Gerard Gallant met with the media following the win in Game 7 and said (MSG, TBS, NYR):
- On the game, “seems like we’ve done that quite a few times this year. We trail going into the third period and we find a way to get back so it wasn’t a big deal for us. Obviously the game is a big deal, but we’ve been a real, good third period team.”
- On the mood on the bench late in the third, “nothing changed, it’s a one goal game and you keep battling right to the end. We didn’t create a whole bunch of stuff in the first 14-minutes, but after that we started to push a little bit and obviously at the end with the PP goal, but we just kept battling and working.”
- What didn’t change on the bench, the demeanor, “yea, on the bench, everything was the same.”
- On Panarin, “honestly, the ice wasn’t great tonight, I think they had a concert here or something last night and the puck was bouncing and it affects his game more than other guys and people get frustrated at times. I think you see a little bit of that, but he’s the guy, when it was in Overtime, I said to myself, ‘I know who’s going to score. If we get the winning goal it’s going to be him.’ Sure enough he makes a great play, but that is our team, we compete and battle and find ways to win games that maybe we shouldn’t have. Shesterkin was really good tonight and it was a team effort from our group and that is what we like about it.”
- On Shesterkin’s game, “we expect that from him. He plays sharp, he’s strong, that is why he’s a candidate for the MVP and Vezina Trophy. He’s our horse.”
- How much does the adversity you’ve gone through help you now, “we’ll see. It’s great experience for our young players. We talk about it all the time, before the series started I’m sure a lot of people said that there isn’t much experience with our group and you look at the other side and they have all that experience. For me, it’s about guys playing the right, they have a lot of experience during the season and it showed in that series. I think the kids played pretty good hockey overall and the team played pretty strong.”
- On Zibanejad’s tying goal, “he’s been our best two-way player all year. He finds a puck in the slot and, as we all know, he knows where that corner is in the top area.”
- On staying on an even-keel, “There were some tough…the penalty we got, I thought it hit the glass, that went over. When you look at the replay it looks like it hit the glass and then they score a goal that we thought was a high stick, it was really close. They are tough calls to make for the officials, so we get behind the eight-ball a little bit there, but we aren’t going to quit, we’re going to battle back and, again, we fall behind 2-1 and Stromer scores a big goal and Zibanejad goal and K’Andre makes a great play in OT to draw a penalty.”
- How much did the belief that you can come back help tonight, “Tonight? Huge. The guys know that, we talked about it between the second and third period. We’re never out of a hockey game, our best period is in the third usually. They felt confident, they felt comfortable playing their game.”
- Was it coaches intuition that you knew Panarin was going to score, “No, I just thought that he wasn’t having his best night, obviously, he tried hard, competed, got some pucks out, but it was sort of a simple game for him and usually he makes a lot of plays and tonight it just wasn’t there. Pittsburgh played a strong game, they had the puck possession quite a bit and you just get a feeling, with a guy like him, that he can do that for you and that is what he does.”
- How much has the ‘no quit’ mentality become the team identity, “It sure fits this team, there is no doubt about that. They find a way. I’m really proud of them. I knew tonight was going to be a battle. We talk about the seventh game being at home, but we fell behind most of the game and we found a way to battle back.”
- How much confidence was there going into OT, “nothing changes in the dressing room. We got prepared to play and talked about playing it the same way we did the first three periods.”
- Did you take it as a good sign that the team felt that way, “I don’t know what other teams have, but I don’t know how you change anything different. You don’t tell them to try and score on the first shift and give up a 2-on-1, so you tell them to play the game the same way and when you get the opportunity forecheck and put lots of pucks at the net.”
- On the fans and atmosphere at MSG, “Fans are unbelievable, they carry you, help you a lot and no doubt they were pretty excited.”
- How long before you start thinking about Carolina, “I don’t even know when we play, so, (laugh) but it won’t be tonight, I’ll promise you that.”
- On the Guentzal high stick, “I thought it was a high stick, but it was really close. When they call it a goal on the ice they have to review it in Toronto and they review it and look at it and we are always told that if it’s close it’s going to be a good goal. It was close, I still think it was a little bit of a high stick, but we don’t have to worry about it.”