Kraken 3, Ducks 1
Go ahead, hockey pundits. Explain again why the Seattle Kraken signing Brandon Montour to a seven-year, $50 million contract in 2024 was a mistake. Why it was too much money, and too much term, and Montour isn’t that good in his own end, anyway.
17,100 witnesses on hand Thursday for the Kraken’s season-opening 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at Climate Pledge Arena would beg to differ.
Montour, a 2024 Stanley Cup champion with the Florida Panthers, contributed in all sorts of ways: four shots, three blocks, four hits. Most importantly, the player nicknamed “Monty” did what big-time, big money players are counted on to do – make plays that win games. Montour did just that to the Ducks in a scintillating 2nd period sequence, showing his chops at both ends of the ice.
Though the score was tied 1-1, Anaheim had been dominating possession. So Montour stripping the puck from Troy Terry and clearing the zone would have been a key play all by itself. But #62 was just getting warmed up. He and Terry battled for possession all the way into the Ducks’ zone. That’s when Montour outmuscled Terry and continued on his merry way down right wing, while the Anaheim forward spun to the ice.
Still not satisfied, Montour spotted former Dallas Star Mason Marchment busting down the slot. In the blink of an eye, Marchment converted Montour’s tape-to-tape pass into what would prove to be the winning goal.
“He made an elite play,” coach Lane Lambert said of his blueliner. “He’s a top-end NHL defenseman. He did a lot of good things tonight. He drives us up the ice, he drives the offense. He was desperately needed by our hockey team and he did a great job.”
Keep in mind that Montour performed these feats while playing exactly zero minutes in the pre-season. An unanticipated procedure to remove an inflamed bursa from his ankle kept the defenseman off the ice for most of training camp. Yet when the bell rang, Montour answered, skating 24 shifts in 21:18 TOI, second-most among Kraken defensemen (and just 33 seconds fewer than Adam Larsson’s team-high 21:51).
In addition to Marchment, Kraken goals were scored by defenseman Vince Dunn in the 1st period and forward Jared McCann in the 3rd. The Ducks goal was scored by 19-year old Beckett Sennecke, playing his first NHL game. His mom, dad, and sister celebrated in the CPA stands. That’s the only puck all night that eluded Kraken goalie Joey Daccord, who stopped 35 of 36 Anaheim shots. Daccord almost single-handedly kept the Kraken in the game in the 1st period when, despite the Dunn tally, Seattle was outshot 17-5 and rarely possessed the puck.
“You get into a home opener, there’s some nerves,” observed Lambert. “You haven’t played a quote-unquote ‘real game’ for a long time. You get the introductions, your routine is a little off. There’s times teams come out a little slow, and that’s what we did.” But in the words of that English sportswriter Will Shakespeare, all’s well that ends well.
Earlier Kraken:
— 3 Youngsters Make Kraken Club
