Seattle Kraken continue early-season slide after dropping home opener to Avalanche

SEATTLE — A tough start to the season continued for the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night, after losing their home opener to the Colorado Avalanche 4-1.

This marked the fourth straight loss to start the year for the Kraken, this time to last year’s playoff rival Avalanche, in what was a heated rematch from the moment the puck dropped.

The first meeting since Game 7 of last season’s Western Conference first-round matchup won by Seattle got off to a heated start with Colorado’s Logan O’Connor and the Kraken’s Jordan Eberle dropping the gloves inside the first 90 seconds. It was just the third fight of Eberle’s career and first since 2019.

The fight was in response to Eberle’s hit on Andrew Cogliano in Game 6 of their playoff matchup, which the Kraken won in seven games. Cogliano suffered a neck fracture as a result of the hit.

“We obviously go back to the series last year. It was a tough series, tough situation,” Eberle said. “I was just trying to get my teammates going.”

Colorado’s Cale Makar was greeted with hearty boos every time he touched the puck, the result of his hit on Jared McCann in Game 4 of the playoff series that drew a one-game suspension and sidelined McCann for the rest of the series.

“There’s definitely a lot of animosity, I think,” O’Connor said. “We feel as though we didn’t give our best effort in that series last year. They played us hard. You have got to give them credit.”

The Kraken will get a day off before hosting the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, and then the New York Rangers on Saturday.

Seattle is one of just two winless teams in the NHL to start the season.

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