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PREGAME: Head Coach Lane Lambert joins Everett Fitzhugh before the Kraken/Flyers game (12/28) · Seattle Kraken Audio Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Mike Betton, thank you very much, lame welcome back. I
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: guess a lot of folks will call this the end
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to the unofficial first half of the season wrap up.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Where you thought the Craken played up until prior to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the break, and where you see this team going moving forward?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Well, I thought we were. I thought we were okay.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Like I've talked about the fact that, you know, even
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: when we were losing all those games, we were playing
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: some decent hockey, so you know, and I thought our
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: goaltenders played real well for us in the last three
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: games on the road. But we were connected, we were committed,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: and I think we have been, you know, all year long.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: We just had a really bad stretch where we've lost
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: a lot of games in a row ish and you know,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: that's basically been the reason that our record is where
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: it's at. You know, all we can do is focus
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: one game at a time here moving forward like we
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: have been, and keep keep giving it everything we got.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: It's never easy to come in and install the new
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: system and try to get you know, more out of guys.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: So maybe you've never seen before. What have you liked
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: about the team's response to you? Your coaches and the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: way that you want to play.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think our team's done a really good job
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: written today when a training camp of trying to change
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the way they played to a certain degree, be better
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: and more responsible defensively. You know, those are the things
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: that you know, as we go along here throughout the season,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: you hope that make the difference. They typically do, certainly
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: in tight games when you know things happen and you
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: know there's less penalties called and things like that, so
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: you have to be solid defensively. For sure. They've done
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: a really good job of. You know, I guess what
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I would say is being unselfish, committing to the team,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: not worrying about their own personal statistics, and being team oriented.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I know that a lot of coaches, yourself included, you
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: want to focus on what you can control, focus on
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: your group. And in a year year where everything is
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: so tight, crack and lose nine of eleven games, they
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: win three in a row, and now they're back to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: three points back of a playoff spot. Is it only
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: human nature to maybe look ahead a little bit to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: standing's watch to scoreboard, watch as you see everything so
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: bunched up like it is this year.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Well, I think everybody knows they're in the mix, you know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, clearly we understand where we are, but we
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: don't talk about that. All we can do is just
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: take care of our own business and do our best
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: to win every night and continue to climb the ladder.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: You know, obviously, when you're going through a bad stretch
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and you don't see yourself climbing the ladder, it's a
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: little bit disconcerting. But you know, like I said, things
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: change fast. You know, it's never as good or never
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: as bad as you think it is, So you know,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: we just have to focus and take one game at
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: a time.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Cracking fans got a bit of a belated Christmas present
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: yesterday on the ice. We saw Jared mccannon in a
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: contact jersey or regular jersey, and then Vin's Done was
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: out there as well. Can you share any updates on
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: their progress and their availability here for a very rough
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: stretch of games coming up this week?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we've got a lot of hockey games coming
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: up through till the Olympic break obviously, something like twenty
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: one games here, and those guys are getting close. You know,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: we'll make decisions on them here this afternoon and we'll
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: be ready to go.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: You were asked about Berkeley Caatten this morning. He made
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: his NHL debut in Philadelphia against the Flyers a few
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: months ago. And I'll ask you the same question you
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: asked by Piper Shaw this morning. What have you liked
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: about his maturation? What have you seen from his game
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: from game one to now going into his second game
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: against the Flyers.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think for me, you know, just his understanding
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: of the game, his willingness to learn. You know, he
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: was obviously a high point producer in junior. He will
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: be a high point producer here in the National Hockey
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: League at some point. It's not easy for a nineteen
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: year old. This is a very, very good league. It's
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the best league in the world, so you know, he's
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: getting a taste of that. What I've liked about him is,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: you know, his confidence level, not arrogance level, you know,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: and he's willing to play the game two hundred feet,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: which is extremely important. I believe in producing a winning
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: hockey player and a winning team. So I love the
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: way he's embraced everything, and you know, he just keeps
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: getting better at the game.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Flyers come into this game currently sitting in a playoff spot.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: New head coach Rick Tockett is installing that system that
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: we've all known and seen from him. What about him
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: as a coach and them as a team makes the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Flyers so dangerous? And what can you draw on from
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: your first game in Philadelphia to apply here to tonight.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Well, he's a very good coach obviously. You know, he's
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: coached many years and had some success for sure, you know,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: and they play hard. That's the way his teams play.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: You know, I thought we weren't at our best in Philadelphia,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: but there was a reason for that. They did some
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: things that maybe made us not at our best. You
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: have to give the other team credit as well, you know,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: so good hockey team, fast hockey team, high pressure hockey team,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: ninth in the league goals against per game, so solid defensively,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: good penalty kill, and you know they have a great record.