THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: The fight for the first one continues for Kraken

One explosion can light up a fan base.

We saw it last spring, when the Seattle Kraken — feisty all the way to a 100-point regular season — promptly upset defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado in seven angry, high-octane thrillers for their first-ever playoff series victory.

The Kraken’s popularity had been growing, both with longtime hockey nuts and newcomers to the sport, throughout the club’s second year.

But toppling the Avalanche — along with key players on both sides knocked out of the series with what were perceived as late, dirty hits — really set the Northwest on fire.

It’s not like the Kraken put their feet up and declared that they’d arrived on the NHL scene, either. With leading scorers Andre Burakovsky (torn groin muscle in February) and Jared McCann (40-goal sniper gone after a concussion) both missing at the worst possible time, the Kraken still came within a game of upsetting Dallas to reach the Western Conference finals.

By the time that Dallas series got to crunch time, this whole region had gone hockey mad.

In case you somehow hadn’t noticed, we are now living in puck country.

IT’S EASY to remember the thrills of last spring.

Every bar and restaurant had TVs going, and you could hear a building-wide groan if Yanni Gourde or another Kraken skater hit the crossbar with a whistling slap shot.

And brother, in a sport where a goal here or there can be precious, the Kraken scored like crazy.

In fact, they had the second-highest goal total in the entire NHL.

At the other end, goaltender Philipp Grubauer — who finished second in the Vezina Trophy balloting the year before signing with Seattle — struggled with injuries and inconsistency.

Near the end of the regular season and into the playoffs,

though, he found his mojo.

Ear-splitting chants of “GRUUUUUU” rocked Climate Pledge Arena whenever Grubauer made another acrobatic save.

Now, I’m not going to accuse the NHL of wishing to put an upstart young franchise in its place, but if you look at this season’s schedule — especially the first month or so — you might be suspicious.

The Kraken lost their home opener 4-1 to Colorado (yep, a bad blood rematch) on Tuesday night, dropping their record to 0-3-1.

The season opener was at Stanley Cup champion Vegas, complete with banner raising, celebrations and all sorts of madness.

Then it was on to Nashville and St. Louis (where they got that lone point in a shootout).

The Kraken play at home again tonight against Carolina, which lost the Eastern Conference final to Florida last spring – but played in the Stanley Cup final itself the season before that.

Oh, and they face Carolina again on the next road trip.

Are you getting the picture?

Seattle’s first 10 games (seven on the road) are all against teams that made the playoffs, and include both the Cup winners and runners-up (Florida).

IS THERE a glimmer of hope?

Besides waiting a month?

Well, Tuesday night’s score looked like a blowout, but the Kraken easily could have taken command of that game.

Spokane native Kailer Yamamoto got the crowd rocking with a tough-angle goal to put the Kraken up 1-0, and through two periods, they’d outshot the Avs 30-14.

A bad bounce that hopped over the stick of Vince Dunn on a power play gave Colorado a shorthanded goal (and a 2-1 lead) after those two periods owned by the Kraken.

“We needed to turn that lead, and all those shots, into real momentum going our way, but it never happened,” Yamamoto said.

Part of the Kraken’s problem on offense (three goals in four games) has been a change in personnel — especially on the fourth line.

Most teams use that bottom line sparingly, but Kraken coach Dave Hakstol turned things upside down last year by rolling four lines almost evenly — keeping fresh, hustling skaters on the ice at all times.

It was a clever way to slow down other teams’ stars, while spreading out the Kraken scoring.

During the off season, though, Seattle made some tough calls to create room for promising newcomers.

The Kraken broke up the most productive fourth line in hockey by allowing Daniel Spring, Morgan Geekie and Ryan Donato to leave.

Then came immediate bad news when the season started: Brandon Tanev was lost for 4-6 weeks with a knee injury.

Combined with players who’d left, that was 40 goals gone, almost before anyone could break a sweat.

On the upside after four games, Grubauer has played well — which will be critical — and backup Joey Daccord looked good in preseason games.

But.

What about finding the net at the other end?

“The chances are there,” said Jordan Eberle. “We’ve got to keep fighting and they’ll start going in. “It happens when you work hard, and this team will always be fighting.”

So.

Carolina tonight.

The fight for goals continues.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”