The Seattle Kraken returned home from the season opening two-game visit to southern California with a 1-0-and-1 record and hefty amount of confidence.
“Obviously the first two games went pretty well,” Seattle Kraken forward Ryan Donato said Saturday morning, “the first game went pretty well but didn’t finish the way we wanted it to, then the second game I think we did a lot of the same things and we dialled in on the second half and finished strong. We think we can build off of that, we know the combination it takes to succeed.”
Goalie Martin Jones, the winner in Los Angeles against the Kings in game-two of the season, gets the nod in the home opener against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“There’s a lot of different factors,” Seattle Kraken Head Coach Dave Hakstol said Saturday. “We’ve had two goaltenders who’ve had very good camps, they’ve had competitive camps, we’ve got a lot of hockey to play over the first month of the season, and one of them is coming off a real solid performance, so he earned the opportunity to be back in tonight.”
Jones beat the Kings 4-1, preseason presumed number-one Philipp Grubauer was part of two coughed up two-goal leads in the overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks to open the season. It’s a fine line between the two veterans.
Seattle Kraken Foe
Meanwhile, the Golden Knights come in with a 2-and-0 record following wins against the LA Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks by scores of 4-3 and 1-0 respectively.
“We’re playing a really good team tonight, it’s going to be a heavy game,” Donato added, “a lot of energy opening night, maybe just calm the nerves a bit, make sure you’re doing the right things. If we do those things, I think we’ll have the combination for success.”
Logan Thompson was between the pipes for both victories for Vegas; back-up Adin Hill is expected to start against the Kraken.
