Seattle Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma is once again shaking up his forward lines in search of consistency.
Seattle Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma is once again shaking up his forward lines in search of consistency.
Through the Kraken's first seven games, Bylsma has made a few minor changes to the lineup, those being swapping Shane Wright and Matty Beniers as well as Oliver Bjorkstrand and Andre Burakovsky.
Heading into their matchup against the 6-0-0 Winnipeg Jets, Bylsma has once again elected to move a few pieces around.
McCann-Beniers-Eberle
Schwartz-Stephenson-Tanev
Tolvanen-Gourde-Bjorkstrand
Kartye-Wright-Burakovsky
Wright, Tye Kartye and Burakovsky have yet to play with one another this season, forming a new line. Yanni Gourde will take Beniers' spot, centring Eeli Tolvanen and Bjorkstrand. Brandon Tanev moves onto Chandler Stephenson's right wing and Beniers goes back to his spot in the middle of Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle.
The shakeup isn't something that is set in stone and will likely be tweaked at some point throughout the season.
"I think it’s still a search," said Bylsma. "We don’t want to take away from how we played in the first period [Tuesday], but I think there are still things we can do better from both a team and individual standpoint."
The Jets have been the best team in the NHL to start the season and will require a full team effort with all four lines pitching in offensively. Not many teams can put out four evenly balanced lines and this is part of Bylsma's philosophy with the Kraken.
"I don’t really decipher one through four," Bylsma said. "If you’ve paid attention to that, you might question why I’m starting Gourde and Tanev and Karts for the start of the game. But they’ve been the line that—in the beginning of the game—was getting us good shifts, good offensive-zone shifts, playing with a lot of speed and pace. So I don’t really look at them as a fourth line."
With the Kraken's structure, any player in the lineup can take over a game. The fairly equal opportunity Bylsma offers creates healthy competition. Tonight's matchup against the Jets will be the Kraken's toughest challenge yet and could be considered a measuring stick game early in the season.
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