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 Torrent captain Hilary Knight didn’t play in the Torrent-Sceptres game, although she was in attendance. On the CBS `Morning Show,’ the US captain announced that she played in Milan with a torn medial collateral ligament in one of her knees.

"I'm not walking around the best, and missing a few games for the Torrent," said Knight, who was placed on injured reserve by Seattle.

The 36-year-old Knight also said that 2026 would be her last Olympics. She’ll retire as the all-time leading scorer for US women’s hockey.

While unable to take the ice, Knight seems to cementing her celebrity status. She appeared on Saturday Night Live along with Olympic teammate Megan Kellar, who scored the winning overtime goal in the Gold Medal win against Canada, and Jack and Quinn Hughes from the men’s Olympic team.

The Olympians appeared with the week’s guest host Connor Storrie, who stars in the HBO show, `Heated Rivalry.,’ which according to some web sites we came across is a `smutty TV show about hockey.’ Knight also appeared on the `Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel’ show.

The Torrent’s next home game is March 11 when they host the Boston Fleet. It’s too early to tell whether Knight will be back in the lineup for that game.

Are the Kraken playoff-bound?

On the local level, the Seattle Kraken have made things interesting. The Kraken hung for a 2-1 victory Monday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, one of the two best teams in the NHL along with the Colorado Avalanche.

Even though they were outshot 36-15, goalie Joey Daccord was the game’s number-one star (as Kraken fans question why Daccord didn’t make the US Olympic team). Seattle currently owns the eighth position and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Despite playing shorthanded at 6-on-4 in the closing minutes with the opposing netminder pulled, held on and snapped Carolina’s win streak at five and points streak at 12.

The Kraken (29-22-9) are three points ahead of the San Jose Sharks for the final playoff berth but amazingly are only three points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division.

What makes things amazing is the Kraken streak back in late November and December when they accumulated only one standings point in ten games. If Seattle had even gone .500 in that stretch, they’d currently be in first place.

The Kraken are in the midst of a six-game post-Olympic homestand. Seattle hosts the St. Louis Blues tomorrow night (3/4) which appears to be a winnable game and also a revenge tilt as the Blues, suffering through a sub-par season (22-29-9) defeated the Kraken, 5-1, last Thursday night in St. Louis.

Is it time for politicians to stay out of sports?

A common complaint from some sports fans is that athletes shouldn’t voice their political opinions (although you don’t hear that complaint much from sportswriters and other media types. They appreciate guys who have opinions on everything and aren’t afraid to express them).

The US Men’s Olympic hockey team has recently come under fire for what had become a common thing- going to the White House and being honored for winning a championship.

A local Toronto newspaper last week eviscerated Toronto Maple Leafs and US captain Auston Matthews for wearing a Maga hat and joking around with President Donald Trump when the gold-medal winning team visited the White House.

In Toronto, the Maple Leafs winning isn’t life and death, it’s much more important than that. But this was different. The Toronto Star, in an editorial thought it was tone deaf for their captain (who was actually born in that hockey hotbed, Arizona) to be wearing the Maga hat when the US president calls Canada the 51^st state and mocks the Canadien prime minister by calling him Governor.

In Mathews’ defense, his main focus is hockey. The best athletes in the world have a certain tunnel vision which helps make them elite players. They’re not following politics closely, I don’t think the players are dumb, but they don’t realize how divisive some politicians are (Trump’s approval ratings are headed towards record lows).

Conversely, unpopular politicians are latching themselves on to successful teams. Maybe it’s time to say that politicians have no place in sports. Jim Bouton in his classic sports book Ball Four had a word for people who latch on to pro athletes for whatever reason- he called them jock sniffers.