PREGAME: Head Coach Lane Lambert speaks with Everett Fitzhugh about the game against Montreal (10/28)

Everett Fitzhugh's conversation with Kraken head coach Lane Lambert ahead of the Oct. 28 matchup between the Seattle Kraken and Montreal Canadiens at Climate Pledge Arena. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks Mike.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
We're back with cracking head coach Lane Lambert Lane back
on home ice on Saturday after a very very long
road trip, pick up the big win three to two
over the Edmonton Oilers. Take us back through that effort,
a really grinding, hard effort for the Kraken that resulted
in two points.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yeah, I thought, uh, you know, I thought we I
thought we played pretty well at times. You know, I
was happy with our team in terms of our readiness.
There was always the question mark coming off of the
long road trip. What you know, what does the first
game look like? Back to me, that's just an excuse.

(00:41):
I thought our guys did a really good job of
getting rid of that excuse.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
And you know, I mean, as the game went along,
they're They're obviously a talented team Edmonton. I I felt
like we gave up a few too many chances for
my liking. But at the same time, we knew we
would probably need a pretty good game from our goaltender,
and we got one, and we had a lot of
commitment in certain areas, and I thought, you know, when

(01:09):
they had their push on, I thought we defended well.
There was you know, a couple of pockets in the
third period where we spent a decent amount of time
in our zone, but they were to the outside. And
there's going to be moments like that with every team
during the season where you're maybe hemmed in or under

(01:31):
siege in your zone, and the question is how do
you handle that?

Speaker 1 (01:35):
And you know, what kind of chances would you give up?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
So I thought we did a pretty good job of that,
and really at the end of the day, we really
capitalized on our opportunities, you know. So it was a
hard fought game, hard fought win.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Speaking of playing in your defensive zone, you were asked
this morning about the number of chances giving up on
the outside, limiting the opportunities in the slot in the house.
Are you I don't want to say okay, but I'm
going to say okay. Are you okay with you know,
as long as you're on the outside those long range shots,
if we spend a few extra minutes in our d zone,

(02:11):
as long as we're keeping them of the outside, or
is that an area that you want to clean up
and push them more out of your zone?

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, I'd love to I'd love to push us more
out of our zone. Obviously, you know, so that's you know,
that's a focus for us, and and you know, certainly
an area that we need to get better in. But uh,
you know, conversely, when we are in there, our guys
are doing a good job of limiting I guess what
I would call high danger opportunities, you know, which increases

(02:41):
our goaltender's chance to make the safe and gives us
an increased opportunity to win a hockey game.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Jordan every missing forty games last season, coming back from
a very rare injury to be effective this year? What
is he meant to this team now leading the team
and goals, the captain of this team. What have you
seen from him? You know him very well from your
time with the Islanders. Just how has he impacted this
year's squad and how has he helped you, you know,

(03:08):
further that mission and that voice in that locker room.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, well, I'm you know, we obviously have a relationship
that goes back and had some success together. But certainly,
first of all, he's a good player, you know, and
so he was missed last year. There's no question about it,
not only from the you know, just the playing standpoint,
but certainly from a leadership standpoint.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
He has been a great captain.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
He's done everything that you know a leadership guy and
a guy in a leadership.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Role is expected to do.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
And you know he's driving the team, he's driving the
message and driving the commitment level, and you know when
he's playing good hockey. So it's it's been nice to
see him come back from that injury and have this
kind of success early on.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Montreal I think has been one of the more surprising
teams this year, depending on you talk to around the league,
and you've seen them two weeks ago a game in
which the Kraken were in it, they lost in overtime.
When you go back and look at that game, where
do you feel the Kraken did their best? What areas
can they improve on to have a different result here tonight?

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, I thought, I thought, really, First of all, I'm
not surprised Montreal is doing well. I saw enough of
them last year when I was in Toronto. Their good
hockey team, got a lot of talent. I thought we
were loose at times in Arizona. There was a cold
Coffield goal that was scored from an area that you
know he.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Shouldn't have been alone in.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know, we we just and when I say loose,
I mean there was just you know, you know, we
made a couple of mistakes. And when you make a
couple of mistakes against a team like that, you know
they're able to put it in your in your net.
And that's just the you know, it's the talent level
that they have. So we'd like to clean up some
of those areas. Certainly, you know, from an offensive standpoint,

(05:00):
from a for checking standpoint, we feel like we need
to you know, get in. We feel like we can
for check and get the puck back. Certainly, their defense
are really adept at joining the rush, so we can't
allow them to do that, and then we can attack
and we can make moneys offensively.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
So that's what we're looking to do tonight. Yeah,