If Kraken Matched Level Of TV Broadcasts, They'd Be Playoff Bound

Maybe the most entertaining part of the just-concluded Seattle Kraken season was how watchable the TV broadcasts were - even when the team was barely worth watching.

Kraken fans really didn't need play-by-play man John Forslund and analysts Eddie Olczyk & J.T. Brown to be at their best last season. A Kraken team piling up 100 points and a first-round playoff series upset provided more than enough thrills.

It's when a team wins only 34 of 82 games, incurs repeated losing streaks, only once all season comes back from two goals down - that's when broadcasters have to raise THEIR game. We're about to share multiple examples of the trio doing just that.

If, as widely rumored, Forslund will depart for the open Boston Bruins TV job, he deserves thanks for leaving Seattle hockey so much better than he found it as a conduit between franchise and fan base.

If, as Geoff Baker in the Seattle Times has reported, the Kraken themselves will create a new broadcast home, everyone in front of the camera and behind the scenes at ROOT Sports deserves our thanks as well.

Enough highfalutin philosophizin'. Let's get to the good stuff - examples of Forslund (JF) and Olczyk (EO) merrily wandering off-script during their final 2023-24 telecast, April 16 in Winnipeg.

Olczyk, lamenting being without his telestrator.

EO: Unfortunately, I don't have my crayons. They didn't make it through customs.
JF: I'm surprised you were not detained.
EO: There were some questions.
JF: We're lucky, JT. He's here.
EO: But my crayons are still at the border.
JF: Somebody, please send Edzo's crayons at once.

Discussing Picks For The NHL Playoffs

EO: I asked you a couple of years ago for your Super Bowl prediction. You said 3-2. That was the worst prediction in the history of predictions.
JF: That's one thing about you, you're extremely generous... to most people.

Forslund congratulates 2022 Kraken draft pick Jani Nyman (pronounced "Newman") on his first goal with Seattle's AHL farm club in Coachella Valley. Edzo replies with a famous line from the 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld."

EO: "Hello, Newman."
JF: JT's just shrugging his shoulders. That's a "Seinfeld" reference.
EO: (To JTB) You don't know Jerry Seinfeld?
JTB: Yes, but I do not know what you're talking about.
JF: (To JTB) You say "Yada, Yada" a lot. (Another "Seinfeld" catchphrase.)
JTB: I know the show, but I don't watch the show.
JF: Go on the World Wide Web.

Sunday: More wit & wisdom from the Kraken booth.