Gerard Gallant spoke on Monday after the Rangers practice during the Rangers team bonding trip to Rhode Island and said (NYR):
- How did they look on the ice after a day off, “not bad, today was good. We worked some PP at the end and some defensive zone coverage stuff. It was good, they worked hard, got a good sweat out of it.”
- On Trocheck replacing Strome on the PP, “not a lot of difference, they are both playing the same position, Trocheck fills in for Strome’s spot, both right handed shots, both can move the puck and shoot the puck. I don’t think it’s going to change a whole lot. Different person, but they play the same role. “
- How did the PP look today, “they’re fine and it was at the end of practice. They moved the puck around a little bit and when you play against your own PK you can’t shoot the puck like you want to shoot the puck. It’s more or less movement, getting guys in their spots.”
- On Panarin working with Kravtsov after practices, “Bread is trying to make our team better. The guy didn’t work out last year real well, this year he’s come in with a great attitude and done everything we asked and he’s been a good player. They played together a couple of games now, I think, and overall it’s been pretty good.”
- Is Lafreniere getting tips from Kreider about being around the net, “I don’t know, I didn’t see them talking, but I’m sure Kreids is going to help the young kids out, for sure. And, again, we’re gonna see what happens, but hopefully that first unit is really hot and you know how much time they give the kids (laugh). They’ll have to wait their turn.”
- On getting PK pairs together, “You’d like to get the pairs together as quick as possible but, again, it’s not a huge deal. I’ve known Carpenter, how he’s played, the way he kills penalties. Goodrow is a good, solid penalty killer, we’ve got Kreider and Zibanejad. Trocheck’s a good penalty killer. It’s not an issue. We’re real happy with our penalty kill guys. It’s not like we’re taking a step back because we added different players. I don’t see that at all, I think it’s a step forward, to be honest with you.”
The forward lines used today at practice were (Stephenson):
- Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Barclay Goodrow
- Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Vitali Kravtsov
- Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko
- Jimmy Vesey, Gustav Rydahl Jonny Brodzinski/Julien Gauthier
- Sammy Blais, Dryden Hunt, Ryan Carpenter, Ryan Reaves
The PP units being used today were (Stephenson):
- Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck
- Jacob Trouba, Alexis Lafreniere, Vitali Kravtsov, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko