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KRAKEN THIS MORNING: Time for a Home Opener: Seattle Is Ready to Fire it Up (10/4) · Seattle Kraken Audio Network

0:00
Speaker 1: As he caught Levi leaning. Now the Kraken get it.
0:02
Speaker 1: They score! Bobby McMahon under the crossbar.
0:07
Speaker 2: Welcome to Kraken This Morning. A presentation of the Kraken
0:11
Speaker 2: Audio Network and Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM.
0:16
Speaker 3: Here's Mike Benton. Bobby McMahon's goal was the only source
0:19
Speaker 3: of offense last night in Edmonton. So for today, after
0:23
Speaker 3: a 3-1 loss, it's all about putting it in the
0:25
Speaker 3: past and turning the page tomorrow. as they usually say
0:28
Speaker 3: in this business, in preparation for a home opener. Welcome
0:32
Speaker 3: to Kraken this morning on a Sunday, October 4th. As
0:36
Speaker 3: far as the home schedule side, your wait is over
0:38
Speaker 3: on that front. The Kraken officially will open their sixth
0:41
Speaker 3: season of play at Climate Pledge Arena on the home
0:44
Speaker 3: schedule end. Taking on, guess who? The Calgary Flames again.
0:49
Speaker 3: Your face-offs at 5 p.m.
0:51
Speaker 4: Pacific.
0:52
Speaker 3: Special airtime coverage, take note, underway 4 p.m. on Sports Radio,
0:56
Speaker 3: 93.3 KJRFM. We'll be live across the street at Tom's
1:01
Speaker 3: Watch Bar. Additional coverage carrying right back to the Coors
1:05
Speaker 3: Light landing in Section 20 for the intermission. and post-game
1:08
Speaker 3: show as well, plus talking Kraken, Everett Now's Call. Of course,
1:13
Speaker 3: high atop ringside, you can catch us throughout the entire
1:16
Speaker 3: afternoon and into the early evening on the Global Credit
1:19
Speaker 3: Union Kraken Audio Network. We certainly look forward to having
1:23
Speaker 3: you with us. Coming up in just a bit, we'll
1:25
Speaker 3: go right back through a recap, plus Lane Lambert's reaction
1:29
Speaker 3: for a Kraken team that came oh so close to
1:32
Speaker 3: ending a drought in Edmonton until... Leon Dreisaitl's go-ahead goal
1:37
Speaker 3: held up as the eventual game winner, plus a conversation
1:41
Speaker 3: with Flames radio host Pat Steinberg on the stand of
1:44
Speaker 3: the Flames, their budding collection of youth on the roster,
1:48
Speaker 3: plus was there a surprise maybe for the lack of fireworks,
1:52
Speaker 3: so to speak? in Thursday's season opener in Calgary. All
1:56
Speaker 3: that covered with Pat Steinberg and more as he joins
1:59
Speaker 3: us coming up in just a bit. The Kraken are
2:02
Speaker 3: 1-1 on the young season, looking for their second consecutive
2:06
Speaker 3: home opening victory after beating Anaheim this last year. Last evening,
2:10
Speaker 3: it was about trying to eradicate a long drought that
2:14
Speaker 3: goes all the way back to the 2022 and 23 season.
2:18
Speaker 3: The last time the Kraken beat Edmonton at Rogers Place,
2:22
Speaker 3: January of that year, it was part of a historic
2:25
Speaker 3: win streak that galvanized the a playoff run into the
2:29
Speaker 3: middle of May. But ever since then, the Kraken have
2:31
Speaker 3: fallen on hard times trying to figure out a loaded
2:35
Speaker 3: Edmonton squad. Of course, at the top, Connor McDavid and
2:38
Speaker 3: Leon Dreisaitl, who have hurt them on the scoreboard time
2:43
Speaker 3: after time. And the Kraken knew heading into Edmonton, it
2:46
Speaker 3: would not be easy from the get-go.
2:49
Speaker 1: Formenton on the left side, pokes it in deep.
2:51
Speaker 2: Now a shot, and they score it.
2:58
Speaker 1: The zone entry by Davidson Oilers. As the puck was
3:03
Speaker 1: given right up to Owen Michaels. Dry sidle for Edmonton
3:06
Speaker 1: on the near side. Tipped in front, what a save
3:09
Speaker 1: by Philip Grubauer upon Colson once again. Here we go, fight.
3:12
Speaker 5: Now we're going to have a fight.
3:14
Speaker 1: Right off the draw, it'll be Ryan Lindgren and Trent Frederick.
3:18
Speaker 1: Lindgren in the high slot. He'll get his hands free.
