The Seattle Kraken opened up the NHL season on Tuesday afternoon with a 3-2 loss against the St. Louis Blues at Climate Pledge Arena.

Due to an odd Opening Day scheduling quirk, the Kraken began the weekday contest at 1:30 p.m. PT.

Despite the loss and the different start time, it was fun to see Seattle Mariners star Cal Raleigh in attendance. You can see the picture of Raleigh in a booth below, courtesy of Circling Seattle Sports.

Since arriving in Seattle, Raleigh has continued to make himself a bigger and bigger part of the Seattle community. In fact, in a recent episode of the “Refuse to Lose” podcast, Raleigh’s father told us how much he loves the Pacific Northwest and how he’s grown into a leadership role. You can listen to that here.

Raleigh has also raised the “12th Man” flag at a Seattle Seahawks game in the past.

One of the best power hitters in all of baseball, Raleigh led all catchers in home runs this season with 34. He also posted 100 RBI. He’s in position to potentially win a Silver Slugger Award this season, and he also could end up winning a Gold Glove as well.

Despite Raleigh’s best efforts, the Mariners missed the playoffs by 1.0 game. At 85-77, it’s the second straight year that Seattle has missed the playoffs by that little margin.

The Mariners will now try to spend the offseason trying to figure out how to get back into postseason play for the first time since 2022.

Continue to follow our Inside the Mariners coverage on social media by liking us on Facebook and by following Teren Kowatsch and Brady Farkas on “X” @Teren_Kowatsch and @wdevradiobrady. You can subscribe to the “Refuse to Lose” podcast by clicking HERE:

It’s five games into Mike Macdonald’s career as Seattle Seahawks coach, and in some ways, it feels like it’s just about to start. But for real this time.

What Seattle Seahawks’ D has been missing in back-to-back losses

You’re probably thinking that sounds insane and I know why. His coaching tenure began when he signed his contract, met the media, and hired his staff. He had to design and communicate his vision, scheme and language. He worked with general manager John Schneider to acquire the types of players he needed. He spoke to the team, ran training camp, got his first preseason and regular season wins and losses. All those moments were important, all fraught with peril, all handled with aplomb by the youngest head coach in the league.

We celebrated his initial accomplishments. He comes off as such a smart guy and his team seemed to respond immediately to his style. We witnessed more communication and discipline than we had become accustomed to seeing. And three games into his career – no, three wins into his career – everything was as smooth as could be. So smooth that even a loss in Detroit barely counted as friction. It was easy to write off, what with the quality of opponent, the number of injured defenders, and the offensive success.

But losing at home to the Giants broke the spell.

The Giants don’t have a good quarterback. They aren’t loaded with talent and they were missing two of their top weapons. This wasn’t written into the script.

Which is exactly why I think Macdonald’s career truly starts now. We often hear how NFL coordinators like to script the first 15 plays of each game before reacting from there. Well, he’s past the first 15 and now it’s time to adjust.

You may hear some Seahawks fans grumble. You might know one or two who has “lost confidence.” The truth is that doesn’t really matter. Fans can (over)react each week without affecting much of anything. But this is Macdonald’s first big test with his players. They have to respect the way he handles the challenge of a losing streak.

We knew there would be fits and starts to this season. That is how it goes for most NFL teams and certainly for rookie coaches. Macdonald wasn’t hired because of his experience or just to make an immediate impact. This was a long-term investment. By his own admission, he is still learning and experiencing things for the first time. What we’ve come to understand is that he is careful to learn from those experiences, and that should serve him well as his career progresses.

But how he handles his first losing streak is a huge thing. Losing is part of life in sports, but it tests completely different muscles than most anything else. We’ve seen it break competitors who never learned how to process it. We’ve seen purportedly solid locker rooms come apart at the seams. We’ve seen coaches lose command of the ship.

To suggest that is all on the table after two losses is ridiculous. Macdonald will get to learn from mistakes along the way and I’d be willing to bet he has an exceptionally long leash. But this will be his first chance to answer some very important questions.

