The Vancouver Canucks faced the Seattle Kraken in their first game of the preseason this year and there was far more vitriol and venom than one would expect from a game with no real consequences.
There were fights, scrums, and plenty of unkind words during that game on Tuesday and now, three days later, the two teams will face off again, albeit with altered lineups.
The Canucks have won both of their preseason games thus far but head coach Rick Tocchet still wants to see more from his players as he looks to instill a faster style of play.
"To play fast, you've got to come back fast — I thought we were coasting," said Tocchet after Wednesday's game against the Calgary Flames. "You've got to be in shape to play this game, so we're going to continue to skate hard. If you want to play at this pace, you've got to be in shape. So, I think we've got to get a couple of guys up to speed, which is fine."
"The two games were fine," he added. "I just think we've got to get a little bit faster — thinking faster."
The Kraken, meanwhile, might be looking for a little revenge after the Canucks got the better of them on Tuesday. So far, the Kraken have lost both of their preseason games, which is a trend they'll be aiming to arrest on Friday night in Seattle.
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
The Canucks didn't skate on Friday morning, so we didn't get a sneak peek at their lines and pairings. We can, however, make an educated guess based on their practices and the roster they'll be taking to Seattle.
These lines and pairings will be updated once the Canucks take the ice for warm-up prior to puck drop in Seattle:
According to Tocchet, Kevin Lankinen will be the Canucks' starting goaltender in Seattle. This will be the first appearance in a Canucks jersey for Lankinen, who signed with the Canucks less than a week ago. Until Demko returns from his injury rehab, Lankinen and Arturs Silovs are expected to battle for starts in the Canucks' net.
The most intriguing aspect of Friday's lineup is that Kiefer Sherwood is likely to get a chance to play with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk. The question of who will play with Pettersson is fully up in the air — rookie prospect Jonathan Lekkerimäki has been their linemate throughout training camp but there are plenty of other candidates for the job.
"There's a lot of different options," said Tocchet. "I could put [Höglander] on the left and I know Jake can play the right side. He's actually a good right winger too. Sherwood could go up there, there's a lot of different guys. I think Lekkerimäki has done a nice job in his time there. It's a job we're looking for somebody to take ahold of. It's important that we find a guy that can push the pace. It's the same thing, Petey's gotta push the pace too, so we've got to make sure that we get that line sorted out."
Sherwood skated on that line at practice on Thursday. In the last few years, Sherwood carved out an NHL roster spot with a hard-forechecking, heavy-hitting game but before that, he piled up points in the AHL with his creativity and vision, so there might be a fit for him in the right top-six role.
J.T. Miller has yet to appear in the preseason but has been practicing with the team, so it's unclear whether he's nursing a minor injury or if the team is just taking their time getting him into the lineup. Tocchet has affirmed that Miller will play in the preseason at some point but is in no rush to get him in the lineup after he excelled in their fitness testing.
On defence, we can expect to see Kirill Kudryavtsev, Sawyer Mynio, and Christian Felton for the first time this preseason, though the Canucks do have seven defencemen making the trip to Seattle, likely for injury insurance. Veteran AHL defenceman Christian Wolanin was the seventh defenceman who traveled with the team.
Mynio and Felton have been paired together since the Young Stars Classic and have largely stuck together through training camp, but they were split up to put a rookie with a veteran on each pairing. For Mynio and Kudryavtsev, in particular, this is a chance for the Canucks to see how they can handle playing against tough competition at the NHL level.
Seattle Kraken projected lines
The Kraken will ice a more experienced lineup in Seattle than they did in Vancouver, which is typical of the preseason. Teams like to put their best foot forward on home ice for their fans.
Jaden Schwartz - Chandler Stephenson - Oliver Bjorkstrand
Eeli Tolvanen - Shane Wright - Jordan Eberle
Jani Nyman - Ben Meyers - Brandon Biro
Lleyton Roed - Mitchell Stephens - Ryan Winterton
Ryker Evans - Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak - Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura - Maxime Lajoie
Joey Daccord
Niklas Kokko
The Kraken will ice a pretty dangerous-looking top two lines, centred by their top free-agent forward signing Chandler Stephenson and top prospect Shane Wright. Those forwards should give the Canucks' rookies on defence a good test.
On defence, the Kraken will have free-agent signing Brandon Montour in the lineup with his expected defence partner Jamie Oleksiak, as well as veteran Adam Larsson.
Joey Daccord, who gave up 2 goals on 19 shots in a loss to the Canucks on Tuesday, will get the start for the Kraken.
