Kraken at Canadiens
Putting Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn on long term injured reserve freed up some salary cap room to allow Seattle to actually ice enough skaters to play hockey, plus have an extra. Will they have to put every injury on LTIR just to get by? A discussion for another time, although it’s an issue we’ve focused on in the preseason. (5:45 mark of vid’)
In the meantime, D-man Cale Fluery and forward John Hayden got the call-up from the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds to start this road trip.
“On a five game road trip and over the course of the five games you can expect to have some bumps and bruises and need some extra bodies around, so I think given our cap situation, we started with twelve forwards, and maybe that wasn’t the intent all along,” Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma said Tuesday morning in Montreal. “So to have an extra forward … John Hayden had a great camp and did a lot of good stuff for us in preseason, evidence of what he could do for us if he gets the opportunity, so both of those guys joined us to be some extra bodies on the trip.”
Dunn is expected back in mid-November.
Habs
The Canadiens are a young club with young leaders. They’re top heavy in terms of scoring. Captain Nick Suzuki centers Kirby Dach and Cole Caufield and that top line will be the defensive focus for the Kraken.
2022 first overall NHL Draft pick Juraj Slafkovky, taken three picks ahead of Seattle’s Shane Wright after Wright was projected to go number-one, is finding his game on the 2nd line. He’s a point-a-game player through six.
Meanwhile, Wright is trying to find his. He has one goal and an assist through nine games. He scored his first NHL goal against Montreal back in 2023 and there seems to be a special motivation for him to play well against the team that “snubbed” him at the draft.
“He’s done a great job of just not worrying about the story, not worrying about the draft spot, not worrying about the numbers, just putting his head down and working on his game,” Bylsma said of Wright.
The Habs offer up a feistier, more veteran third-line that could cause problems in Brendan Gallagher, Jake Evans and Josh Anderson.
Both teams have identical 4-4-and-1 records. Samuel Montembeault starts in net for Montreal with Joey Daccord going for Seattle.
Puck drop is a few minutes after 4 pm Pacific time.
