David Quinn met with the media on MSG following the Rangers win and said:
On Panarin and Trouba, “it’s nice to get your first goal out of the way when you play for a new team, that certainly takes a little bit of the load off them….but, look, it certainly wasn’t a picasso out there but we found a way to win and at the end of the day that is all that matters.”
On Mika picking up where he left off, “that and then some, no doubt about it. Think back to that Philly game on the 4 on 3 and the job he did there, he did everything for us tonight.
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On the offense covering up mistakes, “yes, yes, we were opportunistic to say the least. That is a good hockey team, I know they lost some guys but you talk about a team that forechecks as hard as anyone in the league, they are really quick. I don’t know if it was nerves or what not but we weren’t ready for that pace, a lot of times we had it and they were able to pick our pocket and we were slow to second pucks, I will chalk it up to nerves in a lot of ways because a lot of guys were making their Ranger debuts and you could sense it.”
Is an opening night win more special, “as I stand here in front of you, yes it feels pretty good right now. With the excitement and hoopla and all the things that happened in the offseason everybody was looking forward to seeing us play and I’m sure there were plenty of times they weren’t happy with what they saw but we got the job done.”
Could you sense the nerves with Kakko, “he looks pretty stoic, he doesn’t show a lot of emotion. I don’t think he gets nervous, at least from the short time I’ve been around him.”
On the winner, “it’s the way we are going to have to score goals, the way we have to play, we didn’t do enough of it tonight but, yes, it was good to get a goal in that fashion from somebody other than our top line. That line was starting to play a little better, I put Lemieux out for that shift just because he hadn’t played much and he gives you some oomph and energy and Howds goes to the net and we win the draw and Quickie gets into that quiet area inside the blue line and we get to the net and rebound. We didn’t do it a lot tonight but we did it at the right time.”
Do you like the schedule coming up, “no.”
On Kakko, “the one thing I think, I’ve only been around him a little less than a month, I don’t think he’s going to have many bad nights. He might not have a great night but he isn’t going to have a bad night and right away that makes you a pro. It’s not so much how good is your good but how bad is your bad. One of the things about him, I don’t think he’s going to have many bad nights if any. A game might end and you think Kaapo was just okay, and that will be his bad night, and if that is the case he will have a hell of a career.”
Did you think Fox was dealing with nerves, “yes, but I thought he got better and better as the game went on. Look, kid from NY, season ticket holder his whole life, I can’t even imagine what was going through his mind when this game started. It was an exciting night, probably moreso for the Fox family than any player on our team but I thought he settled in as the night went on.”