3:21
Speaker 1: Now they lock horns on the right circle. Frederick missing
3:25
Speaker 1: over top of the head, and then he'll wrestle him
3:27
Speaker 1: down to the ground. Dreisaitl, Bouchard back to Dreisaitl, a one-timer,
3:31
Speaker 1: and a massive left-pad save by Philip Grubauer.
3:34
Speaker 2: Well, that was the save of the period right there.
3:36
Speaker 3: McCann, his shot.
3:37
Speaker 1: Off the stick of Ekholm almost slid in as he
3:40
Speaker 1: caught Levi leaning. Now the Kraken get it. They score!
3:44
Speaker 1: Bobby McMahon under the crossbar, in and out, and the
3:48
Speaker 1: Kraken tie the game on the power play. 10-54 left
3:53
Speaker 1: here in the second.
3:53
Speaker 3: 1-1, we're even.
3:55
Speaker 2: But once again, it's Jordan Eberle with some great work
3:57
Speaker 2: below the goal line. Chandler Stephenson pokes the puck down over.
4:00
Speaker 2: He finds Bobby McMahon. Bottom circles, right side. He puts
4:04
Speaker 2: it in the same place. Edmonton scored their first goal.
4:07
Speaker 2: This game's tied at 1.
4:08
Speaker 1: Colson racing back to the red line. Freddie Gaudreau. Battling
4:13
Speaker 1: for it, but Connor McDavid took the puck and then
4:15
Speaker 1: got shouldered hard into the Kraken bench by Brandon Mongeau.
4:19
Speaker 1: 12 and a half left here, third period from Edmonton.
4:21
Speaker 1: Kraken one, Oilers one, Seattle, a backdoor tap in for Eberle,
4:25
Speaker 1: and it's denied by Devon Levi. David picks it up
4:28
Speaker 1: off the end boards, hands it off to Dreisaitl, taps
4:31
Speaker 1: it back to McDavid. Now for Shea, off the boards,
4:34
Speaker 1: Dreisaitl scores.
4:44
Speaker 3: So unfortunately, you can put it in too close, but
4:47
Speaker 3: not close enough territory as the Kraken fell to the
4:49
Speaker 3: Oilers 3-1. Bobby McMahon had the only Kraken goal, getting
4:53
Speaker 3: the first one in Game 2 of the season. Jordan
4:56
Speaker 3: Eberle also picked up the 450th assist of his NHL career.
5:01
Speaker 3: and the special teams and Philip Grubauer kept the Kraken
5:05
Speaker 3: in the balance for this one. The penalty kill came
5:08
Speaker 3: up with three successful attempts in period one where the
5:11
Speaker 3: Kraken had issues staying out of the box from stick infractions.
5:14
Speaker 3: They would not go on the penalty kill for the
5:16
Speaker 3: remainder of the entire evening. Philip Grubauer also turned in
5:20
Speaker 3: 22 saves. on 24 shots in his season debut. But
5:25
Speaker 3: once again, Leon Dreisaitl and Connor McDavid eventually proved to
5:29
Speaker 3: be a handful. Dreisaitl pushing his scoring streak to nine
5:32
Speaker 3: consecutive games against the Kraken, and McDavid adding an empty
5:36
Speaker 3: net goal, now has a point in 15 of 18
5:40
Speaker 3: career games against the Kraken. One more chance they have
5:44
Speaker 3: to finally get a win against Edmonton, on the road
5:47
Speaker 3: that will happen next on november 27th but the kraken
5:51
Speaker 3: shifting their focus to the now and now is at
5:54
Speaker 3: the home of the kraken at climate pledge arena where
5:57
Speaker 3: they're looking to take advantage of home ice carrying a
6:00
Speaker 3: home record last season of 1917 and five after last
6:06
Speaker 3: night head coach lane lambert offered his reaction meeting with
6:09
Speaker 3: the media yeah.
6:10
Speaker 6: I thought we did a good job of um Doing
6:14
Speaker 6: a lot of things that we said we wanted to
6:16
Speaker 6: do in the game. And, you know, we got a
6:19
Speaker 6: great solid effort from Gruby. You know, it's unfortunate that
6:25
Speaker 6: we don't come out of here with more than what
6:26
Speaker 6: we have. But we have to find ways to come
6:29
Speaker 6: out of buildings like this when the score is tied late. And,
6:36
Speaker 6: you know, that's a step for us that we have
6:39
Speaker 6: to get to for sure. But I thought there was
6:41
Speaker 6: a lot of good things in the game tonight. How
6:42
Speaker 6: did you see them kind of settle in, especially in
6:44
Speaker 6: the second and third period after they were done killing penalties,
6:47
Speaker 6: getting more into the structure? Well, we got, first of all,
6:50
Speaker 6: we got, you know, we got some good kills and
6:52
Speaker 6: we got some great saves by Gruby. There wasn't any
6:56
Speaker 6: rhythm to the first period. Some guys only played like
6:58
Speaker 6: maybe two minutes. So once they started to get their
7:00
Speaker 6: rhythm going and their flow going a little bit, I
7:02
Speaker 6: thought we settled in quite nicely. I thought we, you know,
7:05
Speaker 6: were quite, had the edge in play, obviously, in the
7:08
Speaker 6: second period. And then I, you know, I thought we didn't,
7:11
Speaker 6: generate a whole bunch in the third. I would like
7:13
Speaker 6: to have seen us generate a little bit more in
7:14
Speaker 6: the third period, but I thought we played a pretty
7:16
Speaker 6: good game overall.
