January 8, 2026 • 10 mins
Seattle Kraken Head Coach Lane Lambert joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the team’s turnaround and winning ways, scoring more goals, Berkly Catton scoring twice Tuesday, Philip Grubauer in goal, superstitions, and Minnesota up next.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to a special Cracking Game Day where you could
win a dream trip to Tokyo by donating blood today.
For all the details, log on the bloodworksnw dot org
slash win. Now it's Cracking Game Day with Softy indig Ev.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's through the logo, hands it off to Coco.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Now cat side steps this way in ConTroll.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It frought cocka. Berkleykatton's gotten two.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
All rum boys and girls, there you go. Big night
for Berkeley Catton. We'll see if he can do it
again tonight against Minnesota, don't you know? And the head
coach of the white freaking Hot Seattle Crack and oh
my god, eight ozho to one in their last nine,
they've won four in a row. And I gotta be
honest with you, man, if this team starts losing again,
I'm getting the hell off this interview because ever since
(00:55):
I've been gone, they've been kicking everybody's ass. And the
head coach, Lane Lambert before tonight's cave of Minnesota joining
us right now on the radio show. Coach, how are
you man?
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Good? Good? Thanks? I actually can't even believe you're on
this interview.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
He listen, man, you know what I gotta get that
vacation time out of the way before the year comes
to an end. But I am I am volunteering.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
If this doesn't continue, I will sit aside and Dick
can take over. So what what has been the key
to all this? I mean, this team has turned in
around a total one eighty. You haven't lost in nine games.
What's what's your take on what's been spurring this run?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Man? Well, first, let's go back to the before the
nine games. We thought we were you know, we thought
we were playing pretty well. During the stretch where we
were not winning, we were coming on there out on
the wrong side, just finding ways to lose by one goal.
You know, we had tide or leading in third periods
(01:57):
and just making some stakes that we couldn't afford to make.
We've cleaned those up a little bit. Our power play
has been good, our penalty kill has been better, and
our goaltenders have been playing excellent for us. So, you know,
just a little bit of a little bit of a change.
Sometimes it's a little puck luck, but certainly the guys
(02:20):
are committed and they're playing for each other, and you know,
it's nice to see.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Let's talk about the offensive game plan, because these numbers
are even easy for a dummy like me to come
up with. The average you had in your losing stretch,
you had twenty two goals in eleven games for two
goals per game. In the last nine games, you've scored
thirty six, so you've exactly doubled your goals per game
output in the last nine games.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
What is the reason for that? I think that, you know,
I think our power plays hot, and again, we were
getting chances back in that stretch, and we just weren't
cap on them. Sometimes, you know, with the ebbs and
flows of the season, you know, sometimes you get hot
(03:08):
and sometimes you don't. And I think the biggest concern
is always if you're not getting the chances, and you know,
we were getting the chances, we just weren't finding a
way to get it into the back of the net.
And now we are so again it's good to see
and we would love it to keep going in that trend.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, that coach, that highlight we heard there coming in Berkeley,
caton second of his two goals the other night against Boston.
Give us if you can a little bit of insight
into this kid. Young guy had his first two goals.
What's he been like behind the scenes. How is he
handling being a professional at such a young age.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
So far, He's doing a really good job, you guys,
And you know, you're right. It is a young age.
You know, his teammates love him, he's he's living with
Chandler Stevenson's family, so that's a really positive thing for him,
you know, just to get his feet under him here
(04:07):
as a pro hockey player. This is not an easy job.
It's not an easy league. It's completely different from where
he came from. And the one thing that I've thought
he's done a really really good job of is he's
handled and I'm sure inside it's probably bothered him a
little bit, obviously, but he's handled the fact that he
(04:28):
hasn't scored up until the other night, he hasn't scored
a goal. He's handled it very well. And I think
he's kept his confidence through the whole thing, because I
haven't seen a change in him in terms of how
he wants the puck, the places he makes with the puck.
