Raised voice

Lamoriello promotes from within to deliver new message on Isles bench

In typical Lou Lamoriello fashion, the news of the new Islanders head coach came just as swiftly as the news of Barry Trotz’s dismissal last week.

Instead of following the whispers about Joel Quenneville or Mike Babcock — two former Stanley Cup-winning coaches with controversy attached to their names — and instead of kicking the tires on Paul Maurice or Pete DeBoer, who was let go by Vegas on Monday, Lamoriello stayed in house for a coaching hire whose success will play a large factor in determining whether the Islanders’ championship window can be pried back open.

The 79-year-old general manager watched Lane Lambert run the show for two weeks in January when Trotz was away from the team for personal and health reasons. What he saw then gave him the confidence to hire Lambert now, after a weeklong process in which it’s unclear whether any other candidates were even interviewed.

Last Monday, when explaining the decision to fire Trotz, Lamoriello said a new voice was needed. This Monday, when explaining how Lambert — Trotz’s top assistant for more than a decade, including all four years he spent on Long Island — qualifies as such, he admitted, “Maybe it wasn’t the right phrase that I should have used,” but insisted that Lambert fits the bill.

“There’s a tremendous difference between an assistant coach and a head coach,” Lamoriello said. “It’s bigger than I think anyone can sometimes understand. And the new voice is here with Lane, and certainly Lane has different thoughts on different things. Everybody does.”

Exactly what might be in line to change under Lambert, who went 2-1 in the three games he coached this season, is not immediately clear. Asked whether he would run the same system as Trotz, the new boss demurred, saying that over the summer, he and the rest of the staff would reevaluate what had to change.

“But the one thing that will never change,” he said, “is that our identity is we want to be hard to play against. That’s just who we are and that will never change from our standpoint.”

The construction of the roster, which had a disappointing 37-35-10 record as the Islanders missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018, was another topic on which Lambert had little to say. Lamoriello said last week that he wants to improve the offensive output from the blue line and look at a hockey trade to improve the forwards.

The job statuses of assistant coaches Jim Hiller, John Gruden and Piero Greco, as well as director of goaltending Mitch Korn, is yet to be determined, with Lamoriello and Lambert both saying only that the group is under contract.

Lambert’s last head coaching stint was with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals from 2007-11. He now walks into a pressure-filled job with an aging roster and a general manager who will expect results fast.

“I have no question whatsoever of my observation of Lane and his interaction with players,” Lamoriello said. “Because I did see firsthand during that period of time [in January] and how he took the lead in how the players responded to that.”

When Lambert was leading the team, Lamoriello told him to act as if it was the first day of the season. He also made it a point to keep a tighter eye on things than normal, sitting in on meetings and making himself visible.

That put Lambert atop the list when Lamoriello decided to make the change.

“He had no questions in his mind as far as decision-making,” Lamoriello said. “No insecurities in the conversations I had with him and the homework he did prior to making some of the decisions that were put upon him — whether it be a line change, whether it be mixing up the lines, the systemic parts of the game. … He was totally comfortable in his own skin to make decisions that had to be made.”

And, despite the “new voice” rhetoric of a week ago, Lambert can sell himself on familiarity just as easily as Lamoriello can act as if his hire constitutes a dramatic change.

“I’ve been here for four years, I’ve been working with each individual [player] for that period of time, for the most part,” Lambert said. “I think it gives us an advantage to hit the ground running. We certainly have a good relationship and I think a lot of the players are excited by the fact that they have someone that’s familiar with them coming in as well.”

The semantics of Lamoriello’s logic is, ultimately, unimportant. What matters is whether the Islanders can live up to expectations next season after failing to do so in spectacular fashion in 2021-22.

If so, Lambert might just be the last coach Lamoriello hires.