> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Kraken Plan to ‘Stick With the Process’ Amid Lingering Slump - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-kraken-lane-lambert-mason-marchment-stick-with-process/ - Published: 2025-12-17T22:08:42.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:16:45.000Z - Author: Corbin Smith - Tags: News, Kraken, New York Islanders, Dallas Stars, Lane Lambert, Mason Marchment, Colorado Avalanche, Matty Beniers, Vince Dunn, Brandon Montour, Jason Botterill \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="5005"\] ![ Seattle Kraken head coach Lane Lambert yells to his team during the first period against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/seattle-kraken-head-coach-lane-lambert-yells-to-his-team-during-the-first-period-against-the-dallas-stars-at-the-american-airlines-center--mandatory-credit-3a-jerome-miron-imagn-images-format-original-2.jpg) Seattle Kraken head coach Lane Lambert yells to his team during the first period against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images \[/caption\] SEATTLE, Wash. — Lane Lambert has been here before. The Seattle Kraken are 1-8-1 over their past 10 games, and despite going toe-to-toe with the NHL-best Colorado Avalanche in Tuesday’s 5-3 loss at Climate Pledge Arena, they are continuously failing to get results. It’s not the first time Seattle’s coach endured a stretch like this. In his first stint as an NHL head coach with the New York Islanders in 2022-23, the team went 1-7-3 from Jan. 5-25\. With two games left before the All-Star break, the Islanders fell to 23-22-5, which placed them sixth in the Metropolitan Division. What happened next? New York went 19-9-4 over their remaining games, surging into a playoff wild card spot. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. It’s a different season and a different team with different players. There’s no guarantee — not even a good likelihood — that the 2025-26 Seattle Kraken repeat that feat. > Here’s Lane Lambert’s entire press conference. Only a team employee was allowed to ask questions tonight. [#SeaKraken](https://twitter.com/hashtag/SeaKraken?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) [pic.twitter.com/CCKAjHEFdz](https://t.co/CCKAjHEFdz?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com)— Sound Of Hockey (@sound\_hockey) [December 17, 2025](https://twitter.com/sound%5Fhockey/status/2001178823619137667?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) But Lambert sees similarities between the two situations. Speaking to a scrum of independent reporters for the first time after Kraken PR restricted Tuesday’s minute-long postgame press conference to a single team-employed reporter, Lambert expanded on his thoughts about this skid. “The similarities are there, (we were) doing a lot of good things (in New York),” Lambert said after Wednesday’s practice. “Instead of maybe finding ways to win, (we) had some heartbreaking losses like we’re having now. Stick with the plan, stick with the process, believe in it, and eventually, it has a tendency to turn for you. “Again, the bottom line is we’re not winning. So we can look at it in any different way we want. We’ve played well enough to win. Now we have to get over the hump and win. And there’s moments in games that are costing us, and we have to understand what those moments are, and a lot of them are focus and battle.” The Kraken entered the third period with a 3-2 lead on Tuesday before Colorado executed a comeback. Over the past nine games, Seattle allowed five go-ahead goals in the third period which led to losses. It happened a sixth time in the lone win of this stretch against the Los Angeles Kings on Dec. 10, which was only salvaged by a 6-on-5 goal with 26 seconds left by Matty Beniers and an overtime winner from Vince Dunn. With Lambert labeling focus and battle as the issues late in games, he said the key to coaxing that out of players is accountability: Shuffling the lineup, scratching players, anything to reinforce the idea that every second of ice time is important. He acknowledged that with several key injuries throughout the lineup — the latest being Brandon Montour, who is doubtful for Thursday’s game against Calgary after exiting early on Tuesday with an undisclosed injury — it’s difficult to maintain that accountability without many adequate scratches pushing the guys in the lineup. > Lambert: “He’s being evaluated later today. As of right now, I don’t expect him to, probably, play in Calgary, but we’ll see.” > > “I would expect him to potentially join the team here at some point during the trip,” pending the evaluation.[#Kraken](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kraken?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) [@EmeraldSpectrum](https://twitter.com/EmeraldSpectrum?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) [https://t.co/EI0I0IBtRY](https://t.co/EI0I0IBtRY?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com)— Joe Pohoryles (@Joe\_Poho) [December 17, 2025](https://twitter.com/Joe%5FPoho/status/2001390421398950197?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) But it has to be done somehow. Meanwhile, the players are struggling to diagnose where those issues with focus and battle come from. Or at least not willing to share them publicly. Mason Marchment spoke 1-on-1 with the Emerald City Spectrum on Wednesday. Asked about what made the difference in the third period of Tuesday’s loss to Colorado, he didn’t have an answer. The 30-year-old forward has been around the block prior to his first season with the Kraken, playing for the Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers, as well as four games with the Toronto Maple Leafs to begin his career. In all those stints, Marchment said he’s never been on a team that’s gone through a stretch as bad as the one Seattle is going through now. The closest thing is arguably the 2022-23 Dallas Stars losing eight of 11 (3-3-5) in a stretch through the All-Star break before finishing the season 16-5-1 and reaching the Western Conference Finals. Marchment denied the comparison, pointing to the record during the losing stretch technically being .500, so he “wasn’t thinking about it too much,” at the time. As for this year, he echoed Lambert’s point about the need to battle. “Just compete,” Marchment told the Emerald City Spectrum. “We’re competing every night, and we’re close almost every game, so it’s just making that next play and keeping the puck out of the net, so just more battling and kind of not getting down on yourself is huge.” Despite the results not being what Seattle wants them to be, the team is trusting its process. Taking what a coach is willing to say publicly and how it compares to private conversations with management with a grain of salt, it doesn’t appear sweeping changes are coming just yet. Lambert said he talks with Kraken general manager Jason Botterill every day. There may come a time soon when the team decides to offload its expiring contracts and punt on the season, but the team is holding out hope that the results will start turning in their favor. “Nobody’s happy with where we’re at, at the moment,” Lambert said of Botterill and the rest of Seattle’s management. “But we also do feel like we’re seeing, and I said that, the irony of the whole thing is we’re seeing some progression in different areas. So we have to also take that into account as well.” Lambert has been in this spot before. The runway for turning things around like his 2022-23 Islanders team shrinks by the day. At a certain point, if things continue this way, the organization will have to take a long look in the mirror about the state of the team and its future and take action. For now, Lambert still has belief. “I think the nice thing is the similarities are we came out of that and took off (on Long Island in 2022-23). And I think we can do that here.”