A lot of times when guys lose their confidence, they
(04:48):
just want to get rid of the puck, and that's
not the way it is for him. So I think
he's done a real good job of handling a little
bit of adversity and I'm hoping that you know, these
sort of monkey off the back goals can get them
going here even better.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Cracking head coach Lane Lambert joining us here in ninety
three point three KJRFM coach, we talked a lot about
the second half of back to backs and that was
a struggle for this franchise, dating before you even got here. Well,
you've had a lot of back to backs recently, and
in the second half of back to backs recently you're
three to zero to one. So was there a different
(05:25):
plan put in place over the last two or three
weeks to kind of deal with those second half of
the back to backs.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I mean, it's just a mindset and it's a mentality,
and you know, as a coaching staff, we've really tried
to drill at home that there aren't any excuses. You
can't use it as an excuse. We've tried to use
our entire bench to the best of our abilities and
distribute those ice times over the course and not only
the first game of the back to back, but also
(05:55):
the second game of the back to back. We've talked
about having and needing to get contract usions from everyone,
and so that's part of what it is, you know,
to maintain and manage the fatigue level. And our goaltenders
have played well, and we've kind of ran into a
little bit of a scenario which is different than they've
(06:15):
had in the past here where Joey's played the second
game of the back to back instead of the first
game of the back to back. And I think both
goaltenders have played extremely well. I don't care who you
are in this league, if you don't have a goalie
that plays well in a back to back, you don't
stand much of a chance of winning, because it is
a more difficult game to play, especially when you have
(06:37):
teams sitting there waiting for you, like Boston was here
for two days waiting for us. You know, Vancouver was
here waiting for us, you know, coming out of the break.
So I think we've done a pretty good job from
that standpoint of managing the goaltenders.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, well, coach, before we talk about Minnesota tonight, I
we're just talking on here off the air about you know,
what you guys are doing on the ice inside was
on vacation and you asked me off the ear. Am
I superstitious? And I said, absolutely, I'm superstitious man. So again,
I mean, if you guys lose tonight, this may be
the last you hear from me the entire year. I'm
telling you right now. So are you superstitious? Do you
(07:12):
have any crazy, wacky superstitions you can share with us?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Well, I won't talk to you if we don't win
the game tonight. Go here, we go about it.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Get the hell out of here.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
More time off for me? Great? Yeah, here, I'll tell you.
I'll tell you a funny story if you got a
moment now. I used to be extremely superstitious when I
was with the Washington Capitols. We were on a ten
twelve game winning streak. I wore the same suit, same tie, everything,
and I couldn't find my tie one night on the
way to the game, and I'm said to my wife,
(07:47):
I go, where's my tie? Where's that tie? I can't
find it? And she said, why do you need the tie?
I said, because we win with the tie. And she said,
what makes you think that your tie has any bearing
on this hockey game? These National Hockey League players winning
this hockey game? And I thought to myself, you know what,
(08:08):
she makes a pretty good point there, So I completely
stopped being superstitious and we ended up winning the Stanley Cup.
How's that there? You go?
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Well, the wife always knows, there's no question about that. Hey,
final thing, final thing for me. Softie may have one
more from me. I just want to hear your thoughts
about Grooby. Grooby had a very rough season last year,
there is no question about that, and he is playing
statistically as well as he's ever played in his entire
career this year.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
So what's the change? Well, for me, I had Philip
Grubauer in Washington. I don't know what, you know, how
it went here the last little bit, and I don't
really care how it went here the last little bit.
I think when I got the job and him and
I had the relationship, and we brought in Colin Zuliano,
(08:56):
our new goalie coach, who's done an amazing job with
all three goalies, I think, you know, it was just
a fresh start for him. He handled He handled that
very well in terms of, you know, his summer and
how he prepared, and he came in focused on one
thing and one thing only, and that was to play well.
(09:16):
And he's done it, and so I'm really really happy
for him. I know, you know he actually I think
he keeps getting asked questions about last year, but past
his past, he's playing well right now and that's all
we care about, and good for him.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, well, coach, before you go, you guys are red hot.
You're facing a really good Minnesota team tonight. Give us
a few seconds on the opponent in the wild time.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Man, extremely good hockey team. You guys like big one
of the biggest in the league. They made the trade
for Quinn Hughes, who is arguably the most dynamic defenseman
in the league. You know him and mccarr kind of thing.
But you know, I mean, we we've got our work
(09:57):
cut out for us, There's no question about it. We're
gonna need everybody. We're gonna need good goaltending, and this
is an extremely difficult opponent for us.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Go get him tonight, coach, best of luck, and if
you win, we'll talk in a week. If you lose, Dick,
we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
All right, all right? Thanks?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, Leinne Lambert, head coach of the Cracking. That'll do
it for us. Let's get the heck out of here
big Thanks to the five twenty bar and grill, we
got cracking hockey, Minnesota and the Boys coming next on
ninety three to three kJ RFM. See you by
Welcome to a special Cracking Game Day where you could
win a dream trip to Tokyo by donating blood today.