7:17
Speaker 7: What were they able to do to negate Edmonton's speed
7:19
Speaker 7: for much of the game? I think they only had
7:21
Speaker 7: like nine shots from the first intermission until.
7:24
Speaker 2: Late in the game.
7:26
Speaker 6: Well, we played a committed game. We used our speed.
7:30
Speaker 6: You can use your speed in two different ways. You
7:32
Speaker 6: can use it on the offense and you can use
7:34
Speaker 6: it on the defense, and I thought we did a
7:35
Speaker 6: good job for the most part of having gaps and
7:37
Speaker 6: tight gaps and tracked pucks well when we needed to.
7:40
Speaker 6: So you know, and we spent some time in their
7:43
Speaker 6: zone in the second period as well, which, you know,
7:45
Speaker 6: takes away from defending.
7:46
Speaker 7: A lot of moments where it looked like a pass
7:50
Speaker 7: was connecting for them and all of a sudden there's
7:51
Speaker 7: a stick in the lane and it pokes it away.
7:53
Speaker 7: How much of that is structure? How much of that
7:55
Speaker 7: is reads by your players? And what do you see
7:59
Speaker 7: from that as a coach?
8:00
Speaker 6: I think it's a combination of both for sure. You know,
8:04
Speaker 6: I certainly, you know, the first two games here I've
8:07
Speaker 6: liked our structure for the most part. You know, It's
8:11
Speaker 6: really unfortunate that the winning goal tonight was the bounce
8:16
Speaker 6: that it was. So we just have to keep building
8:21
Speaker 6: on it. But I liked our structure, and I think
8:22
Speaker 6: our sticks were pretty good, to your point.
8:24
Speaker 7: Any conversation between first and second period? It looked quite
8:27
Speaker 7: different just in terms of how that game was being played.
8:30
Speaker 4: No, no.
8:31
Speaker 6: We just needed to stay out of the penalty box.
8:32
Speaker 6: It wasn't like we were doing anything terrible, terrible. We
8:38
Speaker 6: were sitting back maybe a little bit, but we just
8:41
Speaker 6: couldn't get anything going because we had a steady stream
8:44
Speaker 6: of the penalty box. So the conversation was let's get
8:46
Speaker 6: her going, stay out of the box, and get some
8:47
Speaker 6: flow going.
8:49
Speaker 7: Just overall here, two games on this trip. I mean,
8:53
Speaker 7: how do you feel about how it went here for
8:55
Speaker 7: this opening trip?
8:56
Speaker 6: Well, I think it went, you know, it's hard after
8:59
Speaker 6: a loss. You know, losing is not fun. But I
9:05
Speaker 6: think if you look at the, you know, the, the
9:08
Speaker 6: games as a whole, you know, we did a lot
9:12
Speaker 6: of good things. We had a lot of commitment. You know,
9:14
Speaker 6: when I thought everybody played an important role. Everybody matters
9:18
Speaker 6: on our hockey team. And, you know, I thought that
9:22
Speaker 6: we had some good goaltending and, you know, there's certainly
9:24
Speaker 6: some steps to build on. Now we've got a team
9:26
Speaker 6: tomorrow night that we beat at home in their home
9:28
Speaker 6: opener that I'm pretty sure they have a memory. So,
9:33
Speaker 6: you know, we've got to get ourselves ready to go
9:35
Speaker 6: for tomorrow's game. What's at the top of your list
9:38
Speaker 6: to get the guys ready for tomorrow? Well, look, we
9:44
Speaker 6: played them. We played them three times already. And we
9:49
Speaker 6: have a pretty good idea how they play, what they do.
9:51
Speaker 6: We need to get our rest. Guys need to get
9:53
Speaker 6: rehydrated here. And we need to get ready to go.
9:55
Speaker 3: Heading into the home opener today, it will be a
9:57
Speaker 3: 5 p.m. Pacific face-off with the Kraken, and guess who?
