Lane Lambert Talks 'Fresh Start' On And Off Ice

Among local haunts Kraken head coach Lane Lambert frequents during Seattle down time is Fishermen’s Terminal in Magnolia, a place to grab a bite and watch the trawlers roll in. 

He’s a fan of Deadliest Catch, the Discovery Channel television show with several iconic vessels docking off-season at the terminal not far from the home Lambert and his wife, Annie, reside in. And like the crew members on those commercial fishing boats he’s admired from the docks, Lambert appreciates familiar waters over the unchartered territory he found himself navigating during last season’s first year in a new city. 

“Last year was brand new,” Lambert said, standing against the terminal’s Salmon Bay backdrop of commercial and private vessels for a season opening Kraken Hockey Network interview with Piper Shaw. “I didn’t really know where I was going. Grocery stores, restaurants. All of that kind of stuff. What a difference a year makes.  

“We’re here at Fishermen’s Terminal. I don’t live too far from here and it’s kind of one of the places we head down to once in a while, look at some boats and things like that. And so, there’s all kinds of things to do and the golf is amazing around here as well. So, we’re settling in.” 

To relax himself without straying too far from home, he’ll even head on over to Interbay Golf Center in Magnolia and drive some balls off a tee.  

And just as the coming year will be a chance to enjoy a city he’s settled in to, Lambert is looking forward to “a fresh start” with a Kraken team that stayed in playoff contention through early March of last season before a late collapse. A team that added speedster Bobby McMann at the trade deadline last March, signing him to a six-year extension this summer after his 10 goals the final 18 games, along with dealing for Mackie Samoskevich from Florida. 

“We’ve made a couple of moves,” Lambert said. “If you look at our roster, this training camp compared to maybe last year at this time I believe we’ve added some speed and that excites me. I think we can play the game at a high level. Play the game at a high level of pace and with skill.” 

And try to finish what last season’s team started. 

“Your point that we didn’t end this as well as we wanted to, or the way we wanted to, I think that’s still fresh in a lot of guys’ memories,” he said. “Guys have been back early preparing. A lot of the team has been back here three weeks prior to training camp. Knowing that training camp is short and we don’t have a lot of time. They took it upon themselves.” 

Lambert was referring to unofficial “captain’s skates” in which players set their own drills without any coaches allowed on the ice. They aren’t mandatory, as the league’s collective bargaining agreement doesn’t allow for official team practices prior to the start of camp. 

But, as Lambert said, so many players volunteering to show up early definitely helped ready for a preseason in which the Kraken went 3-1-0 and solidified some forward lines with newer faces McMann and Samoskevich added. That’s helped the Kraken get off to a 2-1-0 regular season start in which they could still be unbeaten if not for a late goal allowed on a fluke bounce in Edmonton.

Lambert quickly added two alternate captains to the squad in “quiet leader” Vince Dunn and fellow defender and “vocal guy” Brandon Montour. He said Montour “drags people into the fight” while Dunn “is always sticking up for his teammates.” 

The veteran core assembled alongside the team’s emerging cast of players aged 25-and-younger was picked for a combination of ability and leadership traits. Between Dunn, Montour, captain Jordan Eberle, alternate captain Adam Larsson and others such as Jared McCann, Chandler Stephesnon, Freddy Gaudreau and Ryan Lindgren, Lambert feels he has enough of a steadying hand.  

“You don’t have to wear a letter to be a leader,” he said. 

The veterans currently lead the team in scoring three games in with Stephenson, Dunn and McCann all tied with four points apiece.  

On the younger side, alternate captain Matty Beniers leads that emerging younger core in which he, Samoskevich, Kaapo Kakko, Berkly Catton and Shane Wright have already scored goals this season. Lambert feels Catton getting to practice and also play a “challenging” 66 games with the Kraken last season, many at age 19, helped show him the preparations he needed to make this summer to better fit as an NHL regular. 

“There was all kinds of personal growth,” Lambert said. “In terms of he had been used to putting up numbers and getting points and then all of a sudden you’re not doing that because the competition is extremely stiff and you’re in the best league in the world.  

“And then how do you handle that? How do you handle that mentally? There were tremendous opportunities for him to grow in those areas.” 

Catton added another 10 pounds of muscle this summer. He has a goal and an assist his first three games after taking 28 games to score for the first time  last season.

Lambert said his entire team had challenges a season ago. Now, with the off-season adjustments and expectations having been set with the large core of holdover players, he expects the Kraken to maximize what’s been given. 

“We feel like we have a faster team,” he said. “And we need to take advantage of that.” 

He wants to see his leadership group, younger and veteran alike, do a better job of pushing the team’s culture and “taking ownership of our team and our game.”  

That culture – or, identity, if you will – is firmly rooted around a defense-first mindset Lambert feels took hold last season and is now understood to a greater degree. 

“Defensively we improved a lot last year,” he said. “We have to play good defense in order to win hockey games. It doesn’t matter what league you’re in, what sport you’re in, defense wins championships.  

“If you look at World Cup soccer, I think the team that won it had six shutouts. So, our identity is to be solid defensively. But I think we’ve added an element of speed, execution and skill to enhance our offensive attack.” 

Those additions were part of a summer-long effort at identifying areas of the team in need of bolstering. Lambert wants all his players “adding more pressure” offensively, whether on the power play or at even strength.  

“Adding a little more pressure, I think, will do us a big favor,” he said. 

Lambert mentioned after a tight 3-1 loss in Edmonton on Saturday that the Kraken deployed their newfound speed not only on offense, but defensively as well, to pressure and help neutralize of the NHL’s quickest and most formidable teams much of the night. That continued in Sunday’s home opener when Samoskevich relentlessly pursued a routine Kraken defensive zone clearance all the way to the Calgary Flames blue line where he overtook a suddenly panicked, stumbling defender, grabbed the puck as it came back down and scored on a breakaway in an eventual 6-1 win. 

“We want to be a little bit more in their face and bring more pressure as opposed to being, you know, just sit back with a little more structure,” Lambert said. “We’ve got to get to pressuring a little more. And at the end of the day, we need our goaltenders to make saves.” 

That goaltending part has been there all three games, with Joey Daccord twice coming within six minutes of shutting out the Flames, while Philipp Grubauer held the Oilers to just a goal before Leon Draisaitl got the game winner on him with 2:27 to play off the aforementioned fluke bounce off a teammate’s knee.

And Lambert has imported a new assistant coach in Pascal Vincent, who brings “an incredible amount of knowledge” in from the Montreal Canadiens organization. He’ll help offload some work from Lambert’s shoulders so the head coach can spend more one-on-one time with players to ensure they’re executing what he needs. 

“I don’t mind bringing him in from a different organization and getting a few different aspects and a few different thoughts coming in from Montreal’s organization,” Lambert said. “Montreal is a young team that plays fast and does certain similar things that we’re talking about doing.” 

Vincent will help efforts to better connect Kraken defensemen and forwards to turn defensive shutdowns into offensive opportunities.  

For Lambert, it’s all part of the new season marking a new beginning; the chance to build on what was learned from the prior campaign’s experiences both positive and negative. Just as his life in a now-more-familiar Seattle sees him doubling down on things he likes to do – even if it’s just hopping a few minutes from home to look at boats and relax.  

“I think what the misconception is here sometimes is that you come into the city and you’re in and out as a visiting player and you don’t get to Magnolia or Bellevue or Kirkland or all of these beautiful areas around here,” Lambert said. “And when you do, it’s a real eye-opener and so it’s a great place.”