On the Seattle Kraken and how depth really only matters if it is actually depth

The team everyone wanted to copy last season is struggling out of the gate in Year 3.

Joey Daccord is now one of my favorite NHL goalies to watch.

Not because he’s great at his craft, but because he’s highly entertaining and adds intrigue whenever he’s in net. He takes risks, plays aggressively, and has a swagger when puck handling that can lead to make-or-break moments for both teams.

Some day, maybe even this week, I need to make a list of my most-watchable goalies in the NHL. The goalies who I tune into a game for simply because I know it’ll be entertaining one way or the other.

Daccord is fresh in my mind because of his celebration last week when the Seattle Kraken beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-4 in overtime on a goal by Jordan Eberle. I don’t have a video of it, unfortunately, but Daccord sprinted the length of the ice to his teammates celebrating like the Kraken had just won a playoff series.

On the prior-expected expansion timelines, before the Vegas Golden Knights broke the curve, a Year 3 team overly celebrating a win early in the season would be the norm.

Hey, it’s an expansion team, let them celebrate what they’ve got.

But Seattle reached the second round of the playoffs last season, defeated the defending Stanley Cup Champions in seven games, and heading into that game in Detroit one of the most common questions was about whether the Red Wings could be this year’s Kraken when it came to approach and deliverance.

So, yeah, expectations aren’t to be Vegas, but for Seattle winning is a larger goal focused on the spring and not exuberant overtime wins against a rebuilding Red Wings team.