10:01
Speaker 3: The Calgary Flames. We haven't seen them in three days. Well,
10:05
Speaker 3: here they are rolling into Seattle as Pat Steinberg joins us,
10:09
Speaker 3: our great friend on the radio side, host on Flames
10:12
Speaker 3: Radio and on QR Calgary 770 AM, which, by the way,
10:16
Speaker 3: you can also find that on the iHeartRadio app plug
10:20
Speaker 3: for you pat hey thank you very much for doing
10:22
Speaker 3: this my friend and sorry to miss you as far
10:24
Speaker 3: as the press box on thursday night but hey first
10:27
Speaker 3: off i had to bring this up two preseason games
10:30
Speaker 3: these two teams one regular season game already in the
10:33
Speaker 3: books we have another coming up here today and i
10:36
Speaker 3: think at this point are we going to invite each
10:38
Speaker 3: other over here for thanksgiving dinners this is the.
10:42
Speaker 5: Strangest schedule I have ever seen in almost two decades
10:48
Speaker 5: of covering the league. For two teams with no rivalry,
10:53
Speaker 5: I know the Flames and the Kraken are in the
10:56
Speaker 5: same division, so maybe a rivalry builds and maybe that
11:00
Speaker 5: second preseason game at Climate Pledge can help build the
11:03
Speaker 5: rivalry because that got spicy. But for two teams that
11:09
Speaker 5: don't have a lot of history playing one another, to
11:11
Speaker 5: play twice in the preseason, then two of three to
11:15
Speaker 5: start the regular season, and six times before the end
11:19
Speaker 5: of November. I've never seen anything like it before. And like, sure,
11:24
Speaker 5: maybe sometimes you'll have another conference opponent that you're done
11:28
Speaker 5: with really early on. Like, you know, Seattle might play
11:31
Speaker 5: Tampa Bay in October and November and be done with them.
11:35
Speaker 5: But like to have all four of your in-division regular
11:38
Speaker 5: season games done by the end of the second month
11:41
Speaker 5: plus two preseason games. Just bizarre.
11:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy.
11:45
Speaker 5: They're going to be very familiar with one another by
11:47
Speaker 5: the end of it.
11:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the rosters will pretty much have these
11:50
Speaker 3: memorized here by the end of this next week. And
11:52
Speaker 3: we don't even need notes here for our pregame shows
11:55
Speaker 3: or postgame shows or whatnot. But it's great to have you, though.
11:58
Speaker 3: And heading back into Sunday, this is going to be
12:00
Speaker 3: the second game of back-to-back for both teams. But yeah,
12:03
Speaker 3: to me, I think a larger scope to look at
12:06
Speaker 3: how the NHL is expanding its schedule back to 84
12:09
Speaker 3: games now for the first time since really Theo Fleury
12:12
Speaker 3: was aflame and just coming into a zone. So what's
12:16
Speaker 3: your feel on the reduction of the preseason to expand
12:20
Speaker 3: the regular season?
12:22
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm always going to be of the opinion
12:25
Speaker 5: that more meaningful games and less tune-up games is better
12:29
Speaker 5: for the fans. I really do think that from a
12:33
Speaker 5: viewing standpoint and from just an overall entertainment standpoint, if
12:39
Speaker 5: you can have more games that mean something and more
12:42
Speaker 5: games that impact the postseason, I'm always going to lean
12:46
Speaker 5: towards that. And, and so I'm for it. It's something that,
12:49
Speaker 5: you know, the players were at least a good chunk
12:52
Speaker 5: of them were in favor of when they were negotiating
12:56
Speaker 5: this latest round of the collective bargaining agreements. So, you know,
12:59
Speaker 5: it's something the players were up for. They were hoping
13:02
Speaker 5: for a reduction of testing and, and maybe a reduction
13:05
Speaker 5: of the preseason, not every player, definitely not every player,
13:08
Speaker 5: but there was, was a desire to get this done
13:12
Speaker 5: on both sides. So, You know, I think that there
13:16
Speaker 5: are some drawbacks to it for sure. But a lot
13:19
Speaker 5: of what you're hearing from organizations, especially coaching staff, is
13:23
Speaker 5: that they've actually really liked it. It allowed them to
13:27
Speaker 5: get to what they wanted to get to in camp
13:30
Speaker 5: that much quicker. It allowed them to get their teams
13:34
Speaker 5: together right from the get-go. Because, you know, when you've
13:36
Speaker 5: got a two-and-a-half, three-week training camp and an eight-game preseason,
13:40
Speaker 5: the Calgary always plays the max. and goes eight preseason games.
13:44
Speaker 5: Like you're like, try, you gotta, you gotta be really
13:46
Speaker 5: strategic with it. And you play really young rosters early on.
