MONTREAL — Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour and his somewhat snakebit teammates had come to this city hoping to play more aggressively and rediscover some offense gone missing of late.

And offense they got in bunches Tuesday night, though it’s doubtful Montour expected his team to score the fastest four goals from the opening faceoff in franchise history by the midway point of the first period. Nor was it likely Montour thought ahead of time that five of the goals in this eventual 8-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens would come from defensemen, three by him for the third “hat trick” in franchise history and others from Jamie Oleksiak and Ryker Evans.

Montour also picked up an assist to finish the night with four points. Chandler Stephenson picked up four points of his own, all assists, while Jaden Schwartz ended his night with three points. The three defensemen scoring in one game was a Kraken franchise record, as were the five combined goals by blueliners, while Montour’s four points broke the Kraken mark held by Vince Dunn.

It’s been a while since the Kraken enjoyed a cakewalk type of game such as this one. Oleksiak and Evans scored on the first two shots of the night against porous Montreal goaltender Sam Motembeault, followed by two more from Schwartz and Oliver Bjorkstrand by the time the Kraken had taken just their eighth shot.

Bjorkstrand’s goal at the 10:33 mark off a nifty steal behind the net and pass out front by Schwartz was easily the nicest of the four and gave Kraken goalie Joey Daccord a lead he could cruise with in making his third consecutive start. Montreal got one back from Cole Caufield toward the period’s end but then Montour notched his first of two early in the second period on the Kraken’s 10^th shot of the night to chase Motembeault in favor of backup goalie Cayden Primeau.

But the goals kept coming as Montour headed for the net front a few minutes later and slammed home his own rebound off a nice cross-ice pass by Oleksiak. The assist was Oleksiak’s second point of the night while Schwartz also assisted on the play for his third point.

While the eight goals were as many as the Kraken had managed their last four games combined, it was difficult to tell how much of it was due to their work versus the struggles of Montreal’s starting goaltender. It was the second time in 10 days that Motembeault had yielded a four-spot in the opening period of a Bell Centre game, with the New York Rangers taking him down a couple of Saturdays ago.

Still, the result was more than welcomed by the Kraken, who improved to 5-4-1 to launch a tough, five-city road trip. Kraken coach Dan Bylsma had put his charges through some heavy-duty drills here Monday, emphasizing plenty of one-on-one physical matchups designed to bring out their competitiveness.

And the Kraken did, in fact, go to the front of Montreal’s net with purpose from the get-go. The Oleksiak goal just 25 seconds into the game came on a rather harmless puck thrown toward the net that banked in off a defender’s skate as he tangled near the net front with Eeli Tolvanen.

And then the Evans goal a few minutes later came on a 64-foot wrist shot from the same left point that found its way through a partial screen by Matty Beniers and ended up in the net.

Schwartz made it 3-0 on the power play by heading to the slot to one-time a pass from Chandler Stephenson, who’d made a nice end-to-end rush that ended with him behind Montreal’s net ahead of centering the puck back out front.

Montour’s third goal was a power play effort in the third period, one-timing home a Jared McCann pass to the right circle. It was the first “hat trick” for a Kraken defenseman and the first of Montour’s career, with prior three-goal efforts by Jordan Eberle at home in November 2021 and McCann in Chicago in January 2023.

Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson reacted from the bench as Montour’s third goal went in, tossing his helmet onto the ice in a celebratory gesture typically performed by fans throwing hats and caps from the stands.