To discover what kind of coach Lane Lambert will be with the Seattle Kraken, we dove into his one previous head coaching job – 124 games with the New York Islanders between 2022-24. These insights are gleaned from a review of hundreds of New York Newsday articles, as well as quotes from players and others who know him.
Lambert for the defense: Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer gave this early scouting report on his fellow coach. “The defensemen are more active in the offensive zone. They’re playing more aggressive in some areas. But they still have their identity where they’re not doing it recklessly, and they’re still really tough defensively.”
Total confidence: Lambert, three months into his first-ever season as an NHL head coach, received the dreaded “vote of confidence” from his boss. Islanders president & general manager Lou Lamoriello on Jan. 25, 2023 was responding to a 1-6-3 skid for his team over the previous 10 games. “Total confidence. Our coaching staff has done as good a job as you could possibly ask.”
Get away: For that season’s eight day All-Star break/bye week, Lambert told his players to get away from the game. “Refresh, regenerate, spend some time with your family. Get in a frame of mind where you get re-energized coming back.” Not that the coach was planning to take his own advice. “Yeah, it’s pretty hard to turn it off.”
Hey Lane! Show A Little Fire!: That was Newsday’s all-caps headine of unsolicited advice. “Lambert communicates well with his players, and knows his X’s and O’s. But it might help,” wrote Andrew Gross, “if the fan base actually got to know Lambert.
“We are told how personable Lambert is with his players, how his energy and emotion are contagious. We are told how well he motivates and how detailed he is, how he seems to know the right things to say when things are going wrong. But Lambert keeps any fire or personality behind closed doors. His public persona is decidedly – purposefully – vanilla.”
All In good time: When longtime Canuck Bo Horvat was traded in midseason to the Islanders, he liked how Lambert didn’t immediately bombard him with complicated systems talk. “He’s been really good about it,” Horvat said. “He kind of left me alone to just enjoy the weekend (because) he’s going to throw a lot at me.”
Lest you worry that Lambert is too easygoing: “Lambert pushed the Islanders through an up-tempo, physically demanding practice. Lambert stopped one drill to implore his players to engage physically. (He) halted another drill to question defenseman Noah Dobson’s efforts. A power play drill was interrupted. Salty language was used.”
Information doled out with eye-dropper: “Lambert almost never reveals lineup decisions.” Quizzed about in-game changes, he answered, “Today was today and tomorrow’s tomorrow. So we’ll see what happens with the line combinations.”
Regarding a referee’s missed call in a playoff game, Lambert was asked, “Did you get any explanation?” Answer: “No.” To the follow-up, “Is it bothersome that they potentially missed a call?” Answer: “Yeah.”
On what’s known as exit interview day after the season, the coach wasn’t around to be interviewed. Newsday’s Gross wrote, “Lambert finished the way he started, by revealing little. Asked for a look behind the curtains into his first season as an NHL head coach, he instead shut them.
“That’s not a new public persona for him. Media in Detroit who covered Lambert in the mid-1980s when he broke into the NHL with the Red Wings recalled him as a reticent talker.”
An exception was following a Jan. 2, 2024 loss to Colorado. “I thought Mike Reilly’s call was terrible,” coach Lambert said of a 3rd period penalty against his defenseman, which allowed the Avalanche to tie the score. “What more can you say?”
Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
They had Lambert’s back: Players went on the record to support their coach. “We’ve really never doubted the coaching staff,” said Anthony Beauvillier. “Lane did a phenomenal job,” said Anders Lee. “Lambert is a passionate guy,” said Kyle Palmieri.
Star Nashville defenseman Roman Josi played for Lambert in the AHL. “He’s definitely intense. You get him off the rink, he’s a very funny guy. Very kind. You know what you’re getting. He’s very fair to everyone. But he’s definitely fiery once in a while, too, which is great.”
Couch-surfing scouting: The next October, the Islanders had a later opening night than all but one other NHL team. Lambert’s extra time at home was spent watching TV – hockey games on TV. “My wife asked me when we started to watch the first game if this gets you excited. I said, ‘Yeah, it does.’ We’re all hockey fans.”
Unforgiving New York fans: By early November, 2023, with the Islanders in a swoon, fans began chants of “Lou must go.” The Lou in question was team president/GM Lamoriello. (Those unhappy fans didn’t get their wish until this past April, when the team didn’t renew his contract.)
Ticket-buyers at UBS Arena soon turned their wrath on the coach. Now, their demand was, “Fire Lambert,” during a 4-1 loss to Washington. Casey Cizikas decried the chant as “A joke. That kind of stuff ticks me off. Booing happens. But it’s the other things that they’re chanting that I have an issue with.”
Islanders owner John Ledecky, at least publicly, expressed a greater degree of tolerance. “The Islanders are probably the most passionate fan base in New York. I know the players get a lot of energy from that.” The coach and the GM, probably not so much.
Kraken didn’t help: Coincidentally, a 4-3 shootout loss to the Kraken in Seattle on Nov. 16 was the first time Newsday speculated, “It’s fair to wonder whether the inability to win and the constant repeating of mistakes has put coach Lane Lambert’s job in jeopardy.” The Kraken in that 2023 game scored all three of their regulation goals on the power play.
Goodbye Long Island Sound, Hello Puget Sound: After an 0-3-1 Jan., 2024 road trip, Lamoriello fired Lambert in favor of media-savvy Patrick Roy, what Newsday’s Neil Best called “a doozy of a course correction. That could help with the players, which is the most important thing, but it also could help with a team that can use all the marketing oomph it can get.”
The folks in the Kraken marketing department have to hope Lambert will also be capable of some “oomph” the second time around – especially if the wins don’t come right away.