Latest / Seattle Kraken Audio Network / PREGAME: Head Coach Lane Lambert speaks with Everett Fitzhugh before the Kraken host the Flames (10/4)

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PREGAME: Head Coach Lane Lambert speaks with Everett Fitzhugh before the Kraken host the Flames (10/4) · Seattle Kraken Audio Network

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Mike.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Happy home opener. Lane, happy home opener to you as well.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: You wrapped up a quick two-game season opening road trip
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: last night. Quite a lot of fight in the game
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: against the Edmonton Oilers and probably deserved a little more
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: than you got. Just take us through your thoughts. You
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: overcame a pretty slow start in the first period to
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: come close to a point at least last night.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought, you know, the slow start. a little
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: bit of a by-product of penalty trouble early on.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Um, and, uh, you know, I think that the first goal,
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, was a bit of a tough
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: one to give up. But, uh, from there, I thought
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Groovy played really, really well. Uh, you know, we had
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: a little bit of trouble getting into rhythm because of
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: the penalties in the first period, but then I thought
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: we got our, our legs going. And, um, To your point,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I thought there was a lot of battle level from
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: our hockey team. Those guys on that team, 97 and 29,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: are super good.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I thought we played them hard all night.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: I know that they probably walked out of there feeling
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: like they were in a hockey game.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: It was unfortunate that It turned out the way it did.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: It was a bad bounce to the slot on the
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: winning goal with, you know, just over two and a
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: half minutes left. But, you know, the one thing about
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: that and the one thing we have to do as
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: a team is, you know, there's a cause and effect
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: to certain situations. And if you put yourself in those situations,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: sometimes you get unlucky. And I think that, you know,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: from a growth and from a learning standpoint, I've talked
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: about consistency rate from day one. And I didn't think
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: we were consistent enough in our executions. In the third
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: period as a whole, I thought there was some plays
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: that were fairly simple tape-to-tape passes that we missed that
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: ended up, instead of us going down and pressuring them
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: on the offense, they transitioned and came back.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And pressured us.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: It's a learning curve for us, but at some point here,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: we've got to find a way to get points when
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: we're getting into those situations.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I want to get your thoughts on the battle level
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: last night for Seattle. There seemed to be a number
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: of Of net front battles, I remember a wall battle
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: with Berkley Catton and Connor McDavid. What did you make
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: of the guys' willingness to go to the front of
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the net, to skate with the Edmonton Oilers, knowing that
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: they're a fast team, you've got two of the best
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: players in the world on the other side. What did
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: you make of that part of the game for Seattle?
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Well, I made of it what I expected of it.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: We're a fast team too. We should battle every night.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter who we're playing, whether it's Edmonton, Colorado, Calgary, Vegas, whoever. So,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: you know, our team, we believe in our team. And
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: they believe in each other. And so, to me, that
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: was just a given right there.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: That's the entry ticket to the game.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: What did you feel were the two biggest differences between
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: The win in Calgary, the loss last night, obviously two
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: different teams, but still, you did a lot of the
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: same things in both games very, very well. Where did
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: you find the turning points in both of those games
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: or between those two games?
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Well, I think that we, you know, we managed to
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: capitalize on our chances in Calgary, whereas we had some
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: really good chances in Edmonton. You know, McCann on the
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: second period on a great play from Kako across the crease.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Certainly Eberle in the third period.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: You know, those.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Those plays in Calgary went in the net. So that
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: was a little bit of the difference. And then I
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: do believe that we were a little more committed to
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: get to their net in Calgary than we were in Edmonton.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: And we were a little better keeping the Calgary Flames
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: away from our net than we were last night.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I thought Gruby had some.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Traffic in front of him, which created some frustration on
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: his part. So we have to do a better job
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: of controlling the paint at both ends of the ice
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: and tonight's game is going to be a battle you
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: know obviously their coach wasn't happy we um i don't
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: know i hate to use the word we i was
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: going to say embarrassed but maybe they felt that way
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: but i don't think.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: You're ever really truly embarrassed you're out.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: There giving it everything you you have and sometimes it
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: just doesn't go right for you and that's kind of
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: what happened.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: To them uh in their opening game.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: They've identified a few areas that they think they need
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: to be better against our hockey team, and so I'm
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: looking forward to the challenge tonight.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: With Calgary tonight, it can be hard to beat the
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: same team twice in a short amount of time. They've
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: not gotten off to the start that they wanted. They
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: lost last night as well. How important is it for
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the Kraken to get off to a good start this
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: evening and not allow the Flames, who are going to
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: have a bit of a burr in their saddle, to
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: get to their game?
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Well, it's just going to be, you know, it's no
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: different than any other game. We've got to focus on
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: our game, be ready, and, you know, put our best
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: foot forward. So starts are always important regardless of whether
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: you've played a team, whether they've lost a couple of games,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: whether they've won a couple of games. You know, we
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: want to make sure that we're taking care of business
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: on our own side.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: It's always fun to have a home opener back in
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: front of your own fans. Your second home opener for
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: the Kraken, the sixth overall. What are you looking forward
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: to tonight with this crowd in the building and being
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: able to be back under our roof again?
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's just an energy and an excitement that surrounds
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: a home opener for sure. And looking forward to getting
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: that energy and that excitement from the crowd. We are
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: on a back-to-back as is Calgary, so you know, we
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: need our fans to give us a little extra spark.