For all the details, log on the bloodworksnw dot org
slash win. Now it's Cracking Game Day with Softy indig Ev.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's through the logo, hands it off to Coco.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Now cat side steps this way in ConTroll.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It frought cocka. Berkleykatton's gotten two.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
All rum boys and girls, there you go. Big night
for Berkeley Catton. We'll see if he can do it
again tonight against Minnesota, don't you know? And the head
coach of the white freaking Hot Seattle Crack and oh
my god, eight ozho to one in their last nine,
they've won four in a row. And I gotta be
honest with you, man, if this team starts losing again,
I'm getting the hell off this interview because ever since
(00:55):
I've been gone, they've been kicking everybody's ass. And the
head coach, Lane Lambert before tonight's cave of Minnesota joining
us right now on the radio show. Coach, how are
you man?
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Good? Good? Thanks? I actually can't even believe you're on
this interview.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
He listen, man, you know what I gotta get that
vacation time out of the way before the year comes
to an end. But I am I am volunteering.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
If this doesn't continue, I will sit aside and Dick
can take over. So what what has been the key
to all this? I mean, this team has turned in
around a total one eighty. You haven't lost in nine games.
What's what's your take on what's been spurring this run?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Man? Well, first, let's go back to the before the
nine games. We thought we were you know, we thought
we were playing pretty well. During the stretch where we
were not winning, we were coming on there out on
the wrong side, just finding ways to lose by one goal.
You know, we had tide or leading in third periods
(01:57):
and just making some stakes that we couldn't afford to make.
We've cleaned those up a little bit. Our power play
has been good, our penalty kill has been better, and
our goaltenders have been playing excellent for us. So, you know,
just a little bit of a little bit of a change.
Sometimes it's a little puck luck, but certainly the guys
(02:20):
are committed and they're playing for each other, and you know,
it's nice to see.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Let's talk about the offensive game plan, because these numbers
are even easy for a dummy like me to come
up with. The average you had in your losing stretch,
you had twenty two goals in eleven games for two
goals per game. In the last nine games, you've scored
thirty six, so you've exactly doubled your goals per game
output in the last nine games.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
What is the reason for that? I think that, you know,
I think our power plays hot, and again, we were
getting chances back in that stretch, and we just weren't
cap on them. Sometimes, you know, with the ebbs and
flows of the season, you know, sometimes you get hot
(03:08):
and sometimes you don't. And I think the biggest concern
is always if you're not getting the chances, and you know,
we were getting the chances, we just weren't finding a
way to get it into the back of the net.
And now we are so again it's good to see
and we would love it to keep going in that trend.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, that coach, that highlight we heard there coming in Berkeley,
caton second of his two goals the other night against Boston.
Give us if you can a little bit of insight
into this kid. Young guy had his first two goals.
What's he been like behind the scenes. How is he
handling being a professional at such a young age.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
So far, He's doing a really good job, you guys,
And you know, you're right. It is a young age.
You know, his teammates love him, he's he's living with
Chandler Stevenson's family, so that's a really positive thing for him,
you know, just to get his feet under him here
(04:07):
as a pro hockey player. This is not an easy job.
It's not an easy league. It's completely different from where
he came from. And the one thing that I've thought
he's done a really really good job of is he's
handled and I'm sure inside it's probably bothered him a
little bit, obviously, but he's handled the fact that he
(04:28):
hasn't scored up until the other night, he hasn't scored
a goal. He's handled it very well. And I think
he's kept his confidence through the whole thing, because I
haven't seen a change in him in terms of how
he wants the puck, the places he makes with the puck.