13:50
Speaker 5: And then you start to ramp up. Whereas this be like,
13:52
Speaker 5: you got two games of your, your NHL roster and
13:56
Speaker 5: you need those games to be these guys getting ready
13:58
Speaker 5: for an NHL season. And you've got two games with
14:00
Speaker 5: guys that are, uh, trying to make the team and
14:03
Speaker 5: whether you split it, uh, and, and, you know, sometimes
14:07
Speaker 5: like there's a half and half roster or you go
14:09
Speaker 5: full twice and half twice, whatever, you know, you've only
14:12
Speaker 5: got two games to impress and you've only got two
14:14
Speaker 5: games to really ramp yourself up. So, you know, I
14:16
Speaker 5: think coaching staffs have really liked it from everything that
14:19
Speaker 5: I've heard from people I've talked to. Um, what, what's
14:22
Speaker 5: interesting though, is that it has possibly anyway, it has
14:26
Speaker 5: led to some pretty wacko scores and some interesting games
14:31
Speaker 5: to start the season. And so I do wonder if
14:33
Speaker 5: there's a little bit more of a, if it's not
14:36
Speaker 5: a coincidence, like I do wonder if there's a correlation
14:39
Speaker 5: there just because, players have had that much less time
14:43
Speaker 5: to get ready for a season but so far like
14:45
Speaker 5: I liked it I like the fact that we were
14:48
Speaker 5: getting regular season games in September I think it's a
14:51
Speaker 5: good thing and I like the fact the season's ending
14:54
Speaker 5: a little earlier so that the postseason starts a little
14:58
Speaker 5: earlier and the Stanley Cup final ends a little earlier.
15:00
Speaker 5: I think all of that is good for the league.
15:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, it can certainly be wacky, goofy, crazy for the
15:06
Speaker 3: first few weeks here to begin the regular season. This
15:08
Speaker 3: past time, Berg joins us right now on Kraken this morning.
15:12
Speaker 3: Ryan Huska is going to be leading a very young
15:15
Speaker 3: group once again, and they were in the lottery mix
15:18
Speaker 3: from this last season. And the viewpoint on this may
15:21
Speaker 3: be that is that it's a team that is preparing
15:24
Speaker 3: here for the next phase, which will be tied to
15:26
Speaker 3: the brand new building that's going up across the street
15:29
Speaker 3: and opening up this next season. Pat, a simple but
15:32
Speaker 3: direct question to you. Who are the Flames supposed to
15:35
Speaker 3: be in 2026-27?
15:36
Speaker 4: I think who they're supposed to be is a young,
15:41
Speaker 4: hopefully exciting team that works their tails off.
15:47
Speaker 5: And if they're those things, then I think fans, I
15:51
Speaker 5: think coaches and I think management will be okay with
15:56
Speaker 5: mistakes because you This is a young team. It's only
16:00
Speaker 5: going to get younger as the season goes along. You
16:03
Speaker 5: can almost guarantee that it's going to get younger as
16:08
Speaker 5: the season goes along and more players are going to
16:11
Speaker 5: be filtered into the roster that don't have a lot
16:14
Speaker 5: of NHL experience. And so because of that, and because
16:18
Speaker 5: for the first time in this market, in my time
16:21
Speaker 5: covering the team, It's universally accepted that this group is
16:25
Speaker 5: truly rebuilding and truly starting to build to something big
16:30
Speaker 5: picture three, four, five years down the road. You know,
16:35
Speaker 5: I think that the things that I said at the beginning,
16:38
Speaker 5: If those things can be hit, then I think everybody's
16:42
Speaker 5: going to be okay if there are mistakes and if
16:45
Speaker 5: there are nights where the team just doesn't have it
16:49
Speaker 5: against an elite team. But as long as they play
16:52
Speaker 5: hard and as long as you know the efforts there,
16:54
Speaker 5: Then I think that that's going to that's that's going
16:57
Speaker 5: to at the very least check one of the boxes.
16:59
Speaker 5: And so, look, they've got some very young, promising players
17:02
Speaker 5: on this team right now, led by Zane Perak. They
17:05
Speaker 5: acquired Simone Nemitz from New Jersey in the offseason. Matt Coronado,
17:10
Speaker 5: Dustin Wolf, who you know very well in that area,
17:14
Speaker 5: is still a very young goaltender. in the NHL and
17:18
Speaker 5: then whether it's players in the American League or players
17:21
Speaker 5: in the NCAA at the end of the season that
17:23
Speaker 5: are going to be joining the team. It's a very
17:26
Speaker 5: young group and the fan base, the people in this
17:30
Speaker 5: city know what's going on and they know that because
17:34
Speaker 5: they're going young, which has been clamored for, for years
17:37
Speaker 5: and years, Mike, like people have been wanting this forever.
