Seattle Kraken forward Oliver Bjorkstrand wasn’t happy about it, but he wasn’t about to whine. That would be about the healthy scratch he sat through in the press box in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night.
He alluded to it after scoring a go-ahead goal against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night in Seattle.
The Kraken won in overtime, 4-3.
“Yeah, it was good, I would have been ready in Colorado, but I thought I was ready tonight,” he said postgame. “Kept it simple, thought I played well with the puck and was able to create some chances, so I think the key now is to just build on that.”
Earlier in the day after the morning skate, Bjorkstrand mentioned he needed to be more engaged, needed to win more puck battles, and needed to create more scoring chances.
“End of the day it just comes back to working hard and the right way,” he said.
Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma about the scratch at practice on Thursday:
“Both from a team standpoint and an individual standpoint you’re assessing the expectations that are set and trying to set for the team and the group on how we want to play, and that goes for individuals as well. We saw Oliver not play in Colorado, other guys had a chance to go in the line-up and do it, and Oliver is going to get a chance to do it tomorrow night against Vegas.”
Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma postgame on Friday:
“I thought his compete was at a great level for him to have success in the game and not just the evidence of him going hard to the net and scoring a dirty goal, but on the wall in the 1st period, off the faceoff also in the first period, the battle on the wall in the 2nd period right in front of our bench, I thought it was great.”
Tye Kartye, not as high profile in terms of his scoring contributions, was also a healthy scratch in Denver, and he also responded, making the key play on Brandon Tanev’s tying goal in the 2nd period against Vegas.
Message sent; message received.
