in practice alongside Stephenson and Firkus. His goal against Carolina was his team-leading eighth, which is already one more than he had over 68 matchups last season.

The goal was also the first ever scored by the Kraken franchise outside of North America.

Gaudreau wasn’t making much of his sudden goal-scoring flurry. After all, he managed to score 18 for the Minnesota Wild the season before being traded to the Kraken and once had 19 for them as well.

“I mean, last season I came in a trade that I didn’t really expect over the summer,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that you need to adjust to. Moving your family, coming over to a new environment. So, it was a different season.

“I just continuously try to keep getting better,” he said. “I love this game. But it’s not really the goals I’m looking for. I’m looking for wins and that’s all I care about.”

Three: Know your foe – Well, the Kraken certainly learned that a strong start is imperative against Carolina. They fell behind 2-0 about 12 minutes into the opening period on Thursday when the Hurricanes scored twice just 66 seconds apart. But as coach Lambert put it, they hadn’t exactly generated much momentum the opening half of the period as the Hurricanes had them running around in their own end.

Carolina has few flaws. Their offense remained No. 1 overall in the NHL at 4.10 goals per game heading into Friday’s action and the defense had moved up to No. 2 at 2.25 goals per game allowed.

Not surprisingly, they were tied with Minnesota atop the NHL standings at 32 points apiece with the Hurricanes holding a game in hand. The Hurricanes also extended their goal differential to a league best +36, which is +12 higher than anybody else.

Carolina is 14-0-1 in games where they’ve scored at least three goals this season, largely because they allow so few. That means the Kraken need to score more than just once while goalie Joey Daccord – if he indeed starts in his regular rotation turn with Philipp Grubauer – must keep the puck out like he did last March in stopping 35 of 36 shots in a 2-1 upset win over the Canes at home.

They need to avoid turning pucks over in bad areas as they did throughout Thursday’s opening period. And they also must start moving some bigger bodies away from their net front. Grubauer had a tough time seeing the puck with all the traffic in front of him.

“We need to impose our game on to them and not react to them,” Kraken centerman Matty Beniers said after Saturday’s open practice. 

It will help if the Kraken can keep getting faceoff success like Berkly Catton gave them on Thursday, winning a career high 10 out of 14. However, once the Kraken do gain control of the puck, they must, as mentioned much higher up, find a way to shoot it more often. 

Projected Lines (not official):
McMann-Beniers-Eberle
Stephenson-Gaudreau-Firkus
Kakko-Catton-Samoskevich
Winterton-Meyers-Wood

Dunn-Larsson
Evans-Montour
Mahura-Ottavainen 

Daccord