The Kraken wrapped up the first day of on-ice training camp on Thursday and here were my three top takeaways from first year Kraken head coach Lane Lambert.
1) Work ethic is a non-negotiable.
“It’s about work, it’s about detail,” Lambert said at the end of the on-ice sessions. “You know our team has a mandate. We’ll be hard to play against. And so in order to do that, you’ve got to compete. You’ve got to work, they did a great job of that today, and we have to be detailed. So we’ll continue to grow as we go with our systems and things that we want to do. Will it be perfect? Absolutely not. You know, it’s hockey, mistakes are made and it’s just the way it is, but certainly we’ll work very, very hard on getting all on the same page here as quickly as we possibly can.”
2) The aforementioned rolls right into the concept of team identity. Head coach Dave Hakstol’s Kraken playoff team in 2023 became known around the NHL as tireless workers and relentless checkers. They also had career high scoring years from a number of players, but that’s a different story. Lambert wants to start by being a pain-in-the-ass for opponents, and capitalizing on their mistakes.
“We’re gonna be solid,” he reiterated. “We’re gonna be solid without the puck. That starts there for me, so we build that identity, we build that into the standard that we set for ourselves, we create sort of a DNA type situation. And then from there it grows. We want to be fast, we want to be aggressive, we want to pressure, you know, all of those things are things we’ve talked about, all of those things are things we’ll work on and work on as we go forward and practice.”
3) The Kraken coaching staff has changed in many ways, other than the return of Jessica Campbell, who will no longer be running, or helping to run the power play, which finished bottom-3rd in the NHL last season, and who may not end up on the bench this year.
Newcomers as Kraken assistants include Aaron Schneekloth, Chris Taylor, and Justin Rai (pronounced “Rye”).
“Aaron will coach the defense and be in charge of the penalty kill,” Lambert stated. “I’ll help him with that. Chris will be offensive and he will handle the power play. Jess has had a great relationship with a lot of young players in the organization. She will continue that development role, and she’ll handle the face-offs for us. And J.R, who we’ve gotten, Justin Rai, who we brought in. We think he’s outstanding, and he’s going to be very instrumental in player development as well.”
Day one under coach Lane Lambert is in the books.
Earlier Kraken:
— Kraken’s Catton Bulks Up For A Gig
