What to watch in Seattle Kraken preseason opener

We’re in the first Seattle Kraken training camp for a few days, with their first preseason game on Sunday at 6pm (get ready to hear many “initiations” and “firsts” this year).

Three Seattle Kraken players who will set the tone for their style of play

One unintended consequence of not having a home arena ready is that the Kraken home games will be held across the state this preseason, a de facto barnstorming tour to get in front of fans across Washington before they themselves At home, indulging in what should be crowded in the Climate Pledge Arena every night.

Here’s what I’ll be interested in when the puck falls against the Vancouver Canucks in Spokane on Sunday night.

Who will score the goals?

Trying to build a full team, and with the players available, it was not possible for the Kraken to get an established offensive star. With the current composition of the squad, there are therefore question marks about who will be the captain who puts pucks in the net.

After just a few days of training camp, Jaden Schwartz, who has spent the past 10 seasons with the St. Louis Blues, and Jordan Eberle, an 11-year-old veteran who came from New York, appear to be the top strikers on the Islanders.

Jaden Schwartz. Yes, he had an afternoon. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/rEDeL6rmgd

– NHL (@NHL) May 20, 2019

These two put in a solid performance, but Schwartz ends his season with the lowest goals (eight) since 2015-2016, missing 16 games with a sloping injury, while Eberle has shown great consistency, albeit lower scores at 19, 16 and 16 in the past three years.

They’re well-known commodities, too, and it would be apocryphal to think either is capable of a recovery, like William Karlsson, the young Vegas center who went from four straight single-digit tors seasons to 43 in the Golden Knights’ opening year.

No hat trick <@Enterprise hat trick

Jordan Eberle (@ jeberle_7) would most likely agree. pic.twitter.com/3G1UpLSeQH

– NHL (@NHL) February 22, 2020

Power plays and penalty kills

With that NHL preseason’s compressed timeline, the draft expansion happening a month later than 2017 for Vegas, and the COVID-19 logs limiting time spent together, it means the Kraken didn’t have much ice time . Everything is rebuilt from the ground up, including the critical “special teams” – power play and penalty kill units – which are often critical to the outcome of a game.

These units also rely heavily on quick communication and an innate sense of where your teammates are on the ice, which usually results from hours of ice age together.

The Kraken don’t have that luxury, especially when the most accurate indicator of a successful power play and penalty kill is ad-libbing and reacting right now, something that can be simulated in practice but nowhere near mimicking is playing live on the game Ice cream.

Since these particular situations don’t always come up with high frequency in a game, it would be nice to see the Kraken take a penalty or two and get live replays for the Penalty Kill session on Sunday.

Line changes

The average switching time in the NHL is in the range of 30-45 seconds. That’s pretty quick, even if it builds up as the game progresses.

For example: According to ShiftChart.com, the new Kraken Center Yanni Gourde had 27 shifts with an average time of 47 seconds on the ice in winning the Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup last year. Short shifts have become the norm to keep players fresh late in the game and especially over the long season.

However, in this first preseason game where every single line combination is brand new, it will be interesting to see if the Kraken use slightly longer shifts to get their lines more time on the ice against other competitors. The 31 other teams in the league have a familiar base to build on while the Kraken builds from scratch.

In the course of their six preseason games, the chemistry will build and the outlines of that team will solidify into a cohesive organism. But right now, when you need a catalyst to bring together a wide variety of personalities and players, get them out there and let them skate.

Time for Kraken: Seattle Kraken opens first NHL training camp

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