Imagine (for kicks and giggles) the Seattle Salmon in the NHL playoffs for the first time as the NHL’s 32nd club. It’s Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals in overtime and the score is 2-2 with 8 seconds left to go. The Salmon score and they move on to the Stanley Cup Finals. How awesome would that be?

The NHL buzz is in the air and there is a lot of excitement for the Fastest Game on Earth to come back to the Emerald City. Here’s a little fact for you: the Seattle Metropolitans were the first American team to win the Stanley Cup in 1917.

An ownership group, led by a Hollywood producer named Jerry Bruckheimer,  started a campaign to sell tickets for the potential new Seattle team on March 1st, 2018. 10,000 deposited season tickets were sold in 12 minutes! Include the regular season tickets, and you would get a grand total of 25,000 tickets sold!

Little side note. According to nhl.com, if Gary Bettman (Commissioner of the NHL) and the rest of the board approves of the $650 million dollar team, the earliest the club would start playing would be in the 2020-21 season.

Anyways, it seems like the city of Seattle is ready for the NHL, but is Tahoma ready? It seems so.

“I’m ready for some hockey,” said senior Mikayla Willis. “I really want to see hockey instead of basketball because of the fights.”

“I think it’ll be good for Seattle to get a fourth team,” said freshman Brandon Saleumsay. “We only have the Mariners, the Seahawks, the Storm and the Sounders. Having the NHL in Seattle would be awesome to see.”

However, not everyone is on board with it.

“Going to a Thunderbirds game is a lot cheaper than going to a pro game,” said Mr. Seger when asked about the ticket sales. “What’s the point of going to an NHL game when I can watch it on TV for free? Plus, amateur sports can have the same quality of play as the professionals.”

Sure, going to a Thunderbirds game is terrific. Great atmosphere and the T-Birds are a pretty good team. But, imagine the rivalry that’ll brew up between Seattle and the neighboring Vancouver Canucks. It could be like the Seahawks rivalry with the San Francisco 49ers or the Sounders rivalry with the Portland Timber. Seattle embraces all of their pro teams no matter how good or bad they are. Hey, we’ve been dealing with the Mariners who haven’t played October baseball in 17 years, but we still adore them. I’m hoping it’ll be the same for this new pro hockey team.