Playoff series would ignite rivalry between Canucks and Kraken
SEATTLE We've underscored how important this season was for the Kraken in terms of ingraining themselves within the city's sports mindset: of capitalizing on last spring's playoff momentum, boosting ticket values and local TV ratings.
Well, that hasn't been maximized, largely because of on-ice tribulations but also because this just wasn't that serious of a hockey town to begin with. Yeah, hearing that out loud stings, especially because we've had junior hockey for decades and pro teams at various points.
But making Seattle a true major pro hockey town amid modern-day competition was always going to require more than a basic foundation within the sport — an NHL team showing up and locals donning trendy Kraken merchandise. Until there's hockey buzz in Seattle during wintertime that at least can rival speculation about football teams that haven't played in nearly two months, or a baseball squad that's done little except tick people off since last fall, the Kraken have work ahead.
The good news is they also have a fast-track to increased exposure. We saw last year how much their journey through 14 post-season games and two rounds of playoffs seemingly woke newer fans up to the reality that they even had an NHL team.
And though that interest hasn't fully carried through to this season, a do-over playoff opportunity awaits a Kraken team that is battling St. Louis for the eighth and final Western Conference wildcard spot. Additionally, this year's playoff push is dangling an even bigger perk: the possibility of an opening-round matchup against the Vancouver Canucks.
Tonight's opponent at Climate Pledge Arena sits atop the conference. If the Canucks maintain that and the Kraken claim the second wild card, there you have it. A dream first-round classic.
Want to get locals excited about hockey? Seasoned NHL patrons will tell you nothing beats a heated regional rivalry.
Montreal-Boston is the NHL's undisputed rivalry champion with nearly a century's animosity and mutual respect going for it. But moving beyond Original Six matchups benefiting from time and history, or those relying on geographic proximity alone, some of the league's fiercest rivalries were birthed from playoff battles.
Think Detroit-Colorado and Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference final when Claude Lemieux broke Kris Draper's jaw. Or, Philadelphia-Pittsburgh and the 1989 Patrick Division final when the Mario Lemieux-led Penguins were ousted in Game 7 by a perennial Flyers playoff team in their first post-season showdown. Edmonton-Calgary saw their Battle of Alberta ignited in 1983 with the first of four playoff meetings in six seasons.
The all-New York Islanders-Rangers rivalry really got going during the 1975 preliminary round, when the upstart team from Long Island shocked the Manhattan-based Original Six Rangers in a decisive overtime game. And the Rangers' rivalry with the cross-river New Jersey Devils finally took off during several 1990s playoff showdowns.
More recently, we've seen the Los Angeles-San Jose rivalry jump-started with a 2011 conference quarterfinal matchup. In many ways, that's supplanted even the Kings' rivalry with their crosstown rival Anaheim Ducks, which has just a lone 2014 playoff matchup over three decades.
Tampa Bay and Florida had 30 years to get a rivalry going, but theirs didn't really start until their first playoff clash in 2020.
Being from Montreal, I can tell you the Canadiens and the Bruins squaring off in 34 playoff series since 1929 helped supplant the even more natural Montreal-Toronto rivalry. Also, that the Canadiens' rivalry with the now-defunct Quebec Nordiques at one point was probably more intense than anything the NHL had seen before or since. But it didn't start that way when the Nordiques joined the NHL in 1979. The rivalry really ignited during the 1982 opening playoff round, when the Nordiques pulled off a stunning upset on a decisive Game 5 overtime winner by Dale Hunter.
A decade ago, when talk of the NHL's imminent Seattle arrival gathered steam, I got to hear then-Canucks chief operating officer Victor de Bonis speak privately in Vancouver to a travelling group of Seattle business and political leaders about shared sports traditions between the Northwest cities. About how football fans from B.C. had adopted the Seahawks as their NFL team and routinely made the journey up and down I-5.
But what de Bonis was most interested in was a true Vancouver-Seattle rivalry. Back when de Bonis spoke, in early 2014, the Canucks' rivalry with Calgary and Edmonton had waned.
De Bonis and others felt a cross-highway rivalry could geographically supersede those with a mountain range of Canadian Rockies between B.C. and Alberta cities. You can drive between Seattle and Vancouver for games and be back home in bed that night.
De Bonis eventually left the Canucks and is now Kraken team president.
But the envisioned rivalry? That's yet to happen.
Yeah, folks got upset last season when Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers blindsided Matty Beniers. And sure, the Kraken have finally at least defeated the Canucks three times over a 10-game life span after dropping the first six. You can't have a “rivalry” when one team continually pounds on the other.
But a good rivalry usually needs a playoff series.
Especially given the modern NHL schedule. The Kraken haven't played the Canucks since splitting a pair of games a week apart three months ago. They arguably have more hate for the Colorado Avalanche after last spring's playoffs than the Canucks.
But that can change fast come playoff time. The Canucks are doing their part to make a playoff series happen. It's the Kraken that need to step things up and fulfil their end.
That alone should generate some local buzz tonight and pump the Kraken and fans into a playoff-like frenzy. If not, you have to start wondering what exactly it would take.