Kraken For A Cup
The Seattle Kraken affiliate Coachella Valley Firebirds can put an absolute stranglehold on the Calder Cup Final on Tuesday night while at the same time the Vegas Golden Knights will be trying to hoist hockey’s greatest trophy.
OK, the greatest trophy in all of sports.
It’s a double championship game night on ice.
Puck drop for the Game-3 AHL action is a little after 4 pm today in Hershey, Pennsylvania while the big show gets started with Game-5 a little after 5 pm pacific in Las Vegas.
The Firebirds have shut-out the Bears twice to start the Calder Cup Final while the Golden Knights have a chance to finish off the Florida Panthers, leading the Stanley Cup Final 3-games-to-1. Vegas lost the Final in their inaugural season to the Washington Capitals in five games back in 2018.
The Kraken would like to follow a similar formula. Of course they didn’t meet with the same success in their first season, but the Emerald City lads did a heck-of-a-job in year-two getting to within one win of the Western Conference Final. The Kraken will add to its talent base at the NHL Draft starting on June 28th in Nashville.
Lavvy’s New Gig
When you think of Peter Laviolette you don’t think of him as an NHL player, but he did make the top circuit during the 1988-’89 season when he played a grand total of 12 games … with none other than the New York Rangers. The lefty defenseman didn’t record a point, had six penalty minutes and finished a plus-two.
So call it a homecoming of sorts as the winningest US-born NHL head coach of all time joins the Broadway Blueshirts to run their bench. The club made the announcement on Tuesday morning.
“I would like to welcome Peter to the New York Rangers,” Rangers owner James Dolan said in a press release. “Peter’s impressive resumé, which includes winning a Stanley Cup and advancing to the Final with three different teams, has made him one of the most respected coaches in the league. As we move forward in our goal to consistently contend for the Stanley Cup, I am confident that Peter is the right head coach to lead our team.”
He won it all with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 (over the Oilers) and later lost the Final with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 (to the Blackhawks) and with the Nashville Predators in 2017 (to the Penguins).
Dick Irvin, Scotty Bowman, and Mike Keenan are the only other three men to lead three different teams to the Final.
Overall, Laviolette is the 8th winningest NHL head coach of all-time.
Huska Running Flames
To a bit less fanfare, mainly because of his experience level and the size of the market, the Kraken’s Pacific Division rival Calgary Flames named their new head coach on Monday. Ryan Huska jumped up from five years as an assistant coach with the club to take over NHL head man duties for the first time in his career.
“I know these players, and I look at that as a positive thing,” Huska said at his introductory press conference. “There is a lot of good people in our dressing room and there are excellent hockey players who want to win, and they will do anything they can to succeed. I am a big believer in that group of people and their ability, and my job now as a head coach is to make sure I push them every day to get the best version of them and also to try to push them to another level both as individuals, and as a team.”
Other Kraken Bits:
— Who Kraken Will Pick At The NHL Draft
