Gerard Gallant met with the media this morning and said (NYR):
- Is Tyler Motte good to go, “not tonight, still day to day, him and Lindgren both.”
- Do you expect Motte to play on this road trip, “I’m hoping, but until they tell me he’s ready to go, gotta make sure.”
- Lindgren was in a non-contact jersey, “same thing, day to day. Doing good, they’re both doing well.”
- Who is in net, “Shesterkin.”
- On the physicality that Kakko and Lafreniere bring, “their game is growing and getting involved down low. We talk about physicality and winning those puck battles and bumping people off the puck and taking pucks to the net. That is what I consider playing physical hockey and the more we do that and the more the young kids do that the better our team is going to be and better they are going to be as young players. But they’ve both taken big steps there.”
- On Lafreniere scoring two, but that line not being as hot as they were, “Our team hasn’t been as hot as we’d wanted to be so I don’t want to put it on one line. The last 7-8 games we haven’t been where we were two months ago when we had that streak going. Just gotta get back together and it’s not one line or one player, it’s about our team and hopefully get them back together and play the way we are capable of playing.”
- How relieved are you to have 20 skaters tonight, “I’m happy…it’s a regular lineup, but that’s not the issue. For our losing streak it had nothing to do with our lineup and we just gotta get back and play good hockey again and get ready to go.”
- Is 19 games enough time to get things going, “it’s more than enough time. I think the last two…now we’re gonna play our game and get our lines going together and hopefully play real well.”
- On adding skill over grit at the deadline, “we’re a talented, skilled hockey team. We’re not going to go out there and try and run anybody out of the building, we’re not built like that, we are going to make sure that teams pay a price when they take penalties against us and our skilled PP and skilled and talented hockey players, go to work and play hard. In saying all of that, we’re still going to play an aggressive game and fast game and bump people on the forecheck and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played and there is lots of superstar talent there and we gotta make sure we are competing and playing hard and we’ll do that.”