Doubted after a down debut, Kraken rise from the deep into the Stanley Cup Playoffs

Dave Hakstol walked into the Kraken locker room in the middle of his team’s biggest moment yet.

Seattle’s second-year NHL franchise had its debut 17 months earlier. But the Kraken didn’t truly arrive until Thursday night.

Their coach seized the moment to both motivate his team and put the accomplishment in a larger perspective.

“Let’s keep doing things that nobody outside of this room thinks that we can accomplish,” Hakstol told his players, via a video posted on the team’s social-media account.

“This is a big one. It’s check mark number one in terms of goals on the list.

“It’s really important for our fans. It’s really important for our city. It’s big for the state.”

The Kraken are, as Hakstol said to punctuate his postgame talk Thursday night inside the locker room at Climate Pledge Arena, “in the (frickin’) playoffs.”

Jared McCann scored off a scramble late in the first period. Seattle took advantage of an Arizona mistake for a second goal en route to a 3-0 lead. Then 20-year-old phenom and All-Star Matty Beniers scored on a breakaway early in the third period at packed, roaring Climate Pledge Arena.

The Kraken’s 4-2 win over the Coyotes clinched the Seattle franchise’s first postseason berth.

“Now the real fun starts,” Kraken goaltender Phillip Grubauer said after his 24 saves in Thursday night’s clincher.

“Playoffs, baby. PLAYOFFS!”

Unlike Beniers and many of the young Kraken players, Grubauer knows of which he speaks. The 31-year-old veteran of 11 NHL seasons from Washington to Colorado to Seattle has made 32 postseason starts in his career.

Grubauer has been with the Kraken since day one. He started the franchise’s inaugural game, Oct. 12, 2021. It was a 4-3 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights. He started the Kraken’s first home game 11 days later. That was another loss, to the Vancouver Canucks in the team’s splashy debut inside their palatial arena at Seattle Center.

That night was 13 1/2 years after the final game for the SuperSonics in old KeyArena, the building on the same site former Sonics owner Clay Bennett said was obsolete. Then the NBA and the City of Seattle let him move the team to Oklahoma City.

After Kraken losses mounted in front of raucous, sold-out crowds in their first year, most around the NHL and many even across Western Washington dismissed the team as a novelty. The franchise seemed years from serious contention that would warrant serious consideration.

“Everyone wrote us off from day one,” Kraken right winger Jordan Eberle told reporters, after his goal and two assists Thursday.

Well, those same Kraken just completed the best turnaround from year one to year two for a franchise in NHL history. It’s one of the best in Seattle sports history.

Thursday’s win left the Kraken with 44 wins and 26 losses, plus eight overtime or shootout losses this season. Those 96 points in the standings represent the best improvement from an expansion season to the second year of any team in NHL history.

Seattle finished its 2021-22 inaugural season with 27 wins and 60 points.

The previous league record for a second-season turnaround had been 26 points. It had been shared for a quarter century by the 1973-74 New York Islanders and the 1925-26 Boston Bruins.

Kraken in Seattle sports history

The Kraken stand among the most successful sports start-ups Seattle’s ever had.

Soccer’s Sounders are the only Seattle professional sports team in modern history to make their league’s playoffs sooner after starting than the Kraken just did.

The Sounders, formerly a second-division team, are one of the most successful start-ups in U.S. sports history. They went from 12-7-11 in their first year in Major League Soccer to 14-10-6 in year two. They made the MLS playoffs in their expansion season of 2009, and in each of their first 13 seasons in MLS ending last year.

The Sonics were 23-59 in their expansion season of 1967-68 and 30-52 in year two. They didn’t make the playoffs until their eighth season.

The Seahawks were 2-12 beginning NFL play in 1976, and 5-9 in year two. They also didn’t make the postseason until their eighth season.

The Mariners were 64-98 in the Major League Baseball expansion season of 1977, and even worse at 56-104 in year two. They didn’t make their first playoffs until their 19th season, featuring Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson and The Refuse to Lose team of 1995.

The Storm went 6-26 to begin play in the WNBA in 2000, and 10-22 in year two. They’ve done OK since then, with four league championships in 2004, ‘10, ‘18 and ‘20. They are one of only two teams to never lose a WNBA finals series.

In making the playoffs in their second season, the Kraken are mirroring their National Hockey League forebears from 108 years ago. The Seattle Metropolitans went 9-9 in their first Pacific Coast Hockey Association season, 1915-16. Then the Metropolitans had the league’s best record in season two, 16-8. The Mets became the first American team to win the Stanley Cup that 1916-17 season. They won the one-round postseason, beating the National Hockey Association-champion Montreal Canadians in four games of a best-of-five title series that ended in Seattle Ice Arena.

The Arena was built for $100,000 in 1915 in downtown Seattle east of what is now the Fairmont Olympic Hotel on University Street.

A banner for the Metropolitans’ Cup-winning season hangs over the ice and the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena — which was built in 2021 at a cost of $1.15 billion.

SEATTLE’S PRO SPORTS STARTS

1st season 2nd season 1st playoff appearance

SuperSonics NBA 23-59 30-52 8th season

Seahawks NFL 2-12 5-9 8th season

Mariners MLB 64-98 56-104 19th season

Sounders MLS 12-7-11 14-10-6 1st season

Storm WNBA 6-26 10-22 3rd season

Metropolitans PCHA 9-9 16-8 2nd season

What’s next

The tournament for one of the most revered trophies in sports.

The Kraken are closing in on the conference’s top wild card of two such entries into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As of Friday morning, with four games left in the regular season that ends April 14, Seattle had a seven-point (three wins plus an overtime game) advantage over Winnipeg and Calgary. The Jets and Flames were tied for the conference’s second and final wild-card spot.

The Kraken are in line to play the defending NHL-champion Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. All NHL playoff rounds are best-of-seven series, with the first two games at the better seed. Games three and four of the first round (plus a Game Six, if necessary) will be in Seattle.

The first Kraken home playoff games in franchise history will likely be over three days between April 20 and 27, depending on national television schedules set by the league with its networks.

“Very excited to make the playoffs,” said the 26-year-old McCann, who’s played in 12 playoff games over three postseasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2019-’21.

“Let’s keep the energy going.”