Seattle Kraken: Why the Kraken should feel good about their first game

The Seattle Kraken had its first game last night at the Fortress versus the Vegas Golden Knights. After a hard-fought game, the team fell to the Knights 4-3. But rest assured, this marks the beginning of a good franchise for Seattle hockey fans. Even though the team lost their first game, there are a couple of things to consider about the game that shows the Kraken has the ability to bounce back, and they shouldn’t be counted out, like so many are quick to do to an expansion team.

First: It was an away game for the Seattle Kraken

This may seem like a trivial point, but it was an away game for the Seattle Kraken, and that can be a big deal for a team. Especially a new team! A team with fans that might not have the passion enough to travel for the team, leaving them to perform in front of an audience full of the opposing team’s fans. There’s a reason that the winner of the President’s trophy gets a home-ice advantage — it works. (Unless you’re the Colorado Avalanche, but I don’t really want to talk about that right now…)

Home ice advantage is a huge thing for teams, and I suspect that once the Kraken get on Climate Pledge Arena ice, they’ll start winning and showing what they’re capable of. All you need for proof that away games are harder than home games is Philipp Grubauer’s performance in the first period. It wasn’t his best, to put it lightly, and had me wanting the Kraken to trade him back to the Avalanche and just go with Chris Driedger. But the team bounced back in the second period with two goals only 72 seconds apart from each other, the first by Ryan Donato and the second by Jared McCann. Grubuaer gained his footing and was able to keep the puck out of the net for the rest of the second period and the first half of the third.

Second: Coming back is what it’s all about

Even though losing your first game as a franchise is not the message you want to send, the Kraken played a game that is indicative of any good game for a team. They started off slow but came back to tie the game in the third, only to lose by one. Take out the loss, and you have what hockey’s all about. The drive for a win, the ability to come back after a 2-0 slump, tying the game, all of these things make for a great hockey game and show that the Kraken are not to be taken lightly by the NHL.

Maybe I’m too positive and just don’t want to believe that a team that holds two of my favorite players had a bad start. I’m not denying that a win would have been better for the team, and I wish they could have won over Vegas. But also, I truly believe that a loss is good for the team. It’ll get the team rallied and ready to win the next one now that they know what to expect after facing one of the hardest teams in the West.

We’ll see!