The Seattle Kraken are team “When we …”.
It’s all too common to hear Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma or one of the players say, “When we play to our identity,” or “When we get pucks in deep.” It’s a common refrain.
It’s also somewhat of a natural response to questions that often get re-asked, as in, “What do you have to do differently?”
In this case “you” means “us” …
“When you’re predictable to each another, when you’re on the same page, when you’re connected, that allows you to play fast,” Bylsma said before the 6-2 loss to the Golden Knights. “When you’re thinking about if you’re on the same page, when you’re thinking about what the next guy’s gonna do, it can bring your game to a halt.”
After the loss in Vegas veteran Seattle forward Jaden Schwartz pointed out that when the team is aggressive, they’re confident. Unfortunately in that game, they “made mistakes with execution and structure.”
Those would be two very large elements and topics. When you’re not executing and not playing your systems, you’re gonna lose.
Bylsma has experimented a lot to turn “when we” into reality. He’s juggled lines frequently looking for some chemistry, looking for that connection, looking to play aggressively and fast.
In Vegas, Chandler Stephenson was with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen. On December 14th, he centered Jared McCann and Andre Burakovsky. That was for a few games. On November 27th, Stephenson started the night with Schwartz and Daniel Sprong. On November 17th against the Rangers it was Schwartz and Bjorkstrand on his wings.
The top players have proven to be disconnected. Those juggles obviously apply to all of the centermen.
It would be much better to be referred to as “Old Team Nike”, as in, “Just Do It!”
The next Kraken “When we” better happen fast out of the Christmas break, as in, “When we” get our shit together. If not, it’s gonna a long season of playing out the string.
