SEATTLE — Line changes are a part of the life cycle within an NHL season. Whether because of injuries, roster moves, underperformance or sometimes overperformance, there is an inevitability that through the season the parings of forwards or defenseman are undoubtedly going to change.

With that as background, it was notable what happened at Kraken practice on Wednesday when just seven games into the season coach Dan Bylsma put the combinations of his forwards into a blender and spit out an entirely new set of groupings.

It was a continuation of the third period in Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss to Colorado when Bylsma juggled his line combinations as the Kraken were chasing the game and trying to rally from a two-goal deficit against the Avalanche.

Making the changes against Colorado didn’t work as the Kraken’s three-game win streak ended. Bylsma is hoping the line shifts will spark some more offensive consistency beginning with Thursday’s game against Winnipeg, the only remaining unbeaten team in the NHL.

While the Kraken do have three games of five or more goals this season, the past two games have yielded two goals in each.

“I think it’s still a search. We don’t want to take away from how we played in the first period (against Colorado), but I think there’s things we can also do better from team standpoint and an individual standpoint,” Bylsma said. “The change in the lines in the game a little bit in the second half of the game, and that was in an effort to search for a little better combination, a little better continuity, and that’s what the change in the lines are today.”

Among the changes the Kraken made, two stood out. First was reuniting the trio of Yanni Gourde, Eeli Tolvanen and Oliver Bjorkstrand, which for stretches of the past two seasons has been the best Kraken line. According to Moneypuck.com, that line had the most ice time last season for the Kraken and was second the previous season despite playing just 40 games together.

“Two seasons ago, they were one of the best third lines in the game if you want to label them one, two, three, four,” Bylsma said.

Gourde had started this season playing with Brandon Tanev and Tye Kartye on what was essentially the fourth line for the Kraken, although they’ve been the trio to regularly start games.

Gourde noted the importance of “predictability” in the linemates that you’re playing alongside. It comes with time and repetition and is something he thinks will pick up quickly being back with Tolvanen and Bjorkstrand.

“It’s big. You got to find your automatics, your auto plays and it makes you look fast, because when you have those you don’t have to think as much. You don’t have to see what’s coming or where the guys are,” Gourde said. “Obviously there’s reads and a bunch of stuff. But if you have your automatic plays, when you don’t have time and space and you don’t see what’s going on, then you can just rely on those and then it makes you look faster, it makes you play with the puck more.”

The other notable move Bylsma made was putting Matty Beniers back at center with Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann on his wings. That group had been centered by rookie Shane Wright, but Beniers has struggled to get his offensive game going. He has just one assist and no goals through seven games, which looks somewhat similar to last season when Beniers had only three points through the first 11 games and didn’t score his first goal until game No. 14.

According to Moneypuck, the McCann-Beniers-Eberle pairing led the Kraken in ice time two seasons ago and last season had the second-most ice time of any Kraken line.

The rest of the line changes included Wright at center with Kartye and Andre Burakovsky on the wings, and the trio of Chandler Stephenson flanked by Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Tanev. Bylsma said he doesn’t view his lines in a sequential order considering Seattle reliance on depth

“It’s typical for the season that you’re not going to see the same line every game, so we’ve had a couple tweaks so far already and just trying to spark, maybe get a little bit more offense or different looks,” Schwartz said. “Every situation will be different, whether it’s matchups or try and get a couple guys some more looks on net, or shake it up. We got good depth, guys who played with each other throughout the last couple years. So something that we’re kind of used to.”

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