Gerard Gallant met with the media following the loss to Pittsburgh and said (NYR):
- On the game, “It was a hard working day for both teams, great goaltending, obviously, for both teams and it was a good hockey game and too bad that one goal decided it. They buried their PP and Jarry made a couple of great saves on our PP.”
- Did it have a playoff atmosphere, “for sure, definitely did. Especially the longer the game went 0-0 it felt like a playoff battle for sure.”
- Are these the types of games you want to see them play, “last two I thought we played really well. I was really excited with the first period, obviously, I think we had great, great jump and came in here and had a great first and still played good in the second and third, but I thought our first was really good.”
- Is the good start a positive to take away, “yea, but we lost the game, so I’d rather have a bad start and win the game. I think it’s about playing a 60 minute game more than the first, second or third period, and I think it’s two games in a row where we played good teams and played 60 minutes and they were great games, both of them.”
- Did the penalties disrupt things, “Yea, I think there were three four-on-fours in the second and it got some guys on the bench, which nobody likes to do, but it was a battle, physical game, some big guys pushing and shoving, some scrums and sort of a playoff atmosphere, a little bit.”
- Was it about sending a message in the first meeting of the season, “I don’t think so, but we got them three more times and it was a good hockey game. Two good teams going at it and one goals deciding it. I don’t think there was any message, physical message, but both teams played hard and wanted to win.”
- On moving Barron to the wing and McKegg to the middle, “We thought about it. Last game Barron started in the middle, it’s just the experience thing. Kegger is an experienced guy and we feel, with our systems, that an experienced guy is better in the middle. Barron will be a good center down the road, but we like him on the wing too.”
- On Chytil’s status, “He was fine, he’s fine, just that the team played really well the night before.”
- On the Lindgren penalty that led to their goal, “Seeing it live…he gets under his hands, you know what I mean? It’s tough, you don’t like – there was hardly any power plays and the refs let us play, which I like to see a lot of the time. I wish it wouldn’t have been called, obviously, but it’s a tough game to call and a fast game and we got a PP later and had a chance to score and we didn’t. I’m not blaming the refs, I think they worked hard.”