• Can he remain consistent? If there is one thing you hear players (and employees) complain about, it is inconsistency in their boss. People want their leader to be the same person in all situations so that their world is predictable. Predictability breeds comfort. And consistency breeds confidence.

• Can he walk the fine line between making adjustments and sticking with his principles? Macdonald spoke this week about the difference between principles (which are ironclad) and methods (which are more malleable). I have no doubt he understands the difference and will behave accordingly. But the challenge is to project that to the players who must know he has solutions but isn’t panicking. You want to adapt; you don’t want to abandon ship.

• How do the players handle his accountability? Three weeks into the season, ESPN’s Brady Henderson reported on some of Macdonald’s early efforts to instill a level of accountability. We heard about how he “chewed out” players who failed the conditioning test, and then “brought up the issue in front of the rest of the team.” He demands accountability and he wants to be the enforcer.

That style can be immensely effective, especially as a 180-degree change from what preceded it. This locker room likely needed some tough talk. But how will it be received after a couple of losses? Macdonald seems to be just as tough on himself as he is on his players, and that should give him the credibility to press forward in his own style. But this is new territory. Losing tests that credibility and that accountability.

The Mike Macdonald era began last winter and the groundwork for everything he wants to accomplish has clearly been laid since the day he was hired. Now we get to find out how solidly he built the foundation. Because the first tremors of pressure are just starting to roll through.

How he handles it will matter. Whether the Seahawks win will likely matter more. As we know, nothing relieves pressure like a win. And he has a chance for the biggest one of his young career on Thursday night.

Seattle Seahawks coverage

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• Seahawks-49ers uniforms on TNF may be best matchup of NFL season
• Seahawks swap UW, WSU products on practice squad
• More bad injury news for Seahawks OLB Uchenna Nwosu
• Macdonald: Seattle Seahawks ‘need to get run game going’

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Hey, all you soccer haters: put your seething disdain for the world’s favorite sport on hold and thank the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup for giving us a brief glimpse of a clean, livable downtown Seattle.

Lumen Field will become one of the U.S. host sites for the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025, with global powerhouses like Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Juventus potentially gracing our streets between June 15 and July 13. This comes not just with significant economic opportunities, and some hopefully great soccer, but an added perk that’s been long overdue.

Though we won’t know how many games Seattle will get (or which teams we will host) until December, the real winners are the people who want downtown to stop resembling a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland — at least for a few weeks.

More from Jason Rantz: In Tacoma, businesses fight for electric fences amid crime surge

Will Seattle get cleaner and safer for the FIFA Club World Cup?

If you remember MLB’s All-Star Week this past summer, you already know the drill.

Seattle’s beloved homeless encampments, the open-air drug markets and the aroma of urine that clings to your soul? Poof! Gone. Mayor Bruce Harrell suddenly found the resources and energy to clean up Downtown, SODO and Pioneer Square — for MLB’s executives. He’ll do the same for FIFA executives and the big teams. When Seattle plays host to those Harrell respects, the city suddenly works. Meanwhile, Seattleites and tourists? Yeah, we get the short end of the stick almost every other day of the year.

But hey, at least when FIFA execs roll through with their high-profile teams, we’ll get to experience the fantasy: a version of downtown Seattle that doesn’t make you question why you call such a poorly run city home. The streets will be hosed down, the fentanyl zombies will temporarily vanish and the stench of desperation will be magically lifted. You might actually feel safe walking around without having to dodge nearly lifeless bodies of homeless addicts.

It’s a sad reality, though. Once FIFA leaves, Seattle will immediately backslide into its grimy comfort zone — homeless addicts will flood back in, public spaces will again smell like a truck stop bathroom that hasn’t ever been cleaned, and Harrell will resume his “meh” approach to governance.

But hey, we’ll enjoy it while it lasts. Beggars can’t be choosers, right? It’s just too bad that we have to wait another year for it.

More from Jason Rantz: The truth behind Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell ‘endorsement’ of anti-cop socialist

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