17:40
Speaker 5: And so because fans have been wanting this, there's also
17:43
Speaker 5: an understanding of what goes along with it, that sometimes
17:46
Speaker 5: there can be growing pains and sometimes results can be
17:50
Speaker 5: hard to come by in the wind column when you
17:52
Speaker 5: are rebuilding. And so as long as the team works
17:56
Speaker 5: hard and under Ryan Huska, the head coach and Craig Conroy,
17:58
Speaker 5: the general manager, Does that matter what iteration of the
18:01
Speaker 5: team we've seen? That has always been the case, even
18:04
Speaker 5: though maybe in the home opener Thursday, we didn't see it.
18:07
Speaker 5: They work hard. And if young players continue to develop,
18:11
Speaker 5: take steps and show progression, I think when we look
18:14
Speaker 5: back in April on this season, I think that will
18:17
Speaker 5: be deemed a success. And I also think there is
18:19
Speaker 5: an understanding, and a team's never going to come right
18:22
Speaker 5: out and say this, and players and coaches are definitely
18:25
Speaker 5: never going to say this, but I do think there's
18:27
Speaker 5: also an understanding that another high pick for this organization
18:30
Speaker 5: would go a long way because one thing they're missing is...
18:34
Speaker 5: a foundational center Iceman going forward to build around. And
18:37
Speaker 5: that's no disrespect to 2025 first round pick Cole Reschney,
18:41
Speaker 5: who I think is going to be a really good NHL-er.
18:43
Speaker 5: But do they have their franchise center or do they
18:46
Speaker 5: have their potential franchise center? I don't think people believe
18:50
Speaker 5: they do right now. And so the 2027 NHL draft
18:54
Speaker 5: and the top 10, top five is absolutely stacked with
18:58
Speaker 5: players down the middle. And because of that, I think...
19:02
Speaker 5: There's an understanding in this market that if they were
19:05
Speaker 5: to get another high pick, two, three, four, whatever it is,
19:09
Speaker 5: it could really help kickstart where the Flames are going.
19:12
Speaker 3: A headline veteran on this roster wears the C. His
19:15
Speaker 3: name is Michael Backlund, 19-year captain. at age 37, ageless wonder.
19:21
Speaker 3: And I gave folks the impression of just how long
19:24
Speaker 3: he's been around for this young roster. He made his
19:27
Speaker 3: NHL debut back on January 8th of 2009. Back then,
19:31
Speaker 3: Matt Vaigreden and Zane Parekh were still just two years old.
19:35
Speaker 3: My how times have certainly flown, but for a group
19:39
Speaker 3: this young, where can Backlund wield his greatest influence?
19:43
Speaker 1: Well, two ways.
19:44
Speaker 5: I mean, first of all, he's a really good captain.
19:47
Speaker 5: And he really looks out for... the... He takes the
19:53
Speaker 5: job very seriously. He takes the honor of being captain
19:57
Speaker 5: very seriously. And so he takes the responsibility of being
20:04
Speaker 5: a mentor and a leader and helping young players along
20:08
Speaker 5: because he's been in that position as a former first
20:11
Speaker 5: round pick before. He takes that part very seriously. So
20:14
Speaker 5: off the ice. you know, there's a huge impact that
20:17
Speaker 5: he makes. And as a side note, you know, Michael
20:19
Speaker 5: Backlund is now 71 games away from breaking the franchise's
20:24
Speaker 5: all-time record for games played, which has been held for
20:28
Speaker 5: eons by Jerome Agimla at 1,219. 71 more games for
20:33
Speaker 5: Michael Backlund, and knowing how durable he's been the last decade,
20:37
Speaker 5: Everybody assumes it's going to be this season. He'll set
20:39
Speaker 5: the new all-time franchise record for games played, which is
20:42
Speaker 5: a pretty cool side note to this season.
20:44
Speaker 2: I digress.
20:45
Speaker 5: The other way that he can help is on the ice.
20:48
Speaker 5: And the one thing that you can count on still,
20:52
Speaker 5: even though Michael Backlund will turn 38 in March, you
20:55
Speaker 5: can still count on Michael Backlund elevating his wingers and
20:59
Speaker 5: the players around him. And in this market, we call
21:01
Speaker 5: it the Backlund bump. And there you can count on
21:05
Speaker 5: like there are so many players that you can point
21:08
Speaker 5: to and say that player was helped along in their career,
21:12
Speaker 5: whether or not it continued or was temporary. Like Michael
21:16
Speaker 5: Backlund makes players around him better. You talk to Matthew
21:19
Speaker 5: Kachuk of the Florida Panthers and he will rave about
21:22
Speaker 5: what Michael Backlund did for him in his first two
21:25
Speaker 5: or three years in the NHL where he was a
21:27
Speaker 5: constant winger. And, you know, there's more obscure names like
21:31
Speaker 5: Joe Colburn and Lance Boma who have their best seasons
21:35
Speaker 5: playing beside Michael Backlund. Or, you know, you take a
21:38
Speaker 5: look at players who are playing beside him now. They've
21:40
Speaker 5: got a former first-round pick in Sam Honzek who is
21:44
Speaker 5: playing beside Michael Backlund. Backlund makes him better. He elevates
21:48
Speaker 5: his wingers around him because he's so good at driving play.
