Sure, the Kraken can help their cause immensely by defeating the Utah Mammoth on the road Saturday, which would enable them to finish this five-game, Saturday-to-Saturday trip with five of a possible 10 points earned. After that, they can head home and regroup with a roster that – fingers crossed for a healthy Saturday outcome – will finally be complete.
Montour returning to the Kraken on Thursday night finally filled the missing void in the season’s 46th game.
“He’s an elite defenseman in the league and an elite offensive defenseman,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said hours before the defenseman’s return.
Sure, there have been others who contributed to the Kraken during the injury absences, such as Jani Nyman, who made the opening night lineup after Kakko got hurt. Also, Jacob Melanson, whose fourth line insertion last month resulted from a Marchment illness and other injuries and wound up providing a team-wide spark.
Melanson was sent back to the AHL on Thursday with Montour’s return while Nyman was shipped there a few weeks ago.
And now, with 36 games to go, the Kraken should have a full lineup ready to hang on to their playoff spot and push for more. That starts with the final few weeks ahead of the Winter Olympic break, where the Kraken will need to survive a grueling January schedule that bleeds into the initial days of February.
Kraken general manager Jason Botterill said in an interview on the Kraken Hockey Network pregame show Wednesday that the team’s depth and utilization by the coaching staff has kept things afloat despite the injuries. And that the same dynamic, with reinforcements from the injury returns, should hopefully get the Kraken through the rest of this month without losing standings ground.
“When you come into a month like this and realize there are 17 games in the month of January, you have to have a balanced attack,” Botterill said. “That’s what gets me excited when I look at our lineup…having our mix. We have four lines that our coaching staff is very comfortable with.”
Botterill said the key to future success is keeping those lines balanced in terms of playing time amidst the difficult January schedule.
“We’re going to have to keep the minutes down for our forwards and space that out through four lines,” he added.
One positive, if you can call it that, to losing so many key players for extended periods is it’s given the Kraken a chance to use their younger players in important situations. Players such as the aforementioned Melanson thrived during his month’s stay, while Ryan Winterton has helped in similar fashion all season long. The past month has also seen Berkly Catton score his first three NHL goals while Matty Beniers, still only 23, has emerged into a dependable, consistent force at his position.
“We’re just excited that the combination of veteran players and younger players are coming together here and having a lot of success on the ice,” Botterill said.
Losing the top offensive players on your team – not to mention defensive ones as well – for weeks at a time probably isn’t the best way to bring a team together. But that’s now done and the slate is fresh with a 36-game push to the finish.
The Kraken are far from guaranteed a playoff spot given the proximity of Western Conference teams beyond a handful at the top. As of Friday, only eight points separated the playoff positioned Kraken from the second-to-last spot in the entire conference. Then again, only three points separated them from second place Edmonton in the Pacific Division with two games in hand.
In other words, it’s a wide-open sprint to the finish. And the Kraken, though it took more than half a season, finally have their legs back under them.
