2:53PM: David Quinn spoke with the media on Saturday and said (NYR):
- On Hayes, “Hayes is a little sore but I think he will be a go tomorrow.”
- On the PP, “It’s a positive, we did a good job moving our feet and drawing penalties. We need to continue that but we also need to work on finishing games and being in a mindset that no matter what happens you keep playing. You don’t get down on yourself and you finish the job. That is something we will harp and work on and get out of it. I think it’s all mental for sure.”
- Is McQuaid ready and can he help, “yes, he is a guy that moves the puck well, is a good physical presence, good defensively. We traded for him because we believe that he can make us a better team and we have missed him.”
- On Pionk’s fight on Friday, “that is a guy who…you love that he wants to defend a teammate but you’ve also gotta understand the situation and ramifications of that. It’s a mistake that you accept and a great learning moment for him and for all of us.”
- On the actual penalty, “they didn’t want to give him an instigator and have him sit out 17 minutes.”
- On Zuccarello and Buchnevich, “Zucc competed and made a great play on the goal and I liked Buch’s game. They both had enegy and were ready to go and helped us.”
- On Chytil’s game, “I love the jump he has made over the last month, he’s moving his feet, doing all the things that he will need to do to be productive offensively, makes a great play on the goal. Every time he has the puck you feel like something good is going to happen and he’s using his teammates, driving wide, hounding the puck, stopping on pucks. A lot of good things in his game.”
- On Lias Andersson and things he will work on, “Skating, conditioning, playing fast and consistency. Like I said yesterday, he’s a 20-year old and sat out his first game since being called up. It happens to a lot of players, great players, he will be back in there tomorrow and continue to improve.”
- On Henrik, “we’ve had a lot of days in between, so that isn’t a problem. We had a great view from the bench, you can put that puck there 100 times and it’s not going in. It hit the post and went in, it was destiny that that thing was going in. It was 1 on 3, he was literally on the hashmarks. You don’t blame the goalie for it, it was a knuckler and on edge and you could put 1,000 pucks there and he couldn’t do it one more time.”
12:24PM: At Rangers practice on Saturday, Kevin Hayes, Jesper Fast, Matt Beleskey and Mika Zibanejad are all not skating.
The team is saying that all four are not practicing because of maintenance days.
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