The last time we heard a peep from New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert was after his club fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime of Game Six. With a new season on the horizon, Lambert spoke ahead of the start of training camp at the Islanders' annual golf outing.

The last time we heard a peep from New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert was after his club fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime of Game Six.

With a new season on the horizon, Lambert spoke ahead of the start of training camp at the Islanders' annual golf outing. 

Outlook on Season

The Islanders dealt with a tremendous amount of injuries to key players in 2022-23, which led to them needing all 82 games to get into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Mix that in with certain players not playing to expected levels, it made it quite an interesting season and an even more intriguing offseason, which provided more questions than answers. 

READ MORE: Former Islanders Boychuk & Seidenberg Leaving Their Marks on Prospects

"Well, I think, certainly, you look back on every aspect of year one," Lambert said. "It's always about improving and getting better. I think we made strides, and we have more to do and more things to do and get better."

The Islanders did answer some questions, personnel-wise, bringing back mid-season acquisitions in forwards Bo Horvat and Pierre Engvall, while also retaining Scott Mayfield, Semyon Varlamov, and the most important player, Ilya Sorokin. 

Regardless of the same faces that will walk through the doors of Northwell Ice Center on Thursday for Day 1 of training camp, Lambert views his team as a new group.

"I look at it as a new group. And I look at it also with how we finish the season in terms of our last stretch of games where we played very, very well heading into the playoffs," Lambert said. "Pierre and Bo, those guys came in and helped us out a lot. So, to me, it's exciting to start fresh with that group that we finished with."

Open Spots

With Zach Parise not joining the Islanders for camp and the question mark that looms on the backend, there's a few opportunities for players to earn spots. 

Lambert shared that training camp will start with 60 skaters, which means many of the prospects who have been skating at rookie camp will have the chance to prove their worth alongside the everyday NHLers. 

"There's some opportunity there, and we're looking forward to seeing those guys and seeing how they've come along," Lambert said regarding his prospects. "We've seen them before camp last year, previous camps, so it's going to be good to see the progression."

Outside of bringing back the NHL staples this summer, the organization did bring in-depth forwards Julien Gauthier (one-way), Karson Kuhlman (two-way), and Brian Pinho (two-way), also signing forward Jackson Cates to a PTO. 

These were important moves because the Islanders had to recall prospects out of necessity last season when the injuries piled up. Some seemed ready to get into some NHL games, while others still needed more time to develop. 

Not to mention at last year's training camp, there wasn't too much competition. This camp may be one of the more competitive camps we have seen on the island in quite some time. 

"I think that anytime you can add competition, and we talked about this last year as well, the internal competition from within, I think that's a great thing," Lambert said. "We've added some guys that have NHL games. Some guys have over 100 of them. So, that just adds to the competition for sure."

Line Combinations

For the most part, the Islanders' lines won't be changing a whole lot, but there will be experimentation done during camp. For example, Mathew Barzal playing on Bo Horvat's wing or vice versa, which only got about six regular season looks before a hectic playoff performance. 

"I think there's a little bit of experimentation, but there's been a long summer to think about it," Lambert said. "So, we'll move things around a little bit in training camp, but I think there's there's a pretty good indication of what we're going to do, and we'll just have to see. 

"Again, things change a little bit once you start getting the viewing of it, but certainly, I think there's an idea there."

Regarding Barzal: "The one thing about Barzy is he's willing to play wherever in order to help the team win. That's what good players do. "He's growing into a little bit more of a leadership role for our hockey team. So that's what he's done, and he's willing to move, to do whatever it takes to help our team win."

Coaching Responsibilities

The Islanders power play operated at a 15.8 percent clip during the regular season, third worst in the NHL. In the six postseason games, the Islanders scored one power-play goal on 18 tries, as it was a clear weakness that plagued their season. 

The entire staff is coming back, including power-play coach John MacLean.  

"I'll do a little bit more overseeing both ar: eas of special teams," Lambert said. "But, from that standpoint, I think our five-on-five stuff, all that, we have pretty much in place."

Regarding changes to the power play: "We'll see when training camp starts because there's a couple of little things that we need to see. We have some players that we have to take a look at in certain situations."

Notes

There was no answer provided on whether or not Alexander Romanov (upper body) will be ready for training camp. General manager Lou Lamoriello shared last week that he may not be ready but that it would be close.

Oliver Wahlstrom (lower body) has had a great summer and, like Lamoriello said, will be ready for camp. 

Tuesday is the final day of rookie camp. The Islanders will have medical check-ups and the basic first-day assessments on Wednesday.

Training camp will open on Thursday.