It's officially game week for the Seattle Kraken, something this city and region have waited years for. Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. is when the Kraken takes the ice for the first time in a regular season game against Las Vegas, the most recent expansion team in the NHL. It's a week filled with emotion and history but how is the Kraken feeling ahead of that matchup?

Dave Hakstol

"There are challenges with it, no question, going on a five-game road trip it's a difficult first swing they're all going to be-- those are going to be challenging buildings and games. There's also opportunity there to go out and continue to build as a new group and meet some of the challenges that we're going to run into on the road. Those are some good positives and good opportunities for us."

Hakstol of course is referring to the Kraken's wild schedule which includes five games, all on the road over the first eight days of the season. That schedule is by design to allow Climate Pledge Arena a little more time to finish up construction. Still, that grueling road trip is a real test for this team right out of the gate, it forces them even more to be locked in on that action on the ice as opposed to getting caught up with the inevitable hype of the first game in franchise history. Hakstol has maintained the same mindset for weeks, now it's time for his staff and players to put it into effect Tuesday and beyond.

Philipp Gruabauer

I think we're just treating it as a season opener because we're focused on winning and winning the first game and getting the points here. So we haven't really talked about it too much but the focus is on winning the hockey game. I feel good, I think our last game was really good personally for me because I got different areas of the game and different aspects too. A little bit more shots and games before and yeah I'm ready to go."

Grubauer is locked in, from the opening of camp he's expressed how this team has the unique challenge of all the players coming together from different NHL teams and getting one training camp to get it right. It worked for Vegas in 2017-2018, will it work for the Kraken? That Golden Knights level of success is unfair to expect, but this team has the makings of a playoff squad for sure. With that, it's refreshing to hear Grubauer's approach as one of the inevitable leaders of the team in net.