Eight Teams the Seattle Kraken Need to Own to Make the Playoffs
The Seattle Kraken had a big home win Sunday night against Washington. They are still a long way from earning enough points to reach the playoffs. Here are eight teams Seattle must dominate to get there.
On Sunday night, the Seattle Kraken righted their ship at the Greenhouse ending a two-week losing streak. After welcoming back former Kraken goalie Vitek Vanecek and limiting future Hall-of-Famer Alexander Ovechkin to a single goal, Seattle assured itself at least a series split this year against the Washington Capitals. Former Caps and current Kraken netminder Philipp Grubauer was relieved, as he said in the post-game presser.
“We had a couple conversations yesterday in the locker room. Everybody wants it…I don’t know how many games we lost- six in a row. Last game, it was seven nothing, and the fans cheer us on. It’s incredible. I’ve been in places where they throw beer cans at you! Just to have that support…We got to get going here….Tonight we went out there and played loose but tight at the same time. Smart.”
Over the past five full seasons, the average amount of points it takes to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs out of the Western Conference is 93. That’s a tall tentacle for this expansion team currently third-worst in the league, with only 11 points in 18 games. But all the Eastern Conference series splits are still on the table in this inaugural year.
Completing that goal would create 33 points from the East teams or over one-third of the way to playoff status. The extra point comes from Seattle’s overtime loss at Columbus on October 16th (16 Eastern Conference teams X 2 points per each team’s two-game series = 32 points + 1 point in from the OT loss to Columbus).
That still leaves two-thirds of a 93 point total. The Seattle Kraken must make up ground in their own bracket. At the end of April, eight conference teams will reach the playoffs, while the other eight watch them on television. Here are my early season picks of vulnerable Kraken opponents out West.