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The Seattle Kraken got through a Friday night loss, and took a plane ride for a game the next day.
The Florida Panthers got through a Friday night loss, and took a plane ride for a game the next day.
No morning skate for either group will match quick turnarounds for both squads in the Kraken only visit to FLA Live Arena this season, 3pm PT for a date with the Panthers (2:30pm Coors Light Pregame Show).
More quick touches with the bounce-back night, Driedger in net, and a quick look at the Panthers in Kraken This Morning (see above).
“Clear your mind,” said Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol. “There’s a routine in terms of getting up, getting your body going, making sure we feel good, and are energized tonight as we get to puck drop. We don’t spend very much time at the rink in the morning, so preparation looks a little bit different in a back-to-back.”
The Kraken will deploy Chris Driedger between the pipes, giving Philipp Grubauer rest after he turned in a 23 save effort in Friday’s 3-0 defeat at Tampa Bay. More importantly, Driedger gets his shot, a “revenge game” of sorts, at his former team following the Kraken claiming him in July’s expansion draft.
Driedger, perhaps making this sweeter if accomplishment is reality, is searching for his first win in a Kraken sweater (0-2, .791 save pct) after going 23-14-6 with three shutouts and a .927 save percentage last season.
Can FLA Live Arena rekindle some Driedger magic? Last season: 8-2-1 with a .944 save percentage in that building. All three shutouts were on home ice.
Notes:
-Jordan Eberle, upon puck drop, will play in his 800th career NHL game, who leads the Kraken with nine goals this season. It's a significant milestone for a career lasting over a decade: Eberle's going to become 1 of 78 players currently wearing an NHL sweater to reach 800 games. It's a testimony of consistency and production.
-Perhaps not as emotional as his multi-year stay in Columbus, but still carrying relevancy: Alex Wennberg makes his first return to Panthers land after a career high 17 goals in 56 games in their colors last season, his only year in Sunrise.
-Hakstol said this morning more changes to the lineup are coming, more specifics with line combinations, but inconclusive as of press time.
-Mark Giordano remains in COVID-19 protocol with “no update” as of this morning.
-The Panthers share the top record in the league (31 points, 14-3-3 record) with a run at home like none other, the Kraken hope they stop tonight: 11 straight wins at home to start a season, a franchise record, trying the NHL record set by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1963-64.
-Washington defeated the Panthers 4-3 last night, via a hat trick for Alex Ovechkin. In the middle of all of this, things got bizarre: starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky exited the game twice, replaced by Spencer Knight amidst what interim head coach Andrew Brunette said with concussion protocol, “it kind of got really gray for a while.” Bobrovsky, playing in his sixth game in seven overall, made 19 saves while backup Spencer Knight stopped six shots, allowing a goal to Ovechkin on the first shot he saw.
-The Panthers, missing forwards Aleksander Barkov (injured reserve) and Anthony Duclair, are led by Jonathan Huberdeau with 20 points in 20 games.