21:52
Speaker 5: He's so good at distributing the puck at the right time.
21:55
Speaker 5: And he's so good in making sure his team doesn't
21:59
Speaker 5: get scored on. He's one of the most consistent two-way
22:02
Speaker 5: centers ever. in the league, the only area that maybe
22:05
Speaker 5: he doesn't have that other two-way centers do have is
22:08
Speaker 5: the high-end offense. Michael Backlund's more like a 45-point guy,
22:13
Speaker 5: whereas the best two-way centers in the league, they're popping 70, 75,
22:18
Speaker 5: and 80. But defensively and the way that he drives
22:21
Speaker 5: play and the amount of time he spends on the
22:24
Speaker 5: attack compared to how many starts he gets in the
22:27
Speaker 5: defensive zone, he remains one of the elite players in
22:30
Speaker 5: the league in doing that. And so he can help
22:32
Speaker 5: his young line mates around him in doing that as well.
22:36
Speaker 5: So off the ice, on the ice, despite the fact
22:39
Speaker 5: he's going into his 19th NHL season, Michael Backlund is
22:43
Speaker 5: still an invaluable part of this group.
22:45
Speaker 3: Hey, Pat, given the fact that things got spicy in
22:48
Speaker 3: the preseason between these two teams, there is some roster
22:50
Speaker 3: changeover going Nothing going on much on Thursday night, but
22:54
Speaker 3: there are still three more matchups between these two teams,
22:58
Speaker 3: so time will tell. But did Thursday surprise you with
23:00
Speaker 3: the lack of emotional flare-ups?
23:03
Speaker 5: Yes, specifically because of the way the game went. Like,
23:08
Speaker 5: when it got to 4-5-0 in the third period there,
23:11
Speaker 5: you know, I thought that Calgary, because they knew they
23:14
Speaker 5: were going to be playing Seattle again in a couple
23:17
Speaker 5: of days, I thought Calgary might try to.
23:19
Speaker 3: You know.
23:21
Speaker 5: send a message is pretty old school thinking we don't
23:23
Speaker 5: see that a lot but even just try to to
23:27
Speaker 5: send some sort of hey we'll see you again in
23:30
Speaker 5: a couple of days and not go quietly into the
23:33
Speaker 5: night that was the thing that was most surprising about
23:35
Speaker 5: thursday night was how meekly calgary went away which has
23:38
Speaker 5: not been going back to when you ask like what
23:41
Speaker 5: are the calgary flames well they didn't show that stick-to-itiveness
23:46
Speaker 5: and that pushback that even when they have not been
23:49
Speaker 5: a high-end team in this league, under Ryan Huska, they've
23:53
Speaker 5: had that almost at all times. And so that not
23:57
Speaker 5: being there on Thursday night was a little surprising and
23:59
Speaker 5: thus them not, you know, at the very least trying
24:02
Speaker 5: to make life difficult in the third period and get
24:05
Speaker 5: a little physical or maybe see if you can incite
24:08
Speaker 5: some after the whistle stuff. That was a little surprising.
24:10
Speaker 5: One thing to watch for, though, in the return match
24:13
Speaker 5: at Climate Pledgeville is if indeed Brennan Hoffman plays. He
24:17
Speaker 5: did not play in Thursday's game, but he was public
24:21
Speaker 5: enemy number one In that preseason game, he's with the
24:25
Speaker 5: team and the expectation is that he probably will be
24:28
Speaker 5: in the lineup against Seattle. So I wonder, because it
24:31
Speaker 5: was basically a full NHL roster for the Kraken that night,
24:34
Speaker 5: I wonder if that maybe ramps up the temperature a
24:38
Speaker 5: little bit when they meet again.
24:39
Speaker 3: Well, if there's an Offman on the flame side and
24:41
Speaker 3: an Ottavainen on the crack inside, get your popcorn. That
24:45
Speaker 3: could add to a little bit of spice here for
24:47
Speaker 3: the home opener at Climate Pledge Arena. But, hey, Pat,
24:49
Speaker 3: appreciate you. You're doing great work. Looking forward to talking
24:52
Speaker 3: to you once again, and have a great season. Thanks again, pal.
24:55
Speaker 4: Thanks, Mike.
