Practice Report: Kraken Claim Czarnik

Break time was over Tuesday morning as the Kraken were back to practicing after taking time off for the All-Star break.

Head coach Dave Hakstol put together a fast and high-paced workout with some battle drills early on to wake up the competitive juices.
"Four days off, just get out and knock as much rust off as possible," Hakstol said. "We got up and down the rink as much as we could, we didn't stop and talk a lot. We just wanted to get out, handle the puck, and just get feeling good. We're gonna dial in on some of the detail tomorrow morning, and we'll do that before morning skate and use morning skate again and then just like everybody else, get back at it tomorrow night."
The practice had quickness to it and the players appeared to be in good spirits, making a lot of noise after good plays. It started with one-on-one drills and built up through two-on-two and so forth until finally finishing with a brief five-on-five scrimmage.
"You need to get back into feeling guys trying to hit you and switching gears back into the season," Jordan Eberle said. "It's kind of a tough thing when trying to get your work in but you also want to conserve your workload because we play tomorrow. I thought we did a good job today."

Borgen back while Soucy and Oleksiak getting close

Will Borgen was out of COVID-19 protocol to be back on the ice Tuesday and was a full participant for practice.
Jamie Oleksiak and Carson Soucy are still unavailable due to injury, but they did skate prior to practice at the Kraken Community Iceplex Tuesday.
"Both guys skated this morning so, it's getting closer," Hakstol said. "They're both in that day-to-day range. We'll get things reevaluated again tomorrow, after having skated the day after the break today we'll probably give you a little bit more tomorrow, but good progress."

Kraken claim Czarnik off waivers

The Kraken made a roster move Tuesday and picked up Austin Czarnik off waivers from the New York Islanders. Czarnik had played 11 games with the Islanders this season and scored two goals with three assists and five points.
"Very good skill, extremely competitive, and a good pro," Hakstol said.
Czarnik has a tie with assistant coach Jay Leach and played for him with the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League. Prior to being a pro, Czarnik played four seasons of NCAA hockey with Miami University in Ohio before 136 NHL games between the Islanders, Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames.

Picking up where they left off

Prior to the All-Star break, Seattle had found improved play. The Kraken were playing with an identity and style that they had worked to forge all season long.
They kick off the second half of the season at home Wednesday with a game against the Arizona Coyotes at Climate Pledge Arena and will look to pick up right where they left off.
"It's understanding what we're doing to make us win," Eberle said. "We were competing, we're fighting defensively and we're creating offense out of our good defense, and I like to think that hopefully we started to create a bit of an identity and understand the way we need to try to win hockey games and you do that on a consistent night."