Gerard Gallant met with the media following the Rangers win over the Ducks and said (MSG, NYR):

• On the PP, “the way they snap the puck around and find the open guy…on the bench we are a little bit frustrated because we’re watching the breakouts and they are a little bit not what we talk about in the meetings, but they just got so much skill and talent that they make those plays happen. Once you get in the zone they are real dangerous like they were tonight. You can’t fault the goalies on any of those goals, they are just terrific plays and great shots.”

• On Trocheck and the PP, “Part of that PP group. It was good all year -all year, four games – but, tonight, obviously, finishing their plays and Bread makes it happen and Mika, with his shot over there, they just all fit in so well and Kreids at the net all the time and obviously the guy at the top is pretty good with the puck, too.”
• On the game, “I thought we played great, but I thought we got lackadaisical on the two goals in the third period. Just, you know, the game wasn’t won, but it was pretty close, up three goals, both times we got lackadaisical and gave them good scoring chances and they buried it. It’s frustrating because you can’t do that. We take pride in our goals against and our goalies take pride in that and we have to finish games better than that, but we played really well.”
• On the defensive game as a whole, “Just like I said there. I thought we played solid, but there are probably two goals we could take back very easily, there was no reason for those goals to happen and besides those goals I thought we played really well.”
• Is it tough to be critical about the defense because the offense makes up for it, “yea, but I don’t want to win games…I want to win games every night, but I don’t want four goals going in the net every night and our guys know that too, they feel bad because they take pride in that, the goalies take pride in our goals against. We don’t need to give up those goals from careless plays in the neutral zone.”
• On Mika and Panarin’s season so far, “I think last year was a great year for them and the playoffs was disappointing at the end, it was a great playoff, but disappointing at the end but I think they came back ready to be a real good team and real good players and gained a lot of confidence. Even though they were star plays, I think they gained that much more confidence and they came back ready to go and both of them are playing unbelievable hockey.”
• Have you noticed that same kind of lift from the playoffs for the whole team, “we want to be a real good team and last year gave us a lot of confidence, but last year means nothing, it’s about this year, but we can talk about pretty much anybody in our group, but all those kids are playing great hockey now, they are playing good two-way hockey and look like they are taking another step and that is what we need.”