He was hired on May 29<\/a> after spending last season as an associate head coach with Toronto. The Maple Leafs won 52 games and the Atlantic Division title, but were eliminated in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals by Florida, which is currently playing in the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\nHe will become the third head coach in the history of the Kraken, who are entering their fifth season and have made the playoffs just once in their previous four.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have an expectation of myself and of my role and of my abilities,\u201d the 60-year-old Lambert said. \u201cYou start on Day 1 and it\u2019s a process, it\u2019s a journey. If you do the right things through that journey and do the right things every day and look to get better every day and stick with the process, the results will take care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lambert takes over for Dan Bylsma, who was fired on April 21 after one season. Seattle was well outside the playoff picture by the time of the February break for the 4 Nations Face-off and finished 35-41-6 (76 points). That was 20 points below the West\u2019s final wild-card spot and five fewer than the Kraken\u2019s 81 points in 2023-24.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became very evident that Lane presented the attributes we were looking for,\u201d general manager Jason Botterill said. \u201cThe combination of presence and knowledge to work with veteran players, and would also be dedicated to interact with young players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seattle ranked in the bottom third of the league on the power play (23rd), faceoff winning percentage (24th) and average shots per game (25th). It was 21st on the penalty kill, an area in which Lambert helped the Leafs improve from 23rd to fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are priorities in certain areas, but everything has to be addressed,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cYou can\u2019t build Rome in a day, and that\u2019s the whole process from Day 1. You start with the process, start demanding, and you start instilling your systems, your structure, your details. But definitely, our special teams have to be better. We\u2019ll better in our defensive zone. I know we will be. So that would be the start and the focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lambert has had NHL coaching jobs since 2011. His only head coaching experience came with the New York Islanders, beginning at the start of the 2022-23 season and ending when he was fired in January 2024. In his only full season, the Islanders made the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go through an experience like that, you get let go, and you have a lot of time to reflect,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have an ego, you can say, \u2018Gee, I\u2019d do this differently or that differently. Or I\u2019d do this or that the same.\u2019 There\u2019s certain little things I\u2019ll look at and look into changing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was an assistant with Nashville from 2011-14, then with Washington from 2014-18, with the Capitals winning the Stanley Cup in 2018. The Islanders hired him as associate head coach prior to 2018-19. The teams he has worked for have made the playoffs 10 times.<\/p>\n
Lambert inherits a roster that includes veterans Jaden Schwartz (a team-high 26 goals last season), Jared McCann (22 goals and a team-leading 61 points), Eeli Tolvanen (23 goals) and Chandler Stephenson (38 assists). The Kraken also have highly regarded young talent such as 2023 Rookie of the Year Matty Beniers (20 goals, 23 assists) and Shane Wright (19 goals, 25 assists).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the team and the balance, we have great talent,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cWe have veteran players. The non-negotiables are that we have to play the right way \u2014 that\u2019s the formula.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Lane Lambert said he feels no pressure to turn the Seattle Kraken into a playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[4461,4437,4154,5,122,8054,9376,3499,6174,3328,159,5190,5189,4,292,2686,234,4186,43,2583,14,104,3133,190],"class_list":{"0":"post-70920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-chandler-stephenson","9":"tag-dan-bylsma","10":"tag-eeli-tolvanen","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-islanders","13":"tag-jaden-schwartz","14":"tag-jared-mccann","15":"tag-jason-botterill","16":"tag-lane-lambert","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-islanders","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkislanders","21":"tag-nhl","22":"tag-nhl-hockey","23":"tag-seattle","24":"tag-seattle-kraken","25":"tag-shane-wright","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-sports-transactions","28":"tag-stanley-cup","29":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","30":"tag-wa-state-wire","31":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114667707633461059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}