The Edmonton loss is a useful reminder that Seattle's 6-goal night wasn't the new normal. An Oilers defense that had been shelled for 13 goals in 2 games against Vancouver held the Kraken to 1, and Edmonton did it with a short-handed lineup. Seattle's offense looked deep against Calgary and thin a couple of nights later. The puck drops at 5:00 PM PT.
The lineups are changing on both benches. Seattle activated Mackie Samoskevich off injured reserve and he made his Kraken debut in Edmonton. Jacob Melanson went the other way onto IR with an upper-body injury, and Lane Lambert said he doesn't expect Melanson back within the next 3 games. Jake O'Brien is still on non-roster IR. For Calgary, Jonathan Huberdeau is out with the hip that needed surgery in March, and the target is around October 10. That's optimistic for a 7-to-9-month recovery, and either way it's after this game.
The goaltending is the matchup to watch, but neither club has named a starter yet. With Calgary playing on consecutive nights, a lot depends on whether Wolf gets the Vancouver game or the Seattle one. Since becoming a full-time NHLer he has a .903 save percentage and a 2.85 GAA, which is a lot better than what he showed in the opener. Daccord was close to perfect in that game, then lost to Edmonton the next time out.
This is a 1-game sample against a 2-game sample, and both teams have changed since the opener. The fair question is whether the Saddledome blowout told us something real about Calgary's structure without Huberdeau, or whether it was just a bad night. Saturday in Vancouver answers some of that before the puck drops in Seattle.