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Sput
03-30-2005, 03:18 AM
Cougars head coach Lane Lambert looks back on last season and ahead to next year.

Harpreet Sidhu/Free Press
Mar 27 2005


There's nothing like missing the playoffs to prompt a coach to do a little soul searching.
Cougars head coach Lane Lambert saw the team allow just 223 goals, making it their second best goals against season. Conversely, the Cougars scored just 158 goals, the worst in franchise history, including the Cougars time in Victoria.
"The biggest reason we're in the position we're in is our lack of goal scoring. It doesn't matter how you slice it or dice it. I'm talking about the one goal loses. We just didn't score," said Lambert. The Cougars dropped 16 games by one goal and were shut out 12 times.
"We were nine goals away from setting a franchise record for goals against. That [defence] wasn't a problem for our hockey team."
Lambert saw two different Cougars teams this season, one prior to the trade deadline and one post trade deadline.
"I think our team overachieved in the first half of the season, even though we were two games below 500. Our captain [Myles Zimmer] got injured in training camp and Justin Pogge [starting goalie] was hurt. We didn't have two Europeans and three 20 year-olds. The last half of the year I thought we underachieved and it was up to us as coaches and management to figure out why. It was a learning experience for everybody and I think that towards the end we started to gel a little bit," said Lambert.
"I think the trade deadline coincided with Eric Hunter getting hurt and that took a lot away from our line up and I think that took us a little bit longer for our hockey club to come together. I think our record in the 30 games with a 8-21-1 record it's just not good enough. I thought that we really deserved a lot better record than that. At the very least, 13-16-1 is more of a fair record. There were a lot of games we played good enough to win and for whatever reason the hockey gods weren't with us and we didn't win and we had a lot of one goal losses."
Lambert is hoping the returning players come back looking for more prominent roles within the team.
"I think that there are some holes we have to fill. We're losing Matej Trojovsky. [Ty] Wishert and [Mike] Berube gained a lot of experience and ice time this season. [Curtis] Cooper will be a 19-year-old and he is what he is. You get what you get from him every night. He's a solid stay at home defenceman every night. Ryan Gillen has some solid potential and he'll be back as an 18-year-old and we'll have [Andy] Rogers as a 19-year-old. He was hurt for quite a bit of the season before he came here and he missed a little bit of development there. Certainly the possibilities are endless with him. And we'll see what happens on the European front and the 20-year-old front," said Lambert. "With [Dustin] Byfuglien and [Devin] Featherstone there are possibilities there and with two goaltenders coming back I think we're pretty sound in terms of our defence next year."
After completing his first full season as head coach with a record of 26-41-3-2, Lambert was disappointed with the final outcome.
"The bottom line for me is I'm not comfortable with where we finished. In terms of our season it's deemed unsuccessful. I feel like I've let my bosses down and the community down. It gives me incentive to be better and work harder and in terms of my job security per se it's not something I lose sleep over. If I do I might as well quit and get into a profession that isn't hockey related. All I can do is recognize my faults and improve on them. I'm disappointed in myself and the fact that we never made the playoffs and I hold myself responsible," said Lambert.

Jovorock
04-01-2005, 09:49 AM
I said it before, I don't think it was coaching. I believe it was getting two slugs like Trovsky and Rogers. From what I have seen it was Thompson the GM, not the coaching.