7:58PM: Gerard Gallant spoke after practice and said (NYR):

• Would you like to have set lines, “I’d love that to happen real quick, but whatever the time frame is for the other two guys to get back, it’s going to be the near future, we are going to have a lot of guys in and out in different spots right now. I got an idea in the back of my mind of what the lines could look like, but it could very well change.”

• How complicated is it to have four new players and still have Kakko and Rooney returning, “it’s a positive for some and negative for some because you are throwing things out there, different lines, different positions for certain guys, you are trying to get a feel, but it’s good thing. It might hurt us some nights with guys playing off wings or with new line combos, but you do the best you can. The players, we just had a little chat there, stay positive and try to do this to win hockey games, go as far as we can if we make the playoffs. That is what you do, have patience, a lot of people on the ice and you are all teammates, but we are trying to win hockey games and that is what we are trying to do as best we can.”
• How often do you put a right shot defenseman on the left side, “with me, I can’t think that far back, but it’s definitely happened. I have no issue with that, if that is the situation we are in, I have no issue at all with that, it’s more on the individual player and if they’ve had much time doing that. I don’t think it’s a big, big deal, some coaches do, I really don’t think it’s a big, big deal.”
• It’s not something you see a lot, “no, but it happens. I know a lot of defensemen can play both sides and it’s not an issue, but some of us coaches think too much for certain plays, but if we’ve got five good right handed defenseman, someone is going to have to play the left side. I don’t think you trade away people just to get a left hand defenseman for a right defenseman.”
• What is the mood with the team, “mood is good, everything is positive, mood is good, but everybody wants to play and that is the tough part about this situation. We are trying to win hockey games and get into the playoffs and go on a long run in the playoffs, who knows how far it goes, and you are probably going to need 27/28 guys and hopefully we can win enough games to do that, but time will tell.”
• On moving Lafreniere down the other night, “it was the score and you know what, to be fair to Laffy, I know he likes playing left wing better than right wing, we are trying some new, different people. It’s not picking on Laffy at all and I wanted to put him back on left wing to feel more comfortable. He’s a 20-year old kid, played good hockey, gots some points for us, but with the new guys coming in you just want to change the make up a little bit and we will see where it goes.”
• Are you looking for Laffy to clean up his defensive game, “Laffy or the team? Not Laffy, the team. We went into Tampa Bay and played one of our better games, very low chances against, a team competitive game, we had a tough night back-t0-back in Carolina, won the hockey game and when you watched it back it wasn’t as bad as it seemed on the bench, it still wasn’t good, but it wasn’t near as bad as I thought it was and then we go in and have a good first period and then we have a stinker the rest of the way. I think it was more of a mental thing than anything else, you go in and beat two, top, top teams and I’m not saying Jersey isn’t a top team, in the standings they’re not, but the way they are playing, even watching them last night against Toronto, they are a good, young hockey team with a lot of talent. They took advantage of us not being mentally sharp in the second period and dominated it.”
• Does the goalie plan change at all with some hiccups from Shesterkin, “no, we don’t go that far down. Benny will look at it and say the next three games, but we don’t go any further than that and obviously with the situation we are in, we are going to plan it out so goaltending isn’t tired, we’re not going to play somebody back to back and there is no need to.”
• On Shesterkin, “No issue with Igor, that was on our team. It was a mental block from everywhere.”
• Does the Pittsburgh game have extra meaning because of the playoff potential, “nothing, these games are big because we are fighting for second place, Carolina has a little jump, but things can change in a hurry. We play Pittsburgh two of the next three games and then we play them a week and a half later than that, so we play them three times in two weeks. It’s fun and they are good games, we had a great game against them that we lost in their buildling, it was a great game and I expect the same tomorrow night. They are a good, veteran hockey team and it should be fun.”

11:23AM: At practice today the lines being used are (Staple):

• Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Frank Vatrano
• Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome, Andrew Copp
• Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, Barclay Goodrow
• Tyler Motte, Jonny Brodzinski, Dryden Hunt
• Julien Gauthier, Greg McKegg, Ryan Reaves

Patrik Nemeth is still skating with Justin Braun. (Staple)