One: Let’s get physical
There was no mistaking the message in Kraken practice on Monday at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Kraken coach Dan Bylsma had his players doing drills with a lot of one-on-one, physical battles to them.

Bylsma was asked afterward whether the drills had anything to do with the way the team played in parts of Saturday night’s loss to Carolina and whether he expects to see what they practiced get implemented more visibly in Tuesday night’s game. A grinning, tight-lipped Bylsma nodded his head vigorously at the question, then offered some sparse words: “Yes, a carryover from the game on Saturday,” he said. “And yes, I’d like to see more of it (physical play).”

As if to hammer home that point, the Kraken, an hour or so later, announced that forward John Hayden had been promoted to the NHL roster – along with defenseman Cale Fleury – from AHL Coachella Valley. Hayden is no stranger to physical play, unafraid of dropping his gloves to fight opponents or to charge head-on into corners or the net front to fight for pucks.

The Kraken had the salary cap room to add both players since defenseman Vince Dunn is now on Long Term Injured Reserve. Dunn’s salary won’t count against the cap as long as he remains out, which is expected to be for several more weeks.

Bylsma didn’t mince words as to how he expects the Kraken to improve in those areas.

“The compete and execution under pressure in tough spots,” he said. “That’s the game. You win the game if you’re able to execute in those areas, the tight spots, wall play, defensive zone coverage, coming out of the defensive zone. And offensively, in the offensive zone, that’s where the game is won.”

Two: Protect the net early on
The Kraken last season were swept by Montreal in their two games for the first time and a big reason was their inability to keep the puck out of their net in the opening period.

The Canadiens outscored the Kraken 5-0 in the opening period of the two games, getting four of those in the contest played at Climate Pledge Arena back in March. In the prior game at Bell Centre last December, the Canadiens scored in the opening period, then were up 3-0 fewer than seven minutes into the middle frame.

So, clearly, the Kraken need to stop more pucks in the early stages – goalie Philipp Grubauer started both games last season – and defenders must offer more help. Joey Daccord looked solid for the Kraken in Saturday’s loss to Carolina – stopping 35 of 38 shots – so whoever is in goal on Tuesday needs to carry some of that over.

Three: Know Your Foe
As mentioned, the Kraken were swept last season by a Canadiens team that turned out to be not very good in finishing with the NHL’s fifth-worst record. Overall, the Kraken are just 2-3-1 lifetime against Canadiens’ teams that have kept finishing in the bottom five. But the difference now is this Canadiens team should be significantly better even after suffering the devastating loss of marquee off-season acquisition Patrik Laine to a preseason knee injury expected to keep him out several months.

Montreal’s poor records and aggressive trades have garnered a solid core of young talent now expected to take the next step, led by forwards Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach. The Canadiens started off strong, lost a string of games, then have since captured two straight against St. Louis at home and Philadelphia on the road.

Montreal goaltender Sam Motembeault, the likely starter on Tuesday, set an NHL record for saves in a season-opening shutout by stopping 48 shots to beat Toronto 1-0 a few weeks back. He beat the Kraken in Montreal last season, stopping 31 of 33 shots.