One: Vow to Keep Winning at Home

Before Thursday’s 6-4 win over Philadelphia, the Kraken players were vocal in the locker room about making Climate Pledge Arena a hard place for opponents. Newcomer but highly welcome voice in the locker room, defenseman Brandon Montour, brought up home-ice advantage without even getting asked about it in the post-game media scrum.

“I like how the guys have kind of come together here [in the first five regular season games],” said Montour, who scored his first Kraken goal in the Philly win. “And a big thing, too, is home ice. Home ice is important. The more we can feel good at home with the fans on our side, the more we can collect wins. Home ice makes it more dangerous to play against us.”

Coach Dan Bylsma said the players took the initiative to talk about making this homestand about creating home-ice advantage: “The guys talked about it before the game. Obviously, Game 1 versus St Louis didn’t go our way. We’re pleased with the road trip and winning two out of three at some tough spots. But the focus before the game from the guys was we’ve got to make this a hard place to play. We got to we got to win hockey games here at home … We’re starting a [five-game] homestand here. There’s no better time than the present to start that.”

Two: Scoring Depth Has Generated Heavy Team Stats

Eighteen Kraken players have notched at least one point over the first five games. Four players, Jared McCann (3 G, 4 A), Jordan Eberle (4 G, 2 A), Ryker Evans (1G, 3 A) and Andre Burakovsky (four assists) are averaging at least one point per game. Seven more players have some combination of goals and assists to total three points. A dozen Kraken have scored a goal. Thursday’s second period featured four goals, including two goals scored eight seconds apart. More of the same playing fast will be needed against a visiting Flames squad.

“That was probably our best second period of the year so far, playing fast, playing north,” said Dan Bylsma. “Great couple of plays with quick-up [transition] and into the rush play … just a lot of a lot of speed, a lot of energy, back the other way toward to opponent’s end. When you do that, it allows players to play with skill.”

One note: Vince Dunn did not practice Friday.

Three: Know the Foe – Calgary is 4-0-0 with Red-Hot Scoring

Calgary traded Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov, plus forward Elias Lindholm midseason last year, then traded forward Andrew Mangiapane and goalie Jakob Markstrom over the summer. But the rebuild mentality has not come with losses yet. The Flames arrive with wins over Vancouver, Edmonton, Philadelphia and Chicago. They have scored the fourth-most goals (19) in the league in just four games, with a goal differential of plus-9. Left Wing Jonathan Huberdeau has three goals and three assists after two so-so seasons for the Flames. Defenseman Rasmus Andersson has two goals and four assists. Second-year forward Martin Pospisil (1G, 4 A) will face the Kraken for the first time since his hit shortened Kraken D-man Vince Dunn’s season last year. That will be something to monitor, along with how well the Kraken and starting goalie (the guess here is Joey Daccord, but check back on the Kraken app and website Saturday for updates) can prevent too much Calgary puck possession and high-danger scoring chances while keeping their own hot scoring on high.