One: Protect the net
It is only pre-season, but this next start in the aim of Philipp Grubauer is looming as a powerful major test given the state of the team’s intermediary. Assuming that Joey Daccord was the starter n ° 1, this leaves Grubauer and Matt Murray in a battle for place n ° 2.
And while the Kraken may have hinted at the start of the regular season with three guards, it is doubtful that Grubauer or Murray wants to leave anything at random.
Murray stopped 33 of the 36 washers pulled his way to Vancouver by the Canucks and looked very solid against a formidable range which had the Kraken under the siege of the second half of the match taking 26 of these blows. Murray made several tentacular judgments while quickly recovering to deal with new blows – seeming completely recovered from his hip surgery almost two years ago.
“I just have more reach and much less pain,” said Murray.
Kraken Lane Lambert coach set out four to rent Murray’s “fantastic game” in the post-match media melee. After training on Sunday, Lambert was asked how these limited pre-season appearances by the guards will carry in his overall assessment of the intermediary as opposed to the work without play that they put in the training camp.
“Obviously, the games may be a little more highly evaluated, or there is obviously a little more weight in the games,” said Lambert. “But I think the two and Joey (DACCord) have done a very good job to manage their game and get a little more from their game so far.”
Unlike Murray, which made 46 stops on 50 pre-season shots in total in two outings, Grubauer has not yet played a full 60-minute match, although it will likely change against the flames. In his half-match of work against the Flames in Calgary last week, Grubauer arrested 17 of the 19 shots when he was only released from pre-season to date.
Two: a Berkly study session
Berkly Catton, Kraken’s high perspective, seems to relieve a little more in the flow of competition in the NHL with each outing. It will be his fourth match on five Kraken competitions, and he should be on the left wing again – this time online with Matty Beners and Jani Nyman.
The Kraken have already played Catton, 19, alongside more veteran players, so it will be a new look for him next to Beners, 22, and Nyman, 21. What is also interesting is that Catton enters the vacant spot by Kaapo Kakko after his injury when he had previously played on a trio with Beniers and Nyman.
Catton has not yet recorded a pre-season point. And although he looks more committed and has created certain chances, his previous game in Vancouver on a line alongside the veterans Freddy Gaudreau and Eeli Tolvanen, the star of the junior hockey Centerman Catton must probably show the kraken, he will not be overwhelmed for the puck when it is time to convert.
It is also a fourth game test for Nyman, which moves from left to the right side where Kakko had operated. Nyman, who has four pre-season goals at the top of the team, can play one or the other of the wings, although he is a left-handed shot. The Kraken may want to see if the 6 feet 2 inch and 212 pounds can replace the right side in the absence of his Finnish compatriot of equally formidable Kakko or if they need a different combined approach for the line.
Further on Kraken’s injury front: Lambert said on Sunday that Jared McCann and Chandler Stephenson followed to be ready for the opening of the regular season on October 9, but did not fully answer a question about them appearing in one of the last two pre-season games.
Neither of them should be uniform on Monday, although Kraken fans should have their first look at home on the veteranic Mason and Ryan Lindgren summer acquisitions.
Three: Know the enemy
Calgary’s defense has several players who fight for spots, including Zayne Parekh, 19, selected 9th Overall in the draft of the NHL 2024. The star of the Ohl Parekh, who scored his first pre-season goal against Winnipeg on Saturday evening and played more than 23 minutes, seems to have already managed a place after making his debut in the NHL in a solitary competition last season.
Competition for the lower twinning was very tight, with the young Hunter Brzustewicz, 20, fighting for a place in the NHL among Jake Bean, Daniil Miromanov, Ilya Solovyov and Yan Kuznetsov.
We could also see the former goalkeeper Everett Silverts Dustin Wolf start in this second pre-season competition between these teams. Wolf and the defense of the Flames held firm against the Kraken last week in Calgary, the goalkeeper stopping 12 of the meager 13 shots gathered by the Kraken during the two periods when he was in there.
Projected kraken lines / couples (not official):
Catton-Beniers-Nyman
Marchment-Wright-Tolvanen
KARTYE-GAUDREAU-HAYDEN
Stephens-Molgaard-Winteron
Dunn-larsson
Bass-flying
Evans-Olexiak
Discontent
Murray
