Reviving Perpetual Spring Fever

It was two years ago this past Wednesday that the Kraken franchise’s biggest on-ice achievement occurred in Denver when they dethroned the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 for their first playoff series win.

The dressing room atmosphere postgame was surreal as the team readied to head to Dallas for a second-round series that would also go the full seven contests before that magical spring run ended. Those days were something Kraken fans and the city at large latched on to, which is why it was no surprise last week when owner Samantha Holloway outlined the team’s immediate goals following announced shifts in front office and coaching personnel.

“It takes time to build an organization, and now it's been four years,” Holloway said. “And I think what we would like to be is a sustained playoff team.”

Indeed, a team competing regularly in the playoffs has increasingly become the modern definition of a successful sports franchise. Sure, the ultimate Kraken goal is a Stanley Cup, as it should be for all 32 teams. But you first must make the playoffs, and after that, the winds of fate can blow in varying directions.

I mention this not to lower any bar on defining Kraken's success. Just to note the reality of modern professional sport, where free agency, salary caps, and engineered parity have changed the dynamic of repeatedly winning titles.

Simply put, Championships are much tougher to come by. And they might be toughest in the NHL, where playoffs are a two-month “second season” endurance test.

What put me onto this was an online “exchange of ideas” – to put it politely – I witnessed this week between Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens fans after their first-round playoff series ended. At some point, a Caps fan suggested the Canadiens had been irrelevant “for 60 years,” to which a Montreal supporter countered his team had won seven times more Cups (it’s actually a dozen times more) than Washington that period. To which, a Caps supporter incorrectly countered that most were during the “Original Six” era that technically only ended 58 years ago, but I get his point.

Montreal has gone 32 years since winning the last championship by a Canadian-based team, so to argue modern supremacy by citing the record 24 Cup banners hanging at Bell Centre – a building that didn’t even exist when those banners were won – is getting as old as black and white photographs of the last Toronto Maple Leafs title. That said, it’s similarly tough for a Caps fan to argue a grand total of one championship in their franchise’s 50-year history is indicative of much.

And it got me thinking both groups, however inadvertently, had stumbled onto something.

And that is, defining success of modern NHL franchises by Cup victories is a fool’s errand guaranteed to leave fans in all 32 league cities miserable most of the time. I mean, I grew up in Montreal when the mayor once proclaimed that spring’s upcoming downtown Cup parade would follow “the usual route.”

But that just hasn’t been NHL reality for the longest time. The New York Islanders won four straight championships in the early 1980s and none since. The Edmonton Oilers upended the Islanders' dynasty with four Cups in five years with Wayne Gretzky and five titles in seven seasons overall, but zero since 1990.

Even three Cups in six seasons by the more modern-day Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, 2013 and 2015 now appears an anomaly.

Modern lists of the most “successful” – a.k.a. valuable – franchises typically start with come combo of the New York Rangers, Maple Leafs and Canadiens.

We’ve already mentioned Montreal’s Cup drought of 32 years. The Rangers? They have one championship in 85 years, the last coming 31 years ago. Don’t even get me started on the Leafs, famously at 58 years since their last Cup Final appearance.

Yet, those franchises are as successful as they get.

St. Louis has one championship in 57 years. Boston just one in the last 53 years. Philadelphia has gone 50 years without. Calgary is at a 36-year drought and counting, and Edmonton, as mentioned, is at 35. Dallas hasn’t won in 26 years with just one title in 57 years as a franchise if you include the prior Minnesota North Stars.

Vancouver and Buffalo have never won in 54 years. Winnipeg hasn’t won in either of its NHL incarnations stretching back 45 years. San Jose is at zero in 33 years, Ottawa 0-for-32. Nashville has none in 26 years and the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild have none in 24.

So, we just rattled off more than half the NHL combining for only six Cups since the Oilers last won one 35 years ago. So, no we can’t really use Cups to define true franchise success even if a championship remains the ultimate goal.

Make the playoffs, your team at least has a shot. Do the playoff thing many times, your team has many shots and your fans have a chance to be far happier sitting through an 82-game season and beyond.

Some of the more successful, perennial playoff franchises of late have been the Avalanche and Stars. When it comes to roster building, you won’t find pundits placing those teams anywhere but up with the NHL’s best.

Dallas has made four straight playoff appearances and six in seven seasons while Colorado is at eight straight. And yet, both have combined for just one Cup between them over that stretch and one will eliminate the other in Game 7 on Saturday.

Two years ago, the Kraken knocked off the defending Cup champion Avalanche and nearly beat the Stars the next round. Most felt the Kraken had no Cup chance when the playoffs began, yet they were one victory from the Western Conference Final. Had they gotten there, they’d have faced an eventual champion Vegas squad they were highly familiar with as a division opponent. So, who really knows? Had they advanced again, they’d have played for the Cup against a Florida Panthers team that barely squeaked into the playoffs.

But you must make the playoffs to begin dreaming. And once those playoff berths begin, you keep tweaking in hopes of striking that magical championship formula that works some years and doesn’t in others.

For the Kraken to get there, they must see continued improvement from an already solidified core that includes Matty Beniers, Shane Wright, Joey Daccord, Brandon Montour, Vince Dunn, Ryker Evans and longstanding team veterans such as Jordan Eberle, Adam Larsson and Jared McCann. Then, get help from impact additions this summer.

Impossible, you say? Montreal was awful to start this season after three years near the league’s basement and got throttled at home by an eight-goal Kraken outburst last October, yet the Canadiens enjoyed fever-pitched playoff games this spring.

Ottawa finished behind the Kraken a year ago, then made the playoffs this spring as well.

Two years ago, after a one-season, 40-point turnaround, the promise of playoff spring shone bright in Seattle as the Kraken battled the Avalanche and Stars to the wire.

Fans were excited, hopeful of what was to come and disappointed when it ended. But they were optimistic the next opportunity would be better. And giving them that opportunity next spring and continuously after that remains the biggest step this franchise now must take.