As the Avalanche’s stars heat up, the Seattle Kraken find themselves in deep trouble

The Seattle Kraken swarmed the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche over the first four periods of their series, but since then the Avs have found their feet and put away Seattle in consecutive games. Game 3 saw Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar chip in with multi-point efforts, and left Daily Faceoff Live hosts Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna wondering whether Seattle had squandered their chance to upset the champs on Monday’s show.

Frank Seravalli: Let’s talk about the Seattle Kraken and the Colorado Avalanche. It was an awesome scene in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena as the Kraken played their first ever home game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. You love to see it, the atmosphere was electric, and they got off to a good start. They had an early lead against the Colorado Avalanche, but the Avs really just found a way to take control after that.

My question to you, Mike, is have the Seattle Kraken thrown their best punch? Are they out of gas, and do you firmly believe the Colorado Avalanche are now  in the driver’s seat?

Mike McKenna: I don’t think the Seattle Kraken have thrown their last punch at all, Frank. This is a team that is going to skate and play their game until the very end. I just don’t think they’re as good as the Avalanche. When it just comes down to the star power and the finishing ability, it’s there for Colorado. 

Look at their top scorers in the series, it’s the expected guys. It’s Mikko Rantanen and MacKinnon, all their big dogs are on the board. Where’s Seattle right now? Who can they turn to? Burakovsky’s not there, and it feels like over the last two games Seattle allowed a sleeping giant to wake up in Colorado and take over the game. When MacKinnon and Rantanen are firing, it’s tough to get past that.

I do think the saving grace for Seattle is that in the first two games Philipp Grubauer played really well. I don’t think he was bad in Game 3 either. I don’t think they are done. I think Seattle is still going to steal another game, Frank, but the bottom line is that Colorado is the better team. When you give them room to breathe and a couple power plays to get going, it makes things easier on them.

Frank Seravalli: Speaking of room to breathe, the Kraken have essentially hit them in the face with a 2×4 to start every game. They have been the better team to start, so what do you make of the idea that the Avs have just had a bunch of really poor starts in a row?

Mike McKenna: That’s hard to say because you can never really figure it out within the room and it’s always a big sticking point, Frank. The question of what’s wrong with us right now? I think it’s not as much Colorado doing anything wrong as it has been Seattle catching them off guard in the first two games and coming back to Climate Pledge Arena with some juice. 

I think Colorado has the belief that they can get through whatever’s thrown at them. Even when the Kraken are hitting and all over them, Colorado just has that knowledge and that feeling. Then when MacKinnon starts to take over there’s not really much of an answer for it, and you can see that play out.

Frank Seravalli: How overwhelming is that for a Kraken team that’s throwing the kitchen sink at the Avs just for them to find a way to overcome it?

Mike McKenna: It will be a good sign at the end of the season. The Avalanche are going to knock off Seattle, I’m fully confident in that, but when the Kraken look back and see that they played the Stanley Cup champions that hard in the playoffs that’s a positive step for their franchise.

You can watch the entire episode here …