24:56
Speaker 3: All right, Pat, thank you. Appreciate you and appreciate your
24:59
Speaker 3: insight on the flames heading into this matchup. Once again,
25:02
Speaker 3: that's past Einberg. Flames Radio host joining us here for
25:06
Speaker 3: Kraken this morning. So by basic math, we can assume
25:09
Speaker 3: that the starting goaltending matchup here for today should feature
25:12
Speaker 3: Joey Decord on the Kraken side and Dustin Wolfe, the
25:15
Speaker 3: former Everett Silver Tip, on the Calgary side. The two
25:18
Speaker 3: dueled head-to-head in the season opener back on Thursday. Last night,
25:23
Speaker 3: Calgary suiting up Devin Cooley, the Kraken going with Philip Grubauer,
25:27
Speaker 3: and the Flames fell 4-1 to the Canucks last night.
25:30
Speaker 3: They have had issues keeping pucks out of their own net.
25:34
Speaker 3: and players out of the box. Calgary has given up
25:37
Speaker 3: 10 goals combined now in two games, committing 15 penalties overall,
25:43
Speaker 3: 12 as minor penalties. So how many takes could the
25:47
Speaker 3: Kraken get on the power play coming up here for today?
25:50
Speaker 3: Time will tell, but they're in a pretty good spot
25:52
Speaker 3: being on home ice for the end of back-to-back. This
25:56
Speaker 3: will be one of 13 back-to-back games the Kraken will
25:59
Speaker 3: play this season, an area that was troublesome before last year,
26:03
Speaker 3: an area where the Kraken did demonstrate improvement. They picked
26:07
Speaker 3: up 12 of a possible 26 points in that back-to-back situation,
26:11
Speaker 3: and assuming the Kraken start Decord today, they have a
26:14
Speaker 3: few things going for them in this kind of a situation.
26:17
Speaker 3: Number one, Decord is a goalie who loves to play
26:20
Speaker 3: the puck, so it takes some pressure and some heat
26:23
Speaker 3: off your defensemen who have to go back and track
26:25
Speaker 3: pucks and begin the breakout out of their own zone. Secondly,
26:29
Speaker 3: it's their structure. The Kraken have admitted that they're much
26:33
Speaker 3: more dialed in now with Lane Lambert's system as compared
26:35
Speaker 3: to roughly one year ago. There are some fine details
26:38
Speaker 3: they're trying to still lock in, but... For the most part,
26:41
Speaker 3: you heard Lane Lambert earlier, they were fine with their
26:44
Speaker 3: play at 5-on-5. Finally, coming home, the Kraken have a
26:48
Speaker 3: bit of a few hours of a head start on
26:50
Speaker 3: the Flames. The Kraken played the 4 p.m. Pacific time
26:53
Speaker 3: game pretty early on the schedule for a weekend at Edmonton. Meanwhile,
26:57
Speaker 3: Calgary didn't face off in their game in Vancouver until
27:01
Speaker 3: 7 o'clock, so combine that with travel and also some
27:04
Speaker 3: border crossing. The Kraken presumably beat the Flames into bed
27:08
Speaker 3: from last night, so... a little bit of an extra
27:11
Speaker 3: advantage they have going for their way in regards to stamina.
27:14
Speaker 3: How it all fits into place, that's a matter of
27:17
Speaker 3: wait and see, and we can't wait to find out
27:19
Speaker 3: with you coming up here for the Kraken home opener
27:23
Speaker 3: today at 5 p.m. Pacific time. from Climate Pledge Arena.
27:26
Speaker 3: Once again, the Kraken and the Flames head-to-head for the
27:29
Speaker 3: second of four matchups. Everett Fitzhugh, Al Koniski on the
27:33
Speaker 3: call a little after 5 p.m. Pacific time. Special one-hour
27:37
Speaker 3: pregame coverage opening up across the street from Tom's Watch
27:41
Speaker 3: Bar on Sports Radio. 93.3 kjrfm we're also expecting to
27:46
Speaker 3: be joined live at tom's watch bar on the set
27:49
Speaker 3: with kraken assistant general manager patrick alvin we can't wait
27:53
Speaker 3: for that conversation with you all that plus our usual
27:57
Speaker 3: coverage in game and around game time as well ending
28:01
Speaker 3: with talking kraken myself al kaniski joining you again right
28:05
Speaker 3: back by the course light landing in section 20 At
28:07
Speaker 3: the end of Sunday's game, we'll look forward to hearing
28:10
Speaker 3: from you and carrying this conversation on and beyond Game
28:15
Speaker 3: 3 of 84. So talk to you then. Big thank
28:18
Speaker 3: you once again to Pass Steinberg for hanging out with us.
28:21
Speaker 3: Enjoy the home opener for Kraken this morning. I'm Mike Benson.
28:24
Speaker 3: Have a happy Sunday. Your home for the Kraken. Sports
28:27
Speaker 3: Radio 93.3 KJR FM.