One: Find more overall rhythm – When your regular NHL lineup is more or less making its preseason debut against mostly AHL prospects things can go off kilter. The early part of Thursday night’s game against the Calgary Flames didn’t have much flow to it overall and that hurt from a Kraken perspective as the core group rounds into game shape.
“I thought our team got better as the game went on,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “There was some noticeable rust or cobwebs or whatever.”
The Kraken regulars were already going to be rusty as they hadn’t played yet in preseason. But then throw in a bunch of young opposing players all running around trying to leave an impression before they get sent down to the AHL and the all-around cohesion of play left plenty to be desired.
All of the second period fighting didn’t help either with lengthy delays between each round of fisticuffs while officials tried to figure out who started and finished it. Lambert was pleased to see his team owning much of the third period and then the overtime before winning in a shootout. He also felt going to OT was a positive in that it helped his team get exposure to 3-on-3 play among other differing scenarios throughout the night.
“We have to prepare to go (Saturday) and to find that rhythm,” Lambert said.
Two: Shaking up the lines? – Lambert said Friday he came away impressed by the speed and the improving play of a line featuring former college teammates Matty Beniers, Mackie Samoskevic and Jared McCann.
“I thought there was certainly some speed to that line,” Lambert said. “I liked Mackie’s game as he went along. I thought early on that Matty tried to do too much, but I thought he settled in very similar to the rest of our team.”
Lambert also felt McCann had “some good opportunities as well” and would like to see more.
He’d like to maintain lineup continuity in Vancouver, saying the team has “got to get some rhythm and some flow” but he wouldn’t rule out similar forward lines with “a tweak here or there.”
He did say that the trio of Berkly Catton, Shane Wright and Kaapo Kakko looked “disconnected on the forecheck and will need to get more connected this final preseason game and in practice next week.
Three: They gave as good as they got – Much of the buzz Friday was still about all the skirmishes that erupted in the second period of Thursday’s game. Lambert was asked what he felt about his team’s “response” to a pair of hits on Samoskevich and Chandler Stephenson, then Ville Ottavainen after that.
“If you have to have a response then I like the word ‘response’,” Lambert said. “I like the word ‘initiate’ better. But certainly, if you’re talking about the physicality and that stuff, I thought we stuck together well.”
Lambert added that he felt “the intensity level of the game” ratcheting up in that middle period was likely a turning point.
“You don’t necessarily see that in an exhibition game,” he said. “In the days of the old seven, eight or nine exhibition games you don’t quite see that so much. So, I thought it was a good thing for our hockey team in that scenario, in that situation.”
