Canadiens in Seattle Kraken: Five Things You Need to Know

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Here are five things to know about the Canadiens-Kraken game at Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday (10 pm, TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM):

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The match: This is the first game between the Canadiens and the Kraken expansion, which is named after a mythical squid-like Nordic sea monster. It is the first of four road games on the US West Coast for the Canadiens, who snapped a five-game losing streak in the season opener with a 6-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at the Bell. Center. The Kraken are 1-4-1 after losing a 4-2 decision to the Vancouver Canucks in what the NHL hopes will be the start of a regional rivalry. The packed crowd of 17,459 had team officials bragging that the Climate Pledge Arena is the loudest building in the NHL, while fans wondered why Seattle’s iconic Starbucks coffee is $ 10.

Allen keeps busy: Goalkeeper Jake Allen will make his sixth start in seven games while holding the fort while waiting for Carey Price to return. Allen was ready Saturday when he stopped 26 of 27 shots for his first win. Philipp Grubauer is Seattle’s No. 1 goalkeeper and is 1-3-1 with an average of 3.80 goals against and a save percentage of .869.

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Perreault finds its place: It’s only been two games, but veteran Mathieu Perreault has found a home in the center on the Canadiens’ third row with Tyler Toffoli and Cole Caufield on his wings. Perreault started training camp as a winger but was transferred to center last Thursday after passing a game as a healthy scratch. He led the Canadiens to their first win of the season on Saturday, when he scored a hat-trick and won five of his seven meetings. Mike Hoffman scored on a power play for his first goal of the season, but the Canadiens also allowed a power play goal for the sixth straight game.

The other types: Jared McCann is on a point-per-game rate with three goals and three assists, while Brandon Tanev has also scored three goals. The Kraken have one of the NHL’s best defenders in Mark Giordano, who was selected in the expansion draft after spending his entire 15-year career with Calgary. Giordano, who will serve as team captain, won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defender in 2019, but finds life more difficult with the Kraken expansion and has a differential of minus 6. Seattle selected defender Cale Fleury of the Canadiens in the expansion draft. He was hoping to play alongside his older brother Haydn, but Cale is starting the season with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers.

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A little bit of history: There was a raging pandemic the last time the Canadiens played a Seattle team. The Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans met in the 1919 Stanley Cup final, but the series was abandoned when players from both teams fell victim to the Spanish flu with the series tied 2-2-1. Montreal did not have enough healthy players to continue and offered to forfeit the series, but the Metropolitans said they did not want to win the Cup under the circumstances and did not win that year. One of the Montreal players, (Bad) Joe Hall, died in a Seattle hospital four days after the series was dropped.

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