PREGAME: Head Coach Lane Lambert with Everett Fitzhugh before the game (12/08)

Everett Fitzhugh's conversation with Kraken head coach Lane Lambert ahead of the December 8th matchup between the Seattle Kraken and Detroit Red Wings at Climate Pledge Arena.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thanks, Mike Lane. When you find yourself going through dips
of the schedule, who are you leaning on as maybe
a second voice? Obviously the top one comes from yourself.
But is this a are you pulling Everly and Schwartz
and macadd and the leadership group aside and saying, hey,
let's see if we can get these guys going. What's
that message and where does that message come from? A?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, I mean obviously you know it's there's It's just
where leadership and leadership from within comes in. You know,
starts from my soft from the coaching staff. You know,
we have to be better as well, right, so it
starts right at the top. You know, the penalty killing
for example. You know, we've got to coach it better.

(00:41):
You know, if our power play isn't getting it done
over the course of two or three games, we've got
to coach it better. You know, it starts there. But
at the end of the day, your leadership group and
those guys, those captains and assistants within their room are
the guys that have to also drive from within. And
you know this is this is where you know a

(01:02):
guy like Jays Schwartz is missed in these situations. And
in these areas, and you know, we have to have
other guys step up another hit for the krackend on
the injury front. Berkeley Catton now out week to week.
How have you seen his game grow and develop from
where you first saw him this past summer and in
training camp And what type of loss will this be

(01:22):
for the Crack and moving forward? Yeah, well, it hurts
our speed because you know he and it hurts our
playmaking ability. He makes as many plays as anybody else,
to be honest with you, and you know, at the
end of the day, you know he he creates opportunities
and creates chances, and so you know, we missed, we
missed that area. But the other thing and the thing

(01:44):
that I've noticed about him and how responsible he is,
is how responsible he is away from the Parker. So
you know, of all our young players, I would say
that he's probably one of the most responsible.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Guys on the hockey team. And that's been a good
It's been.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
A really good thing to see because there's a lot
of trust that goes into Berkeley's game from the coaching staff.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Chayler Stevenson playing in his six hundredth NHL game tonight
and a player that you've got a lot of history
with from fishing out hockey balls from your backyard when
he was growing up to coaching him in Washington and
everything in between. What has he meant to you as
a person as a coach, and now to have him
here on this roster helping to make this team better, well.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's nice to see obviously having you know, been friends
with his parents and initially.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
And then you know, knowing him when he was a
young kid and watching him grow and evolve and coaching
him in his rookie season in Washington and win his
Stanley Cup, and it's just.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
You know, there's a lot of history there. So six
hundred games is a tremendous accomplishment. There's a reason guys
play six hundred games, you know, and there's a variation
of those reasons. And certainly Chandler as well deserved of that.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
The crack a good bounce back effort against the Red Wings,
but unfortunately the result was the same four or three
loss to Detroit. Take us back to that game a
couple of nights ago, where you thought the biggest improvement
from those Edmonton games were and where you wanted to
see the team perform a little better.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, I thought we were on our toes a lot
more against Detroit. You know, Edmonton backed us off a
little bit. I think potentially those top two guys, when
they get wound up, they can't have the tendency to
back you off. I thought we maybe showed them a
little too much respect. You know, Detroit has some obviously
high end players too. But I thought we came out

(03:31):
and played mortar wire identity and mortar wire game. We
were better in our defensive zone, and we attacked more offensively,
more shock volume from us. And you know what we're
doing right now, unfortunately, is you know, we're making a
mistake here, a mistake there, and it's becoming very very costly.
You know, a bad decision at the end of the
second period kind of turned that game or flipped that

(03:53):
game a little bit. And you know, those are things
that when you're having trouble winning hockey games, there the
reasons why, and when you're winning hockey games, you're not
making those kind of errors, right, So you know, we've
just got to be better in those in those certain situations.
We've we've played well enough here certainly, you know, in

(04:14):
the last three home games to at least have points
in two of.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Them, and you know, when you.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Get down into the five minute range in the third period,
when you're tied in any building, but certainly in your
home building, you can't afford to lose those games in regulation.
And that's what we've done. So, you know, super disappointing,
super disappointing not to have points, But here we are,
and we have to learn from it and continue to

(04:41):
get better.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
With Minnesota points in seven of the last ten game,
eight of their last ten games, and they're a team that, again,
like Seattle, in the thick of their playoff race, it's
been very tight out in the central overall. What type
of problems do they present tonight for your group?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, they're you know, they have high ends skill with
Capriso obviously, you know, and he's he's feeling it. Matt
Boldie is. I don't know if he's an underrated superstar,
but he is in my mind, he's an extremely extremely
good hockey player. You know, they've got good balance, they've
got good depth. Ryan Hartman is playing center on their

(05:18):
fourth line, and they've got size. So real, real difficult
hockey team for us to play against. Obviously, and we
have to be a difficult team for them to play against.
We have to use our speed and we have to
be prepared to battle