Kraken drop puck on season, invite fans to 'play hooky for hockey'

Kate Shefte, The Seattle Times on Oct 7, 2024

Published in Hockey

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SEATTLE — Bright and awkwardly early Tuesday, the bounce-back bid begins. The Seattle Kraken will open the 2024-25 season at home with another playoff bid in their distant sights.

“We got punched in the mouth last year,” veteran Jordan Eberle said. “I hope that we respond with a good start this year.

“I trust in the leadership and the character of this group. Tomorrow’s the time to prove it.”

Getting Seattle sports fans to part with their money is one thing. PTO could be another.

The New Jersey Devils kicked off the regular season over the weekend with two wins over the Buffalo Sabres in Prague. The Kraken will launch the North American portion of the schedule, the first time in their four-year history they’ve opened a season at home — with a catch.

Twenty-four hours before puck drop, tickets started at $40 on Ticketmaster. That’s cheap for Climate Pledge Arena and no doubt due to the 1:30 p.m. weekday start time. The game is nationally televised, the first part of an ESPN triple-header. The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and debuting Utah Hockey Club, with their powerful plotlines, nabbed the later, more favorable time slots.

Luring behinds into arena seats instead of office chairs or school desks has been part of a marketing push: “play hooky for hockey.”

Anyone willing to part with a sick day will witness the start of a new chapter for the franchise. Dan Bylsma, a Stanley Cup champion coach in 2009, was elevated from the Kraken’s minor league affiliate to become the NHL club’s second head coach.

Beside him is Jessica Campbell, the first woman hired to be a full-time assistant coach at this level. Much-discussed 2022 fourth overall draft pick Shane Wright secured a roster spot and is set to center the third line between Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen.

Top-line center and former rookie of the year Matty Beniers, just 21 years old, was locked down for seven more years and is unburdened by contract talk. Free-agent pickup Brandon Montour, with his offensive inclinations and power-play chops, is injecting “mojo” into the lineup, per Bylsma. Whatever that means.

Volume, energy and smiles, Montour theorized. “A positive kind of swagger” and an ability to convince others to get on board.

Eberle guessed everyone was antsy and nervous. Some are just ready to get going. Paired with Jamie Oleksiak and wearing No. 62, Montour will make his regular-season Kraken debut along with Chandler Stephenson (No. 9), another pricey offseason acquisition.

“I’ve played enough big games in my career that the butterflies and nerves are kind of gone,” Montour said. “That’s just kind of a strength that I have.

“But in the end, it’s still hockey, and you should be excited.”

On the other bench Tuesday are the St. Louis Blues, the best performing team on the wrong side of the playoff cutoff last spring. They missed by six points, 11 ahead of the 34-35-13 Kraken. Drew Bannister, who took over for Craig Berube in December, had “interim” removed from his title and was named head coach in May.

There’s no film available, no previous game to pore over. Now more than ever, as the adage goes, the Kraken can only control what they do.

“We have to establish how we play and what kind of team we’re going to be every opportunity we get,” Bylsma said.

They spent the past three weeks installing, trimming and adjusting, with the aim of being a faster, deeper Kraken. Since finishing the preseason 2-3-1, the Kraken have been tuning up and getting their minds right. An October in the black would go a long way toward their greater ambitions.

Bylsma said he once had a coach who insisted that the plan was to win each of the 82 games. To sweep the six-month NHL regular season.

“And I just don’t think that’s really realistic,” Bylsma quipped.

“But I think the goal for me as a coach is to have the opposition know exactly what they’re going to get from us every night, how we’re going to compete. So that they are talking about how we play. They know what to expect from the Seattle Kraken every night.”

Notes

— General manager Ron Francis recently hinted that before the Kraken season started, they wanted to name a new captain after going without for two-plus seasons. If they meet that deadline, it will be by the skin of their teeth. The day before the opener, there was no announcement. Bylsma said the same four players — Eberle, Yanni Gourde, Jaden Schwartz and Adam Larsson — would wear letters, but did not specify or elaborate.

— Since ESPN is running the show Tuesday, the prime-time debut of the Kraken’s new, self-produced, over-the-air ROOT alternative will be Game 2 on Saturday.