Dave Hakstol walked into the Kraken locker room in the middle of his team’s biggest moment yet.
Seattle’s second-year NHL franchise had its debut 17 months earlier. But the Kraken didn’t truly arrive until Thursday night.
Their coach seized the moment to both motivate his team and put the accomplishment in a larger perspective.
“Let’s keep doing things that nobody outside of this room thinks that we can accomplish,” Hakstol told his players, via a video posted on the team’s social-media account.
“This is a big one. It’s check mark number one in terms of goals on the list.
“It’s really important for our fans. It’s really important for our city. It’s big for the state.”
The Kraken are, as Hakstol said to punctuate his postgame talk Thursday night inside the locker room at Climate Pledge Arena, “in the (frickin’) playoffs.”
Jared McCann scored off a scramble…
