from Larry Stone of the Seattle Times,

The Stanley Cup playoffs are truly a singular event — some would say the most intense, exciting and agonizing postseason tournament in North American sports. In other words, an absolute blast, the sort of spectacle the Kraken’s Founding Fathers and Mothers no doubt envisioned to buoy them in their darkest days during the laborious fight to land a team and build an arena.

That it took just two seasons to arrive is remarkable, even with the recent example of their expansion predecessor, the Vegas Golden Knights, reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season. That always seemed an unreasonable comparison, a point driven home when the Kraken posted a 27-49-6 record in their inaugural season, 30^th out of 32 teams in the NHL.

There was grumbling that general manager Ron Francis was too timid in his team-building, but this season has been a vindication of his methods. To reach the playoffs in their second season is a testament to his vision; when juxtaposed against the 21 years between playoff berths for the Mariners, a one-year drought is an acceptable amount of suffering for Kraken fans.

And now come the spoils — the potential for eight weeks of incredible tension and indelible memories. If you want to be a stickler for accuracy, it’s been a 103-year drought. But there aren’t any known surviving viewers of the playoff dynasty of the Seattle Metropolitans, who won the Stanley Cup in 1917, tied for the Cup in 1919 (when a pandemic forced its cancelation in midstream; good thing we never had to worry about that again); and lost in five games in 1920.

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