Seattle SPORTs Now

  Fresh off a USA women’s hockey victory in the 2026 Winter Olympics, Seattle set a new women’s hockey attendance record last Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena. A sellout crowd of 17,335 was on-hand to see a contest between the home town Torrent and the Toronto Sceptres (who posted a 5-2 victory). Not bad, considering the Torrent and the Sceptres are the bottom two teams in league standings. This marked the third time in four months that the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) has set a new attendance record. The Torrent previously set the record at their inaugural home opener against the Minnesota Frost on November 28, 2025 in front of 16,014 fans at Climate Pledge Arena. Then as part of the PWHL Takeover tour, a total of 17,228 fans filled Capital One Arena in Washington DC for a game between the Montreal Victoire and the New York Sirens. The Takeover Tour allows fans in cities without a PWHL franchise the opportunity to see the women’s game. Team USA and T...

  While Seattle hockey fans ponder why Nathan McKinnon never misses an open net when he plays against the Kraken, Seattle’s two pro hockey teams return home from the Winter Olympics this weekend. The Kraken (27-20-9, 63 points), currently third in the Pacific Division and in a playoff spot, play at Dallas, Wednesday and St. Louis, Thursday. They begin their longest home stand of the season on Saturday when they host their arch-rivals, the Vancouver Canucks. Despite having six players in the Olympics, including Team USA captain Hillary Knight, the Torrent currently reside in the cellar of the Professional Women’s Hockey League with a 4-1-2-7 record for 16 points (the PWH separates wins from overtime wins). The Torrent host the Toronto Sceptres on Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena. While the US men and women’s teams both defeated Canada, 2-1, in overtime to win gold medals, the women were dominant. The USA team outscored their opponents, 33-3, going 7-0 in the tournament. Torr...

  While still euphoric over the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory, Seattle sports fans had more reasons to celebrate this weekend as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver left little doubt that Seattle and Las Vegas will be the next two cities to receive NBA expansion teams. Speaking at the league All-Star game in Inglewood, Cal., Silver said the league would be talking about expansion at their March meeting and that would open the door for approval from other owners sometime in the summer. Most importantly, Seattle and Las Vegas were the cities specifically mentioned. As far as what the league has to talk about, the first question would be who will be the owners of the new teams and certainly they would have to pay an expansion fee to join the league. David Bonderman was a co-founder of the Seattle Kraken along with Jerry Bruckheimer, and also a minority owner of the Boston Celtics. There was speculation that Bonderman would be involved in bringing an NBA back to Seattle- and the new team...

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS For anyone who questions whether sporting events bring a city together, consider this. You could have walked the streets of Seattle, Sunday night, and yelled out `Sea,’ and chances are someone off in the distance would call back, `Hawks.’ That was the scene on Capitol Hill in Seattle where fans filed out of the numerous watering holes that were showing the Super Bowl to join in a mass celebration. There were chants, cheering, singing ``We Are The Champions,’’ and even fireworks going off in the distance. The Seattle Seahawks had just defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX (60), 29-13, in a game that seemed more one-sided than the final score would indicate. The Seahawks are now 2-2 in the country’s biggest sporting event, and avenged a loss to the Patriots back in 2015, XLIX (49), 28-24. Even the appearance of Malcolm Butler in pre-game ceremonies, who made the game clinching interception against Russell Wilson in that ill-fated Feb. 1, 2015 conte...

Welcome to the new and improved Seattle SPORTs Now. While there are several sites that provide game stories this is something new and different- a weekly newsletter that will focus on Seattle sports and whatever catches the attention of your author. Hope you enjoy it. Sam Darnold and the Super Bowl The year 2025 was a good year for Seattle sports fans. One month into 2026, it appears this could be an even better year. The Seattle Mariners dominated headlines in 2025, winning the American League Western Division and then advancing to the AL championship series against the Toronto Blue Jays. The M’s looked like they were headed to their first-ever World Series until they weren’t. Currently, the Seattle Seahawks are preparing for their first Super Bowl appearance since 2015. As anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows, the Seahawks are facing the same team they faced in 2015- the New England Patriots (and congrats if these were your picks to make the Super Bowl at the begi...

The Seattle Kraken began 2026 the way they ended 2025- with a home victory. This time the Nashville Predators were the victim. Actually, the Kraken lost their final 2025 game to Vancouver in overtime, but chalked up five wins prior to that game. Jamie Oleksiak and Matty Beniers scored goals ten seconds apart (the second fastest two goals in Kraken history) in the first period after Beniers’ earlier goal had given Seattle a 1-0 lead. Jared McCann added an empty-netter in the final three minutes to lead Seattle to a 4-1 win over the Predators last night at Climate Pledge Arena. Seattle improves its record to 17-14-7 (Kraken fans would have taken that record at the start of the season as the team heads into a new year) and are remarkably back in a playoff spot after a 1-9-1 skein in late November and early December. Since then, the Kraken have rattled off a 5-0-1 mark. The Predators are 18-18-1, three points behind Seattle in the Conference logjam. Philipp Grubauer, who’ll represent...