Like every other team in the NHL is about to start, tonight is game one of the regular season for the Seattle Kraken. That being said, game one has so much more meaning for this Kraken team and it's fanbase. Tonight is the inaugural game for the Kraken franchise. Fans in Seattle, the state of Washington, and beyond will be tuning in to watch. Hopefully this is a game that will be remembered for years to come.

Unfortunately, Seattle will be starting their season under less than ideal circumstances. The Kraken begin with a five game road trip, starting with Vegas, before going to Nashville, Columbus, Philly, and finally New Jersey. Their home opener will be next Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks. In my opinion this game should have been their home opener but for some reason the schedule gods decided to make that an Oilers and Canucks game. Stupid Oilers.

To make matters worse, a number of Kraken players may be out of the lineup due to COVID Protocols. Here are 5 things you should know going into tonight's game.

1) COVID Issues Already: On Monday it was announced that four more Kraken players were placed on the league's COVID protocol list. Calle Jarnkrok was already on that list but he is now joined by McCann, Oleksiak, Johansson, and Donskoi. This is a huge blow for the team early if all these players are unable to play tonight and could be even worse if they will end up needing to be off for a week or more.

2) Grubauer Starts: Philip Grubauer was brought in to be the defacto starter during free agency. Through pre-season Grubauer looked strong and if he can post close to his average of 0.920SV% than the Kraken will have a chance to win every night he is in net.

3) Who Scores First: This question is even more crucial knowing Seattle might be missing some key pieces up front. Someone should be scoring the first goal in franchise history tonight. Goal scoring was already a concern for this roster prior to these missing pieces. Hakstol needs to have full buy in from his roster and that means players are going to need to step up and help[ push the offense.

4) Playing Angry: Four years ago the Vegas Golden Knights entered the league with all the experts expecting them to be a bottom dwelling team. This Vegas team was filled with players who were essentially rejected by their former teams and cast off. That rag-tag group came together and proved their critics wrong. Tonight and moving forward this Seattle team has the same opportunity to prove themselves.

5) Barre-Boulet To Start: Seattle made a waivers claim, picking up 24 year old centre, Alex Barre-Boulet. Boulet has been a powerhouse in the AHL, putting up a 34 and 27 goal season in the AHL, while posting 8 goals in 10 games in the AHL last season. In 15 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Barre-Boulet posted 3 goals. BB (which I will now start calling him) is a young player who has shown great offensive upside and was placed on waivers simply due to a deep Tampa roster where they did not want him playing in a fourth line role. With the players out for Seattle, BB could find himself in the top six on opening night.

I'll post a Kraken lineup once we know more.

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