Johnny Brodzinski was placed on waivers. (Johnston)

The lines used today at practice were (Stephenson):

• Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin
• Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko
• Jimmy Vesey, Vincent Trocheck, Barclay Goodrow
• Sammy Blais, Jake Leschyshyn, Vitali Kravtsov/Julien Gauthier

Gerard Gallant spoke after practice and said (NYR):

• On the line changes, “we’ll see. Lotta changes, but we’re just trying to get the best lineup available to us, what we think. We changed some things up a little bit and see what it’s like tomorrow. I’m assuming it’s going to be the same and go from there. Just trying to balance everything out.”
• Was it about putting Zibanejad and Panarin together, breaking up Panarin and Trocheck and getting The Kid Line back together, “all those things, but it wasn’t about…we were disappointed the other night, we think we could have played better. We played the best team in the league and it was pretty even up. When we go back and watch it it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but, again, we gave them more than we should have got. I’m just trying to make a little bit of balance and see where we go with it.”
• Are you optimistic about Gauthier, “I think he had a real good day today. The trainers will text me this afternoon and see where he’s at, but I think he looked really good. I’m sure it’s going to be a full practice tomorrow and then he’ll probably be cleared, but I haven’t heard that yet.”
• Do you think that there is more there for the team, “always trying to do that, that is what coaching is. Like I said, you guys putting pressure on me all the time with line combinations (smile) and this and that so I gotta be sharp.”
• Does Kakko shoot enough for you, “None of them do. The only guy that shoots enough for me is Kreider and that is honestly. I wish we’d shoot more, but they are good players and they make the right decisions a lot of the times. Sometimes, like I said, again, coaches want more shots. I think we put a lot of shots to the net, but we gotta get more traffic at the net, too. A combination. Last year we wouldn’t shoot the puck, this year we are shooting more but not getting enough people there at the right times, but, again we’ve been pretty good lately, overall. Since 12/1 we’ve been a pretty good hockey team.”
• Is more traffic at the net what you are stressing to the offense, “yea and when you watch games every night and watch other teams and your own team, obviously…the other night we scored one goal and there was a lot of traffic front, Fil had a great screen on the guy. Get more people there, get more pucks there.”
• On the PP struggles, “just stay with it, keep working with it. They are good players, talented players. Not saying there is going to be a change or not, we’ll decide on that tomorrow. They are good players, talented players and when it’s going its real good, it hasn’t been going as good.”
• Are you thinking about PP changes, “no, not really. I’m not saying that tomorrow me and Mike Kelly and the other coaches won’t sit down and say ‘let’s try Fil there, let’s try Laffy there, Kaapo there.’ Not saying that’s not going to happen, we talk about a lot of different things all the time,  but I don’t like to give up on people, especially when I know how talented they are and how good they are when they are at the top of their game. I just think it’s a funk and we’ll get out of it.”
• Have you addressed the defensive stuff with Panarin, “the defensive stuff? It wasn’t just Panarin, it’s the line, I talked about the line giving up too many chances. It’s not Bread or Trocheck or Kravy or whoever is there, it’s the line and we address it. That is what part of coaching is, we talk about those things, show them video and, again, we split the line up not because of one game, it’s because we think we can add a little bit more depth and we think it’s a little better this way. We’ll see how it works out.”
• Is there anything you want the players to take away from the Boston game, “No. We lost, move forward. Again, when I do my numbers the chances were pretty close. I think we outchanced them, to be honest with you, but I still think we could have been better, could have been better defensively and created a little more traffic at the net, but overall we played a decent game.”
• Do you manually calculate those numbers, “we do our numbers, analytic guys do their numbers, we got it all.”
• Do you personally sit down and do it, “Me? Our video coaches do it, I’ll watch it and correct it and make sure it’s done right. When we do scoring chances all our coaches watch the scoring chances for and against, stuff like that and then other people do it too and a lot of times the numbers are pretty close. The numbers that you guys get aren’t always the same as we what get from when we do it. Sometimes I see when a goalie can catch it with his bare hand that it’s not a scoring chance for me, doesn’t matter where it’s at. That is where some of the numbers are different sometimes and they do it their way and we do it our way. A lot of times they are pretty close….best way to say it.”
• The turnover numbers sometimes seem off, “I pay no attention to them when I see them on the sheet. Ice time too, sometimes. People do their jobs, but, again we do what we think is right and I’m not going to trust somebody up there…and I’m not saying they don’t do it right, I’m just saying I trust our guys the way we do stuff.”
• So you do your own turnovers and stuff, “I don’t (smile), they do and we correct them…I’m trying to put lines together (big laugh).”