Kraken Starting To Play Bigger 

We’re coming up on 15 years ago this summer when my future wife, Amy, who was embarking on a business trip, phoned me in a baseball pressbox from SeaTac Airport saying she had somebody special to put on the line.

Turns out, a friend who ran one of the airport lounges was handling a hockey VIP traveler that day and had introduced him to her. Next thing I know, Amy passed her cellphone over to Gordie Howe, who said to me: “Somebody told me this lovely young lady traveling all by herself for some reason needed company.”

To which, ever the quick wit, I replied: “Better watch it, I also know how to throw some elbows.”

Howe got the reference immediately as we both laughed. Known as a master gentleman off the ice – a reputation confirmed during our five-minute phone chat – he wasn’t exactly Wayne Gretzky-like in compiling 801 career NHL goals for Detroit and Hartford.

Look up “Gordie Howe Hat-Trick” for confirmation he didn’t need others to do his fighting for him. In fact, Howe had such a mean streak behind his highly skilled game he often didn’t even have to drop his gloves. Opponents knew if they took physical liberties in the corners, they risked an all-expenses-paid trip to the planet of their choosing courtesy of an errant Howe elbow to a noggin not yet protected by helmets or visors.

Which brings us to the Kraken, still playing a game of hockey that hasn’t changed much when it comes to intimidation and imposing physical will. Sure, players don’t fight nearly as often. But they will get pushed around if shying away from “dirty work” needed to win puck battles and score goals.

One very positive Kraken development of late has been the team’s increase in size up front and willingness to partake in the physical stuff against some of the NHL’s bigger teams.

Between 6-foot-1, 215-pound Kaapo Kakko and recently promoted 6-foot-4, 220-pound Jani Nyman, the Kraken now have more size on the top three lines than at any time in their history.

Kakko has already reached a career high 41 points and told me this week he’d like to improve his game further by positioning himself net front for better scoring chances.

“I mean, that’s something I think I need to do more – getting to the net,” Kakko said. “I feel I’m outside and at the corners and behind the net a lot – where I feel I can find somebody else over there (to pass to). But if you want to score more goals, you’ve got to get to the net more. I think that’s still something I can be better at.”

Throw in the likes of 6-foot, 207-pound Jacob Melanson and 6-foot-3, 223-pound John Hayden – potential fourth line candidates for next season – and you’ve got significant girth to choose from on the bottom trio as well.

And toughness isn’t all about size. Guys such as Eeli Tolvanen “play bigger” with a bit of a mean streak to their game. Tolvanen’s home country of Finland has developed a reputation for combining skill and grit on their national teams and the Kraken, given their bevy of Scandinavian and European scouts, are now well represented with such players at the NHL level and beneath.

Beyond Finnish fowards Kakko, Nyman and Tolvanen, the Kraken also boast 6-foot-5, 205-pound AHL defenseman Ville Ottavainen, who could start seeing NHL action next season. And there’s Finnish-born Everett Silvertips center Julius Miettinen, a 6-foot-4, 207-pound potential future NHL power forward taken by the Kraken in the second round of last summer’s NHL Draft.

And let’s not forget non-Finnish players such as the forward drafted right after Miettinen last summer, Nathan Villeneuve, a 6-foot, 194-pound ball of chaos playing junior hockey for the Sudbury Wolves. Villeneuve grew up idolizing and emulating Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, the brothers almost singlehandedly responsible for triggering more fights in the first nine seconds of the USA-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off event last month than typically seen in a year’s worth of international tournaments.

So, the Kraken right now and in years to come will likely be shaping up far differently in terms of the physicality still required in today’s highly skilled NHL. None of the Kraken players will ever be remotely Howe’s equivalent at goal scoring but it’s more the mindset being sought here.

Some of that was on-display in the Kraken’s recent two-game series against the Dallas Stars, when they went toe-to-toe throughout with a team picked by many to win the Stanley Cup this spring.

The Stars won both games, but each was a one-goal affair entering the third period.

And the Kraken did at least attempt to match one of the NHL’s biggest teams in physical play; scoring both goals in each game up at the net front – one by Tolvanen and the other by Kakko.

Generally, the net front is where players fear to tread against Dallas: Hardly a surprise given a Stars defense comprised of 6-foot-3, 211-pound Thomas Harley, 6-foot-2, 200-pound Ilya Lubushkin, 6-foot-3, 217-pound Esa Lindell, 6-foot-3, 210-pound Cody Ceci, 6-foot-7, 231-pound Lian Bichsel and the weakling of the bunch, 6-foot-1, 185-pound Matt Dumba.

Yeah, that’s a whole lot of Texas beef. And anyone not in the market for a new back tattoo with “CCM” or “Bauer” or “Sherwood” on it often thinks twice about getting anywhere near goalies Jake Oettinger or Casey DeSmith.

But the Kraken ultimately did go there, especially in the second game. Finishing off scoring opportunities is another story, and the Stars certainly capitalized on theirs more than the Kraken.

That’s something the Kraken must continue to work on both with the current group and expected additions this summer. But they showed a willingness to create opportunities close in – and to pay the price for doing so.

Another possibility for next season’s fourth line, pending unrestricted free agent Mikey Eyssimont, is only 6-foot, 191 pounds but didn’t back down from a fight in the first game with defenseman Bichsel -- who had seven inches and 40 pounds on him. Again, toughness isn’t all about sheer size as much as a mindset.

Eyssimont may have been the best player on the ice in a subsequent 5-0 win Thursday night in Vancouver, scoring once, hitting a crossbar and wreaking general havoc. The Kraken didn’t back down physically against the Canucks, with newcomer Nyman, in particular, giving back as good as he took during one jostling corner scrum.

Having a mean streak worked for Gordie Howe enough to keep bullies at bay as he deployed elite skill to become the NHL’s third all-time goal-scorer. And the Kraken hope a similar combination of skill and a mindset to throw added weight around gets them enough goals to tilt some close affairs in their future direction.