Gerard Gallant met with the media following the loss in Game 3 and said (MSG, NYR):
- Felt like a roller coaster of a game, “Was it ever. Obviously a slow start to the game. We knew they were going to come out, we came out in our building real hard in the first period and they did the same tonight, but they kept it going for the full 20 minutes and we got behind obviously and had a lot of trouble. I’m proud of my team, we bounced back and played hard the rest of the game and it’s unfortunate, but that is the way she goes and we’ll get back next game.”
- What caused the slow first period, “I have no idea. Stuff happens, you prepare the same way, get them ready to play the same way and, like I said, the fans definitely help in every building. There was no different than it was in our building in the first game, we had a great start to the game and great forechecking and they got a couple of fortunate bounces. They played well, they dominated the first, but after that I thought we played really well.”
- It seemed like you both had chances and were giving up chances,“First period, after that I think we were…you watch the game and the PP they had great saves. You give Louis Domingue credit, when it was 4-4 he made 2-3 great saves on our PP. That was a big part of the game.”
- On pulling Shesterkin, “You look at it and say, two of them were lucky bounces and it’s 4-1, you want to change momentum a little bit sometimes and Igor has been outstanding and, really, you look at it right now and he’s played 10 periods in the last 4-5 days. I thought it was a good time to jump-start it and fortunately for us we battled back in the second and tied it up and unfortunately in the third they get a goal. I like the way our team didn’t quit, I was proud of them for that and we’ll be ready to go in the next game.”
- What was the message between the first and second,“It was just ‘man up.’ They are a good team we are playing over there, but there is no difference, the rinks are the same length and you gotta play the game and let’s ‘man up’ and be men about this and we aren’t going to die and sit back and let them continue to play like that against us and we came out and caught them pretty good and battled back in the hockey game.”
- So part of pulling Shesterkin was to rest him, “Exactly. It’s 4-1, totally tilted and sometimes you spark your team with a goalie change. Igor has been our MVP all season as everybody knows and in the playoffs, I thought we’d give him a little rest tonight and hopefully spark our team and it worked.”
- On Georgiev, “Really solid, looked strong, excited to get in there and looked really solid.”