Gerard Gallant met with the media following the win over the Sharks and said (MSG, NYR):
- On Shesterkin, “they are telling me it’s not as bad as it looks.”
- What is your level of concern, “None, not major yet, they haven’t told me nothing to worry about it.”
- Will he have an MRI tomorrow, “trainer just ‘don’t worry about it,’ that is all he told me. Minor lower-body, we will see.”
- On Georgiev, “made three great saves, especially coming in on that PP was tough, but he made three great saves and looked solid, I was really happy and it’s a good opportunity for him to step up tonight and play like that and the two of them earned that shutout. It was great and obviously he’s going back in tomorrow.”
- On the end of the game, “That was an unbelievable last two shifts, for sure, keeping them hemmed in their zone and like we talked about, tonight it worked out perfect, you always talk about playing the same game, continue to forecheck, continue to keep them out of your zone, because that is your best defense, keeping them down there and it worked tonight real well.”
- On the defensive effort, “we didn’t give up a lot, but we gave up a few mental mistakes in the second period, for sure, but overall we didn’t give up a whole lot and they played back to back and were probably a little sluggish too, but give their goalie credit, he made 3-4 outstanding saves for sure to keep it 1-0.”
- Did you have the better chances, “that is what it felt like, for sure. But both goaltenders…when Georgie came in in the third and he made three real key saves at a key time there, especially on the PP.”
- Was it a situation where he could just come in and play on instinct,“Georgie? Yea, for sure. It’s not easy coming in cold off the bench, but he had a little stretch, a couple of minutes and, fortunately, there was a little skirmish and he had a few minutes to get prepared and he did a great job.”
- On how the team responded to SJ’s defensive structure, “the first period I thought we controlled the puck in their zone a lot, had a lot of chances, deflection chances down low and some good opportunities, but I expected that from SJ tonight, back to back games and our team is playing really well at home. They didn’t give us a whole lot but we made some really nice plays, that backdoor to Panarin was an unbelievable save by the goalie. We had some good chances and I thought we should have had more than one and they should have had a couple and we could have probably had 4 or 5.”
- On the PK, “They put in a workmans effort tonight and did a good job. We always talk about the goaltender as the number one penalty killer and he made 2-3 good saves on the PK tonight and guys are working hard, they are competing hard and getting in shot lanes and did a great job.”
- Do you know the goalie situation in Hartford, “I have no idea.”
- Has the team come together faster than you thought, “no, we are 22 games in and I think the first 10-12 games we weren’t happy with how we were playing even though we were winning hockey games, but it’s changed since then. The last 10 games have been good to me.”
- On Strome’s game, “Stromer is good, he got the big goal on the PP, but I thought he played a good, solid two-way hockey game. That line had some real good chances.”
- On the Chytil line, “I like the way they are playing. Since that line got together, with Gauthier’s speed they have been playing good and tonight they had some great opportunities. I don’t worry about those underlying numbers, I worry about them, when I do scoring chances in the morning and watch the game and say ‘they are doing the right things and getting opportunities, so I like them.”