I'm not going to lie, I had a huge smile on my face on Sunday when the Seattle Kraken faced off against the Vancouver Canucks. Seeing this roster actually play in a game, score goals, and win felt like a huge payoff. While it was only a pre-season game, it does start to give us a better idea at how Hakstol wants this team to play, who he likes together and what does and doesn't work.
For starters, I think Fantasy Hockey GM's should take a look at Jared McCann in the later rounds of their draft as a sneaky pickup. McCann has been practicing with Eberle and Schwartz and once again the young forward found himself centre two skilled vets. McCann is a smart two way centre while Schwartz and Eberle tend to be more aggressive in the offensive end. There does seem to be chemistry and McCann had a couple good chances in front of the net due to his wingers attacking and firing pucks into the crease. McCann would be rewarded with a nice wrist shot goal on the powerplay.
I'm getting a bit ahead of myself as we should talk about who scored what is technically the first goal in Kraken history. Obviously we all expected that to be Riley Sheahan who got off a nice shot right in front of the net from a pass by Nathan Bastian.
Morgan Geekie had himself a night with two goals and looked very comfortable beside Donskoi and Donato. Ryan Donato in particular impressed me and I wonder if I've been sleeping too much on the player. Though he only had 6 goals in 50 games last season, two of them were powerplay goals. Hakstol used Donato on the top unit powerplay on Sunday night and once more the 25 year old forward cashed in a goal. Both Donato and Donskoi are highly aggressive forecheckers and were relentless in both the neutral zone and the offensive end.
As expected Mark Giordano was the main quarterback from the blueline for the top unit powerplay. Overall I liked Gio's game but in a pre-season game it's tough to get a read on the pace of the game. Gio is not going to be the guy firing the big shots from the point but the former captain knows how to calm things down and get the puck quickly to an open man.
The other defenseman who impressed me was Dennis Cholowski. Cholowski moves the puck quickly and set up McCann on his powerplay goal. The 23 year old blueliners offensive instincts might be the difference maker for ensuring he is a regular in the top six for the Kraken this season.
In terms of the overall style of play from the Kraken, it's still early but I am starting to get at least a sense of the identity of the team and how they are going to play. Defensively there were no surprises as Seattle did an excellent job of standing guys up at the blueline and using their physicality to push the opposition to the outside and prevent many serious grade A scoring chances up close.
I knew that this team could be good defensively but it is promising to already see that this team is working hard to be a smart transition team. The moment that a player in the defensive end separated a player from the puck, there were almost always two forwards rushing in to pick it up or move up into the neutral zone to accept a pass. In the offensive end, if Seattle lost possession, again, their forwards would aggressively backcheck to try and take back possession. In order for the Kraken to have success and score goals than they are going to need to fight for every inch of ice. It's early but they accomplished that in this first pre-season game.
Tomorrow Seattle will face an Edmonton Oilers team that should be icing a decent number of NHL players unlike their first game. Being able to shut down the likes of Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl will be an excellent test for these players.