Gerard Gallant met with the media following the win in Game 1 and said (NYR, MSG):
- On how sharp the team was, “there was a lot of sharpness. Obviously, like we talked about yesterday, our team just kept going, we got a day off and played a game and it really looked good for us tonight. Obviously they were a little bit rusty tonight, they weren’t the same being nine days off. It makes a difference.”
- Was this the best game for the Kid Line, “it was real good, close to their best, it wasn’t their best, for sure. They got inside, scored some nice goals, made some good plays. They are attacking, they are a confident bunch of kids right now and we need that to continue.”
- How important is the mentality to just focus on your game, “if you start thinking about the other team you are playing, for me, it’s not going to work for us. We play our game, we can show them systems on Tampa Bay and what they are going to do, but we gotta be more important to…our game is good, we’re playing well, doing the right things now and we just gotta continue to do that.”
- On Chytil and the conversation you had with him at the end of the season, “we talk to our players all year long. I don’t know, I met with him, probably after when sat out that one game and just said, he asked what I needed and I think I mentioned the Zibanejad-type of hockey player and he’s not a Zibanejad-type of hockey player, but he got the message. Fil’s a good kid, he works hard, competes hard and he deserves what he’s getting right now because he stepped his game up and he knows it and everybody knows it and that is exactly what we need from him.”
- On Zibanejad and his PP one-timer, “our PP is run a lot from there and obviously Panarin on the other side coming down here looking for the tip-ins and he can make those seam passes, so it’s a dangerous PP when we get those opportunities, no different when you look at the other side and they’ve got Stamkos and Kucherov over there. They’ve done that for a lot of years and scored a lot of goals from over there, so, fortunately, ours when in tonight and theirs didn’t.”
- On Zibanejad’s playoffs, “he’s been outstanding and our leader all year long and he plays a great two-way game for us and all special teams, obviously, he’s just been outstanding for us.”
- On Chytil’s demeanor and confidence, “he’s growing up to be a man. He’s 22-years old and he’s confident in his game and he feels good about his game and he always has, but now he’s really stepping it up, and every time you watch him go out and play he’s more confident, stronger on every puck, more confident in the faceoff circle. He’s just growing up.”
- On the puck possession time in the second period, “I thought the second period was outstanding, I don’t know how much possession time we had an all that, I know you guys keep track of that, but it felt real comfortable in the second period. We played as good a period as we played all playoffs long, to be honest with you, we got inside on a couple of goals, but we definitely did some real good things down low.”
- On Frank Vatrano, “He competes hard, works hard, backchecks real hard and that is we ask him to do. We ask guys to get in shot lanes and backcheck hard through the middle of the ice and he made a huge play there and when you make those good plays defensively usually good things happen at the other end and that is what Frankie did.”
- Is there anything to the offensive explosion lately, “I told them to open it up (laugh). No, I don’t think so. We’re playing hard when you compete hard defensively and you get opportunities like we did tonight, some 2-on-1s and PP goals, that is the recipe for us to win hockey games. We had great goaltending again and solid chances and we buried our chances tonight.”