Trick or treat: Montour’s hat trick leads Kraken to 8-2 rout of Canadiens

Over the first three seasons of the franchise, only two players in Kraken history recorded a hat trick.

It took Brandon Montour all of 10 games to become the third to add his name to the list with the first of his career.

Montour’s natural hat trick was the highlight of another goal-scoring outburst by the Kraken in an 8-2 win over Montreal to open a five-game road trip on Tuesday night.

“I don’t remember the last time I scored a hat trick, so to score it at the NHL level and it’s always nice to get on the board like that,” Montour told reporters in Montreal. “This is a game that obviously you’ll remember and cherish it, and obviously enjoy it with the guys.”

Goals and points were plentiful throughout the lineup, but it was Seattle’s two big signings this offseason that came through with major performances as the Kraken (5-4-1) snapped their three-game losing streak.

Montour joined Jared McCann and Jordan Eberle as the third Seattle player with a hat trick. He finished with four points as Seattle’s blue line combined for five goals and eight points in the decisive victory.

“I think at times this year, we’ve been too much on the perimeter and we’ve been too much not a shooter’s mentality,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “There’s no secret about really scoring goals in this league, it’s you got to have shot volume, you got to have guys at the net, you got to have people in around the net. And it’s not just one guy, it’s two guys that can converge on the net and get the opportunity. Tonight, in the first (period) in particular, we were very good at that.”

While Montour was the star, Chandler Stephenson’s game shouldn’t be overlooked. The other big signing by Seattle had four assists in a game for the fourth time in his career, including a terrific feed from behind the net to Jaden Schwartz for Seattle’s third goal.

Bylsma was hoping the road trip would lead to a simpler and more direct style from his team after struggling the final three games of their homestand. He may not be entirely thrilled with how Seattle played in moments, and it took another strong performance from Joey Daccord in goal to keep the lopsided game from becoming a back-and-forth scoring onslaught.

But there will never be complaints about getting that many goals, including a four-goal flurry in the first period that started with Jamie Oleksiak’s first of the season just 25 seconds into the game.

“I think a lot of it was just getting pucks in the net. I think Ryker (Evans), Monty, myself got some point-shot goals there and I was talking about it in the intermission there, I think getting toward the net and that getting in the goalie’s eyes was a huge part of that,” Oleksiak told reporters.

Seattle eventually scored four times in the first 10 minutes, 33 seconds — the fastest four-goal outburst in franchise history and only the fourth time scoring four goals in the first period. The last time came in the 2022-23 season when the Kraken scored a franchise-best six goals in the opening period of an 8-5 win in Chicago.

The Kraken entered Tuesday with only five first-period goals this season, tied for 27^th in the league. Then they went and scored four times in barely 11 minutes.

Oleksiak received a fortunate deflection off Montreal’s Mike Matheson to start the scoring on the first shift of the game. Three minutes later, it was Evans with his third goal continuing his evolution into a more confident player with more responsibility playing alongside Adam Larsson while Vince Dunn is out for a couple more weeks due to injury.

The final two periods were all about Montour.

His first goal should have been saved by Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault and was the final shot he saw before getting replaced by Cayden Primeau. It was a low-danger chance from the blue line that appeared to be slightly screened but still should have been stopped.

Montour’s second was a designed play off a faceoff with Oleksiak making an excellent pass and Montour’s quick hands scoring on a rebound after the initial shot was stopped by Primeau.

His last came on a power play with 5:48 remaining, finishing off the hat trick and becoming the first Kraken defenseman with a four-point game. Eeli Tolvanen’s goal 62 seconds after Montour’s last was the final touch.

“Monty does it with a lot of flair, and that’s his personality and that’s what he brings to the room,” Bylsma said.

The only thing missing from this performance was seeing Shane Wright grab a goal in the building where two years ago he was thought to be the expected No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft by the Canadiens, only to fall to the Kraken at No. 4.

Daccord started his third straight game, the clearest sign that Bylsma may be done with the early experiment of rotating his two goalies on a game-by-game basis. The last time Daccord started three or more in a row was the middle of last season when he started eight consecutive games — a stretch that also included a gap for the All-Star break.

Daccord made 28 saves and was excellent in the first period when Montreal had more shots and enjoyed better scoring chances despite the lopsided score the other direction. Daccord’s best and most important save came when he denied Alex Newhook on a breakaway when it was still a 3-0 game.

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