# Kraken Coach Lane Lambert on Gritty Win, Referee Call, Lines, Culture

An episode of [Softy & Dick Interviews](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1245866571), 21 Oct 2026, 9:12.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/98a2599f-cd9b-4f2a-9be4-b22c00e585f2/907d6469-cef5-4bda-9f13-b2f100f49399/869e767a-0ece-4b2e-a8ed-b4ea017c7987/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=26b16ce4-8fab-44ea-88d4-b2f100f493bc

Seattle Kraken Head Coach Lane Lambert joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the team’s gritty win over Detroit yesterday after blowing a big lead, one big referee call towards the end of the game that sent the game to overtime, the success of his lines this year and how well they are producing, and working in a new team culture. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

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[0:20] Speaker 2: All right, we're back on a busy Wednesday, and I
[0:22] Speaker 2: would like to, first of all, Dick Fane, show some
[0:25] Speaker 2: appreciation to our next guest, by the way.
[0:27] Speaker 3: He deserves it.
[0:28] Speaker 2: The game last night before today's radio segment always makes
[0:32] Speaker 2: it more fun when we're talking about a win versus
[0:35] Speaker 2: the loss the night before. Lane Lambert, head coach of
[0:38] Speaker 2: the Kraken, his weekly visit with us right here on KJR. Coach,
[0:42] Speaker 2: how are you, man?
[0:45] Speaker 3: Doing well, guys. After the near heart attack last night,
[0:51] Speaker 3: we're all good.
[0:52] Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about that because last time we spoke–
[0:57] Speaker 2: I talked about how gritty you guys were, you know,
[1:00] Speaker 2: going up 2-0 against the Flyers, and then they come
[1:02] Speaker 2: back and tie it, and you win a shootout. You're like, yeah,
[1:06] Speaker 2: but we really wouldn't like to do that. And then
[1:08] Speaker 2: we have another one last night where you're up 3-0
[1:10] Speaker 2: against the Red Wings, and they come back and tie it,
[1:13] Speaker 2: partially due to a bogus roughing call on Chandler Stevenson,
[1:17] Speaker 2: which we can talk about. So is there a part
[1:19] Speaker 2: of you now that says, hey, enough of this gritty,
[1:21] Speaker 2: tough stuff. We need to start putting teams away when
[1:24] Speaker 2: we get big leads like that.
[1:26] Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, no question that it certainly wasn't
[1:29] Speaker 3: the way you want to script it in the third period.
[1:32] Speaker 3: I thought we came out of the thought we came
[1:34] Speaker 3: out of the gates in the third period. We did
[1:36] Speaker 3: a lot of good things. We were looking, you know,
[1:38] Speaker 3: we had a couple of chances to go up for nothing.
[1:40] Speaker 3: And that probably would have, you know, been what we
[1:44] Speaker 3: needed in terms of sort of finishing the game off. But,
[1:48] Speaker 3: you know, it's it's pretty well documented in the National
[1:51] Speaker 3: Hockey League right now. You're not out of a hockey
[1:54] Speaker 3: game unless you think you are. And if you think
[1:57] Speaker 3: you are, then you are. But there's been a lot of,
[2:00] Speaker 3: you know, even over the course of the last few
[2:02] Speaker 3: years and just with the skill level and the talent
[2:05] Speaker 3: level and the shifts in momentum, you know, a little
[2:09] Speaker 3: bit of youth in terms of, you know, the league
[2:12] Speaker 3: is a bit younger and whatnot and the momentum swings
[2:15] Speaker 3: are a little bit higher and lower than they should be.
[2:19] Speaker 3: But certainly, you know, I thought we came out of
[2:22] Speaker 3: the gates well in the third and then I didn't
[2:25] Speaker 3: like a couple of the calls they got, you know,
[2:31] Speaker 3: the penalties we got, and they ended up capitalizing on them.
[2:33] Speaker 3: And all of a sudden, you know, we're in overtime.
[2:36] Speaker 3: So good for us for finding a way to win
[2:40] Speaker 3: in a shootout. You know, we can always learn from
[2:43] Speaker 3: these kinds of things. Certainly not, you know, what we
[2:45] Speaker 3: want to do, but obviously an opportunity to grow and
[2:49] Speaker 3: get better.
[2:50] Speaker 4: Well, Softy mentioned that penalty on Stevenson. What did you
[2:53] Speaker 4: see and what did the refs say that they saw?
