Gerard Gallant met with the media following the OT win over Dallas and said (NYR, MSG):
- Just like how you drew it up, “the exact way” (chuckle)
- On the game, “It wasn’t like there were a ton of scoring chances in the game. The goalies were solid, but it was sort of a quiet game and we turned a lot of pucks over in the neutral zone, they didn’t get a great amount of scoring chances, but…to come back late like that was pretty exciting.”
- On K’Andre stepping up and probably not being on the ice for the 6-on-5 if Kreider had been healthy, “Definitely, like you said, K’Andre has been good for us all year and he’s a great young player, makes a good move, shot gets blocked and he follows the play up and he scores real late. Huge for him, huge for our team.”
- What did you think of Lafreniere on the top line, “there wasn’t much going on. He was fine, I like the way he played. He had a couple of deflections near the net and for the game that our team played, I thought he was good.”
- On Dallas and how they defend, “I think they are near the top in goals against and they have real good goaltending. We turned a lot of pucks over and usually those east/west plays in the offensive zone they just collapse to the middle and took advantage of some of those opportunities. We didn’t play a smart game in the first half of the game, kept turning it over in those areas and finally we started getting pucks below the goal line and getting some chances. We caused a lot of our own stuff tonight, but it didn’t turn into goals the other way. I thought we played a solid game overall….just the turnovers.”
- Were the turnovers from taking too many risks, “No…honestly, I think we were a tired looking team tonight. There is a flu bug going around and I think a lot of our guys weren’t feeling great. We pushed through and found a way to get two huge points and you don’t make excuses, but there has been a bug going around our group. Haven’t told you about it, but there’s been.”
- Were you happy with the defensive effort, “definitely. I don’t know what the shot totals were at the end of the night, but I thought we did a good job overall there and in the d-zone we supported the puck and we didn’t give them a whole lot of second and third chances and they had a few odd-man rushes, but it wasn’t real bad. I thought our guys gutted it out and played hard against a real good team.”
- Is there an update on Gauthier, “No, they’ll know more tomorrow. Just day-to-day for now.”
- On Lafreniere, Chytil and Schneider starting the OT, “Yea, the other guys were on for two minutes at the end of it and I just wanted to make sure they were rested….and it worked out pretty good (laugh)…..sometimes they backfire (smile).”
- On how the team has been coming back lately, “well we’re never going to quit. It’s a one-goal game and you battle hard and know you are going to get a couple of looks late in it and fortunately for us we got lucky at the blue line a couple of times. I can’t remember who kept the puck in, but it should have been out and we kept it in and it led up to K’Andre’s goal. You never quit, keep battling hard and it was 1-0 game, wasn’t many goals and fortunately for us we got some traffic and found a way to get that goal.”
- On K’Andre Miller’s game, “He’s been outstanding, played really well last year. He’s just taken another step and that is what he does for us and a great young kid and good player and he comes to play hard every night.”
- On putting Miller and Fox together at certain times, “The offense he brings and he’s scored some unbelievable goals for us…taking nothing away from Lindy, I love the way Lindy plays, but when you are down a goal there is no reason not to put him out there.”