from Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times,

With apologies to those preferring slow, steady builds to an undefined future contention date, the Kraken’s road to a Cup Final may never be as wide open as now. If they played in the Eastern Conference they’d be 23 points out of the lead and trailing three other teams by six or more. But in the West, unlike the Colorado Avalanche compiling 119 points last season before winning the Cup, the Golden Knights entered Wednesday on pace for only 105, compared with 104 for Dallas and 103 for the Kraken and Kings.

The injury-slowed Avalanche, who the Kraken went 2-0-1 against this season, are on a 101-point pace. Colorado’s backslide has created opportunity: Namely, the home-ice advantage winning the conference would secure.

Now, studies suggest home ice matters less in the NHL than in other leagues — that there’s usually only a slight boost between a team’s regular-season home record vs. the playoffs. But there are rule advantages, such as gaining the final line change to match defensive stalwarts against top scoring lines.

Also, if the Kraken reach a Game 7, home teams win 58% of those, according to puckreport.com.

Plus, you’d think home-crowd energy in a debut playoff campaign would benefit the Kraken more than teams in markets that have seen it before. And a hyped-up crowd could fuel the Kraken’s physical play.

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