Gerard Gallant spoke after the win over Washington and said (NYR):

• Is that the 60 minute effort you have been looking for, “It was a real good team effort, obviously real good goaltending, a shame he lost that shutout at the end, but a good, strong team game, real good.”
• On Lafreniere’s game, “He’s played better hockey the last 20 games or so, really like the way he plays, competes hard, wasn’t getting the goals he wanted, but tonight was a big game for him, I think he had a goal and assist. He’s played better hockey and getting more chances and playing better hockey and 200ft game and that is what we like.”

• On Lafreniere’s move to RW, “I don’t know if it’s smooth, but he’s getting better at it, feels better. Sometimes he goes out there and I think that you see after he scores the goal he lined up at LW. That is what happens sometimes.”
• On the Kreider, Zibaneajd,  Lafreniere line, “It was good, every line competed and played hard, a good, solid team effort. Again, it wasn’t one of those games where it’s a lot of chances both ways, there were some good chances and we took advantage and buried our chances. It’s good to see, the Rooney line played really well.”
• On how/why he matched up the fourth line, “It was big boys against big boys. Sometimes it works for you and sometimes it backfires. I thought they did a real good job and really accepted that role tonight and played against one of the top-two lines against Washington and did a good job and that is what we need from them. When they are big, strong guys and compete they play the perfect game plan for us.”
• You’d consider matching up the fourth line in certain places, “yea, definitely. I liked the look of the line and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but I thought it was really good and I think the three of those guys grasped that tonight, knew they had a role to play and played it real good.”
• On Jones and Schneider being out against Ovechkin, “I don’t know how much it was, probably because of penalty kill and stuff like that. Murph takes care of the defense and I think it’s good that when you play against top guys and do a good job it gives you confidence.”
• Did the play in the defensive zone allow you to create offense, “definitely. As a coach you’re watching the first period and saying that we are doing a good job in the d-zone and not giving them a whole lot, though they didn’t create a lot on their forecheck either, but I was happy with the way the game was played. I thought everybody was ready to play and mentally focused and it was a big game. Washington is a good hockey team and right in position with us and I thought the guys came out and were really mentally ready to play the game.”
• Was this an important win for the standings, “Yea, definitely. You always look at the standings and I said earlier today that I like to look at the teams ahead of us and instead of the teams behind us so that we are worried about climbing in the standings and winning games. Again, you just want to get points, put points in the bank and hopefully down the road you get as high as you can, that is the goal.”
•  Are you able to see the progress in the team from the first game against Washington to now, “we are playing better hockey, the guys are confident in the team and believe we are a pretty good hockey team, but it’s one game. I think it helps us against Washington mentally. Our team didn’t play well in the first game against them, they pretty well dominated us and tonight, to play against that team and the way we did, I think the guys feel good, but it’s one game and we gotta move on and get ready for a real good Pittsburgh team.”
• On Morgan Barron, “They created some chances, no doubt. They had 2-3 real good chances and I thought he actually scored short-side, but he played well, skated well and took a couple of good bumps.”