Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube received advice from Barry Trotz on Lane Lambert before he and the team brought him on to run the penalty kill.
Following Tuesday night’s win over the Boston Bruins, Berube was asked about what led to his decision to add Lambert to his coaching staff. He credited a ringing endorsement from his good friend in Trotz to hire Lambert as an associate coach.
“He’s been a very good coach for a long time in this league, going back to his time with Barry Trotz,” he said. “I know Trotzie well. Trotzie and I had talked about it and he thought it’d be a great fit. I’ve heard nothing but great things about him as a coach and a person, and it’s all true. He’s detailed, great guy to work with, fits in really well with the coach and staff, and very intelligent.”
Of course, Trotz and Lambert go way back to their time together with the Nashville Predators where they enjoyed success there as well as with the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders. All three teams were perennial playoff contenders during the times Lambert was on the bench, including the 2017-18 Capitals that went on to win the Stanley Cup. The other thing that all three teams have in common is their penalty kills dramatically improved when Lambert was in charge of the unit.
While he was not quite able to carry the magic over to being in charge of the Islanders bench, he seems to excel best working closely with the head coach and focusing his efforts on the shorthanded unit. The early returns show that Lambert is having the same effect on the Leafs as they currently sit sixth in the NHL on the penalty kill at 86%. Given how anemic Toronto was shorthanded last season (23rd in the league at 76.9%), it is a dramatic improvement to one area of their special teams that has held them back for years.
“I think we know the plan, we know the gameplan out there,” Mitch Marner said when asked what has made the penalty kill more effective so far this season compared to last year. “At the same time, it’s just us reading and reacting off of it and trusting each other where we’re going to be. I think we’ve done a great job of clearing pucks 200 feet, supporting one another in battles, getting the pucks out cleanly. Yeah, it’s been great. We just gotta keep it going, keep trusting the system that we’re doing. We’ve had some major key blocks when we’ve needed them and major saves when we needed them as well.”
One area Lambert and Berube won’t like is how often the Leafs have had to kill penalties given the team is currently tied for second with the most times shorthanded at 57. They can’t expect to kill off every penalty and having to use the shorthanded unit that frequently is bound to make the penalty killers exhausted as games progress, which is something the coaching staff will try and manage as the season progresses.
In any case, the team can feel confident knowing they have a good chance to kill off a penalty with the system being overseen by Lambert. Leafs fans will surely be thanking their lucky stars that Berube is good friends with Trotz as that friendship is what resulted in bringing in their associate coach.
