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Kraken Road Dispatches – Vince Dunn’s future, Curtis Douglas, and an encouraging start

Darren Brown

Hello from the friendly skies en route back to Seattle! The Seattle Kraken split their two-game road trip, with a dominant 6-1 win at the Calgary Flames on Thursday and then a stinging 3-1 loss at the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. They now return to Seattle to face those same Flames on Sunday in what could be a physical and feisty matchup against a team that is off to a terrible start to its season.

I was on the trip, along with some combination of other Sound Of Hockey crew members throughout.

Here are some general, bullet-pointed thoughts from the two-game swing through Alberta.

Vince Dunn definitely wants to stay — If you haven’t already, give my interview with Vince Dunn a watch. It’s been noted by national media that he’ll be a hot commodity next summer, should he get to unrestricted free agency. But without me prodding him too much about his contract situation, he offered up that he loves Seattle and clearly wants to stay, going so far as to say, “I would love to retire as a Kraken.” I also reminded him that he simply can’t leave Adam Larsson.

Curtis Douglas remains large — I also did a great video interview with Kraken newcomer Curtis Douglas in advance of the game at Calgary, but that one’s sadly going in the “lost tapes” file. I didn’t realize until after I had finished talking to him for five or six minutes that my new camera had errored out and didn’t actually record. [Facepalm.]

But what I will say is that he is well aware of his role as a deterrent and physical presence when he gets into the lineup. I found it interesting that in a game against a team known for running around—and one in which Calgary got spanked in its home opener to kick off the final season of the Scotiabank Saddledome—there were almost no shenanigans. He only played 5:58, but could Douglas’ presence in the lineup have contributed to the relatively clean game?

My favorite portion of the lost interview was when we talked about the best and worst things about being his size (I prefaced it by saying I know he gets asked all the time about being tall, and I’m sure that’s annoying). He shared that flying on airplanes stinks; going to concerts is great because you can see everything but also stinks because people behind him get mad at him; and he smacks his head on things multiple times a day.

Ben Meyers strong in season debut — Douglas was replaced Saturday by Meyers, and I liked Meyers’ game. He had a couple of offensive rushes, but I especially noticed him at the defensive end of the ice, helping to kill Seattle’s three first-period penalties and intercepting several dangerous-looking passes.

Mackie Samoskevich relatively quiet — Meanwhile, Mackie Samoskevich also made his Kraken debut Saturday and was relatively quiet. I noticed him using his effortless speed to win a couple of races, but coach Lane Lambert was clearly easing him back in with a mostly fourth-line role and just 11:54 of ice time. With the back-to-back games and travel, we will have to wait until warmups Sunday to see if his role will be expanded in the home opener.

Brandon Montour goes at McDavid — At Kraken practice Friday in Edmonton, us media folks could hear some specific discussion about containing a particular Edmonton player, and defenseman Brandon Montour loudly gave his thoughts on the matter. I won’t say what he said.

I found it interesting, though, that Montour took a big run at Connor McDavid during the game—almost flipping him into the Seattle bench—something you don’t see players doing to McDavid that often. Montour also gave 97 some big-time whacks just before he scored his empty-net goal and ended up taking a misconduct penalty.

Philipp Grubauer was great against the Oilers – Philipp Grubauer deserved a better outcome against the Oilers, making five or six 10-bell saves during the course of the game and giving the Kraken every chance to come away with a win. He also got pissed after he was run into for the third or fourth time in the game and took his frustration out on Max Jones’ knee.

We requested Grubauer for post-game media, but he wasn’t immediately available after the game. That typically happens if a player is getting treatment. I don’t know if that’s what happened in this case, but being that Grubi took some bumps and a shot off his mask that seemed to hurt him, we will keep an eye out for any last-minute call-ups Sunday. So far, status quo, which tells me Grubi is probably fine.

A tale of two buildings — The juxtaposition of the withered old Scotiabank Saddledome, which is entering its last season before being torn down for a billion-dollar facility being built across the street, against the sparkling Rogers Place in Edmonton is striking.

I loved the Saddledome. It was like a journey back in time to when the only “amenity” an arena offered was the game itself. It’s a truly unique building with a one-of-a-kind design and quirks galore that took me back to my childhood. The press box was wild—the famed catwalk/gondola situation lived up to its billing and seemed to be constructed of toothpicks and plywood—and the atmosphere was electric, at least until the Kraken pumped three goals past Dustin Wolf in the first period. It was my first and likely last visit to the Saddledome, and now I’m bummed they’re tearing it down.

As for Rogers Place, there is every amenity you can imagine. You can tell they truly thought of every detail in building it, from how fans and media enter and exit the building to how much room is available for teams to work out and stage their equipment.

But man, is it cavernous. Just a massive, massive building. There are definitely some seats (and a press box) that feel very far from the ice surface.

Very doable road trip — On the whole, this wasn’t my favorite road trip I’ve been on—I liked the Florida swing and various New York trips better—but this one is very easy and somewhat economical. We flew to Calgary, drove to Edmonton, and are now flying back from Edmonton. The flight times are quick and convenient, hotels are reasonable, and the arenas are right in the hearts of the cities. Where this trip lacks is in the cities themselves, which just don’t have that much to do outside of going to the games and bars.

Curtis Isacke and I did take the 30-minute trek out to the West Edmonton Mall on Saturday, which was interesting and reminded me a lot of the Mall of America in Minnesota. If I were to do the trip over again, I would carve out some more time to go to the waterpark there, because the slides legitimately looked pretty awesome. They’re also building a new roller coaster in the indoor theme park, which I wish I could have ridden. We did find a few minutes to ride the swan boats, though.

Feeling more optimistic than anticipated — I really think the Kraken are going to surprise some people this season. I know they got out to a strong start last season and spiraled late, but something feels quite different about this team.

Even when the Kraken were winning last year, it always looked like they were just holding on for dear life. We saw a little of that against Edmonton in the first period, when they got into penalty trouble, and late in the game, before a lucky bounce landed on the tape of Leon Draisaitl for the game-winner. But there’s some real ability to dictate the pace of the game that wasn’t there last season.

Ville time? – I’m missing Sunday morning availability, but our buddy Charles Hamaker at Circling Seattle Sports reported that Josh Mahura and Cale Fleury were on the ice with EBUG Dolan Gilbert. That tells us they are the healthy extras tonight, meaning Ville Ottavainen could draw in for the home opener.

Darren Brown

Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.

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