Kraken D
Congratulations to Seattle defenseman Brandon Montour and his wife on the birth of their healthy baby daughter. The milestone family event forced the Kraken’s best defenseman to miss Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Thankfully Montour gets to return to work as a happy dad for the Kraken’s match-up against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday evening. The club cannot afford to have their high priced, summer blueline acquisition out of the line-up again, particularly with their other top D-man Vince Dunn already missing due to injury.
A D-corps line-up consisting of both Josh Mahura and Cale Fleury simply isn’t going to get it done, especially with young Ryker Evans having to step up and take top-pair minutes and with veteran Jamie Oleksiak turning over pucks like it’s Christmas.
The Senators are a feisty, young, physical club with a .500 record. Four of their five wins have come on home ice and goalie Anton Forsberg shut out the Kraken last season at the Canadian Tire Centre.
He’ll get the start Saturday, especially considering his goalie partner Linus Ullmark lost in New York to the Rangers 2-1 on Friday evening.
Montour is coming off his first career hat trick and a four-point night in Seattle’s 8-2 win over the Canadiens on Tuesday night. He pulled it off with a 75% shooting percentage in just 17:50 of ice time.
He’s tied for 2nd on the team in scoring with 9 points in 10 games played.
The Kraken will hope a happy dad with fresh legs will have a huge impact against the Sen’s. Puck drop is a few minutes after 4 pm Pacific.
