Gerard Gallant met with the media following practice today and said (NYR):
- On dealing with injuries, “We’ve been fortunate, I mean, really, we’ve been pretty fortunate with injuries this compared compared to some other teams. You get a guy here or there, but, besides Sammy Blais and Kaapo was out for a while, for the most part we’ve been pretty fortunate with the injuries and we’ve got a lot of guys around. The only tough part about this one is that Kaapo was playing really well, just got back from missing eight weeks and he had 3-4 games and his last game he had two goals and played really good, so definitely disappointed for him, but, again, it’s not long-term. We fully expect him to be back, hopefully, possibly, play maybe two or three of the last games, but we expect him for playoffs.”
- Is Kakko frustrated by the injury, “I’m sure he is, I haven’t talked to him about it, but why wouldn’t you be? But you just gotta move on and focus on what you can do, quick little rehab and get back at it. That is all you can do. You can’t worry about it, you gotta think positive and good things will happen for him.”
- Has Copp exceeded your expectations, “maybe a little bit, I expected him to be a good, solid, player. He’s playing with some pretty skilled guys, so he’s maybe getting a few more points than I thought he would, but I like what he brings to our team. He’s good for the PK, playing on the second PP unit and that line has been better and I like the way he plays his overall game and he’s scored some big goals for us and made some good plays, I really like him.”
- On Copp and Panarin, “I just see an opportunity there. With Kaapo being out and some opportunity to put him there and give him a chance up there. When we got him, people probably look at him and say a real good third-line player, but there are all kinds of players that move up in the lineup and do better. I just like the way he skates, big, strong guy, goes to the net and he opens up some room for those guys.”
- On being in the race for first place, “we were in the situation last week, no difference. You don’t look by teams, we didn’t look by Detroit or the game in Philly. You gotta play one game at a time, you can’t worry about the six games left to play, you get ready for Winnipeg tomorrow and get ready for that game. The standings take care of themselves. I’m happy with where we are at, obviously, we’ll see where we finish and that is who we are going to play. You can’t worry about who you are going to play, you just worry about playing the best you can in the games and getting prepared.”
- Do you take into consideration Kreider going for the goal record when you think about resting him, “I don’t see Chris Kreider wanting to rest, he’s a big horse of a guy and just seems to keep going and going and if you give Kreids a rest he’ll wanna come to the rink and work out twice that day. I don’t think he’s that type of person. I don’t worry about the record, I’d love to see him get the record and I told him that on the bench the other night, ‘let’s try and score some goals here and get this record,’ but he just takes it one game at a time, there is no pressure at all. If Kreids comes to us and says ‘I don’t feel good,’ obviously we’ll put him out of the lineup. It’s just sort of a day-to-day thing, if we think a guy needs a little break, we’ll give it to him, but he’s shown no indication of that.”
- Would you ask players if they want to rest, “I don’t go and ask guys, definitely not, that is why we’ve got out medical staff and our trainers. They are with those guys all the time, in the gym with them all the time, strength and conditioning coaches…and if we see something on the ice…but I’ve seen nothing like that with our team. We’ve got a pretty good schedule to finish the year off and had a day off yesterday, lots of days off. I think our team is in a good place right now.”
- After seeing Lafreniere, do you want to rest more guys, (laugh) “Maybe for Laffy, if he could sit one game and score two goals he’d do that for sure. It was great, he had lots of jump, looked really good and it’s special for a young player to score a goal like that, that second goal was really pretty and just gives him more confidence.”
- Does a skilled play like that jump out to you, “oh, definitely jumped out. To see him score that goal and it was a great play to make, the way he finished it, too, was outstanding. I just think that is a young player with confidence and the more you do that the better. You can’t do those plays every night, but it’s nice to see him do that and be successful with it.”