Gerard Gallant met with the media following the win over Montreal and said (NYR):

• On the game, “we were up and down all night and kept battling back and fortunately for us, at the end of the night, we get the two points. We didn’t play a perfect game, but we created some good offense and some key guys scored for us tonight.”

• On Shesterkin late in the game, “he had to make some big saves in OT and down the stretch when they had a PP late. He was big for us, made some real key saves for us.”
• On the pace of the game, “first period we gave up too many odd-man rushes, I think there were 5-6 in the first period, but after that it was better, but you can’t open up like that in the first like we did.”
• On Kane scoring, but also turning the puck over, “Stuff like that happens. It’s an awful turnover, he just lost the puck and thats the way it goes. It’s no big deal, he played well, getting to know his teammates feel with his teammates and that. It’s great when you score the first goal in a new group and the PP got two tonight, so that was big for us.”
• Was there any rust after not playing for a few days, “there was a little rust in the first, no doubt. With those odd-man rushes we weren’t reading the play very well.”
• Did having a full lineup give you a better idea of what you want to work on, “We knew we were getting back to the full lineup soon, so…we’re not going to change a whole lot. I’ve coached the team for almost two years now, so we’re gonna go out and play our system and hopefully play it a little better than we did tonight, and, again, we gotta tighten up defensively a little bit, but overall it was a good effort.”
• On the PP scoring twice, “just two real top units, move the puck, had good chances and they shot the puck a little bit tonight, so that’s the key. They both looked really good.”
• On Lafreniere scoring in Montreal, “Great for Laff. They had a couple of goals against him, but he played a good game and for him to get that first PP goal was nice.”
• On Zibanejad scoring in the shootout, “Mika’s outstanding…I usually want to put Mika first, but he was pretty tired so a couple of guys on the bench said don’t put him first, let him go second. I listened for once.”
• Was there a message after the first period, “no…like I said, we haven’t played in four days. It was just, let’s get better and tighten up here, given the odd-man rushes, but after that we played a better game”