Kraken Bench Boss
Ask any NHL head coach and they’ll tell you one of the keys to longevity in the job, aside from good goaltending, is getting the players to buy in and to continue buying in. Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol appears to have garnered belief in his systems, and with that comes excellent communication.
During a humorous exchange with our great sometimes-correspondent Glenn Dreyfuss Sunday morning, coach “Hak” was asked to react to comments from Kraken forward Brandon “Turbo” Tanev.
The entire of the conversation went like this:
Glenn: (Brandon Tanev was asked) Does Dave Hakstol ever loosen up? Would you like to hear Turbo’s answer?
Hakstol: I can only imagine … laughter … we’re doing this on-air … alright … awesome.
Glenn: (quoting Turbo) “Hak’s an incredible guy, great person and a great coach. When you’re conversing on a day-to-day basis away from the rink, it’s easy flowing, but when you get to the game, it’s important for us to be in the moment. He does a great job of levelling us out and getting us ready to play.”
So, does it feel good that the way you have the players’ backs, that they have yours too?
Hakstol: I guess Turbo’s going on the power play tonight, huh? (much laughter)
Oh, you want me to respond more?! … We’ve got a great bunch of guys in the room …
Kraken Confidence
The rest of his answer tied in with an earlier one he gave us about the team’s effort on Friday night against the St. Louis Blues. He said they were frustrated, in a good way, about not getting the win in overtime.
The team out-shot and out-chanced the Blues while showing an offensive confidence we saw on a regular basis during the Kraken’s recent nine-game winning streak. That roll was interrupted by illness and injury. Based on the skill and efficiency showed on the two Seattle goals less than three minutes apart in the 2nd period, that confidence was back.
“The confidence is there, there is no question about that,” Hakstol stated. “We need to go back and replicate the effort, improve some of the execution, and maybe we don’t have to go to overtime if there’s a couple areas that were executed a little bit better in that hockey game.”
No better opponent to try and perfect some elements and pick up a couple of points in the standings against, than the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday evening.
Earlier Kraken:
— Kraken Veteran D-Man Brian Dumoulin Shuts Up Doubters
