Kraken Hockey

While we may have lost the game against the Flames, the team overall looked good considering that they had to skate earlier that morning and then get on a flight. Grubauer had an absolutely amazing game, while others may disagree his saves were fantastic and the goals against him were hard to stop. Grubi is given this level of hate that is unfair, while I may love goalies, I also truly believe that he has been playing more confidently since his time down in Coachella Valley last season. Grubi also had some really good puck handling, instead of staying in the crease he ventured out more, which does go to show his confidence level growing. Matt Murray also did well however, he did not face nearly as many shots. The team did get into a little scuffle protecting Murray, which is what we are wanting to see in this new season. Protecting the goalie has been a consistent problem with the Kraken for too long, it looks like we might actually see them protecting the goalies more this season. We also saw Grubi make a fantastic save in the second period, when he made this save, we saw Eeli Tolvanen celebrating the save, something else we were missing last season.

Mitchel Stevens scored our lone goal during that game; however, it was one of the most beautiful goals we have seen in a while. The scoring attempts from the Kraken were definitely down from the first preseason game, which is expected when you are playing with a lot more rookie players. Some of our defense was playing absolutely amazingly, one example of this was Josh Mahura, he was blocking shots left and right. Mahura was playing the game like it mattered, which is exactly how teams should be playing preseason games.

One player who needed to get control a little bit was Cale Fleury, he got upset that he got tripped up and gave one too many crosschecks to the back of a Flames player. By doing that he took a penalty that we really should have avoided, however I will say that the reffing felt off this game. One example was a big hit layed on Berkly Catton, while I understand that this is the NHL the hits given during preseason should not be this big. The Flames were definitely aware that Catton is one of our up-and-coming stars, but he is still a 19-year-old kid. Catton didn’t just sit down and take this though; he also started bugging other players including Morgan Frost. While the flames are known for their big hits during the season, it definitely felt like they were hitting harder than necessary during the preseason.

Overall, this game felt like a good start to what some of our prospects have to offer. I am hoping that this is just the start of the Kraken prospects and what they have to offer. This was quite a good game considering the lineup was mostly prospects with only a couple of veterans. Also, it was great to have a game where I could listen to John Forslund and JT Brown again. I really missed their broadcast over the summer, and I am glad that they are finally back with us.