from Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times,
The trio of Climate Pledge Arena matchups presents an opportunity for the Kraken in their bigger, ongoing battle to define for local fans what type of team they’ll be. Establishing a stronger on-ice identity would be a step toward greater relevance in a market where their season debut was overshadowed by the playoff Mariners. They’ll also compete for attention in coming months with the surprising first-place Seahawks.
Through seven games entering Tuesday’s matchup against Buffalo, the Kraken showed signs of escaping their placement among the NHL’s bottom rungs. And that would be critical to making them a hotter ticket and filling some of the ample empty seats at an officially “sold out” home arena, where the Kraken failed to win their first three games.
But wanting it and actually going out and getting it done are different things.
This team is fast becoming a case study for glass-half-full, glass-half-empty factions. Optimists point to wins at Los Angeles and Colorado amid a .500 performance in five consecutive games against expected playoff squads as proof that the Kraken can contend all season.
And that ability to hang around, lending importance to games not just now but down the road in March and perhaps April, will be the true measuring stick for Kraken success. Expansion team or not, nobody running the Kraken expected them to perform as poorly as they did last season, and there is zero appetite within the fledgling organization for another campaign filled with struggles to build value in the product they’re trying to sell.
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