Kraken (1-0-0) at Oilers (1-0-1) | 4:00 p.m.

One: Maintain a controlled pace – Lots of talk after the opening win in Calgary about the energy and pace shown by the Kraken. They looked fast and good all over the ice, especially the young trio of Berkly Catton, Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton. 

The thing is, it wasn’t just speed that propelled the Kraken. It was controlled speed. They weren’t flying around recklessly. They played smart, disciplined hockey. They used “active sticks” to block passes and steal pucks rather than hooking or grabbing players trying to get by them.

In the second period, with the Kraken protecting a three-goal lead, it was the trailing Flames taking penalty after penalty. The home team actually did the Kraken a huge favor by forcing themselves to play nearly a third of the period on the penalty kill. It ate up time and helped carry the three-goal lead into the final period.

The third period would have been where officials sometimes look to “even out” penalty calls, so the Kraken entered it on double-secret probation. But they still didn’t take any penalties. They didn’t run around wildly getting caught out of position. Nor did they retaliate for any hits when the Flames began playing with greater urgency.

That’s exactly the game they’ll need against the Oilers. You don’t want to go run-and-gun against a team with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard. Edmonton has scored 14 goals in two games. Go in too fast and too hard on a forecheck, they can burn you the opposite way. 

Mackie Samoskevich will make his Kraken debut in this game, though we’ll see what line he’s on. Samoskevich worked out on the fourth line in Friday’s practice and deploying him there would allow him to ease back into things while giving head coach Lane Lambert another look at his top three trios from Thursday’s opener.  

Jacob Melanson has been placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury, allowing Samoskevich to be added to the roster. The Kraken did not hold a Saturday morning skate but Lambert met with the media and said Melanson might miss the next three games.

Lambert was mum on where Samoskevich will slot in.

“I think we’ll see where that goes,” he said. “Obviously, he’s coming off the injury so we’ll start him and see how he progresses as the game goes along.”

The Kraken could certainly use Samoskevich’s speed against the high-flying Oilers.

“I saw and witnessed it last year,” Samoskevich said Saturday after being activated. “You make one mistake and they’ve got three or four guys coming back at you pretty quick.”

Samoskevich plans to “not try to do too much too early” given the nine days since his last game plus the short training camp.

“When you’re sitting out you kind of want to come back in and make an impact right away,” he said. “So, I’m definitely going to try to do that but be smart at the same time.”

Two: A little more “power” play – The Kraken power play operated ruthlessly their first man advantage, taking just six seconds for Chandler Stephenson to win a faceoff and get a Jordan Eberle goal off a Jared McCann shot. As for the four ensuing power plays the rest of the night, it was a mixed bag. There were times the Kraken moved the puck around well and simply couldn’t convert. Other times when they had a chance to put the game away, especially in the second period, and didn’t generate much – coming away with just five shots those four remaining power play opportunities.

“I do think there were little pockets there where we could have been a little quicker in our puck movement,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said Saturday. “A little more determined in that area. And maybe a little bit more shooting mentality. But for the most part, I thought it was a pretty successful first game for our power play.”

The Kraken power play will need to be as efficient as possible to keep up against the Oilers, who typically have burned them with their own man advantages and have converted on three of their nine opportunities thus far the first two games.

Three: Know your foe – Plenty of talk about how McDavid, Draisaitl and company are gearing up for one last run at that elusive Stanley Cup title. That’s one reason the team made the supposedly-player-approved hire of Mike Babcock as head coach. But regardless of who the coach is and how good McDavid and Draisaitl are, the defense and goaltending needs to improve or they aren’t going anyplace.

The Oilers allowed 13 goals their first two games, both against the Vancouver Canucks. Not surprisingly, that’s second worst goals allowed in the league behind only that Canucks team they lost to 6-5 in overtime and then beat 9-7 after nearly blowing an 8-2 lead. 

Oilers defender Bouchard became the first defenseman in NHL history to record eight points in his first two games. That helps largely erase the three opposing goals he was on the ice for in those two games.

Oilers goalie Devon Levi, likely to start against the Kraken, allowed seven goals on 22 shots on Thursday in his first NHL game since January 2025 with Buffalo. His counterpart, Tristan Jarry, wasn’t much better, allowing six goals on 23 shots in Edmonton’s season opener at home. 

The feeling in Edmonton seems to be the team might as well give the younger Levi the home start and see what he’s got rather than risk 31-year-old Jarry having another shaky outing right away in front of impatient Oilers fans who weren’t much impressed by him a season ago.

Edmonton had signed Cup-winning Carolina netminder Frederik Andersen this past summer to be their No. 1, but he suffered an off-season training injury and is expected to be out until December.

Speaking of injuries, the Oilers will again be without high-powered forwards Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Not that it slowed them much in pumping in nine goals on Vancouver. 

No official word on whether Joey Daccord or Philipp Grubauer starts in goal, but we’ll assume they give Grubauer this one and go with Daccord for Monday’s home opener against the Flames team he blanked the first 56 ½ minutes on Thursday night. 

Projected lineup (not official):
McCann - Beniers - Kakko
McMann - Stephenson - Eberle
Winterton - Catton - Wright
Meyers - Gaudreau - Samoskevich

Dunn - Larsson
Evans - Montour
Lindgren - Fleury

Grubauer