About Last Night: Habs looks like the expansion team in Kraken loss

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The Montreal Canadiens are the answer to a number of hockey-related trivia questions, and here’s a new one for their next pub quiz: Who did the Seattle Kraken expansion beat in their first home win? The league’s latest addition didn’t look like a new kid on the block in their 5-1 win over the Habs on Tuesday at the Climate Pledge Arena. Brandon Tanev scored twice and set the tone with his relentless skating and physique throughout the night. Mike Hoffman scored Montreal’s only goal.

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Earlier in the day in Hab-land, Jonathan Drouin said in an interview Not to be said for (presumably) salary cap reasons: Shea Weber is practically retired.

Before the game, the Seattle Kraken raised the banner of the 1917 Metropolitans Cup victory over the Canadiens. As Pat Hickey pointed out in the Liveblog comments, the two teams also met in the final in 1919 before it was canceled due to the Spanish flu after five games. Thanks Pat!

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It didn’t take long for Seattle to get the local crowd excited. Just over a minute, Jordan Eberle crossed the slot with Alexander Wennberg and landed a precise shot that passed Habs goalkeeper Jake Allen to open the score 1-0.

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After Brendan Gallagher had a golden opportunity stolen by Philipp Grubauer, Hoffman tied it by hitting a rebound in the slot when he received a high stick to the face. Habs scored the goal and a two-minute power play.

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With less than five minutes to go, Jared McCann dropped a pass to Jamie Oleksiak, who sent the puck into the crease where Tanev was. The former Penguin turned Allen around in tight spaces to give the home team a 2-1 lead after the first frame.

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In the second, the Kraken scored two in quick succession. Cup winner Yanni Gourde cheated on Allen with a deke patient and had no trouble putting a backhand into the empty cage to make it 3-1.

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Just under two minutes later, Tanev scored his second of the night. After succeeding on an extensive pass during a line change in Montreal, Gourde then threw a pass to Tanev along the blue line. Tanev took it home and it was 4-1. Before term ended, Mason Appleton left the game after falling during an awkward collision with Sami Niku.

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Stu Cowan summed it up perfectly:

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In the third, Alexander Romanov was burned with a cross pass that was stolen by Ryan Donato, who scored on the ensuing breakaway to give the Kraken a 5-1 lead, which is how the game ended.

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It was a poor performance for the Habs in their first game at the Climate Pledge Arena, and not the start they were hoping for on this West Coast road trip. They are in San Jose on Thursday before a couple in Southern California this weekend. With the lack of results on ice, Liveblog commenters began to think of other uses for the Liveblog in case the season continued to freak out. Trivia? Play? In the meantime, we discuss our favorite and least favorite expansion team uniforms, as the Kraken’s light and dark blue combo is pretty sharp. Some selections from the commenters:

Hot: Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks, St. Louis Blues, Atlanta Thrashers and many versions of the Oakland Seals: “kangaroo skin”, white skates, colored skates.

No: Kansas City Scouts, Quebec Nordiques, Los Angeles Kings (yellow), The Devils (who are always boring), Colorado Rockies and while they are not expansion sweaters, the Canucks V were considered the ugliest of the ugly.

And finally, who wouldn’t want to play for the clown on your shield?

“I have to smile every time I see the uniform of the Jokerit, a KHL club in Helsinki…” -Hermanus Wittebol