4:08PM: David Quinn met with the media on Monday and said (NYR):

• “Mika is feeling better, still day to day with him. Hank is fine, be ready for tomorrow.”
• Was it more maintenance with Lundqvist, “yea, a little bit, a little sore, he will be fine for tomorrow.”
• Is Lundqvist starting tomorrow, “No, it will be Georgie.”
• On Jesper Fast, “he should be ready to go for tomorrow.”
• Can Mika play tomorrow, “we will see, he’s day to day. He feels better today, we will know more tomorrow.”
• Do you need to call anyone up, “that is something we will discuss.”
• How did the guys respond in practice, “it was definitely, some of the things we absolutely have to get better at, they were certainly more dialed in to it. See if we do it in a game, that is the challenge.”
• Did the Buffalo game show the team can be better, “yea and it’s recent so we need to draw from it. The first period was kind of a blah period but structurally we were okay, we were in the right position. I didn’t love our lack of battle effort, but we were there, hence that they had two scoring chances in the first period. We had two or three ourselves and it was a blah period in a lot of ways but we are up 1-0 and obviously we saw what happened in the second and lost our way.”
• What is the frustration level for you, “listen, I know the make up of our team, guys who are trying to establish themselves in the league, learning to play in the league and that is our job to help establish them and get better daily. Coaching at times can be frustrating regardless of where you are at and the winning and losing. We’ve got guys that we believe in and continue to work with them.”
• What was the message to the team, “I’d prefer to keep that with the team and between us…we understand what we need to do. The good news is that our guys understand how we have to have success and now we have to apply it and be more consistent with it.”
• Does winning battles come strictly from effort, “it’s a want, you can’t wait to get in the battle. When there are loose pucks and the play goes to the corner, you can’t look to see if you should get over there, you have to get over there and if you look at the difference between us and the Bruins, that was the difference. They were quickly to the battle and from our end of it we were too slow to it.”
• Are there too many guys who want to play finesse, “I think that is part of our problem, we have a lot of guys, that is how they identify themselves and one of the things we have to do is help them understand that it’s great that you have that skill set but you have to add a grit and battle element if you are going to be successful here.”
• Can you make adjustments to the system, “we are always trying to do that, tweaking things trying to figure out the best way we can put our guys in the best position to have success, that is something we look at daily.”
• On Kakko on the top PP unit, “pretty sure that is where he will be, depending on the availability of Mika.”
• On what it’s been like to coach Kakko, “I think sometimes he cares so much that he gets in his own way, he puts a lot of pressure on himself. He’s a guy that has had an awful lot of success. We are 9 games in and he is used to having 18 points by now and it’s a big adjustment for an 18-year old who gauges himself statistically to step into this league and have success. It’s a learning curve for every 18-year old and he is going through that right now and the great news for all of us is that he has the skill set and wants to be great.”
• On DeAngelo on the top PP unit, “we got a goal, Tony did a good job of getting pucks through. Our PP hasn’t been great lately but initially it was pretty good.”
• On experience as a college coach helping now,“I think just coaching in general, college or not, if you are going to have any success as a coach you need to understand the players you are dealing with, personalities, the ability to adapt to each player and push different buttons and find ways to make them the best they can be. Maybe the experience I’ve been fortunate to have will allow me to do that, we will find out.”
• On reports from Hartford on Chytil and Shesterkin, “very good ones. Filip has had a real good year down there as has Igor, those guys are off to great starts, as is the team.”
• On Shesterkin’s numbers, “he has done a great job. Everyone knew the type of talented goalie we were bringing over here and he is certainly proving it.”
• On the best environment for Chytil, “I think because he has been here before, it’s not much of a concern of ours. Any time you call someone up all of those things come into play. I’m not as worried from Filip’s end of it because of how he handled his situation this year and the fact he was here last year for so long.”
• On the balance between calling guys up, “where are we from a team standpoint up here, is he better staying another few weeks and building confidence? Those answers are so circumstantial and time driven, that is why we will have those discussions today about where we are at and our injury situation.”
• Is Chytil doing what you want, “yea, that is the thing we feel good about. You can go down there and get your points. I used to say this an awful lot when I was coaching in the AHL to our team, if you look at the top scorers in the AHL over the last 5-6 years you see a lot of the same names. Going down there and just getting points doesn’t mean you are going to get a chance here and have success. One of the things we like that Fil has done is that he has gone down there and been productive offensively but he has also done the things he has to do to have success at this level.”
• Has Chytil been at center the whole time, “yes.”
• Are you and Shattenkirk still close, “things are good, things are good. We had a long lunch before he left, had a few text messages. It was tough for both of us, not saying everything is perfect but he knows how I feel about him as a player and person.”
• What have you seen from him in Tampa, “one of the things, even before we ended up buying him, I was confident he was going to have a bounce back year for a lot of reasons. The knee injury, we’ve all talked about it, it was real and once you lose your legs, mentally a lot goes wrong. Over the summer he worked on his skating, had a full summer to commit to training instead of rehabbing. When he feels confident about his skating, every other aspect of his game grows and that is what is happening this year and I’m not surprised.”

1:29PM: Alex Georgiev will start in net tomorrow against Tampa Bay. (Stephenson)

Jesper Fast is expected to play tomorrow but Mika Zibanejad is questionable. (Stephenson)

12:45PM: The PP units being used at practice today are (Stephenson):

• Ryan Strome, Kaapo Kakko, Artemi Panarin, Pavel Buchnevich, Chris Kreider
• Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, Brendan Lemieux, Brett Howden, Pavel Buchnevich

12:04PM: Both Henrik Lundqvist and Mika Zibanejad are not practicing today due to upper body injuries. (NYR)

Both players are considered to be day to day. (NYR)

Zibanejad missed the final two periods of Sunday’s game after taking a hit from Patrice Bergeron.

Lundqvist was pulled for the third period after allowing 4 goals on 31 shots.

He was also called for a roughing penalty for a collision with David Pastrnak at 10:01 of the second period.

Jesper Fast, who missed yesterday’s game due to personal reasons, is also not skating and David Quinn said yesterday he was unsure if Fast would be available for Tuesday against Tampa.