History Made Tonight

It isn't often that history is written on the second night of playoff action, but the NHL saw a little history added to one franchise's time capsule. The Seattle Kraken played their first NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs contest tonight, and they were on the road in Denver where they met the Colorado Avalanche. Seattle has added a lot of firsts in their short history to date, but tonight's history came from a guy who didn't start the season wearing the stylized "S" on his chest and wouldn't wear the Kraken jersey until December 12, 2022. However, it's hard to argue that the addition of Eeli Tolvanen off waivers from the Nashville Predators hasn't been one of GM Ron Francis' best moves to date in improving the Kraken roster.

In 48 games with the Kraken after being waived by Nashville, Tolvanen had 16 goals and 11 assists. It's not quite Jared McCann numbers, but Tolvanen settled into the Kraken lineup and was solid at both ends of the ice, showing he can be an effective forechecker for Dave Hakstol as a member of the Kraken's second line. That forechecking skill came in handy tonight against the Avalanche.
Alexandar Georgiev was forced to move the puck quickly while the Kraken applied some serious pressure thanks to Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Tolvanen peeled off the right boards on the Devon Toews turnover where he was stopped once before burying his own rebound at 3:46 of the first period to become the first player in Seattle Kraken history to score in the playoffs!

The goal shown above is just Tolvanen's second playoff goal in his career which seems hard to believe, but, to his credit, he only appeared in seven playoff games with the Nashville Predators. The irony, though, is that both of his playoff tallies came against the Avalanche! His previous goal came on May 7, 2022 in Game Three against Colorado when he tied the game at 2-2 on the power-play at 5:41 of the second period in what would eventually be a 7-3 loss as the Avalanche went on to sweep the Predators out of the playoffs.

It was also a very big night for former Avalanche goaltender and current Kraken starter Philipp Grubauer as he stopped 33 of 34 shots in this game to earn Seattle's first playoff win. The only player to get a puck by him tonight was Mikko Rantanen midway through the first period before Grubauer locked down the Seattle net. In other words, it was a pretty good night for a guy that the Avalanche let walk as a free agent following the 2020-21 season!

While we saw the first goal above, I'll also give credit to Alex Wennberg and Morgan Geekie as they tacked on goals in this game for the Kraken as well. Wennberg's goal will be noted as the Kraken's first game-winner in the playoffs while Morgan Geekie's goal at 4:03 of the third period was his first-career NHL playoff goal in beating Georgiev. In what might be the most surprising result of the first games played in this year's playoffs, the Seattle Kraken skated to their first playoff win with a 3-1 victory over the Avalanche!

It's only one game, but the Kraken have proved tonight that if a team can make the dance, anything can happen!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!