Gerard Gallant met with the media following the loss to Carolina and said (MSG, NYR):
- On the first two periods, “the first was real good, like real good, and then the second, to be honest with you, I thought they won those 1-on-1 battles, I thought we played too much time in our d-zone, and they sort of took the momentum away from us, that was the biggest thing for me and then they get that early goal in the third period. I was really happy with the first and then the second, I thought they won too many battles in our zone, we played too much time down there.”
- Is this progress from the first two Carolina games, “Oh, definitely. Again, we are at home, we play pretty good in our building, the last time we played there, and the time before, it was back-to-back and a tough road trip and they dominated one night and even the game we won 2-0 they took it too us pretty good. Tonight, for me, it was an even game, real even and I thought the second period was the difference, they had too much time our zone, had too much puck possession, and out bumping us in the zone. We learned some lessons.”
- On Kreider scoring his 50th, “I think it’s awesome he scored 50 goals, that is huge, great to see. We all dream about the Stanley Cup. He’s lying, he dreamt about scoring 50 goals and that is a great feat, he’s had a great season for us and it’s too bad we had to lose when he scores his 50th, but hats off to him. It’s an unbelievable season and he still has 6 or 7 games.”
- On the PP being disjointed, “I agree. It’s not too often that you say our PP wasn’t as smooth as it usually is, but the break-ins weren’t really smooth tonight and give credit to the first or second-best PK in the league, they are really good and we just didn’t look as confident as usual. We still had a couple of good looks, but it’s gotta be better and they know that and they’ll be frustrated with that.”
- Is the PP going to need to adjust as teams game plan around it, “no doubt that teams are going to look at it, but the bottom line is we…we didn’t execute well. You can do what you want as a PK, but when you’ve got the extra man, we just didn’t execute our plays as well as we usually do and that was the big thing for me. It hasn’t been as good the last week and a half, but the plays are still there and when we execute those plays, you can’t take it way, teams force you and pressure you, but when they do that they usually give up good chances and we just haven’t taken advantage of those the last few games and I think it’s more us, to be honest with you, not making quicker plays and quicker decisions. It’s about execution.”