[2:58] Speaker 3: Well, you know, what happens in the league is that
[3:01] Speaker 3: the refs really don't come over and talk to you
[3:03] Speaker 3: because they don't want to get, you know, they don't
[3:04] Speaker 3: want to get into a confrontation or yell that and
[3:07] Speaker 3: they've been instructed not to do that. You know, I
[3:10] Speaker 3: guess for the, you know, keeping the game moving along
[3:15] Speaker 3: and things like that. The problem with that is, is that,
[3:18] Speaker 3: you know, Most of the time, us coaches don't do
[3:21] Speaker 3: a lot of yelling at them. It's legit. If you
[3:25] Speaker 3: want to ask a question and get an answer, it's
[3:29] Speaker 3: a legitimate question that you have, and it's sometimes frustrating
[3:35] Speaker 3: when you can't get an answer. So I guess in
[3:38] Speaker 3: terms of what did they say, I don't know what
[3:40] Speaker 3: they said. The way I saw the play, it's a face-off.
[3:44] Speaker 3: It's six on five for them.
[3:46] Speaker 1: It's a.
[3:47] Speaker 3: it's almost like a rugby play, like you are battling and, uh,
[3:51] Speaker 3: you know, their player Arvidsson who incidentally drew the three
[3:55] Speaker 3: penalties in the, in the game. Uh, that's not a
[3:59] Speaker 3: shocker to me. He's pretty renowned for that. Um, you know,
[4:04] Speaker 3: and that's not, I'm not saying that in a positive
[4:06] Speaker 3: way either. Um, but you know, at the end of
[4:13] Speaker 3: the day, it's a battle to get out to the
[4:15] Speaker 3: point and he's interfering with Chandler. holding him up, and
[4:18] Speaker 3: Chandler gave him a shove out of the way, and
[4:22] Speaker 3: I couldn't actually believe that he called the penalty, but
[4:24] Speaker 3: they did, and we had a real good opportunity to
[4:28] Speaker 3: kill it off, and we got an unfortunate bounce, and
[4:32] Speaker 3: they ended up making an excellent play, to be honest
[4:34] Speaker 3: with you. You've got to give them credit. The play
[4:37] Speaker 3: that Dylan Larkin made to Brinkhead in that moment was world-class,
[4:43] Speaker 3: and it ended up in the back of our net,
[4:45] Speaker 3: so disappointing. Didn't get an explanation for the penalty, didn't
[4:50] Speaker 3: agree with the penalty, and you've got to allow the
[4:52] Speaker 3: guys to play the game.
[4:56] Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I love it. I love the fact that
[4:58] Speaker 2: you kind of called it out. Love the fact that
[5:00] Speaker 2: you were able to overcome it and still get a
[5:01] Speaker 2: win anyway. It shows what this team's potential is, no doubt.
[5:04] Speaker 2: But Lane Lambert with us. Guy's getting a win last night.
[5:07] Speaker 2: Shootout went over the Red Wings 6-3-1 with the Utah.
[5:10] Speaker 2: We call them the Wooly Mammoth, by the way, coming
[5:12] Speaker 2: to town tomorrow night at CPA. But, Coach, let me
[5:16] Speaker 2: go back to the lineup that you're throwing out there.
[5:19] Speaker 2: Some hockey fans in town are saying that they think
[5:21] Speaker 2: maybe the the third and fourth lines are playing better
[5:24] Speaker 2: than the top two lines right now. I mean, is
[5:26] Speaker 2: that a, is that a good sign that you're still
[5:28] Speaker 2: winning with the guys who were supposed to be carrying
[5:31] Speaker 2: the offense or is that maybe a bit of a
[5:33] Speaker 2: concern for you?
[5:33] Speaker 4: What do you think?
[5:35] Speaker 3: No, I think it's a good, I think it's a
[5:37] Speaker 3: good thing we're winning. I think it's excellent that, uh,
[5:41] Speaker 3: that our, you know, our third and fourth lines are,
[5:44] Speaker 3: you know, contributing and doing their jobs and contributing offensively. And,
[5:49] Speaker 3: You know, our top guys, they've done a pretty good
[5:52] Speaker 3: job on the power play. You know, and we've moved
[5:55] Speaker 3: a couple of things around. We mixed, put Samaskevich with
[5:59] Speaker 3: Chandler last night and moved up Eberle. And we had
[6:02] Speaker 3: some opportunities that way. So, you know, we have to
[6:05] Speaker 3: be a four-line team. There's no question about it. But certainly,
[6:09] Speaker 3: you know, over the course of the last six games
[6:10] Speaker 3: and the road trip, you know, the Freddie Goudreau line
[6:14] Speaker 3: and the Caton line has been very good for us.
