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Islanders coach Lane Lambert facing mounting challenges in his first season

SEATTLE, Washington — Nearly at the halfway mark of his first season as an NHL head coach, Lane Lambert is facing what should probably be considered his first truly difficult stretch at the helm. How he navigates it could be the difference between the playoffs and another early summer vacation.

The Islanders, smack in the middle of an ultra-competitive race in the Metropolitan Division, opened up a four-game road trip to kick off 2023 with an unsightly 4-1 loss in Seattle in which they had trouble executing all night. It was their latest game with a short-handed roster, as none of the injured players have yet returned, despite some like Cal Clutterbuck, Kyle Palmieri and Semyon Varlamov all accompanying the team on its Pacific Division swing that will continue on to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

“We just didn’t get to the cleanliness of our game and we weren’t as crisp at all,” captain Anders Lee said of the loss to the Kraken, who ended a three-game losing streak. “When that happens, you’re not creating a lot.”

Said Lambert: “We weren’t clean on our breakouts. It starts there. You can’t play with speed if you don’t execute or exit your zone cleanly and we didn’t do that. Then, when we did have the puck in the neutral zone at times, we turned it over instead of getting it deep and establishing our forecheck.”

Lambert has been forced to make a number of changes to his lines and lineup as players have come in and out. The most notable on Sunday was starting regular fourth-line center Casey Cizikas in the top six, with Mathew Barzal on one wing and Josh Bailey on the other, which he tried late in Thursday’s 2-1 home win over Columbus and seemed to like.

Against the Kraken, that was the line that created the Islanders’ only goal, as Barzal finished off a rush that started deep in their own zone with Cizikas and Bailey getting the assists.

The move also resulted in the Islanders having a dominant night in the face-off circle, perhaps the only part of their game that was working well. The Islanders won 36 draws and lost just 19 — Jean-Gabriel Pageau was 19-4 in the circle, while Cizikas was 7-7. Barzal, who has just a 30.7 face-off percentage this season, had to take just one draw.

“It’s nice,” Barzal said of playing on the wing. “Casey made it super easy for me to be in the middle. He works so hard. I really enjoyed playing with him. I thought it was alright, for sure.”

Regarding Barzal, Lambert said: “I thought he played well. Really he was moving his feet, he was trying to create and generate. He played (21:41) because he was one of the guys that was actually moving and getting things accomplished.”

The power play, though, continues to accomplish next to nothing. And at this point, it can only be considered a five-alarm fire, now sitting at 27th in the NHL at 18.4 percent.

The Islanders had just two opportunities on Sunday, and both presented them with an opportunity to help turn the tide. They got their first midway through the first period shortly after the Kraken had taken a 1-0 lead, but an errant pass led to a Seattle two-on-one rush in which Ilya Sorokin stopped Yanni Gourde with 8:34 to go.

Early in the second period with the game tied 1-1, the best chance for either team to score over two minutes was a Ryan Donato breakaway that he failed to convert when Sorokin somehow got his left pad on the winger’s attempt. The Kraken had three short-handed shots on the night, while the Islanders had just one power-play shot.

Overall, the Islanders are now just 1-for-30 on the power play in their last 10 games. And that’s not just bad luck, either, say the underlying stats. According to Natural Stat Trick, since the power-play drought began on Dec. 10, the Islanders’ 6.7 expected-goals per 60 minutes on the power play is 28th in the league over that span.

Based on his postgame quotes, it seems likely that Lambert has seen enough. When asked if it was time to break up his power-play units, he said: “We’re going to look at it obviously in the next day because we had (two chances), the game could have been a different story. That has to start producing. Right now it’s just not. We’ll have to take a good, close look at it.”

Barzal, who scored the only power-play goal on Thursday, admitted that they aren’t getting enough chances.

“No, not really,” he said. “It’s definitely got to be better. We could have broken that game open tonight, 1-1, power play in the second. It’s got to be better.”

Said Lee: “Lane’s going to make the best decision for us and we’re going to go out there and execute as best we can. We’re getting pressured pretty good at times and it’s causing us a little bit of trouble. It’s not going in the way we want it to be.”

Whatever Lambert decides, something that Lee and other players seem to appreciate about Lambert is that there’s no gray area when it comes to where they stand with the coach. There was, of course, a level of familiarity with Lambert and the players after he replaced Barry Trotz. That helped ease the transition.

But being a head coach is still different than being an assistant. For one thing, Lambert did admit to being “added stress” when asked if he was feeling that at all in the new job.

“But, I mean, that’s what we signed up for,” he said. “And along the way, you have to enjoy it, as well. But, the answer is yes.”

Still, it seems as if Lambert has been snug in the role from the start, at least according to the captain.

“I haven’t noticed anything,” Lee said, when asked if Lambert has changed at all since his promotion. “It seems like he’s been comfortable since Day 1. I think that’s been really good (in terms of) receiving messages and everything. It’s been extremely consistent.”

To Lambert’s credit, some of the players that he’s been forced to integrate into the lineup, and some of the decisions he’s made with the forward group, have paid off. Hudson Fasching and Parker Wotherspoon, for example, have found a way to contribute, while other veterans like Barzal and Brock Nelson are having career years. Noah Dobson is growing into a true No. 1 defenseman, and it seems that Lambert has a pulse on his goaltenders, too, as both Sorokin and Varlamov have been arguably the league’s top tandem.

There’s obviously still lots of work to do, and the Islanders are far from a lock to make the playoffs at this point. The question of whether the roster is talented enough as currently built, regardless of the coach, is also debatable. Regardless, Lambert’s job isn’t going to get any easier, particularly as the Islanders remain a squad that’s limping into the New Year and with some areas of their game that will simply have to get better.

“He’s done a good job communicating,” Dobson said. “He brings that intensity level. He knows the way we need to play to have success, and he’s been clear on the message on how he wants us to play.”

(Photo: Dennis Schneidler / USA Today)

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