Gerard Gallant met with the media following the Rangers loss to the Jets and said (MSG, NYR):
- On the game, “I was happy with a lot of things, obviously. It was one of those games. I mean, coming back from a road trip like that and playing with the energy we played with, it’s tough to lose like that. We had 50 shots, overall we played a good hockey game and didn’t win.”
- On falling behind early again, “I thought we played well in the first period, 20 shots and did the right things and they got a couple of goals that were lucky goals, deflection off of Mika, the double tip on the PP. You can’t say that we didn’t play well in the first, played a great first period and got behind 2-0. If it was an issue where they dominated us then I’d say ‘yea, I agree with you,’ but that is not the case.”
- Was it just about Hellebuyck, “Hellebuyck was great. Sometimes you can say that we didn’t get quality chances, but we had quality chances. He played a great game and they had some puck luck and that is the way she goes some nights.”
- Do any moments stand out where it could have changed the game, “When it was 3-1 I thought we had a couple of good chances. We were never out of it, once we got that first goal we felt good about our game and got some chances, it just didn’t connect. The PP was good, but it wasn’t as efficient as it usually is. They had some looks and chances, but not the quality, besides the Kreider one that was a great chance in the slot, but you gotta give the other team credit once in a while and Hellebuyck was outstanding tonight.”
- On Shesterkin, “not a lot of shots at all and tough to play those games. I thought he was fine. Seriously, the goals he let in, I don’t see many issues with them. The first two, not much he can do on them. He’s screened, doesn’t see it, it gets double tipped. It’s the way it goes some nights. Their guy had a lot of puck luck and ours didn’t tonight.”
- On Tarasenko, “I thought he played real well, I thought Tarasenko played really well tonight, it was probably his best game, for me. He was around the puck a lot and had some good chances and Trocheck and that line played really good.”