100 and Counting on Many More

One hundred is an undeniable number in sports. Even if some coaches and athletes choose to insist every team member must give “110 percent,” the math does not lie. The maximum effort any Kraken player can give on any shift is 100 percent, no debate.

All of that no-more-to-give effort from the Kraken has now yielded a different 100, as in the number of regular-season wins in nascent Kraken franchise history after Monday’s dramatic victory over Pacific division and wild-card rival Calgary. There are a lot of cheers and chill-bumps and anaerobic end-of-shifts that go into reaching the triple-digit category under ‘W’. Here are some facts and favorites about the first 100 wins, with many more anticipated in games and seasons ahead (if you have more, let us know at [email protected]):

Dousing the Flames for Century Mark

Dave Hakstol head-coached his 500th NHL game last Thursday, getting the win with a 2-0 shutout of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Before the game, when asked about the 500-game achievement, Hakstol, no surprise, said the most monumental game was the next one to be played. That next game, for a brief interlude, is Seattle’s 4-2 road win over Calgary, jumping the Flames in the wild-card standings and concluding the season series at two wins apiece.

The flair of the 100th victory is only fitting – Kraken franchise cornerstone players Yanni Gourde (18 games) and Adam Larsson (20 games) broke goal droughts. Larsson has appeared in every victory and Gourde, the inaugural season’s Fan Favorite award winner. Both kept executing all of the small details game in and game out, shift in and shift out that led to wins and winning a playoff series.

About that playoff series: Beating Colorado in a seven-game series last spring tabbed the Kraken as the only NHL expansion franchise (there have been 26 of them) to eliminate the Stanley Cup champion in their first-ever postseason series. Those seven games and the seven more hold-your-breath games with Dallas in the second round are not part of the official count of 100 franchise wins (a cleaner method for comparing historic team and player stats is to keep regular seasons as the main denominator), but Kraken fans aren’t likely to forget those sweet seven victory nights last spring any time soon.

First Win at Climate Pledge Arena

After a historic first win at Nashville in Game 2 of the inaugural season, the next win unfolded in the second game ever played at Climate Pledge Arena, a soothing 5-1 rollover of the storied Montreal Canadiens.

Lots of fun facts: Brandon Tanev scored two goals and was leading the Kraken with five goals in the first seven games while veterans and alternate captains Yanni Gourde and Jordan Eberle scored their first-ever goals in a Kraken uniform.

Best Matinee Win

Kraken play-by-play man extraordinaire and future Hockey Hall of Famer John Forslund counts Martin Luther King Jr. Day during the inaugural season among his favorite Kraken wins, with the now-retired Joonas Donskoi sealing the victory in a shootout. The holiday crowd set a high bar for crowd noise that players around the NHL were already naming as one of the loudest in the league.

“That was our first-afternoon game,” said Forslund. “It was a magical afternoon, the Kraken crowd was electric.”

... And the Streaks

The aforementioned Forslund is too modest to say his own talking bobblehead night was a highlight. But the collective we here at the Kraken, especially any of us who sit on the press bridge within happy earshot of Forslund’s clear and strong game call, firmly consider that 4-2 win over Nashville on Nov. 2 with 33 Philipp Grubauer saves and thousands of fans pushing “That’s Kraken hockey, baby!” button as a top memory.

Instead, along with MLK Day, Forslund referenced “the streaks.” Take your pick: the nine games in a row this season and its accompanying 13-game point streak that vaulted fans into rooting for a second straight postseason. Or maybe you prefer the seven-game road trip sweep that finished with an 8-5 victory in Chicago on Jan. 14, 2023. It marked Seattle as the first franchise in the NHL or NBA history to sweep a road trip that long.

The nine straight wins this season were quite a way to celebrate the winter holidays, starting with a Dec. 20 win over Los Angeles, then defeating Anaheim, Calgary, Philadelphia, Vegas, Ottawa, Buffalo, Washington and finishing with a Jan. 13 victory at Columbus. Six were road victories with a memorable three-game homestand sandwiched in between. The point streak started Dec. 12 with ensuing wins over Florida and Chicago, then close losses to LA (shootout) and Dallas (overtime), making it an 11-0-2 record during that span 

About the seven-game road sweep: That Jan. 14 finale started at 1-1 with the Kraken then scoring five unanswered goals in three minutes, 41 seconds. It ranks as the 15th-fastest sequence of all-time (dating back to 1917) in which a team has scored five goals, according to NHL records. Cherries on top: Jared McCann notched a hat trick and recently named All-Star Matty Beniers scored his sixth goal in seven games.

