Daydream for a minute, Kraken fans. Imagine that Seattle had played closer to its ceiling down the stretch of the 2023-24 season. Imagine they'd secured the 18 additional standings points necessary to sneak into the Stanley Cup playoffs. 99 points would have placed this year's Kraken in the first Western Conference wild card slot, just as they were last year. That would have set up a 1st round matchup with the Vancouver Canucks, a team they beat twice in the regular season. We don't actually have to speculate about this. We need only look at the team which did finish with 99 points and faced the Canucks, the Nashville Predators. Nashville's feel-good season resembled that of the '22-'23 Kraken, coming out of nowhere to shock the hockey cognoscenti (experts). The Predators outraced Seattle, as well as the Blues, Wild, and Flames to the wild card finish line, utilizing a franchise-record point streak of 17 games (15-0-2). Then, during their series against Vancouver, Nashville received the greatest break an underdog can hope for: getting to face an opponent's third-string goalie. With a world-class goalie of their own in Juuse Saros, a 48-goal scorer in Filip Forsberg, all the intangibles, all the regular season momentum - Nashville lasted six games. Now they're doing what the Kraken (and you and I) are doing, watching the rest of the playoffs from their couches. Against a superior, playoff-ready Canucks team, there's absolutely no reason to believe this year's Kraken, even at their best, could have done better. Speaking of postseason TV viewing, Oliver Bjorkstrand reveals what he's watching in today's Kraken Reaction. Bjorkstrand Watching Playoffs
