Kraken forward Yanni Gourde helped the Tampa Bay Lightning win back-to-back Stanley Cups by being a tireless worker, a pest, and a stealthy offensive threat. By moving Gourde from center on the lower lines to the wing on the club’s top line, Seattle head coach Dan Bylsma may have resurrected the little French Canadian beast.
Tuesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, Gourde tallied a goal, the game winner, and an assist in the Kraken’s 4-2 victory. He played 18:35, finished a plus-2, blocked two shots and found success with his only shot-on-goal.
With ice time comes results. Tuesday was just the 3rd time all season, and the 2nd of back-to-back nights, where Gourde saw more than 18-minutes of ice time.
Jaden Schwartz was on the opposite wing, Matty Beniers in the middle.
“It was obviously a big night for Matty’s line, “Schwartzie” steps over the boards right off the hop with a huge play to start off the game, but it was their play in the 3rd period that got us the third goal, the game winning goal, and that was a puck behind, a forecheck, winning battles in the offensive zone and getting it to where “Gourdo” is good, getting it to the net and he slaps one home,” Bylsma described postgame.
This success followed other attempts at combinations. In the previous game, a 2nd consecutive loss against the San Jose Sharks, Oliver Bjorkstrand began the game on Beniers’s right flank. Gourde centered the 2nd line.
Three nights earlier in a loss to the Anaheim Ducks, Gourde was the pivot on the 3rd line, with Beniers centering Jared McCann and the vastly underachieving Andre Burakovksy.
Keep throwing things against the wall and see if they stick. It’s what an NHL head coach does when things aren’t working.
Thursday night on Long Island we’ll very likely see the same combinations from two nights before, especially considering the Schwartz, Beniers, Gourde line was a constant threat in Raleigh.
“Keep doing the same things, keep working super hard, keep doing the little things and good things are going to happen,” Gourde concluded Tuesday night.
