One: Push The Pace
As everyone keeps noting, the preseason is only four games long this year instead of the usual six due to the NHL expanding its regular season by two contests to 84. That means much less time for young prospects – who will form the majority of Saturday night’s lineup – to make an impression with those running the NHL team.
“Where it impacts guys is we have to make some decisions here sooner rather than we used to have to,” Kraken head coach Lane Lambert said. “So, there’s a bit of an impact there in terms of a timeframe to make an impression.”
Young guys usually come flying out of the gate when given a preseason chance. It isn’t often they get a chance to all start so early on, especially in a home game as veterans are typically spared from too much preseason travel.
But Lambert indicated some veterans will only play twice this preseason, so the team will be wanting to see the core NHL players later on in camp. That gives an early chance to mostly young players in this home affair and you can bet they’ll be pushing the pace to show where they’re at.
Some of the bigger prospects to keep an eye on are Oscar Fisker Molgaard, expected to center the top line in this game. Jani Nyman will be playing left wing on that line and he’s another player that – like Molgaard – already got some looks with the Kraken last season.
This will also be a big game for Jagger Firkus, who looked really good his first two AHL seasons and is hoping to crack the NHL at some point this campaign. Defensemen Tyson Jugnauth and Ty Nelson are also looking to show their strong AHL campaigns a season ago can make the next-level jump.
And there’s also Jake O’Brien, the No. 8 overall pick from last year, who’ll be centering the third line. And power forward Julius Miettinen, the Everett Silvertips star from last season’s Memorial Cup finalist squad, who, like O’Brien, will make the transition from major junior hockey to the professional ranks this fall.
Two: Connect The Dots
Players know by now that Lambert demands systems with a highly detailed structure where the defensemen and forwards are connected in how they transition from defending to generating offense. We’re only a few days into camp, so a lot of that structure will be shaking off summer rust but as mentioned, there is limited time this preseason to get things right.
This isn’t so much about how the Kraken will look on opening night. We won’t see that until a more veteran lineup is put out there.
What you will see in this game is how those younger players on the verge of NHL standing can fit into the systems demanded by Lambert. Some will have started a bit of that at the AHL level already, but nothing like doing it at the NHL level in front of the very coach putting these systems and the required structure in place.
“I look a lot at how you play systematically,” Lambert said. “Are you connected to the rest of the group? Do you have an understanding of that? We’ve gone over a lot of stuff in the first two days so we’ll see how well that sinks in.”
