Both the Seattle Kraken and Montreal Canadiens are off to strong starts on the young season.
Looking to open with three straight wins, the visiting Kraken aim to keep the Canadiens from recording a third consecutive victory Tuesday night.
For the first time in its five-season NHL existence, Seattle is 2-0-0 after outscoring Anaheim and Vegas 5-2 at home.
On Saturday, Jared McCann recorded his 400th career point by scoring with 3.8 seconds remaining in overtime for a 2-1 Kraken victory over the Golden Knights.
Though Seattle successfully handled that early business, there’s also a need to better itself going forward – especially while embarking on the road for the first time.
“We’ll continue to build,” first-year Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “There are some things I thought we did really well. I think there are areas we can improve on.
“We have to be more consistent for 60 minutes from the start of the game.”
McCann has scored twice already this season. Meanwhile, teammate Joey Daccord has stopped 61 of the 63 shots he’s faced in manning the Kraken net over Philipp Grubauer and Matt Murray through the first two contests.
McCann has posted three goals with three assists while Seattle has gone 5-3-0 against the Canadiens. The Kraken have also won three of four at Montreal, where the Canadiens will take the ice for the first time this season.
After falling 5-2 at Toronto to open the season, Montreal rebounded for road wins over Detroit and Chicago. Kaiden Guhle scored with 15 seconds remaining in regulation Saturday to give Montreal a 3-2 win over the Blackhawks.
Montreal star Nick Suzuki recorded three of his five assists Saturday. Including one on the third goal of the season by Zack Bolduc, who was acquired in a summer trade with St. Louis.
“I love his game,” Suzuki said of Bolduc, who is the first Canadien since Yanic Perreault from 2001-02 to score in his first three games with the team.
“He’s hungry on the forecheck. He wants the puck to make plays, shoot it.”
Bolduc, who recorded career highs of 19 goals and 17 assists in his first full NHL season last year, has two goals with an assist in three games versus Seattle.
Suzuki, meanwhile, posted two goals and six assists in eight career contests against the Kraken.
Montreal converted just 2 of a whopping 10 power-play chances at Chicago, and is 3-for-15 with a man-up advantage on the young campaign.
“On the power play, we can be a little more crisp and decisive with our plays,” Suzuki added.
” … I think we’ve got to work on the power play a lot.”
Seattle has killed three of its opponents’ four power-play opportunities through two games.
The Canadiens’ Sam Montembeault has stopped 42 of 47 shots while splitting his first two starts of the season. Backup Jakub Dobes made 30 saves during Montreal’s 5-1 victory at Detroit on Thursday.
Seattle star Matty Beniers has three points through those first two contests and one goal with three assists in three games at Montreal.
–Field Level Media
