PHILADELPHIA — Lane Lambert is not a coach who regularly calls out his team publicly, so the assessment he gave following Thursday’s 5-2 preseason loss to the Flyers counts as notable.
“You have to play well. That’s it,” the normally soft-spoken Lambert said. “We’re evaluating. We’re making some decisions. … Some people are here for a reason. We’ve found out some more about other people.”
Though the Flyers were playing an NHL-heavy lineup against an Islanders group that was a mix of NHL and AHL players, it was still a messy performance.
The Islanders made a series of mistakes in their own zone, struggled on the power play and took bad penalties — including a Casey Cizikas interference that led to a five-on-three goal.
In a second period when the Flyers scored twice, the Islanders went the final 8:41 without a shot.
“I think when you don’t get the puck out when you have a chance to get the puck out and you spend more time in your zone than you need to, fatigue sets in,” Lambert said. “Sometimes when the legs go, so does the brain. And I thought we had a couple of situations where we had guys making the wrong decisions.”
Though Lambert said he was not concerned with the team’s performance, it was notable that even when asked about positives — for example Oliver Wahlstrom stripping the puck from Carter Hart and assisting on a goal — he put those moments in contrast to those in which the Islanders struggled.
“He got in and hounded,” Lambert said. “I thought far too often tonight when we were in the forecheck, we turned off of people. We’re guessing and that’s not our hockey. That’s not our hockey team and that’s not the way we play hockey. Wally didn’t do that in that situation. Lo and behold, creates a turnover and it’s in the back of the net.”
Kyle Palmieri did not participate on Thursday’s game after returning to practice Wednesday.
Lambert said it has not yet been decided whether he will play in Friday’s preseason finale against the Devils.
Ahead of the game, in which Semyon Varlamov stopped 26 of 31 shots, Lambert said he was unconcerned about the performance of the team’s goaltenders in the preseason.
“We think they’ve very close to being regular-season ready,” Lambert said. “We still have another week. And they’ll continue to work and get themselves ready. And so I think they’re just like anybody else in the preseason. They’re finding their way at times, too.”
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