MONTREAL – Kraken center Yanni Gourde always draws a crowd of family members, friends and media types in his home province, though he was doing it on the ice as well Monday night deep inside the opposing end.
The native of Saint Narcisse just outside of Quebec City, a 2½-hour drive northeast of here, was all over the place in the first period and so were the Montreal Canadiens in trying to contain a lethal Kraken forecheck that led to a 3-0 lead and 19-6 shot advantage by intermission. When asked after Monday’s morning skate about the Kraken’s play during a win streak now at five games, Gourde made a point about forechecking being critical to the team’s offensive success.
“Our strength is playing down low, playing fast and spreading out the zone,” Gourde said. “Finding our shots from the point and then driving to the net. That’s where we get our scoring chances from. That’s how we start our offense.”
That offense has taken off on this trip, with the Kraken now leading the entire NHL in road goals with 82 – courtesy largely of 22 scored over the four most recent contests last week in Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa and now here. Overall, the Kraken are averaging a third-highest 3.67 goals per game.
Gourde said the goal of any good forechecking is getting opposing defensemen turned around.
“It’s very difficult to have a forecheck if the defenseman you’re forechecking has his eyes up and is looking straight at you,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult because those guys are very good and they’re going to find their place. But if they’re facing the glass with the puck in their feet, I mean, I like our chances.”
And that’s why Gourde said the team has been attempting to chip the puck into the opposing zone “with purpose” as part of a preset strategy for which routes and responsibilities each of the forwards will take. Before, the team was often just dumping the puck into the zone for no reason and trying to chase after it randomly.
His new-look line with Eeli Tolvanen to his left and Oliver Bjorkstrand to his right has worked on communicating with one another to understand how they’ll approach entering the opposing zone.
“We’re not chipping the puck in for no reason,” Gourde said. “We actually have a purpose when we chip the puck in and then it helps us recover more pucks.”
Tolvanen benefitted from some of Gourde’s forechecking in the opening period. Gourde battled for a loose puck in the corner of Montreal’s zone and flung it cross-ice to Vince Dunn, who calmly slipped it back to an open Tolvanen on the right side of the net for an easy tap in at the goalmouth.
It was Tolvanen’s third goal in five games since joining the Kraken after being picked up on waivers from Nashville. Later in the period, Gourde notched his second assist during that span by feeding Dunn for a slap shot goal from the point that changed direction in the high slot.
The Tolvanen-Dunn combination has been particularly effective for several games, with the forward and defenseman feeding one another for quick one-timers – especially on power plays.
“It just seems like he’s going to find me in a good spot,” Tolvanen said, adding: “My goal was a bit of a tap-in. It’s pretty hard to mess that up.”
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said before the game that some changes were made to the forechecking system after the team suffered a string of defeats last month.
“A couple of weeks ago we hadn’t been very effective,” Hakstol said. “It hadn’t been a real strength of our game. We simplified it a little bit and really just tried to concentrate on a couple of different keys on it. And the guys have done a really good job of it.”
Hakstol said the chip-ins are where good forechecking begins. And while the “puck placement” on those chip-ins won’t always be perfect, the team has to make the most of them whether they’re off the rim of the boards or put into open space.
“There’s a basic structure in place,” he said. “But guys go out and feed off each other. Their communication is most important.”
…The Kraken are the only NHL team in which all of its defensemen have scored at least four goals. Dunn scored his team-leading seventh of the season among blueliners with his deflected first-period slap shot, giving him goals in three consecutive games for the first time in his career.
He’s notched 12 points – three goals and nine assists – in his last 10 games dating back to Dec. 18 against Winnipeg.
…Matty Beniers scored on an empty net with 1:03 remaining to extend his goal-scoring streak to a career-high four games.
…The Kraken came close, but failed to extend their streak of games with at least five goals. They’d had three such contests to start the road trip and would have joined the Boston Bruins as the only two teams to do so in four consecutive matchups had they managed one additional goal.