Mets, Eskimos, Ironmen, Totems: Seattle's hockey history is richer than you think
The Seattle Kraken will take to the ice in their home debut today, playing against the Vancouver Canucks. And while the long-awaited game at the new Climate Pledge Arena marks a milestone for the city, it's hardly the first time Seattle has had serious hockey around town.
It was 106 years ago Seattle got its very first professional hockey team, the Seattle Metropolitans, an expansion team formed by the owners of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The Mets would prove the first Seattle team to take home a national championship.
In 1917, the season before the NHL was even formed, the Mets won the Stanley Cup against the Montreal Canadiens. Seattle was the very first American team to win the Stanley Cup, a full 11 years before the New York Rangers would win it as an NHL franchise.
The Mets played in Seattle's first public ice arena, the Seattle Ice Arena, a 4,000-seat venue built for a whopping $100,000 at Fifth Avenue and Seneca Street, where 1200 Fifth (formerly the IBM building) now stands. After winning the Cup in 1917, the team would go on to appear in the championship game in 1919 — a series Seattle might have won had it not been canceled partway through due to the Spanish flu epidemic which hit the city — and in 1920.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/mets-eskimos-ironmen-totems-seattle-s-hockey-history-is-richer-than-you-think/ar-AAPRGuz