A lot of times when guys lose their confidence, they
(04:48):
just want to get rid of the puck, and that's
not the way it is for him. So I think
he's done a real good job of handling a little
bit of adversity and I'm hoping that you know, these
sort of monkey off the back goals can get them
going here even better.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Cracking head coach Lane Lambert joining us here in ninety
three point three KJRFM coach, we talked a lot about
the second half of back to backs and that was
a struggle for this franchise, dating before you even got here. Well,
you've had a lot of back to backs recently, and
in the second half of back to backs recently you're
three to zero to one. So was there a different
(05:25):
plan put in place over the last two or three
weeks to kind of deal with those second half of
the back to backs.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I mean, it's just a mindset and it's a mentality,
and you know, as a coaching staff, we've really tried
to drill at home that there aren't any excuses. You
can't use it as an excuse. We've tried to use
our entire bench to the best of our abilities and
distribute those ice times over the course and not only
the first game of the back to back, but also
(05:55):
the second game of the back to back. We've talked
about having and needing to get contract usions from everyone,
and so that's part of what it is, you know,
to maintain and manage the fatigue level. And our goaltenders
have played well, and we've kind of ran into a
little bit of a scenario which is different than they've
(06:15):
had in the past here where Joey's played the second
game of the back to back instead of the first
game of the back to back. And I think both
goaltenders have played extremely well. I don't care who you
are in this league, if you don't have a goalie
that plays well in a back to back, you don't
stand much of a chance of winning, because it is
a more difficult game to play, especially when you have
(06:37):
teams sitting there waiting for you, like Boston was here
for two days waiting for us. You know, Vancouver was
here waiting for us, you know, coming out of the break.
So I think we've done a pretty good job from
that standpoint of managing the goaltenders.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, well, coach, before we talk about Minnesota tonight, I
we're just talking on here off the air about you know,
what you guys are doing on the ice inside was
on vacation and you asked me off the ear. Am
I superstitious? And I said, absolutely, I'm superstitious man. So again,
I mean, if you guys lose tonight, this may be
the last you hear from me the entire year. I'm
telling you right now. So are you superstitious? Do you
(07:12):
have any crazy, wacky superstitions you can share with us?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Well, I won't talk to you if we don't win
the game tonight. Go here, we go about it.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Get the hell out of here.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
More time off for me? Great? Yeah, here, I'll tell you.
I'll tell you a funny story if you got a
moment now. I used to be extremely superstitious when I
was with the Washington Capitols. We were on a ten
twelve game winning streak. I wore the same suit, same tie, everything,
and I couldn't find my tie one night on the
way to the game, and I'm said to my wife,
(07:47):
I go, where's my tie? Where's that tie? I can't
find it? And she said, why do you need the tie?
I said, because we win with the tie. And she said,
what makes you think that your tie has any bearing
on this hockey game? These National Hockey League players winning
this hockey game? And I thought to myself, you know what,
(08:08):
she makes a pretty good point there, So I completely
stopped being superstitious and we ended up winning the Stanley Cup.
How's that there? You go?
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Well, the wife always knows, there's no question about that. Hey,
final thing, final thing for me. Softie may have one
more from me. I just want to hear your thoughts
about Grooby. Grooby had a very rough season last year,
there is no question about that, and he is playing
statistically as well as he's ever played in his entire
career this year.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
So what's the change? Well, for me, I had Philip
Grubauer in Washington. I don't know what, you know, how
it went here the last little bit, and I don't
really care how it went here the last little bit.
I think when I got the job and him and
I had the relationship, and we brought in Colin Zuliano,
(08:56):
our new goalie coach, who's done an amazing job with
all three goalies, I think, you know, it was just
a fresh start for him. He handled He handled that
very well in terms of, you know, his summer and
how he prepared, and he came in focused on one
thing and one thing only, and that was to play well.
(09:16):
And he's done it, and so I'm really really happy
for him. I know, you know he actually I think
he keeps getting asked questions about last year, but past
his past, he's playing well right now and that's all
we care about, and good for him.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, well, coach, before you go, you guys are red hot.
You're facing a really good Minnesota team tonight. Give us
a few seconds on the opponent in the wild time.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Man, extremely good hockey team. You guys like big one
of the biggest in the league. They made the trade
for Quinn Hughes, who is arguably the most dynamic defenseman
in the league. You know him and mccarr kind of thing.
But you know, I mean, we we've got our work
(09:57):
cut out for us, There's no question about it. We're
gonna need everybody. We're gonna need good goaltending, and this
is an extremely difficult opponent for us.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Go get him tonight, coach, best of luck, and if
you win, we'll talk in a week. If you lose, Dick,
we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
All right, all right? Thanks?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, Leinne Lambert, head coach of the Cracking. That'll do
it for us. Let's get the heck out of here
big Thanks to the five twenty bar and grill, we
got cracking hockey, Minnesota and the Boys coming next on
ninety three to three kJ RFM. See you by
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