Aftershocks- The Seattle Kraken Offseason Begins
After knocking out the defending Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche, the Seattle Kraken advanced to face one of the most evenly matched opponents in the Western Conference. In facing the Dallas Stars the Kraken were pretty much looking at a mirror image of themselves. As mentioned in the Round 2 Series Preview, Dallas was the toughest matchup that the Kraken would face in the playoffs.
It may seem like a comment from a bitter fan, but looking at the remaining teams still in the hunt, I honestly believe that we could have taken any of them (Vegas, Florida, or Carolina) in 7.
Sounds very coulda, shoulda, woulda. I know. No sense in living in fantasyland. The season is over. We were beat by the best. Period.
Looking at the Dallas series, the Kraken were super impressive. The team that Brian Boucher claimed was “playing with house money”. I am not sure how he came to that. The Kraken earned and deserved getting to where they were. They were incredible in season 2. This series came down to 2 main elements; Dallas has star power, and Dallas had home ice.
The Kraken have what I still believe to be the best depth in the NHL this season. Hands down. What the Kraken lacked is a true superstar. An elite scorer, or elite goalie. That is not a slam on any of our boys. They were incredible this season and took their game up a notch in the postseason. Had the Kraken had a Roope Hintz, a Joe Pavelski, or a Jason Robertson (who was pretty much MIA in the series), they most certainly would have put Dallas away.
Phillipp Grubauer is an amazing goalie. He is the face of the franchise and is responsible for us getting to game 7 of round 2.
Home ice hasn’t been a real factor this postseason as the road teams have been equally dominate. This is until you play a game 7. Yes, we beat Colorado in Denver, in game 7, but Colorado is not Dallas. Colorado was the perfect first round match for the Kraken. The advantage in a Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken game 7 goes to the homes team. It was just so important to have home fans behind us. It was. Dallas came out with their fans behind them, firing on all cylinders. We looked flat. Excitable fans can do that to you.
Oh well, the season is over and we should be super excited about what the future holds. The team remained pretty silent at the trade deadline, not giving up top prospects or draft capital for rental players. We have majority of the team locked up for next season and beyond, and plenty of cap space to either make a few offseason upgrades and/or re-sign players like Vine Dunn (we will look at why this is in the next few posts). Be excited, be appreciative, and be happy that the Emerald City has NHL hockey.
We got our first taste of postseason play and that truly is what hockey is all about. Season 3 is around the corner. Can’t wait.
We turn the page to the offseason and what we can expect, get excited about, and what next season brings. Tomorrow we start our offseason. Thank you readers, this postseason has been fun!
Fear the deep!