\u201cThat line has been very responsible, very good,\u201d Lambert said postgame after the Kraken beat the Predators to extend what\u2019s now become a season-changing seven-game points streak. \u201cThey started the game tonight. And with these games that we have coming up and the number of games that we\u2019ve all talked about in January, we\u2019re going to have to have everybody (contributing quality minutes). And I thought our minutes were fairly well distributed tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lambert was referring to the Kraken playing a league-record-tying 17 games in a single month, spaced over 31 January days. They are now 2-0-0 two games into that, courtesy of a 4-3 shootout win in Vancouver on Friday night that completed the team\u2019s second victory the last three tries on the tail-end of back-to-back contests.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll have another back-to-back this week on Monday in Calgary and then at home facing Boston the following night.<\/p>\n
And their fourth line, just as when facing Nashville and Vancouver, will be expected to play a key role.<\/p>\n
The Kraken always expected bigger things out of winger Winterton, taken in the same 2021 draft as Melanson only two rounds higher in what was seen as a bargain at the time. Many had felt him a possible second round selection ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting his junior hockey development.<\/p>\n
As for fourth line center Meyers, he\u2019d been up and down with the Kraken before without generating anything as eye-catching as what\u2019s now taking place. And Kartye had been a fourth line regular the past two seasons but without the unit enjoying the degree of success it has this time around.<\/p>\n
But the addition of Melanson has seemingly been the catalyst that\u2019s elevated this fourth line in a way the Kraken haven\u2019t seen since their playoff campaign three years ago. He\u2019s a ball of energy that admittedly hits everything in sight. His first game up with the Kraken three weeks ago, he registered four hits in the first period alone \u2013 more than all but one player on either team managed the entire game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, the way I play, I play physical and I bring energy,\u201d Melanson said at the time. \u201cAnd the easiest way to get into it is to get that first big hit. I felt much better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
This current fourth line unit isn\u2019t as productive in goal-scoring as that prior playoff trio from 2022-23. But it\u2019s better versed on the traditional defensive and forechecking roles expected from a fourth line.<\/p>\n
And still, they do generate their share of offense for a Kraken team that needs it a lot more than the prior high-scoring squad of three years ago.<\/p>\n
Melanson has an assist in each of the last three games for his first three NHL points. One of those was on a Meyers goal Friday night against the Canucks in which Winterton drew the primary assist. Two nights ago, against Nashville, Melanson and Winterton did some hard forechecking work behind the net to set up Jamie Oleksiak for what turned out to be the winning goal.<\/p>\n
And last Monday against the Canucks, it was Melanson streaking down the left side, outflanking a defender and setting up Winterton for a goal at the net front.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a feeling it was coming across,\u201d Winterton said. \u201cJust some good speed by (Melanson). Great vision to see me. I kind of saw their D get tangled up a little bit there and thought we had a break. And I was lucky enough to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThat line has been very responsible, very good,\u201d Lambert said postgame after the Kraken beat the Predators to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-389979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}