After a disastrous inaugural season, the Seattle Kraken have qualified for the playoffs in year two, and what do they get as a reward: the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Colorado Avalanche. This is going to be a tough mountain to climb for the NHL’s newest franchise, but the Avalanche have more weaknesses than they did last season, when they had virtually none. To get a sense of each team's strengths and weaknesses, let's take a closer look at their respective statistics and compare them head-to-head.
Here's a tale of the tape for the upcoming series:
Seattle’s biggest edge is that they are a deep team that has scored goals at a high rate all season, but judging the Kraken by metrics like shot attempts makes them look a lot more average. The Kraken had six players that hit 20 goals, plus seven more that scored at least 10 goals on the season, and they’re going to need that depth because – unlike Colorado – they don’t have any star power.