Gerard Gallant spoke after practice today and said (NYR):
- Are you trying to get the PP back on track, “there is nothing wrong with it, second in the league. (smile) I’m okay with it….they are working at it, they worked at it a little bit more today, going over 5 on 3 and 4 on 3 plays.”
- Is that the players wanting to work on it, “No, it’s coaches. I’m sure they like working on it (smile).”
- Are you seeing chances on the PP, “Yep, no issue, none at all.”
- Does Lafreniere look ‘peppier’ today, “He looks fine.”
- You said he had looked tired, “I didn’t say ‘he said he was tired,’ I said that I watched some games and he played 72 games, for a young player there is no reason not to give him a day off. None.”
- How tough does it make your lineup decisions when the third line scores twice, “They played real good, that line was excellent the other night, we talked about it after the game. I thought they were really consistent and did a great job. Laffy will be back in tomorrow, we’ll see where he goes, but he’ll be back.”
- Is it a good problem to have with the forward depth, “We’ve got four extra forwards and two extra D, it’s the way it is, we talked about it early on with the players. Play well, play good and you’ll be in the lineup. The situation we talked about last week, you guys keep bringing it up, ‘are you going to rest players?’ and like I said, we are going to rest players when the opportunity is there and they need it and when they don’t need it they will keep playing and trying to win hockey games. I made a decision the other night to rest Laffy, not because he’s played bad hockey, he hasn’t played bad hockey, but we look at the stats and look at the numbers and we’ve got medical people testing them everyday. You take advice from people and look at different things and that is what happens. I’m not smart enough to make all of those right calls.” (laugh)
- On Tyler Motte’s status, “nothing, he’s a ways away, obviously. We’re not looking for him in the next seven games, that is quite for sure, but we’ll see, take it one step at at time, but I haven’t heard a thing, I just heard he is out for quite a while and they’ll check back when he’s getting close.”
Lafreniere was rotating on the fourth line at practice today. (Stephenson)