Seattle Kraken ready for international contests in Finland

The Seattle Kraken are in Helsinki, Finland, for two games this week, taking on the defending Stanley Cup champs, the Carolina Hurricanes. And we're looking at this video here. This is the Kraken practicing inside an ice cave in Helsinki. And I imagine the ice is really good inside the ice cave. We welcome now Kraken analyst Allison Lukin, our old friend. Allison, good morning to you. Thanks for joining us. Always a pleasure. Great to talk to you, especially about Kraken hockey. And it's been a pretty incredible trip for the Kraken already. Game one of the two-game set happening tomorrow morning. What a thrill for the Finnish players on the roster. I guess that that ice cave is where Capo Caco grew up playing, right? It's so cool and I love that Capo Caco has kind of taken on resident tour guide status and I love too that the coaching staff had them practice on Monday when they got there. They gave them Tuesday to really enjoy and experience a new country for a lot of them and now they're getting into their work boots and they're really focused on two important and challenging games ahead. Yeah, challenging games. Tough sledding against Carolina because they are really stacked. How do How did the Kraken match up with him? Yeah, you know, I think it's interesting because if you remember last year, this is a Carolina team that the Kraken were able to beat. So this is a team that the Kraken know how to play. They're both teams that are very detail oriented. They're going to be battling for a lot of pucks, but. As you said, this is the defending Stanley Cup champion, so it's a good test. But I like how Coach Lane Lambert framed it in his comments earlier today. He doesn't see it as a measuring stick game. He sees it as a good way to test some really important elements of how they play. And again, I think they can draw on the confidence that the Kraken have beaten this squad before. Berkly Catton has been on an absolute tear. Ten points in the last eight games coming into this one. He's a 20-year-old, but he's really coming into his own. What are you seeing out of him? Yeah, he is such an exciting player and I love what the team did. You know, again, coach Lambert said, this is a young player who could either only play in juniors last year or the NHL, the Kraken elect to have him play at the NHL level, maybe not a breakout season, but what it really was, was a time for him to get used to what the NHL demands. He took that as kind of an internal challenge, put in huge work in the off season. And he is just a treat. He is a driver on whatever line he's playing. He's found great chemistry with Capo Caco. And every game he does something that kind of makes me go, wow, did you see that? And I just love the confidence that's building, the skill that he's using and the intelligence he's showing on the ice. So much fun. Yeah, we were just watching that sick dangle in front where he goes backhand and then top shelf. But playmakers like that can really make everybody around them better, right? Oh, absolutely. And I think that's what you're seeing, again, with the lines he's played on. Again, I go back to Capo Caco. Caco is a bigger body that can make plays down closer to the goal. He's also a pretty good passer. So if Berkley Catton moves the puck, that's part of his job as a center, moves it into the offensive zone. Capo can be a challenge on one side. They've had other players on the other side who are scorers and who are offensively minded. And so with Catton really driving play, it allows other players to focus on very specific skills. And that's what makes the line work all together and get goals. All right. So the Kraken and the Canes, it'll be breakfast from Finland tomorrow. A Kraken 9 a.m. puck drop from Helsinki. They play two games there. They got a game on Saturday against Carolina. They head back home. They'll face the Canucks next Thursday. And then they head to San Jose to face the Sharks. They have the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday the 21st. So these are some key divisional matchups coming up. How do you see the Pacific Division shaping up so far? Yeah, I think it's a very interesting division, one that the Kraken can take advantage of if they play their game the way that they need to. There's a couple teams like Edmonton and Vegas who are at the top, rightly so. But the rest of the division, no one's really staking a claim to being the third best team. And the Kraken were in that spot for a lot of last season, as people might remember. If they can play the way they know how to play to get success, particularly against those divisional opponents and keep them below them in the standings, I think it's up to the Kraken where they finish this season. They could make it to third in the division and get a playoff spot if they play the right way. Well, I'm excited about these two games in Helsinki. We'll be tuning in tomorrow morning. Kraken analyst Allison Lucan, always a pleasure to have you. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon. All right.