Gerard Gallant met with the media following the Rangers Game 7 win over Carolina and said (NYR, MSG):
- On how the team performed, “obviously a lot of good thoughts, played a great game.”
- What stood out, “We attacked a little bit, we battled, but, again, our goalie led the way and made some great saves at key times and we took advantage of PPs early in the hockey game and got that lead on them and it makes it tough to come back when you get the two-goal lead after the first.”
- Are there any more things you can say about Igor, “no, he’s done it all year, nothing surprises me. He made some great saves at key times, obviously, in the first period I think they had 17-shots and he was outstanding and made that 2-0 lead hold up for us.”
- Was this your quintessential type game, “I think that in the playoffs there is a little bit more of a buy-in, blocking shots, doing the right things to win hockey games. You gotta pay a price to win games in this league, especially against real good teams like that. I love the way our guys are competing and battling and I said it 100 times this year, we’re not perfect, but we find ways to win.”
- Was the PP the difference, “I wouldn’t say it was the difference, but it was a big part of it for sure. Shesterkin obviously was the difference, the PP, I thought everybody played their role perfectly and that is key for our group.”
- On Trouba’s physicality, “he plays the same way every night, not just this series. He’s a physical player, big net-front guy and battles in the blue point and does his job real well.”
- How critical was the second goal, “I don’t know if it took the air out of the arena, I was still pretty nervous, felt a little better after the third goal and when the second period was over. They are too good a team that if you let your guard down they are going to come back and when they get that first goal…it’s never over. You experience stuff like that and watch games on TV, if you let your guard down teams can come back.”
- On Kreider, “he was huge, that was a beautiful goal, the breakaway goal and he played hard and competed hard. I thought all our guys were good tonight, they played probably their best game of the series, obviously, and if we were going to win tonight we had to play our best game of the series. This team hadn’t lost at home, as we all know, and we had to play our best and we did.”
- How close are Shesterkin and Vasilevskiy, “I don’t know. Igor is a great goalie, we’ve seen it, we know what he’s going to win this year, he’s been outstanding, great and Vasilevskiy won two cups back-to-back. I think it’s going to be an outstanding next series.”
- On Shesterkin shutting them down in the first period, “Tonight it was huge, but I don’t know if they scored a goal in this building in the first period in the other three games. That has been huge, even though we lost those games we still battled hard and Igor gave us a chance, especially the first two games I thought we had a chance to win both of them. When you come into a building like this and shut them down in the first period it’s really big and he did that tonight.”
- On not having much time before Tampa, “that is a good thing…we are getting healthier, to be honest with you. Goodrow and Lindgren, the more games he plays. he’s just a warrior. Would I like an extra day? Yes. I’ve been on both sides of it before and when you are just playing the game every second night the guys get used to that. I think for the most part we are pretty healthy group right now.”
- On the challenge of Tampa, “Obviously, they are a great team, they won two Cups. Jon Cooper is a great coach, good friend of mine, should be a battle and fun series. We played them well in the regular season, which means nothing, but we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
- On battling back, “We felt that way, we’re a confident team and we know they are a very good hockey team over there, they put a lot of pressure on us, they are one of the best, if not the best, forechecking team in the league and we dealt with it. They get a lot of shots and chances from it, but we did a great job in those areas. We knew that going back to NY that we’d get back in the series. That Game 3 was huge game for us and we played well in our building and we finally found a way to win a game on the road in this building.”
- On the belief in the team, “I know that every team, when you get to this stage, is a tight-knit group. We talk about our young kids and the Kid Line there and some of those kids got great experience, the 14-games. When you first ask about the experience against Pittsburgh, was I worried about it? Yes, but I wasn’t going to tell you that, now I feel a lot better. These guys know how to play playoff games, they’ve been part of aggressive, tough hockey games and they are all responding real well and it’s nice to see.”
- On the fan support in Carolina, “It’s awesome, we got great fan support and to see that there definitely helps us.”
- On your speech before the game, “Wasn’t even 25-seconds to be honest with you.” (Laugh)