One more streaky note: The Kraken hooked a Jan. 1, 2023 win over the New York Islanders to make it an eight-game winning streak last season, which broke the franchise record of seven games set earlier during the second season.

Overtime Thriller in Dallas

Kraken analyst Eddie Olczyk pondered his most memorable Kraken victory now in his second season with the team. He gave it a few extra seconds to catalog the wins. Then he had it, Adam Larsson scoring in overtime at Dallas last April after the Stars tied the game with less than a second left on the game clock.

It was a back-and-forth game,” said Olczyk. “It was worth even more than the two points. I remember talking to Larsson after the game or on the trip and said, ‘You need to talk to Hak about getting your [breakaway] in the next shootout.’ “

The win in Dallas, compliments of Larsson backhanding the game-winner two minutes into overtime, secured Seattle’s lead in the first wild-card spot (which the team secured with three of four points in the next stop, Nashville, and clinched with a subsequent win over Arizona). For the record, Brandon Tanev scored two goals that night, and Joey Daccord called up on an emergency basis, made 25 saves in a harbinger of big nights to come this season.

Overtime in Overdrive, Beniers Scores in Seven Seconds

Kraken analyst JT Brown offered up another overtime thriller as his favorite win, a Dec. 1, 2022 home victory. Yanni Gourde, Brown’s former teammate with the Tampa Bay Lightning, scored with two-and-a-half minutes left to tie the Washington Capitals at 2-2 when regulation ended. Dave Hakstol sent out rookie Matty Beniers to take the opening faceoff.

Seven seconds later, Beniers was blading the puck past Caps veteran goalie Darcy Kuemper for an unassisted and can’t-make-this-up OT winner. It marked a seventh straight Kraken win, a franchise record at the time.

“I think the Winter Classic, obviously, for the magnitude of the game,” said Brown when asked about his favorite Kraken win of the 100. “But for me, I think of the OT win versus Washington last year. Matty scored right off the face-off. I was in between the benches and it may have been the loudest I’ve ever heard Climate Pledge Arena.”

Take Me Out to the Classic

Of course, no 100-win memoir is complete without the 3-0 shutout at the Mariners ballpark with a capacity crowd of 47,313 on the perfect weather day. There are so many fun moments, here’s a couple, there are many more:

• Early morning the Kraken players arrive in bright orange Mackinaw wool fisherman’s overalls and matching orange caps (kudos to Filson) with the flaps that pretty much make the whole get-up.

• The Kraken take the ice to thunderous cheers, heading out of the Mariners dugout at the ballpark, while eight fishmongers, in pairs, toss salmon over the players’ heads in a please-don’t-drop-it canopy.

• Bellevue High freshman Nikhil Bagga plays the national anthem on his guitar, hitting all the notes, to rousing appreciation as Naval Air Station Whidbey Island helicopters fly overhead with two aircrewmen hanging from ropes.

• Joey Daccord finishes with 35 saves and the first-ever Winter Classic shutout. Hard to count the number of "Joey! Joey!” serenades from the crowd, which included a celebratory bullpen golf cart ride with mascot Bouy (arms draped) to deliver the rookie goaltender to the TNT post-game set.

To the Fans and Kraken Organization

JT Brown’s assessment signals his usual deep and thoughtful approach to explaining plays and players to Kraken fans alongside John Forslund and, for the last two seasons, Eddie Olczyk. He couldn’t overlook the obvious of the 100 Seattle wins to date, because some 48,000 at the Mariners ballpark is hard to overlook. Yet he went to the noise and fervor of the nightly home crowd at Climate Pledge Arena. Fitting because it has fueled those 100 wins, even when the victory comes on the road. The players and coaches know it and they feel it.

“We're in the fight here,” said Dave Hakstol after Monday’s win in Calgary, emotions flowing beyond the final score. “The most important thing is the two points tonight. But there will be time to reflect back on the 100 wins. I hope everybody within the organization feels a lot of pride in it ... I hope everybody in the organization that's worked extremely hard to make that happen feels their contributions and feels a lot of pride.”