Kraken embark on first quest for Stanley Cup in playoffs where anything can happen

Kraken forward Jordan Eberle remembers being a teenage fan the first season of an NHL salary-cap era in which the Stanley Cup playoffs finally became democratized. He watched – riveted – as his favorite Edmonton Oilers missed winning the 2006 Cup Final against Carolina by a game.

Eberle later played for those same Oilers, then a New York Islanders squad that two years ago just missed a Cup Final berth. These playoffs are for North America’s oldest professional sports trophy – originally commissioned 130 years ago by Canadian Governor General Lord Stanley of Preston for the country’s annual amateur champion – and Eberle, 32, argues that their modern version is the toughest anywhere.

A championship is decided over four playoff rounds, a two-month slugfest in which regular-season records vanish and sheer will can prevail over star talent. That randomness is something Eberle hopes Kraken fans can embrace during their team’s first quest for Lord Stanley’s mug.

“I think the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win,” Eberle said. “It’s obviously a grueling schedule just to get into the playoffs, and then you have a best-of-seven in every round. So you really need a full team to win it. You look at the teams that have won in the past, and they’re usually teams with the best depth.

“And not only that, but you’ve got to be playing well at the right time.”

Indeed, the defending champion Colorado Avalanche last season became just the eighth Presidents Trophy winner – the team finishing first overall during the regular season – in the past 36 years to also win the championship.

“The intensity, the level of compete – everything is hyped up,” said Yanni Gourde, who won consecutive Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021. “It’s nothing like the regular season. It’s so much better. It’s so much more fun. Every little thing, every little detail matters.”

Seattle won a Cup in 1917, as the Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) defeated National Hockey Association (NHA) champion Montreal. The NHA thereafter became the NHL, and the Cup remained contested between leagues until the PCHA’s 1924 demise.

The Cup became NHL exclusive, won by an assortment of teams the next 18 years until the “Original Six” era of Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Boston, Chicago and the New York Rangers, starting in 1942. Montreal, Toronto and Detroit split most ensuing titles until 1967-68 expansion.

The next 20 post-expansion years saw Cups won by just the Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Islanders and Oilers in what by 1979 became a 21-team league. Those five teams claimed 31 of 42 potential Cup Final spots those two decades.

The Islanders were the NHL’s last true continuous dynasty, winning four consecutive titles in 1980-83 and making five Finals in a row. The closest modern comparison is Gourde’s Lightning being the first team since the 1983-85 Oilers to make three successive Finals, winning twice and then losing last spring’s title to Colorado.

But 1990s free agency, longer playoff series and salary-cap parity since 2006 have largely ended dynastic reign. The past 16 cap-era seasons saw 11 teams win titles – four for the first time, starting with Carolina defeating Eberle’s favorite Oilers in Game 7 in 2006. And 22 teams have filled 34 spots in the Cup Final during that span.

“I think this league is so hard because any team can beat any team at any point,” Eberle said. “So it’s such a hard trophy to win, and I think that’s what makes it so exciting to watch.”

Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz was the leading playoff scorer for first-time winner St. Louis in 2019. The floundering Blues got hot, made the playoffs, battled into the Final and upset the Bruins in Game 7.

“Everyone who gets in the playoffs feels like they’ve got a chance,” Schwartz said. “And obviously, you’ve got to have a lot of things go right.”

Talent doesn’t always win. Bad bounces and hot goaltenders can mute even the strongest teams.

The 1970-71 Bruins were among history’s strongest, a 57-14-7 juggernaut with a plus-192 goal differential and 100-point-toppers Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Johnny Bucyk. They lost a seven-game opening round to Montreal and rookie goaltender Ken Dryden.

The Wayne Gretzky/Mark Messier-led Oilers of the 1980s hoped to match Montreal’s record five consecutive Cups in 1956-60. But in the 1986 opening round against Calgary, two-time defending champion Edmonton saw rookie Steve Smith score an accidental own goal late in Game 7 – limiting that split dynasty to four Cups in five seasons.

Detroit under legendary coach Scotty Bowman and captain Steve Yzerman in 1995-96 won a record 62 regular-season games. But they scored only twice against Avalanche netminder Patrick Roy the first two games of a conference final lost in six.

Two decades later, Yzerman as Tampa Bay’s general manager saw his team match those 62 wins in 2018-19. They got swept the opening round by Columbus.

Instead, Schwartz and current Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn won that season’s Cup with St. Louis.

Dunn was an inexperienced playoff first-timer compared with how he’ll now enter – among the team leaders in points.

“I learned that whether you’re up or down, individual games can take a quick turn,” Dunn, who was named Kraken MVP, said. “My biggest memory was probably in Winnipeg, where Schwartz gave us a comeback win. You know, if we’d lost that game things might have gone a lot differently in that series. So it’s little moments like that.”

Schwartz’s winner came with 15 seconds to play in Game 5 of a deadlocked opening round, which the Blues wrapped up the following game at home.

Schwartz’s playoff memories growing up an Avalanche fan were of hard-fought series between Colorado and Detroit, who combined for five Cups in 1996-2002. Their rivalry – punctuated by a March 1997 brawl in which Colorado goalie Roy and Detroit counterpart Mike Vernon squared off – was as intense as it gets.

“Obviously, hockey is different from some sports – it’s a lot more physical, right?” Schwartz said. “You’re playing against one team possibly seven times in a row, which can build a pretty big rivalry in and of itself.”

Kraken defenseman Jamie Oleksiak remembers those Avalanche-Red Wings feuds from being a Detroit fan.

“That was always a lot of fun to watch,” Oleksiak said. “Detroit had that dynasty back in the day, and there were some very special series and great players there. They were always fighting, brawls and bad blood that carried over from the regular season.”

Oleksiak made the 2020 Cup Final with Dallas, losing to Tampa Bay.

“I think the fact you face the same guys every single night is big,” Oleksiak said. “In baseball they kind of rotate pitchers. I guess football they only play one game against each other.

“So it’s pretty unique in how intense it is and can sometimes be a war of attrition.”

And a war of emotion, especially among fan bases in Canada, where no team has won the Cup since Montreal in 1993. The Toronto Maple Leafs – one of three Canadian playoff entries and whose 13 championships follow Montreal’s record 24 – haven’t won a Cup since 1967 or even a round since 2004.

Among U.S. entries, the Bruins set a league record for wins and points. Colorado hopes to repeat as champ, Tampa Bay as four-time finalists, while upstart New Jersey just had the best one-season points turnaround in history. Vegas hopes to replicate its 2017 expansion season Final appearance.

And they’ll have the league’s latest expansion team, the Kraken, hoping to write playoff lore of their own.

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