By Charles Hamaker 

Northgate, WA – The morning of the second day of a back-to-back for the Seattle Kraken saw the team have a limited turn out for optional morning skate, ahead of the team's Thursday night contest against the visiting New York Islanders. With both teams riding losing streaks (Seattle on a three-game skid and New York on six-game skid), one of them has to come out with a victory. If one of the Seattle skaters will make a major impact tonight against New York, you couldn’t tell be what took place in Morning Skate as it was optional, and a limited number of Kraken skaters showed up to the Kraken Community Iceplex this morning. But you never know what moments of the season may play a larger role in the grand scheme of things, and that’s why we still show up even if it was announced as optional.  

Optional practice this morning 

Following last night’s overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers, it makes sense that the Kraken would only hold only an optional morning skate ahead of tonight’s contest against the New York Islanders. The players have their choice of coming to the rink or not, and even if they do show up it doesn’t particularly mean that they will be getting on-ice work like the players that we saw today. Some skaters may have been getting maintenance days done that we didn’t see or watching film beyond the two sliding doors that open to the locker room and rest of the team facility, but we wouldn’t know it.  

First out: Philipp Grubauer 

First out for today’s optional morning skate was starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer, donning his Hockey Fights Cancer themed helmet. While not getting a ton of work done on the ice today, Grubauer’s main work this morning with goalie coach Steve Briere saw him work on protecting the five-hole. Grubi did this for the majority of his time on the ice after he got his stretches and a brief skate in before returning to the locker room, and while I’ll state it again in attendance after doing so on twitter, you have to think that he will get the start in net tonight for a few reasons. I still state this despite these reasons, though, because we’ve seen unique lineup choices from head coach Dave Hakstol before.  

Attendance for the optional

In visible attendance, as some players may have been here at the Kraken Community Iceplex and getting work down around the facility that we didn’t see here on rink one, for today’s optional Morning Skate: Philipp Grubauer, Eeli Tolvanen (In sweatpants, a hoodie, and his helmet), Jaycob Megna, Andrew Poturalski, and Joey Daccord. Grubauer was on first and seemed to prepare as though he was getting ready to be tonight’s starting goaltender, especially considering the fact that Daccord got the start just last night. Tolvanen, showing us his spin on the “tracksuit Schwartzy” look with sweatpants, a Kraken team branded hoodie, and his practice helmet, was on the ice for a limited amount of time as he skated a little bit and took some shots on the opposite net of where Grubauer was practicing.  

Forward Jaden Schwartz was present today, but in a very minimal capacity as he was in street clothes and did an interview with a TV station off the rink while the practice continued on. Considering how we’ve seen Schwartz in a sweatsuit before for standard practices and how this is going to be the second game of a back-to-back, it makes sense to not necessarily see him getting any on-ice work in ahead of tonight’s contest. 

After Grubauer had come off the ice, Seattle backup netminder Joey Daccord hit the rink to get some work in with goaltender coach Steve Briere, Skills consultant Matt Larke, and with defenseman Jaycob Megna. In his individual work with Briere, Daccord mainly focused on working on his glove side saves outside of much else. After that and with the full group of those listed four since Poturalski had left the ice, Daccord worked on preparing for rebounded shots as Larke sent the puck off a tool used to help imitate rebounds and Megna attempted to score said rebound. Joey looked strong in the approximately 5-7 attempts that he saw on those “rebounded” chances from Megna, only allowing on goal on them. After those rebounded chances, Daccord was put in puck tipping opportunities as Jaycob Megna tried to redirect pucks from Larke on net, and Joey looked strong once again as he saved the 11 shots that actually went on goal of the 15 total attempts, only allowing one to score. Daccord did a little bit of through-screen work with Megna and one of the practice dummy’s that the Kraken have here at the Iceplex, but not much and Joey shortly ended his day after that. 

Jaycob Megna was the last skater off the ice this morning, getting a few shots from the mid-slot off passes from Larke before helping Seattle’s skill consultant clean up the pucks and other equipment that had been left out on the ice from the skate. It must be hard for the former San Jose Shark, who had spent most of last season on a defenseman pairing with eventual Norris-Trophy winner Erik Karlsson, to be repeatedly healthy scratched with no real sign of when he may get playing time, but Megna hasn’t particularly shown any signs of frustration or anger. Rather, the defenseman gets extra work in to continue to improve his game, whether it’s after practices or morning skates, showing up for the optional, etc.  

Not hearing from Hak 

With it being an optional morning skate today, it was announced to the media that we won’t hear from Seattle head coach Dave Hakstol until “approximately” 5:30PM PST or sometime before puck drop. This is typical protocol when the team has optional morning skates or if there’s an earlier start time than the standard 7PM PST here in Seattle, as it’s easier for Hakstol and the team to speak with media a short while prior to the game as opposed to trying to find a pocket during the day ahead of that to do so. So, no comments to analyze from Dave yet, not until tonight at least, and certainly no clues per say as to what the lineup for this game against the Islanders may look like, if at all changed.  

What’s next? 

Following last night’s overtime loss in Edmonton to this now hot Oilers team, the Seattle Kraken will play the second game of a back-to-back tonight. Seattle will host the New York Islanders on Thursday, November 16th with a puck drop of 7PM PST with the team hosting “Hockey Fights Cancer” presented by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. This contest will see a Kraken team that’s currently struggling on a three-game losing streak host an Islanders team that’s riding a six-game losing streak, having fallen in overtime tonight to the Canucks up in Vancouver. Seattle will once again be looking to put together a complete effort on the night, having shown strong signs tonight but failing to complete the game with that same level of effort.

https://www.whereweconverge.com/circling-seattle-sports

Cover photo by Corey Craig