Seattle Kraken: Hockey 101 for Seattle sports fans
Seattle Kraken.
The Seattle Kraken is coming. This is part one of our series to educate sports fans but not necessarily non-die hard hockey fans. When the first puck drops, we’ll have everyone up to speed.
Editors note: The Seattle Kraken will join the NHL in 2021. While Pacific Northwest fans are passionate about their local teams, we realize not everyone is well-versed in hockey. Our resident local hockey expert Jonathan West begins a series designed to educate the casual fan.
When our editor asked me to write this basics guide, I knew it had to be more sophisticated than the “…for Dummies” book series. This city has a 100-year hockey history, about as many adult teams, seven local youth organizations, four junior/college teams, and a Stanley Cup. But in a town where Seahawks football is top billing and women’s sports claim yearly titles, how does the Seattle Kraken relate to our current Emerald City favorites?
It’s Like a Reign or Sounders Game, Just Frozen & Smaller
Soccer is the best Seattle pro sports example to explain the basics of hockey. Simply, players on each team are trying to score in the opponent’s net. Instead of grass, the playing surface is an ice sheet anywhere from .75-to-1.5 inches thick. Coolant lines will run under the Climate Pledge Arena floor to keep the Seattle Kraken home ice around 16-18° Fahrenheit.
The field of play is about half the size of the pitch at Century Link Field. Boards and glass surrounding the rink between 8-12 feet high keep the game as continuous as possible.
A hockey puck has 2 percent the volume of a soccer ball but has 40 percent of its weight. Hockey uses 19 or 20 players per game compared to 11-16 for footy, but only six are on the ice at one time. Besides wearing skates and using sticks to move around a “flat ball,” a hockey net has an area of 24 feet versus 96 in soccer.
Penalties in both sports result in odd-man advantages for the other team, but only for a short time in hockey. A player can score a goal with any part of their body in hockey, just as long as it’s not a kicking motion. There are offside calls in both sports, but in hockey, it’s about where the puck is located instead of the last defensive player. The best teacher, besides the new KIRO TV weekly series, is Peter Puck.