Nothing about the Winter Classic felt real. It sounds like someone describing a weird dream they had.
“Okay so I was at a Kraken game, but it was outdoors, and it was at the Mariners stadium, and then there was a big shipwreck sculpture in the outfield, and Wayne Gretzky was there and so was Marshawn Lynch and Sir Mix-A-Lot and the Kraken were wearing the old Metropolitans uniforms sort of but they were also the Kraken uniforms and then Heart performed during the first intermission and the Kraken won 3-0 and Buoy and Paul Bissonnette got into a fist fight.“
It was surreal to walk into Safeco T-Mobile Park and see a stadium full of Kraken fans with Kraken players and Kraken signage, but with the Mariners PA announcer (sometimes) but also the Kraken PA announcer (also sometimes) and one might have thought the amalgamation would come off as forced or jarring, but instead it was just relentlessly charming.
I’ve attended some pretty intense games, including a game with the Cup in the building. Extremely high-energy crowds, but also carrying some degree of nervousness because the stakes were so high.
But the Winter Classic was all upside. Sure, two points were at stake, but in the grand scheme of things relatively meaningless. There was no palpable anxiety from the crowd of 47,313, just joy.
Sports are supposed to be fun, and ridiculous can be a lot of fun. There was a lot of ridiculous, and it was aggressively Seattle.
The weather was a tolerable 40 degrees with little wind. It did not rain, which left ice conditions pretty good (one of the only Seattle cliches not to make an appearance at the Winter Classic).
Legendary Seattle rock band Heart performed during the first intermission. During the second intermission they brought out basketball stars Isiah Thomas, Jamal Crawford, Lenny Wilkins and Jack Sikma; soccer stars Lu Barnes and Olivia Van der Jagt; Seahawks Marshawn Lynch, Walter Jones, Matt Hasselbeck, and Steve Largent; beloved Mariners Dan Wilson, Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez.
(Never did I think I would see the day where someone would be more beloved than Edgar, but Marshawn got the louder cheers. Makes sense, but still — wow.)
The stadium echoed with tens of thousands of fans chanting JOEY!-JOEY!-JOEY! with Daccord making big save after big save. The stadium shaking with the “Let’s Go Kraken”s growing louder as the Kraken lead grew. The sun made a cameo guest appearance! The actual sun. In December. In Seattle. Why, I wasn’t expecting to see you, star that is responsible for all life on earth! And when the final buzzer sounded, Seattle had defeated Vegas 3-0. Nothing could go wrong this day. Dave Hakstol was reportedly hugging people after the game. (I understand if you need to re-read that to make sure you saw that right.)
“It was so much fun.” Yanni Gourde said. “It was great exposure tonight to show the world how much Seattle is a hockey town. They were loud, the atmosphere was electric.”
The Winter Classic was a celebration. It was for those hockey-starved fans in Seattle who waited and waited and hoped and waited that maybe one day we would get an NHL team and be rewarded with the best possible organization someone could ask for. It was for all the new fans who have joined the longtime hockey fans in enjoying this wonderful game, falling in love with the players and the team and the colors and the community. It was for Kraken fans everywhere, watching this team find its footing as a brand new franchise.
To our beautiful, weird city wrapped in green and navy and rain, it was a love letter.
It was the perfect day.
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