One: Getting Back to Rolling Four Lines
Alternate captain Yanni Gourde, goal scorer Vince Dunn, and coach Dave Hakstol all agreed after Saturday’s disappointing loss to Minnesota that committing five penalties (one a double-minor), including three in the first period that enabled an elite Wild power play to build a 3-1 lead, is no formula for success. During a post-game media scrum, Gourde explained that there’s more to the multiple penalties than playing shorthanded.
“By taking all of those penalties, you really shoot yourself in the foot and kills our mojo, our momentum,” said Gourde. “We can do all four lines. Really, that's when we're very successful. That's how we grind teams down.”
Gourde talks regularly about playing fast as a unit of five on the ice, the forward line and defensive pair moving up ice with a purpose, D-men moving up in the play as it demands and forwards dropping in the offensive to cover any sudden opponent rush in the other direction. Penalties and penalty-kill duties counteract the Kraken’s depth in which you can identify any of the first three lines as top-six quality and, currently, veteran Tomas Tatar playing wing on the so-called fourth line.
