Salk: Seattle Kraken ‘did everything they needed’ to stun Avs in Game 1

The Seattle Kraken kicked off their first-ever Stanley Cup Playoffs run in a giant means, securing a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Tuesday night time, beating the defending Stanley Cup champs of their first sport of their title protection.

Seattle Kraken storm into playoffs, stun Avalanche 3-1

“They have been nice. They did every thing they wanted to do in that sport,” Mike Salk mentioned to open Brock and Salk Wednesday morning on Seattle Sports activities.

An enormous a part of that? Getting off to a scorching begin.

Winger Eeli Tolvanen stole the puck deep in Colorado’s defensive zone, took a shot, bought his personal rebound after which put the puck at the back of the web to offer the Kraken a 1-0 lead simply 3:26 into the sport.

Salk mentioned two issues about that aim actually stood out to him.

“One, it got here off a mistake. What did I inform you yesterday? The largest factor within the playoffs, errors get magnified … Everybody’s pointing at it as a result of the video games are so tight, they’re so tense,” he mentioned. “… No. 2, who scored that aim? The man that you simply discovered off waivers. I imply, actually, nothing might symbolize this Kraken season greater than a man who you bought off waivers who’s now primarily a second-line winger for you placing the puck within the internet.”

Salk’s 3 Keys for Kraken in playoff matchup vs Avs

The opposite two targets Seattle scored have been textbook for the Kraken, with Morgan Geekie serving to arrange Alex Wennberg for a rating, then placing the third Kraken aim into the following himself.

“That was Kraken hockey, man. All people doing their job,” Salk mentioned. “First line doing its factor, retaining the puck in deep – they didn’t rating a aim yesterday, however I assumed they performed fairly nicely – and the second line grabbing the targets.”

Salk thought head coach Dave Hakstol had an excellent sport plan and did “a reasonably darn good job” executing it.

“Hakstol had a superb sport. He bought that matchup he wished more often than not along with his third line, the Yanni Gourde line, on the market towards (Colorado’s Nathan) MacKinnon line, which was nice and so they did a extremely good job holding them down,” he mentioned. “And I assumed (Hakstol) did a extremely good job of sort of substituting in Geekie and (Brandon) Tanev. He sort of used Tanev as his fourth line winger but additionally in spots the place he might be useful. Identical with Daniel Sprong.”

All that being mentioned, Salk thinks the most important story of the night time was the play of Philipp Grubauer, a one-time Avalanche goaltender who stopped 34 of 35 photographs on Tuesday.

“Philipp Grubauer went again to Colorado, a spot the place you heard (Brock and Salk co-host Brock Huard) say 100 instances yesterday that he was run out of city due to a foul playoff sequence, and he was by far the higher goaltender yesterday,” Salk mentioned. “… That was the perfect sport he’s performed in a Kraken uniform. Now, it’s a low bar. He has not been spectacular for many of his time. He’s been fairly good down the stretch this 12 months … Which may have been the perfect sport he’s performed as a member of this franchise … He was phenomenal yesterday in what I’m positive was considerably emotional for him going again to the city that he bought run out of and beating the defending champs.”

The Kraken will look so as to add to their lead within the best-of-seven sequence in Recreation 2, which is about for six:30 p.m. Thursday in Denver.

Take heed to Salk break down the Kraken win within the podcast under.

Fann: Seattle Kraken with prime alternative to show informal followers into diehards

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