PREGAME: Head Coach Lane Lambert Pregame Conversation with Everett Fitzhugh (11/29)

Everett Fitzhugh's conversation with Kraken head coach Lane Lambert ahead of the Nov. 29th matchup between the Seattle Kraken and Edmonton Oilers at Climate Pledge Arena.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks Mike. Career back with cracking head coach Lane Lambert
LAANEA three two loss to Dallas the other night. Take
us through that game. Another close, tough, hard fought game
in with Seattle. Fill up short.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, uh, that one I said it yesterday. That one
stung sat with me for a couple of days. You know,
we were we played, We played a good hockey game
for the most part. We made a couple of mistakes
that we can't make. And you know, there's there's mistakes
that you can live with and mistakes you can't live with.

(00:35):
And the couple of mistakes that that we made wear
mistakes that have our time living with. So uh, you know,
these are situations that we are very very aware of
how we need to play them. We didn't play them
that way, and that just is a real good lesson
for our players that you know, you never know what

(00:55):
five seconds is going to win or lose your hockey game.
And you know, we we made some mistakes that we
can't make and puck ends up in the back of
our net with you know, not much time left in
the third period.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Are you comfortable sharing what some of those mistakes are
and how you go about addressing those Is this an
on the bench in game? Is this in a practice adjustment?
Is this a private meeting? How do you go about
trying to correct some of these mistakes that, in your words,
you can't be making.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, there's you know, and again there's mistakes made all
the time, right So you know, like I say, if
a guy goes into the corner and he tries to
hit somebody like maybe Montour did against Miko Ratman, and
Rattnan is a big, big guy and ends up, you know,
bouncing off him and taking the puck to the net.
I can live with that because Monty went in there.
He went in there with everything he had. And you

(01:45):
know there was another time in the game when Monty
went in there in the same way on Ratnan and
finished him off and the play was over. I can
live with those things. It's our systematical structural play that
I can't live with. And these are in game situations,
and definitely, you know yesterday's video session.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
The hits keep on coming for Seattle. From an injury standpoint. Now,
Jaden Schwartz is out for a minimum of six weeks.
We know what he brings and his impossibility to replace him.
But how important is that next man up mentality? And
who are you looking towards to pick it up and
step up in his absence?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, I think for me, Schwartz is a big loss,
perhaps you know, one of the biggest we've had because
his leadership in the locker room. So we need our
leadership group to step up, take that mentality that he
has and bring it to the group. You know what
I'm talking specifically. You know, when things aren't going well,

(02:46):
he has a way and he leads by example. So
you know, from that standpoint, we need we need people
to step up to the plate. And it's not going
to be one person, it's not going to be two people.
It's going to be a group, and we're going to
have to look for those leaders to come to the
plate in this situation.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
In your media this morning, he said there's a very
good chance we see Coppolo cockle back here tonight this afternoon.
What does he bring back to the lineup that you
feel this group's been missing.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, you know, he brings an element of strength around
the net. You know, he's for me, He hasn't played
many games this year, So again here's a guy who's
trying to catch a moving train here. And you know,
his lower body injury this time has limited him from
skating and keeping in proper condition. We feel like he's

(03:40):
in good condition, but you know, when he had the
upper body injury, you know, I think he was better
off coming back in that situation when he had you know,
had his legs. So what we need from him is
we need him keep his shift short. We need him
to go to the net. We need him to.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Produce Oilers lost eight three on Monday or Tuesday to Dallas.
Anyone who's watched this team play knows that's not the
Edmondson Oilers and they're going to be coming in here
with a bit of a burr in their saddle here tonight.
What do you need to see from your group to
limit the opportunities from a team that is trying to
get back on the right track AD five hundred.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Record, Well, we have got to be ready to go
right from the start. They're going to be This is
no surprise. Shouldn't be a surprise for our hockey team.
Our team has been told to be ready very politely. Yeah,
And I mean, at the end of the day, they're
the ones that got to go out there and do
it right. So the Oilers are they're two time Stanley

(04:39):
Cup finalists. You know, I think you see teams that
maybe have gone through a couple of long postseason stretches,
maybe sort of struggle to find their way in the
first couple of months. This is a team that obviously
is a very very high obtained team. We have to
manage the puck and we have to be ready to go.

(05:00):
We can't turn tucks over and feed their transitioning