Gerard Gallant spoke after practice today and said (NYR):
- Was today’s practice in-line with what you are thinking for Tuesday, “yep, it was a good practice today. I’m not saying the lines are going to be like that Tuesday, but it’s pretty close.”
- On where Barclay Goodrow gets slotted, “It’s based on our roster more than anything, who is in and who is out. When we’ve got a full roster, I like him anywhere, he plays good anywhere and when he played with Strome and Bread a little bit he had real good success there, some offensive points, a real good 3 or 4 games together. The other guy, when he plays there, Dryden Hunt, he brings some forechecking. It doesn’t matter where Goody plays, he just wants to be part of our team and be an important player and that is what he has done since game one.”
- You can also move him around during the game, “yea, he’s been everywhere, done it plenty of times in the game and obviously the last 2-3 minutes of a game with one goal lead or two goal lead he switches up to different spots for different players.”
- On ice times and having a top heavy lineup, “some nights it does, some nights it doesn’t. It just depends on what the score is and who is playing well. If somebody is standing out and you want to get them more ice time when the big guys are going real well and you are losing by a goal, you can double them up more. That is the good thing about some of the games coming up, we’ve had a good break and I like to play four lines, but sometimes when the big guys want a little more ice time and you get them out there they feel a lot better and get excited with that and you rotate the third and fourth line in. For the most part this year we are four line team and play 6 D and knock on wood it helps our group.”
- Do you need more scoring from the bottom-six, “I like when they chip in, it’s important goals when they chip in, it’s more about keeping the puck out of our net. When you keep the puck out of our net and play real good defensive hockey we are a better team. We’ll get our goals, we’ll score enough goals if our PP keeps going like it’s going and special teams keep playing the way we are playing. Usually the magic number is three when you win hockey games and I think we can do that consistent with our top guys. I love it when Gauthier scores and Ryan Reaves and Rooney score some goals, it’s important, but I want them to do their role first and play their game and we score goals from playing good hockey.”
- Does the special teams and goaltending allow you to focus more on defense at 5 on 5, “Definitely, for me. I think we’ve gotten better, we are still giving up a few more chances than we like certain games, but for the most part we’ve gotten better from the first 10 games of the regular season and we are closing that down. Goaltending has been a big factor for our team, goaltending has played well and we win hockey games and they stole some games for us, no doubt, in the first half.”
- What did you miss when Fox was out, “Obviously we miss him because he’s such a great player. He’s not just our best defenseman, but he’s the Norris Trophy winner and the way he moves the puck…but to be honest with you, Jonesy came up and played and our D played really good and those last couple of games they played solid hockey, played as good as they can play and I was happy with them. It’s nice to see when a guy like Fox or those top players that are out of your lineup and guys come up and play well, but it’s not one guy that is going to replace him, it’s the whole group of guys and I thought the group played really good together.”
- What does Nemeth’s return bring, “We’re not sure he’s back yet, he’s not in the lineup yet for Tuesday for sure, we’ve gonna take our time with him and make sure everything goes good and we’ll see where it goes. He’s pretty easy to describe, Nemeth is a solid defensive guy, stays home, plays good defense, can move the puck up the ice, kills penalties, a good defender, that is what he is.”
- Is the feeling that it is better for Jones and Lundkvist to play a lot in Hartford, “we had that time off and they went down and played a lot of games, a lot of minutes and that is how you develop young players. There is no sense having them up here and sitting in the stands. With the Covid thing we had extra guys here, but the more pro games they play the better and when they came up they played well.”
- Have you and Benoit Allaire discussed the goalie plan for the rest of the way, “No, not really. Do you have a big picture plan? Yes, but that changes to quick, so we sort of go off the calendar. What do we have? 35 games left, we look at it and say ‘here, here, here,’ but that changes every week. So when Benny showed me that I said ‘that’s gonna change,’ but we have a plan, for sure.”
The lines used today at Rangers practice were (Stephenson):
- Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere
- Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome, Barclay Goodrow
- Dryden Hunt, Filip Chytil, Julien Gauthier
- Greg McKegg, Kevin Rooney, Ryan Reaves
- Ryan Lindgren, Adam Fox
- K’Andre Miller, Jacob Trouba
- Patrik Nemeth, Braden Schneider