For Kraken, Magical Endings Must Be Written Nowhere But on the Ice

The Kraken are the best story in hockey right now. And while their series shifts to the road after a loss to Dallas, Seattle fans have at least one more shot to show they believe.

The best story in the NHL is here, of all the places and all the times. It’s unfolding inside Climate Pledge Arena, where stuffed tentacles attach to hundreds of arms and players skate atop a rink formed, in part, by recycled rainwater. Most of the narrative is delightfully city-specific, from the team name (sea monster, naturally) to the sustainability focus to the bandwagoners tripping over each other to overpay for playoff tickets.

The Kraken are that story. They are worth watching, too, for this season (seventh in the Western Conference), this run (competitive in these ongoing conference semifinals against the Stars) and the template they’ve provided for how to build a professional hockey franchise in a place where that was never supposed to happen.

Compelling narrative notwithstanding, anyone expecting Seattle to welcome Dallas in for another postseason fracas and roll over the Stars en route to the NHL’s final four … well, they’re new to this whole hockey deal. Don’t mistake that sentiment as an endorsement of the most tired thread in sports. The Kraken, like every team that wins anything these days, like to claim they are perpetually counted out and eternally doubted. If true, for a franchise in its second season, that makes some sense. But take a spin around Seattle. Find a doubter. Even one.

Doubt didn’t beat the Kraken on Tuesday night at home. Dallas did, 6–3, in a game that oddsmakers favored the Stars to win and evened the series at 2, in a season when they won more games than the Kraken and finished with more points and snagged a higher playoff seed. Any “doubt” stemmed from things like statistics, analyses, matchups and common sense. Reality was far simpler. This is postseason hockey. The Kraken, while young and deep and fast and talented, are intriguing, capable and yet, far from a sure bet.

Why not just live there, in the ongoing build to transform hockey in Seattle, the experiment ahead of schedule but uneven, as anyone outside of Las Vegas would expect? Or have the Kraken done so well, especially in this series, that they’ve lifted expectations beyond what can be met?

Dave Hakstol must. As the Kraken coach, he climbed behind a microphone only minutes after Game 4 ended. His white dress shirt remained crisp, his graying hair impeccably parted and goatee neatly trimmed, his sharp blue suit absent even a single wrinkle. He folded his arms in front of him and clasped both hands. His appearance seemed tailored to his mission. He must live in what is, not what will be or what never was. The Kraken took 10 total shots in the first two periods Tuesday. Hockey fever is great and all, but “not good enough,” Mr. Business Casual said.

This whole playoff scene has been normalizing, in real time, for Seattle hockey fans, whether new or old or moneyed, over the past few weeks. And the immersion process—brand new to olde(er) hat—continued Tuesday. The Kraken hosted their second-straight Western Conference semifinal contest: a franchise first. Fans jammed the streets outside Climate Pledge Arena half an hour beforehand. The procession featured adults in Kraken gear, children in Kraken gear and even two people clad in Kraken jerseys and dancing while balanced atop stilts. Inside, the stands filled slowly, with more giveaway towels than people holding them.

Seattle fans have gone all-in for their hockey team as the Kraken fight to stay alive in the NHL playoffs.  :: Stephen Brashear/USA TODAY Sports

Whether allowing for extra imbibing, the worst kinds of bosses or plans to arrive fashionably late on purpose, none of that mattered. The stakes did, elevating far above mere hosting. Win, and Seattle would add yet another milestone to a historic season—its first consecutive home playoff victories in franchise history. Even better: a 3–1 series lead; another first. Lose, and miss the chance to take a commanding advantage.

At that point, only one thing really mattered for Seattle hockey fans. Were Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe in the house? They were for both home victories this postseason, a pair of elite athletes-turned-good luck charms.

The outcome remained far from certain, all good luck welcomed, as fans continued to filter in. By the time the lights dimmed and introductions started, Apple watches pinged with “Loud Environment” alerts. Arena speakers played a voice-over; it unspooled like an answer to life’s meaning, missing only Morgan Freeman’s silky vocal intonations. Introductions unfolded with a neon Kraken structure being placed between the teams. First, the structure blinked; then, it lifted, from ice to ceiling. All of which begged a question: art exhibition or hockey game? Both?

Perhaps the pomp was necessary. The Kraken, for all their strengths, didn’t turn home ice into much of an advantage this season. Seattle’s victory in Game 3 marked only its second at home this postseason. Hence one reason why Dallas remained favored, even after the Game 3 trouncing, even on the road.

Not that pesky notions like expectations, odds or favorites would impede these Kraken, who made mockeries of preconceptions all season long. After the Stars’ dominant Game 2 win, after most pundits expected the momentum had swung back toward Dallas for good, Seattle returned home, regrouped, then bludgeoned the Stars in as convincing a fashion as at any other point this season.

Dallas could take solace in one fact, though. It trailed Minnesota, also 2–1, winning and losing the exact same games in its opening series. The Wild didn’t win again from there as the Stars advanced.

As Tuesday’s game approached, one question hovered over all others. Would Jared McCann play? Since Game 4 of the Kraken’s opening series against the Avalanche—after a brutal, controversial hit led to an undisclosed injury—Seattle’s leading scorer had not. That Seattle won without him, toppling the defending champs and twice beating heavily favored Dallas, made his return that much more enticing. And, in recent days, news of McCann’s recovery timetable was increasingly positive. He skated in practice wearing a noncontact jersey, graduated to gliding in a full-contact sweater and, as of Monday night, hoped to return for Game 4. Not being ruled out earlier seemed like progress.

