10:34PM: Following the game, David Quinn said (NYR):
- “One of the things we talked about between the second and third was that I felt the team that was playing the most honest hockey was gonna win. I didn’t think there was a lot of honest hockey from our end in the first two periods. I thought that from the drop of the puck in the third we were paying attention to detail, not getting ahead of ourselves. We showed all the things you need to show to play winning hockey. After we went up 3-1 I thought we reverted back and thank God for our goalie because that game could have been 3-3 in a hurry.”
- On Lias Andersson’s goal, “not drawing pictures…you need to get goals like that. I know there was a little bit of suspense on whether it was going to count but I thought it was very similar to the one allowed by them so I was pretty confident it was going to be a goal.”
- On Andersson, “any time you are able to get on the scoresheet it helps your confidence. It’s how everybody judges every player. Game ends and the guy calls home and mom and dad aren’t asking him about his changes, his back checking, where was your stick, it’s not how we judge anybody. It’s hard to get these guys to make a priority because of society, the way we judge our game, but all those things lead to being productive offensively.”
- On Namestnikov, “when I left the locker room he was talking, so that is progress.”
- On the MIka/Namestnikov line’s identity, “I’d like them to be more productive offensively, it just happened that way tonight, I wasn’t that concerned with the match up as I had been with some of the other lines. They’ve embraced that role and if you look at Mika’s point production, he’s on pace for 65-70 points.”
- On the message of hard work, “we got a bunch of good guys and good players that went to get better. From the start of training camp we are all on the same page with what was expected. They’ve all wanted to work hard and it makes it easier. They know when they don’t work hard, you can’t lie to yourself. More times than not, when we have sat a guy, whether it be during a game or a healthy scratch, they deep down know it’s the right thing to do, they know they deserved it. It’s not-negotiable, it can’t be. One of the things we do as a staff is that we work hard on our relationships with them so that when we do have that conversation with them that is not the only part of the relationship that they know and they know that everything we do is to make them the best player they can be and for us to win hockey games, it’s the only reason we do anything. They may not agree but they understand why we do it.”
- On Marc Staal, “I just think he has had a good year defensively, he’s a calming influence on our team in the locker room and on the ice, he works hard, he wants to get better. I’ve just liked his year, I really have. Has every night been a great night, no, but he hasn’t had many bad ones. He’s defended well, eaten a lot of minutes and played against teams top players.”
Henrik Lundqvist said after the game (NYR):
- “Puck management is so important in this league. For the most part we played a smart game. We played a hard game. We talked about it with the group, we just have to realize what we are and what we need to do to have success. There is no in-between or relying on this or that, it’s about hard work and paying attention to the little details of the game and when we do that we can beat anybody. If we don’t we can lose against anybody.”
- “We need everybody to step up and, back to understanding who we are, we are a group. We can’t rely on just a few guys, we need everybody to play a big part on this team so it’s important to get guys going. We win as a group here, it’s the only way, it’s how we are built.”
9:49PM: First Period:
Ad
- Marc Staal Assists: Mika Zibanejad, Jesper Fast
- Mark Stone Assists: Colin White, Brady Tkachuk
Second Period:
Third Period:
- Lias Andersson Assists: Ryan Strome
- Chris Kreider Assists: Filip Chytil, Kevin Hayes
- Mark Stone Assists: Brady Tkachuk, Matt Duchene
- Mika Zibanejad (ENG)
Stats:
Three Stars:
- 3: Mark Stone
- 2: Mika Zibanejad
- 1: Henrik Lundqvist