One: Keep getting in goalie’s face
Six different players scored goals against Montreal on Tuesday night, but on the important early ones it was guys not on the scoresheet making the big contributions. On the initial two goals by Jamie Oleksiak and Ryker Evans in the opening three-plus minutes, the pucks wound up in the net mostly because of traffic in front created by Eeli Tolvanen and Matty Beniers.

Tolvanen kept his defender preoccupied at the net front to where a harmless-looking Oleksiak shot bounced off the Montreal player’s skate and in the net. Then, on the 64-foot wrist shot by Evans – quite the distance for any non-slap shot goal to come from – you had Beniers crossing the sight lines of goalie Sam Montembeault at the last second to prevent him from seeing the puck enough to make a stop.

Those goals pretty much set the tone and Montreal never recovered.

Not long after, Jaden Schwartz went to the dangerous slot area and was in perfect position to one-time a pass from behind the net by Chandler Stephenson. Minutes after that, Schwartz stole a puck behind the net and Oliver Bjorkstrand was right in front to receive the pass and score a fourth goal on just the eighth Kraken shot. Game over at that point.

Not all of the goals were pretty. And a couple probably should have been stopped. But the Kraken got to the tight areas and made life miserable for both Montreal goalies. Do that and pucks will often bounce your way.

Two: Keep making the big saves
Joey Daccord got his third straight start against the Canadiens and now seems to be getting the bulk of games ahead of counterpart Philipp Grubauer. While the 8-2 rout appeared a routine win for Daccord there was a point late in the opening period where Montreal scored to cut the deficit to 4-1 and was all over the Kraken on a late power play trying to make it a two-goal game by intermission.

The Canadiens took five shots on Daccord during that power play and might have changed the game’s direction had any gone in. But Daccord made the stops he needed to – two in succession off Nick Suzuki from close range – and the Kraken quickly put things away early in the second period on Brandon Montour’s first of three goals.

It got lost in the final score, but those Daccord saves are typical of how solid goaltending can be about timing as much as stats. Daccord could have let in three more goals in the third period and it wouldn’t have impacted things as much by then as those first period stops did the final outcome.

The Kraken will need such stops from Grubauer, who seems likely to get the nod against the Maple Leafs given his solid past performances at Scotiabank Arena for the Kraken. No matter who gets the bulk of assignments from here, the Kraken need quality seasons from both guys if they hope to be in the playoff conversation.

Three: Know Your Foe
The Maple Leafs enter with the same 5-4-1 record as the Kraken, but a more angst-ridden existence. A team that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup – or even been to a Cup Final – since 1967 can’t play in one of hockey’s most rabid markets without hearing about that drought daily. Every regular season game gets over-analyzed by fans and pundits as to how it might impact performance in playoffs still a half-year away.

And that makes regular season life far more miserable. This recent stretch saw the Leafs hand Winnipeg their first regulation loss of the season in their prior game, but only after a week that saw Toronto go 1-2-1 and yield 19 goals. As you’d expect, that’s caused a mini goaltending controversy as new coach Craig Berube has given backup Anthony Stolarz more playing time than previously injured and now healthy presumptive No. 1 Joseph Woll.

Stolarz stopped 19 of 23 shots to beat the Jets in Winnipeg, so we’ll see who’s between the pipes this time.