Gerard Gallant met with the media following the loss to the Isles and said (MSG, NYR):
- On the game, “I thought we played great from start to finish, I thought we played a great hockey game. Disappointing to lose 2-1, but if you play like that most nights you will get success.”
- On the goalies and Sorokin, “They were both great, both made some real good saves and he was outstanding. I remember the save on Panarin in the first period. Goaltending was excellent tonight, it was a good hockey game, back and forth, two pretty well evenly matched teams tonight and unfortunately for us they got the bounce at the end.”
- On Vatrano, “Looked real good to me, I didn’t watch him real close, I’m trying to change lines and that, but he looked like he played solid, a real good game.”
- On the non-call when Lindgren was elbowed, “To be honest with you, I had more of a problem on our two penalties that were called earlier in the game, the Strome roughing and Goodrow hooking. I think the referees did a good job, low penalties are good, but I just didn’t like the two calls against us, I really didn’t and didn’t see penalties in those ones. They have a tough job to do and it’s a battle and at the end, to be honest with you, I thought it was a high stick, but it wasn’t, someone said it was a shoulder or elbow, I didn’t see it yet to be honest with you.”
- On the Islanders physicality, “I wouldn’t say that our team stood up to that, we are going to play at a level and the Islanders play at a level. I like the way we played, Reavo and our fourth line were out there, forechecking and bumping bodies. It was a good hockey game with two good teams, back and forth and the Islanders are in the position they are, but we all know they are a real good hockey team. They had a tough, tough two and a half months to start the season with their injuries and Covid and everything and got hit real hard, but we know they are a good hockey team and a very talented team and I thought tonight’s game was a coin toss.”
- On putting Vatrano with Strome and Panarin, “Just wanted to give him a chance, new player coming in and Hunt had been there a lot. He’s a talented guy, shoots the puck well and we’ll see how he goes there.”
- Is it because he’s a shooter and Panarin and Strome are good passers, “he better start shooting, he passed to Panarin the first one. But he’s a guy that scores goals and shoots the puck real well. Hopefully they will give him some good passes and he’ll bury some chances. And nothing against Hunt, he did a good job up there and played a good game again tonight. He goes all over the place, he’s a little bit like Goodrow.”
- Could the winning goal have been played differently, “I think that what happened is we got rattled at the other end when Lindgren got rattled and was a little foggy or whatever. It was a funny rush and if you look at it, Foxy was going to take the guy on the goal line because it looked like he was going to pass it to him and then the puck redirected and the guy banked it in front of the net. It was an unfortunate bounce for us.”