McCann came out for warm-ups. McCann started. McCann took the Kraken’s first shot on goal. For an offense that had already netted 14 goals in three semifinals games, his presence projected even more.

Projections, of course, don’t score goals. “It’s tough jumping in after two weeks [out],” Hakstol said. The Stars held the Kraken scoreless in the first period while staking an early lead. Don’t blame Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer, though, even if local hockey fans seem to delight in getting all over the player they call Gru. Loathed last season—and tolerated, mostly, throughout this one—Grubauer has experienced everything in Seattle except, perhaps, a fair shake.

On Tuesday night, he swatted an early shot from Dallas, unimpeded, from mere feet away. He helped the Kraken kill another penalty, bolstering a welcomed playoff trend (Seattle had killed seven of eight penalties in the first three games against the Stars, good for the second-best percentage in the playoffs). Later in the first, he made another save, on another shot whipped from close range but not past him.

Perhaps he might catch a break from the local fan base? Perhaps not. At the 17:13 mark in the first, up against a power play, Dallas captain Jamie Benn slung a wrist shot right past him, transforming chants of Gruuuuuuuuuuu into boooooooooooos.

Elite defenseman Miro Heiskanen did play, despite injury concerns after a puck collided with his face in Game 3. When the second period began, rather than a puck to the chin, Dallas made an about-face. This time, the Stars netted the barrage. Thomas Harley made it 2–0 at 4:46, and Dallas extended its advantage with three more second-period scores (from Max Domi, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz). This time, when the middle stanza ended, the Kraken trailed, 5–1. “Tough spot to be in,” Hakstol said.

Seattle played a taped clip from Bird over the pair of Jumbotron. She urged fans to stand and roar, willing an epic comeback, more history.

It never came.

The Kraken did score, via a slap shot from Jaden Schwartz, his fifth goal this postseason. They nearly scored again, as the crowd, now full, many waving tentacles, rose and roared in unison. Seattle snuck in another late goal (15:49, Adam Larsson) to keep whatever delusional hope remained alive. But Sunday and Tuesday featured similar games from opposite vantage points. Welcome to playoff hockey, newbies.

“We were better everywhere than we were the game before,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “When we’re playing well, that’s what we look like.” The sentiment cuts both ways.

The Stars took Game 4 on the road to even their Western Conference semifinals series against the Kraken :: Lindsey Wasson/AP

Only the most optimistic of hockey heads watched the Kraken play last season and predicted anything like this. Injuries, shaky goaltending and COVID-19 combined with typical expansion-team problems (youth, limited ice time, so much newness) for a forgettable 2021–22.

Still, anyone squinting for positives could find them. The No. 2 pick in the draft, Matty Beniers, joined the Kraken near season’s end, flashing glimpses of the star he became this season. In the offseason, general manager Ron Francis signed key free agents (defenseman Justin Schultz, forward Andre Burakovsky, goalie Martin Jones) and traded with Columbus for Oliver Bjorkstrand. The Kraken claimed winger Eeli Tolvanen off waivers and gave journeyman scorer Daniel Sprong his fourth NHL home.

The moves, when combined, gifted Seattle uncommon depth. Over the course of this season, all four lines contributed; many saw the fourth line as equal to the third. This balanced (fourth in goals per game but without a single player in the top 58 in scoring), fast, youthful, defensive-minded, high-scoring roster won 19 more games than in its initial season, while collecting 40 additional points—good enough for a wild card in the Western Conference. A full 13 Kraken recorded at least 10 goals, as in Game 3 against Dallas, when seven players scored. The Kraken became the third team in NHL history to make the playoffs in one of their first two seasons.

Hakstol made the finalist list for the Jack Adams Award, hockey’s coach of the year honor. Beniers ranked among the NHL’s top rookies, as a finalist for the Calder Trophy. In 80 regular-season games, he bested all other rookies with 57 points and tied for the league lead in goals with 24. Progress, significant progress, all of it.

How about the NHL’s two most recent expansion teams, Seattle and Las Vegas? Both woke up Tuesday morning leading their respective series. An all-expansion conference final seemed possible, at least. Seattle’s Game 3 decimation of the Stars felt like a statement from the Kraken to the rest of the NHL. That Seattle, after knocking the defending champions out of the playoffs and taking a lead in the conference semifinals, with another game at home and its leading scorer coming back, belonged.

With McCann, anything seemed possible. But the very traits that elevated Seattle’s second-year hockey team beyond any reasonable expectation also seemed to unravel a night that promised so much more. The Kraken are young. They are new to the NHL playoffs. Hockey fever, glorious as it is, never guaranteed another win, not in Game 4 and not in this series, now headed back to Dallas, tied at two wins apiece.

“You never know what can happen,” Hakstol said. “Every shift, every play, every period matters.”

Progress beats the available alternatives, of course. There’s plenty of series remaining for Seattle to ride its seesaw-style postseason into the next round. But for hockey’s most fascinating story, Tuesday proved that magical endings must be written, game after game, week after week, nowhere but on the ice.