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PREGAME: Head Coach Lane Lambert speaks with Everett Fitzhugh before the Kraken & Islanders meet (1/21) · Seattle Kraken Audio Network

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks Mike Lane sixty three loss the other night against
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Penguins in a game in which at the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: end of the night felt the Kraken should have could
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: have gotten off to a better start. Just take us
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: through that game and your your thoughts on that performance.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Well, I thought, like you said, you know, we give
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: up the first goal here. You know, it's been too
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: many games in a row, and now of a sudden,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: you're chasing the game. It leaves you needing, you know,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: to to win as long as you keep them off
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the score sheet. And then we give up another shorthanded goal,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: so we're chasing the game. You know, we were chasing
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the game, and so it was a little bit more
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: difficult from that standpoint. When you find that you're chasing
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the game, you can't afford to give up another goal,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: you know, it sucks the energy. How to end right now,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: with the amount of games that we play, we've got
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: to get a lead, and we've got to try and
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: maintain the lead so that we can expend less energy
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: trying to come back.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: You've done pretty good in the last handful of games
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: in coming back, but you mentioned this morning, you can't
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: put yourselves in that position to have to come back
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: so often. Where do you feel the crux of that
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: problem lies with Seattle.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Well, it's just a matter of you know, the starts
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: and you know, making certain mistakes. I think that our detail,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe isn't what it was or what I
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: would like to would like it to be. Even when
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: we were losing games in December, I thought our detail
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: was good. I think we can be better with our detail.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: We've got to be better off the start here, you know,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: and again we're giving up. You know, we get a
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: lead in Utah, we get an opportunity with a five
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: month three, we don't score, and they score a short
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: hand of goal. So it's kind of anything that can
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: go wrong is going wrong. But there's a reason for it,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: and we've got to.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Correct it for if line continues to impress. But I
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: know that you'd like to see a little bit more
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: production and a little bit more you know, offense from
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: those top three lines. What do you want to see
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: starting here tonight? From those top three lines. You've jumbled
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: a few things up at least based on morning skate looks.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: What are you hoping to get out of that tonight?
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Well, we need our guys to be better. You know
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: they've got to be. When your fourth line is driving
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: your offense, you know it's going to be real hard
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: to win in this league. And that's no disrespect to
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: our fourth line. They've done a great job. But we
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: need other people driving, creating opportunities, creating plays and scoring goals.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: That's just the bottom line. We need our top nine
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: guys to be better.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Islanders one of the more stingier teams defensively in the NHL,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the crack and lost a one nothing shootout on log
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Island back in November. What do you need to do
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: today to overcome that tough defensive structure from the Islanders.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Well, they're defensive structure is good. They attack a lot,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: but at the same time they've got great goaltending and
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: the underlying numbers would indicate that if we stay on
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: them pressure, then we're going to get our opportunities. We've
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: got to make sure we take away Sir Rokan's ability
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: to see the pup and you know, we've got to
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: get to the net and get some greasy goals. But
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: there will be opportunities there for us if we plan
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: our toast.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Two years ago, you were with the Islanders and now
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: having against them once with the Seattle Kraken, what have
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you seen from them on how their play has changed
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and evolved from your time on Long Island.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Well, they've got an influx of speed, you know, They've
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: done a really good job of sort of retooling I
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: guess to a certain degree and added speed to their lineup,
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  Speaker 3: which makes them a lot more dangerous, makes guys like
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Barzil and Horvat even more dangerous because they have guys
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: with speed to give it too.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: So that's really the biggest thing for me. And then
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: you know, however you do that, you jump what twelve
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: places in the draft to pick Matthew Schaeffer. Boy, that
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: was lucky. So he's pretty good.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: When you see some of the younger players in this league,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Matt Shaeffer, Berkeley Catton here in Seattle, Macklen Telabrini as well,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: what do you like about the young group of talent
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: that we have in our league right now? What have
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: you noticed about these eighteen, nineteen twenty year old kids
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: coming into the league.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Well, it's changed, you know, from back in the day
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: when your Crosby's and Eurovskins came into the league. Right,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: league's a little bit different. There's just a high end
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: skill level certainly not only out of those players, but
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: are the other players that you haven't even mentioned, and
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: the talent, level of skill, level of speed in which
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: they play the game at is off the charts right now.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: These young guys are playing real, real, well, and it's
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: great to see because you know you're crosby zero Vetkins.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Those guys can only drive the league for so long,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: and you know you have to have a change in
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: the guard and have people get excited about certain players
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: in this league. And there's certainly a lot to be
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: excited about right now, including our team.