Now that the Seattle Kraken have chosen a head coach, Lane Lambert, this week’s guessing game is speculating why it took them so long to choose a head coach.
Kraken ‘A Long Haul And A Grind’
Frank Seravelli of DailyFaceoff.com offers an opinion that stings. “The Kraken, if they weren’t last, were in that bottom tier of teams you’d want to take over, because it’s going to be such a long haul and a grind. Seattle is not at the moment ready or set up to be a team that competes.”
Seravelli, on the Daily Faceoff podcast, also suggested Lambert might not last long enough to see the Kraken become Cup contenders. “If you think about it like a Rubik’s Cube, can three or four sides of the puzzle come together? Maybe you need someone else to come in later and finish off the puzzle, and it’s going to have to be done in conjunction with Jason Botterill aligning everything as the new GM. But can (Lambert) be the guy who starts to unlock some of it?”
My comment on that comment: No one in Seattle is going to confuse Frank with Dr. Feelgood.
Admittedly, a franchise which has fired coaches each of the last two seasons might not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
But Lambert should at least get to coach some before anyone talks about the Kraken coach after him.
The most interesting tidbit Seravelli suggested was that Lambert, in his one and only previous NHL head coaching gig, might have been kept on a tight leash by former Islanders president/GM Lou Lamiorello. Which could mean more freedom for Lane to really coach his way in Seattle, that he wasn’t afforded in New York.
Did Potential Coaches Cross Seattle Off THEIR List?
Watching all those higher-profile coaches get snapped up by other suitors also drew the attention of Seattle Times columnist Mike Vorel – who came to a similar conclusion as Seravelli.
“It’s worth wondering – four years in – how this franchise is perceived. The Kraken have managed a single playoff appearance, amassing serviceable pieces but few potential stars. They’ve fired two consecutive coaches and promoted their general manager (Francis, to president) and assistant general manager (Botterill, to GM) despite the backslide.”
My comment on that comment: To paraphrase Darth Vader, the pessimism is strong with this one. Come to think of it, the pessimism was also strong with the last one. My quibble is with the lack of perspective.
Perspective, thy name is Florida Panthers, about to play in their third straight Stanley Cup Final. That makes the Cats the franchise every other fanbase wants their team to be. Yeah, now, but not when they were new.
It Took Three Decades For Panthers To Grow Claws
Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
Florida was a 1993 expansion team that, like the Kraken, experienced one exceptional burst of early success. The Panthers shockingly reached the Cup Final in 1996 – their third season – upsetting the Bruins, Flyers, and Penguins along the way.
And after that? Abject misery – for the next 24 seasons. In 17 of those 24 seasons, Florida didn’t even make the playoffs. Of their seven playoff appearances between 1996-2021, the number of series they won was zero. ZERO. The total number of playoff games the Panthers won in that quarter-century stretch was eight. EIGHT victories in 24 years. Again, 17 years not even qualifying for the postseason.
Anyone who’s still not convinced that four seasons is far too soon to pull the ripcord can join me in a future column when our examples will be the Buffalo Sabres and Seattle Mariners. For now, let’s get back to media comments about the coaching search and Lambert hire.
Fuzzy Logic
Even Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger got into the act. In her “Slog” column, Megan Seling wrote, “The Seattle Kraken should hire Shannon Miller (a five-time NCAA women’s champion coach while at Minnesota-Duluth). If you just recycle another old guy, I WILL SCREAM.”
My comments on that comment: (1) If you write “I will scream,” isn’t it redundant to put that in all caps, the written equivalent of screaming? (2) It’s great to see non-hockey outlets mentioning the sport, but at the same time, how would The Stranger like it if I started telling people on DJLR who to vote for?
TheHockeyWriters.com were doing some screaming of their own, with this headline: “Kraken Made the Wrong Choice Naming Lane Lambert Head Coach.”
Do tell, writer Jess Amato. “Lambert will begin his 15th season coaching at the NHL level with the Kraken for the 2025-26 season. Out of the 14 previous seasons, he only spent a season and a half as a head coach. He was fired midway through his second season. For a team that is now on their third coach in just five years in the league, this track record does not provide warm and fuzzy feelings.”
My comment on that comment: What’s most fuzzy is trying to discern any reasons given to justify that clickbait-y headline (which Amato may not have written).
In a story of more than 1,200 words, Amato suggests only that Lambert, a defensive specialist, may not be able to address a Seattle weakness. “The Kraken are a team that lacks scoring depth; they need a coach who will help them work on this.” However, the Kraken last season ranked higher in goal scoring than they did in goal-defending. Just sayin’.