[6:16] Speaker 4: Well, you mentioned the move with Stevenson and Samaskevich playing together.
[6:21] Speaker 4: That worked for a goal last night. Talk about the
[6:23] Speaker 4: reasoning behind why you did that.
[6:25] Speaker 1: It seemed to work.
[6:27] Speaker 3: Well, we just had to get a little bit of a,
[6:29] Speaker 3: you know, there's times when, you know, when things are
[6:32] Speaker 3: a little stale and they're just not working for whatever reason.
[6:35] Speaker 3: And so you mix things around and you look for
[6:37] Speaker 3: a spark. And we got that with that situation. Okay.
[6:41] Speaker 2: Well, Lane Lambert's with us. And look, I mean, you
[6:43] Speaker 2: guys are 6-3-1 and You're talking about things like culture,
[6:47] Speaker 2: and what I mean by that is we haven't spoken
[6:49] Speaker 2: since the Florida game, and you kind of came out,
[6:52] Speaker 2: and we all know that Joey kind of wore it
[6:54] Speaker 2: a little bit in that game, and you mentioned that
[6:56] Speaker 2: you kind of appreciated the way that he got through that,
[6:59] Speaker 2: and I'm wondering what that means for your culture when
[7:01] Speaker 2: a guy goes out and does something like that.
[7:04] Speaker 3: Well, you know what? We're trying to– I wouldn't say
[7:08] Speaker 3: we're trying. We're building a culture that it doesn't matter.
[7:12] Speaker 2: Everybody matters.
[7:14] Speaker 3: No matter what you, no matter how, how much you play,
[7:18] Speaker 3: how little you play, you know, everybody has an importance
[7:23] Speaker 3: and a role on the hockey team. And the biggest
[7:28] Speaker 3: thing for me is we, you know, we always want
[7:30] Speaker 3: to be a team that's hard to play against well-organized structured.
[7:33] Speaker 3: And the bottom line is, is, you know, in pro
[7:37] Speaker 3: sports and certainly over the course of 84 games, you're
[7:39] Speaker 3: going to have some ups and downs and, We want
[7:42] Speaker 3: to stay even keel. It doesn't matter if you're up
[7:44] Speaker 3: in a game, you know, for nothing or if you're
[7:47] Speaker 3: down in a game for nothing. We want to play
[7:48] Speaker 3: the game the exact same way. And, you know, that
[7:52] Speaker 3: goes for, you know, the goaltenders. And certainly, you know,
[7:58] Speaker 3: Joey battled and I would have expected nothing less than
[8:03] Speaker 3: him battling. And he did a great job of it.
[8:05] Speaker 3: You know, we weren't going to put Philip in the
[8:07] Speaker 3: net after he had played two games in a row.
[8:10] Speaker 3: And there was just no upside to it when you
[8:12] Speaker 3: were down like that. So we, you know, what it
[8:15] Speaker 3: did is it forced Joey to battle and he did.
[8:18] Speaker 3: And again, like I said the other day, I had,
[8:22] Speaker 3: you know, no doubts that he would because he's a
[8:26] Speaker 3: character guy and he's a selfless guy. And that's the
[8:28] Speaker 3: culture we're building around here.
[8:30] Speaker 2: I love it. All right, tomorrow, pretty good Utah team
[8:33] Speaker 2: coming to town. Go get them, 7-3, including 4-2 on
[8:37] Speaker 2: the road. Go get a win tomorrow night, and we'll
[8:40] Speaker 2: talk next Wednesday, Coach. Appreciate this, man.
[8:42] Speaker 3: Thanks, Coach. Sounds good, guys. Yeah, appreciate it.
[8:45] Speaker 2: All right, man. Lane Lambert with us. Coach of the
[8:47] Speaker 2: Kraken coming off the win last night over the Red
[8:50] Speaker 2: Wings tomorrow. The Mammoth at 7 o'clock over at CPA.
[8:53] Speaker 2: We're going to break. Petros Papadakis is going to join us.
[8:57] Speaker 2: Does he think that Jamarcus Shepard would leave Oregon State
[9:01] Speaker 2: after a year? Who does he think should start at
[9:03] Speaker 2: quarterback for UW against Nebraska? And does he want, Dick,
[9:07] Speaker 2: a 24-team playoff? We'll do all that with Petros next
[9:10] Speaker 2: on 93.3 KJRFM.

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