Gerard Gallant spoke after practice today and said (NYR):
- Do you go back and look at the opener against Washington, “no, that is too far back. You watch enough of their games on TV, you know what they are going to bring. Ovechkin isn’t changing his game, I’m sure the rest of them aren’t going to change. They got Backstrom back, obviously.”
- How important is playoff seeding to you, “Personally, I want to win games and get points, I don’t really concern who you are going to play in the playoffs. If we are fortunate enough to make the playoffs, you know what, you are going to play a good team and I wouldn’t know which team to pick right now. Even if you are the wild card team, the wild card team is going to play a top team on the other side. If you look at the eight teams that are there today, if that is how they finish, what team do you want to play? Seriously.”
- Does winning the division matter, “I want to win games, I want to win the division, but it’s a battle to do that and you gotta play every night and get as many points as you can. I don’t worry about the playoffs until you get there. We know that whoever gets into the playoffs is going to play a good team, that is the way the conference is built. There are no easy outs, if you finish eighth and play the first on the other side, that is going to be a great team. If you finish second or third you are going to play a great team, so it doesn’t matter. It’s just a matter of winning games and playing good hockey.”
- Is this like a playoff preview, “How many games do we have left? 32. It’s far from a playoff preview, that is the farthest thing from my mind. I don’t know how that got brought up today, it’s too far for that. We have too many games against Pittsburgh, Washington and the Islanders, we gotta play a bunch of games, so we are way far from that.”
- Is there anything to Tom Wilson coming back to the Garden, “I really don’t. We never talked about it once, I don’t think there is nothing, I really think there is nothing. It’s another game against a rival, a division opponent that is just a few points behind us, that is what is important. I don’t think there is anything there.”
- Are the top two defense pairs interchangeable, “Interchangeable, I think that is a perfect word. You can play them against the first or second line on the other team. It just depends on the night and who is playing well and maybe a little bit of size, physicality, but for the most part they are interchangeable….and that is what we want our third pair to be, too, with Schneider coming, young kid, but that is what you love to see, not worrying who is on the ice against any top line.”
- How has that progressed with Schneider, “it’s coming, it’s obviously not there, but there are steps going in the right direction and that is the goal and that is the goal for every team, but it would be a huge thing for us.”
- How did Nemeth play the other night and Jones being sent down, “He played hard, played good, looked quick, he’s been really good in practice, so we were happy with the game. Again, Jonesy is a young player that we really liked in all the games he played, but we don’t want somebody sitting in the stands, we want him to play games down there and if we bring him back up, we bring him back up with no issues.”
- Is it a concern that Barron isn’t playing a lot, “we always want to get those kids games, but I think you are going to see Barron sooner than later.”
- On the PP, “When your PP has been as hot as ours has been for most of the year, it’s a good thing, but we gotta work a little harder in the offensive zone trying to create more, make defenseman haul you down a little bit, make sure we are moving our feet going to the net a little bit more, the last three games, not many PPs, 3 or 4 I think, but there wasn’t a whole lot, I know that. We gotta do a better job of drawing penalties too…but definitely, teams are aware of the PP. When we play Toronto we try to stay out of the box and no undisciplined penalties.”
The lines used today were (Stephenson):
- Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere
- Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome, Dryden Hunt
- Greg McKegg/Morgan Barron, Filip Chytil, Julien Gauthier
- Barclay Goodrow, Kevin Rooney, Ryan Reaves