Gerard Gallant met with the media following the Rangers loss to the Pens and said (NYR):
- On the third period, “we worked real hard in the third, played really well, but you gotta be able to do that for 60. We’ve got to be ready to start games better than that. Unfortunately for us we took three penalties there in the first 5-6 minutes, accidental penalties, high sticking, but they are all the right call. You get down 5-on-3 for 2 and a half minutes or whatever it was and they got one, we weathered that storm and got back in the hockey game.”
- Did it feel like you were chasing the game because of those penalties, “no, I was happy we were only down one after that. We got back to our game and played okay after that, not great, but okay and we had a chance and tied it 1-1. It was good to get back.”
- What did you like in the third period, “we played our game, we forechecked, reset pucks, pucks to the net, I just thought we skated and probably the best period we’ve had in the last nine or ten.”
- On the team’s recent play, “we haven’t played well, we haven’t played well, we admit to that, but we are still winning hockey games, too. Tonight we still got a point against a real good team over there and battling hard. We gotta be better, we know that, I think everybody in that room knows it and they got a good sign in the third period. We move on from there and hopefully the next game in two nights time we played 60 minutes like that.”
- On the Goodrow, Motte, Vesey line, “They were real good, did their job, got in tight, scored that one goal and they forechecked well, I liked the way they played.”
- On the physical game, “bumping, you know, a little physicality in tonight’s game and you look at both teams and lots of battles in front of the net.”
- On the fourth line being the most consistent, “I would say tonight, I wouldn’t, you know, before that. It doesn’t seem like there are four lines going, that is what we need. One line a night or two lines a night, the third period is a start and we’ll move forward with that.”