Accountability Defined Lane Lambert The Player

Right before Dave Tippett became a longtime NHL coach and later, a Kraken senior adviser and consultant, he was behind the bench of a minor pro International Hockey League squad in Houston that was the league’s top team, cruising towards the playoffs.

But even then, Tippett wanted trade deadline reinforcements during that 1998-99 campaign to ensure he had the right stuff for beyond the regular season and a deep playoff run. And primary among the players he traded for? Newly named Kraken head coach Lane Lambert.

“On just about every team he played for, he was one of those guys you used to call a ‘glue guy’,” Tippett told me Friday from his home in Arizona. “He wasn’t a top-line guy. But he did just about everything right.”

And that’s some of the underrated stuff about winning games at the pro level. Sure, you can have superstar players who put pucks in the net. But once you get off the top line or two, if the rest of the team doesn’t play the game right, the group typically won’t get far.

Tippett paired Lambert, by then nearing the end of a pro career that included 283 games with the Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and Quebec Nordiques, on his third line with former NHL journeymen Mark Lamb and Jason Ruff. The Houston squad, known as the Aeros, finished with a league-best 54-15-13 record. But the playoffs – as Tippett expected before bulking up at the deadline – were a much different animal.

After an opening-round bye, the Aeros needed to go the distance in each of the next two series before reaching the first Turner Cup final in franchise history. Then, in the championship round, they again needed the full seven games before dispatching the Orlando Solar Bears, 5-3 at home, in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 16,000 fans.

To this day, Tippett – who used that title season as a springboard to a long NHL coaching career – feels the late-season add-ons of Lambert and a few others made all the difference.

“The more players you have on your team that have a true knowledge of what it takes to win, the better chance you have,” Tippett said. “We were the best team in the league by a good margin at the trade deadline. Teams were going to add players to try to get close to us. And so, I also added some and we won the championship.”

Tippett knew Lambert’s family and played Tier II Junior “B” hockey with one of his brothers in their native Saskatchewan. He said there was never anything overly complex about Lambert’s game as a “utility forward” that could be relied upon in multiple situations. In fact, his reliability is how Lambert made his mark.

“He wasn’t a big points getter,” Tippett said of Lambert, who’d scored 59 goals his final junior season with Saskatoon but never more than 20 in an NHL career spent perfecting the smaller details. “But in the guts of a game when you’re protecting a lead, he was a valuable, valuable player. He was a smart player and really competitive. He knew what it took to win and was willing to do whatever it took to help the team win.”

And those traits have shaped Lambert’s coaching philosophy.

We’ve heard a lot about Lambert’s winning ways throughout his career as a player and coach. And about his demands for player accountability – how they need to know their role and be predictable for teammates on the ice. Since his hiring, there has been ample talk from Lambert and the Kraken front office about “structure” and “attention to detail” being paramount among his expectations.

Tippett said those attributes are the secret to winning championships and why Lambert keeps on winning wherever he goes.

“Doing what it takes to win is very unselfish,” he said. “Whether it’s sacrificing your body to block a shot. Or taking a punch to the head without retaliating just so your team doesn’t get a penalty. And then, it’s doing the little things right. Instead of trying to make the extra play, you put the puck in behind the defense and go get it again.

“It’s those little things you do, especially when you have a lead. Those are the things that allow teams to win championships. And he understands that.”

Lambert also appears to understand that he’s the boss of the whole “bench boss” equation. That’s the part given away by code words such as “accountability” and “discipline” and “structure”.

Sure, coaches can and must have relationships with players. Lambert and those who hired him have made clear his ability to forge relationships is a big part of why he’s here. But even in today’s so-called modern age – where younger players don’t always respond to fear tactics from coaches the way those of decades past once did – none of this precludes a firm hand when it’s needed.

Ideas about group collaboration and input are one thing. But coaches are still the boss. They run the practices, not the players. They dictate the strategy and players follow. And there are consequences for not paying heed.

Otherwise, you have a team lacking discipline. A team that can appear disjointed on the ice.

No matter what systems Lambert attempts to implement, it won’t mean much unless there’s accountability to following them. Successful teams – and corporations, for that matter – have followed that same boss-and-employee pecking order mindset for generations. It hasn’t changed with this new generation of players, even if the communication methods for relaying strategy got more personable over time.

And if there’s a difference between the hockey Lambert grew up playing and what he’s now in charge of for the Kraken as their head coach, it’s that communication part. Beyond that, a Kraken team Lambert keeps insisting appears solid and consistent across all four forward lines can use more of a more structured and disciplined game. At least on the defensive side, where things took a step backward last season.

Easier said than done.

But in Lambert’s case, he’s been living that accountability and attention-to-details philosophy since around the time he first donned skates. This isn’t a reinvention for him.

“He was just a smart player,” Tippett said. “He understood the game, where his team was at. He knew about momentum swings and structurally, he knew the game well. Because that was his role in any game. To do things right structurally as a player.”

And if he can do it right structurally as a coach, the hope is the “glue guy” can remind Kraken players just two years removed from the playoffs that good things happen when they stick together.