2/24/23 | Gallant spoke after the optional practice today and said (NYR):

• Do you think the outside noise has crept in, “it always does, I can’t say no, it always does at this time of the year. It’s tough on some players, but at the end of the day you are trying to make your team better every day and that is what management does. It’s going to be over in a weeks time, but you just gotta focus on playing the games and I think we lost a little bit of focus last night and I thought we looked a little bit tired for the first time last night.”

• Is it easier for you to get their attention to focus on different things now that they have lost a few, “definitely, for sure. You aren’t going to have success giving up four goals a game, you aren’t going to win in the NHL. I think it was Edmonton, we outscored them, but we can’t keep giving up 3-4 goals a game and expect to win. Get their attention a little bit, play a little bit better defensively and we’re a good team, we’ve got a talented team, skilled team, play fast and we didn’t do enough of that last night.”
• Is there an excitement in knowing that management is trying to improve the team, “I knew that for two years. We’re a team that we think has a good chance to win and try to compete and get better every time you get there. Management is on the same page, coaches, players, we think we are one of those teams that has chance to legitimately win and try to make your team better.”
• Are you comfortable going 11 and 7, “it’s not a big issue, not a big deal. We’ll see tomorrow what we are going to do with that situation. It’s not like your forwards are going to get exhausted from it, I think our forwards enjoy playing three lines last night. It’s not a big deal…now if you had to do it for a long period of time and wore some guys out, different story.”
• Have you noticed any signs The Kid Line is cooling off, “our whole team cooled off, I wouldn’t say The Kid Line, I don’t want to go there, but the whole team has cooled off a little bit scoring. I’m not overly concerned about it, but we gotta score more than one to win in this league and you can’t give up four to win in this league. We’ll get back.”

2/23/23 | Gerard Gallant met with the media following the loss to Detroit and said (MSG):

• What do you take from this game, “Not good enough, we didn’t play hard enough for 60 minutes and what bothered me about it was that some of the goals that they scored on the rush we had bad reads on the rush and it left them wide open and then two of the goals were unnecessary goals for me.”

• They weren’t alert enough, “yea, not for a good part of the game. I thought in the second that we came out and started doing some better things and then early in the third we came out and did some better things, more guys involved in the game, but if you are going to win in this league everybody has to be ready to show up and I don’t think we showed up as a group tonight.”
• Was going 11 and 7 an issue, “Not an issue at all, not one bit.”
• What about when you lost Motte for a bit, “a little bit, but I think that if you talk to Panarin and those guys that they love playing three lines and complain when we play four lines. I don’t know what was said in there, but 11 and 7 isn’t an issue.”
• On how the Red Wings played, “they are playing great hockey and had a great road trip. We were following them on that trip, out West at the same time, and they play a good team game, a solid game and PK is good, PP scored at least one goal tonight, they are playing good hockey.”
• On the game, “I just didn’t think we played well enough and hard enough, our game was inconsistent. When you give up goals off the rush with loose, loose coverage, that is an issue and we always talk about when you back check hard, good things happen. When you back check lazy, the puck goes in your net and that is what happened tonight.”
• And that hasn’t been an issue, “no, it hasn’t, but it’s disappointing when you see it, there is no doubt. We played great hockey for a long time, but you gotta play 60 minutes solid and we didn’t do that.”