‘More serious than hockey’: Kraken players visit patients at Seattle hospital

SEATTLE — Patients at Seattle’s Virginian Mason Franciscan Health hospital got some special visitors on Wednesday afternoon.

Members of the Kraken NHL team were released to give back for the holiday season.

Among the players who visited patients were goalies Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer, forward Andre Burakovsky, left wing Pierre Edouard Bellemare and defenseman Jamie Oleksiak.

They also brought team mascot Buoy to greet everyone and take pictures.

“It’s really important for us to get out into the community and, you know, take advantage of an opportunity to go visit people that are dealing with something far more serious than just playing a hockey game,” said Daccord.

Cancer patient Lucy Robinson spoke with some of the players from her hospital bed.

“It’s so nice, because you know you go through something like this and it’s really scary. So being able to come and just have fun stuff like that,” said Robinson.

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