Playoff hockey returns to Seattle for first time in over 100 years

SEATTLE — For the first time in more than 100 years, games contested in the quest for the Stanley Cup will be returning to Seattle.

Returning? Yes, returning. Surely you remember the 1919 Stanley Cup Final between the Seattle Metropolitans and Montreal Canadiens.

It seems unlikely anyone who was at the Seattle Ice Arena for those games 104 years ago will be under the roof of Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday night when the Kraken host the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 (10 p.m. ET, TBS) of their first-round series.

The series is tied 1-1 after Seattle earned an unexpected split in Denver against the defending Stanley Cup champions. Seattle took a 3-1 win in Game 1 and had an early two-goal lead in Game 2 before watching the Avalanche rally for a 3-2 victory to knot the series.

“I hope our fans are fired up for it because we will be,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said.

Those who do fill Seattle’s home building on Saturday night will be getting rewarded with the next chapter in the city’s hockey history. Acknowledging the past has been a staple of the franchise well before they were known as the Kraken – whether it was Seattle’s history with teams in leagues other than the NHL like the Thunderbirds, Breakers, Totems and Ironmen, and of course the Metropolitans.

Now comes the next chapter and a return to the springtime excitement that comes with the emotional roller coaster of a best-of-seven playoff series. The last time a Seattle franchise played in a seven-game series before this year was the NBA’s SuperSonics in 2005, when they lost to San Antonio in the Western Conference semifinals.

Eighteen years later, the Kraken are hoping to take fans on a similar ride and potentially expand a casual fan base that was soured by the disappointing results from Seattle’s expansion season a year ago.

“It can sound corny sometimes when you talk about the fans, but really think about the journey they’ve been on,” Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke said. “They’ve been with us the whole way. ... They didn’t know the team name. They didn’t know the players. They didn’t know the GM. They didn’t know the coach. They took this amazing leap of faith and now it’s payback time and it’s really an exciting thing.”