3 Game Essentials | Kraken vs. Hurricanes | Nov. 24

One: Play to the Team's Strength

But when Larsson met with the post-game media, he was all business on protecting against goals when explaining what earned Sunday's victory.
"We focused on the defensive side of the puck," Larsson said. "We did a lot of things right that we have not been doing. Philipp Grubauer]
[played unreal in net
and we scored on our chances.
"I thought we were pretty solid defensively, too. PK [penalty kill] was good. We did a lot of good things ... We still have a long way to go."
That's not negativity from Larsson. His point: To gain standings points - especially in the four-day daunting stretch of Carolina Wednesday, Tampa Bay Friday and Florida Saturday - he and teammates need to concentrate on defense first. Keep the game close, pounce on the offensive opportunities.
During a Tuesday interview, forward Jared McCann, who scored Sunday on the recently potent power play (five for the last 10 chances), backed up Larsson's recommendation for facing Carolina.
"For us right now, the way things are going, we want to play defense first," McCann said.
For his part, Grubauer makes it a clean sweep of opinions among Kraken forwards, D-men and goaltenders: "It's all about plays at the right time, at the right moment. It does not matter if it is a save, if it is a hit, blocking shots.
"I think that's one of the first games [Sunday] where we actually got in shooting lanes and blocked some shots, and those were at key moments of the game ... and obviously [Kraken teammates] scoring goals at the right time."

Two: Kraken Focus: Gourde Line Defending - and Scoring

Coach Dave Hakstol and assistant Paul McFarland tweaked the forward lines over the weekend, putting Jaden Schwartz on wing with center Yanni Gourde and wing Calle Jarnkrok. Schwartz said Tuesday the trio talked about where they liked the puck on passes and reviewed situations in the offensive zone.
Fruitful discussion: Schwartz scored the all-important go-ahead goal to make it 2-1 and assisted on three other goals. Gourde scored the empty-netter to complete the victory and carried the puck on a 2-on-1 rush with the aforementioned Larsson, threading a perfect pass to the defenseman to make it 3-1 just 43 seconds later in the second period (new Kraken record alert).
Jarnkrok assisted on the Larsson goal for his first scoring point of the season, then notched his first goal of the year on a nifty piece of skating and shooting. Hakstol says Jarnkrok has been the Kraken's "most consistent player" on both ends of the ice returning from a 10-day quarantine to begin the year. Note to fans: Jarnkrok is known to be a streaky scorer.
One last point about what Hakstol calls the "Gourdie" line (in part because he refers to Jarnkrok as "Yarnie" and you have to figure "Yanni" sounds too similar): Along with racking up three goals and five assists, the Schwartz-Gourde-Jarnkrok combo was matched up against Washington's high-scoring line of Alex Ovechkin-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Tom Wilson.

Three: Know the Foe: Carolina Hurricanes (14-2-1)

The Hurricanes come into Climate Pledge Arena with the best record in the NHL through 17 games. Kraken GM Ron Francis is responsible for a significant number of Carolina's difference-makers, including center/draft choice Sebastian Aho (8 goals, 10 assists), forward/trade acquisition Teuvo Teravainen (3 G, 10 A) and defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce, whom he signed to team-friendly contract extensions that allowed for key roster adjustments over the last few seasons.
Aho and Teravainen have scored more than half of the goals for an elite power play. Slavin and Pesce (the second unit power play "quarterback") are instrumental to a defensive unit that, along with workhorse goalie Frederik Andersen, ranks second in least amount of goals per game at an even 2.00.
According to SportLogiq, Carolina is second in the NHL for the least shot attempts allowed while the Kraken rank No. 1. The Hurricanes are No. 2 in limiting offensive zone possession and the Kraken rank No. 3. Stick to defense, indeed.