Gerard Gallant met with the media following the win over the Oilers and said (MSG, NYR):
- On the game, “I liked when we talked before the game, we talked about 20 guys playing and 20 guys showed up and played hard. That was huge for our group and we played a good game, got the lead again, and kept going.”
- On defending McDavid and Draisaitl, “they did great, obviously. They are great players and get their scoring chances, but we did a great job tonight. It wasn’t about one line or one player, it was about the team, the group and they did a great job.”
- On the offense clicking, “Playing real well, doing the right things with the puck, not having a lot of turnovers. When we struggle we turn it over in the neutral zone and we haven’t done that a whole lot, it makes a big difference and guys are scoring big goals at key times and it’s not just the top players.”
- On Georgiev, “he’s playing great. Just before the Covid he was playing great. It’s what I was told in the summer when I got the job, we got two great goalies and that is what I’m seeing.”
- On Georgiev not being rusty, “he took shots the last 3-4 days, so there was no issue there, it’s not like he was injured or something. He was fine.”
- On the atmosphere at MSG, “big time, the last two games have been incredible here. For me, the first part of the year was a little quiet and you saw some empty seats, but I think right now it’s taking off and they believe in our team and they are great for our group and to hear the noise and the way they are reacting to our team is a lot of fun.”
- On the Lafreniere, Strome, Goodrow line, “Laffy has played great. Sometimes he has a tough time, but when he’s playing top minutes and getting on the ice a lot he makes a big difference and he’s confident and feels good about himself and he’s happy to have a chance to get up there. Sometimes for those elite players, the star young players, they are used to playing 17-18-19 minutes and sometimes he doesn’t get that on different lines. It’s a learning thing, he’s 19-20 years old and that is part of it, but he’s played really well and responded well with the ice time.”
- What is showing you that Lafreniere has confidence, “the whole thing, defensively, blocked shots, finishing checks, but he’s getting scoring chances and creating scoring chances.”
- On Zac Jones, he’s got some good jump, looks confident out there, confidence is a big word, but he looks good. We wanted to see him a little bit, it’s his second game, he played a good first game and he was good again. Give us an opportunity to see some of our prospects.”
- On defending the Oilers, “I just think we didn’t give them the time and space we usually did. In Edmonton when they came back against us they had a lot of time in the middle to make their plays, those two guys, not only those two guys will make their plays every time you give them time and space and I thought our low d-man and our low-center did a great job eliminating that.”