Seattle is buzzing with excitement ahead of the Winter Classic between the Kraken and Golden Knights

Seattle welcomed the arrival of the Kraken and supported the team from the first drop of the puck. The Kraken qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in their second season, eliminating the defending 2022 Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference first round. Seattle lost to the Dallas Stars in seven games in the second round.

The telecast will feature several iconic Seattle landmarks such as the Space Needle, Pike Place Market and The Seattle Great Wheel, a giant Ferris wheel located on Pier 57, Mayer said.

“We want to focus on the story of the new franchise that represents the league and what the league is about,” Meyer said. “The beauty of the Kraken and the Golden Knights is the way they've proven themselves; their fan bases are passionate and rabid, they've done a very good job, they've brought hockey to places where it wasn't before. That says everything you need to know about the NHL. And to take care of the environment here, And the water, the boating, where it's located, the Pacific Northwest, all of those things come into play when you're creating what this is about.

Playing the game at T-Mobile Park, home of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners, gives Meyer and his staff a unique opportunity to transform the stadium into a hockey arena. Renderings of how the stadium will look were unveiled by the NHL on Thursday.

“Being in this amazing stadium is really good for us because of the sightlines, and the sections are elevated, so you're able to build things that have some height,” Meyer said. “So, we built some set pieces, like the boat in center square that got shipwrecked, and it got shipwrecked by the kraken's claws. Those are the things we can do here that we couldn't do in other stadiums.”