Seattle Kraken vs Los Angeles Kings

Lore & Background

The Pacific Division has long been a proving ground for the NHL's most competitive regular-season schedules, and the arrival of the Kraken in 2021 reshaped its dynamics. Seattle entered the league as the 32nd franchise, carrying the weight of a city that had waited decades for a major NHL presence. Their natural divisional rival to the south was the Kings, a team that had already tasted the ultimate prize twice in the 2010s and carried the cultural cachet of a franchise that had become a Hollywood fixture. The contrast was immediate: a brand-new roster with no history, no retired jerseys, no legacy—facing a club whose identity was woven into the fabric of Southern California sports.

In the early seasons, the narrative leaned heavily on the expansion underdog angle. Seattle fans, still processing the novelty of having a Kraken at all, treated every point earned in Los Angeles as a small conquest. The Kings, for their part, carried the expectation of a team that had been to the Cup Finals multiple times in the 2010s and was expected to remain a top-tier Pacific Division force. The head-to-head meetings became a barometer: could the Kraken compete at the level the division demanded, or would the Kings' depth and experience prevail?

Geographically, the rivalry has a Pacific-coast intimacy that sets it apart from cross-country matchups. Both teams are built around the same time zone, the same travel corridor, the same fan demographics that follow the NHL from the Puget Sound to the San Fernando Valley. That proximity means the rivalry is felt in local sports bars, in social media threads, in the small rituals of a Thursday-night game where the two teams' colors—deep navy and kelp green versus royal purple and silver—fill the same arena lights. It is a rivalry of neighbors, still young, still hungry, still defining what it means to be a Pacific Division team in the 2020s.

In Their Own Story

The arena hums at 7:42 p.m. Pacific. The ice is fresh, the Zamboni's last pass still glistening under the floodlights. In the Seattle end zone, a cluster of Kraken fans in kelp-green jerseys chant a rhythm that has no name yet, no history, no anthem—just a new sound, a new pulse. Across the ice, the Kings' bench settles in, purple jerseys snapping against the white boards, and the crowd at Climate Pledge Arena shifts, leans forward, feels the old tension of a divisional game. The puck drops. A Kraken forward wins it, feeds the slot, and for three seconds the whole building is one breath. Then the Kings' defenseman clears it, and the breath releases, and the game is just a game again. But you can see it in the eyes of the fans in the nosebleeds: they are not watching a matchup. They are watching a rivalry learn to walk. And it is only the second season.

Reader's Guide

The Kraken–Kings rivalry traces its roots to the NHL's 2021 expansion, when Seattle became the league's 32nd franchise and was slotted into the Pacific Division alongside the long-established Kings. Because both teams occupy the same division, they face each other multiple times per regular season, ensuring the rivalry gets plenty of reps every year.

The early seasons were defined by the expansion narrative. Seattle's fans, still in the honeymoon phase of finally having an NHL team, treated every road trip to Crypto.com Arena as an event. The Kings, with their 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup titles and a deep bench, carried the expectation of being the division's anchor. Head-to-head results in those first years set the tone: competitive, physical, and often decided in the final minutes.

Fan reactions on both coasts have been electric. Seattle's social media community, still building its identity, treats Kings games as a rite of passage. Los Angeles fans, meanwhile, see the Kraken as the new variable in a division they thought they understood. The rivalry influences team dynamics in subtle ways—coaches on both sides know that a poor showing against the other team will be dissected in local media, and players feel the added weight of a divisional opponent who they will see again in a week.

As the Kraken accumulate their first seasons of history, the rivalry is expected to deepen. Every goal, every fight, every overtime winner adds a thread to a tapestry that is only a few years old. The best rivalries are not born; they are built, game by game, season by season.

Did You Know?

• The Seattle Kraken are the NHL's 32nd franchise and began play in the 2021-22 season, making them the youngest team in the league and the newest member of the Pacific Division.
• The Los Angeles Kings were part of the NHL's 1967 expansion and went on to win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014, cementing their status as a modern-era powerhouse.
• Because both teams are in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, they are guaranteed multiple regular-season meetings every year, making this one of the most frequently contested matchups on the schedule.
• The Kraken's name references the legendary sea monster of Norse and Scandinavian folklore, a fitting nod to Seattle's Pacific Northwest maritime identity and its proximity to the ocean.