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

• On the start, “the start was great, great first period.”
• Was the first period what you are looking for from the team, “the first period was outstanding. 19 shots, they shot the puck, they got inside, did a lot of real good things. Real happy with the first period and after that it was okay, but it was much better than the previous game, put it that way.”

• Is that period something you can look back and point to, “we talk about it all the time. When it was 4-1 we were playing great up until that point and all the sudden we get a little…the word I always use is Harlem Globetrotters a little bit, trying to be cute and make the fancy plays. In the first period everything worked, they went to the net, skated hard, reset pucks, kept it simple and it was real good.”
• On the pass Shesterkin made, “he can shoot it, there is no doubt about it. Sometimes it works real good like it did there on that one goal. He’s been real good for us lately, obviously, and tonight he was real good again.”
• Was this Kane’s strongest game, “I thought that this was our teams strongest game since the trade, definitely.”
• What can the team continue to do to keep playing like they did in the first period, “I’m barking at them all the time to do the same thing, trust me. I’m not telling them between periods to change what they’ve done because the first period was as good of a period as we’ve played all year. 19 shots, three goals, I think and just the way we played, we did everything right and didn’t turn over pucks. You just keep pressing them and asking them to do that and do the best they can, but it’s hockey and a game of mistakes and when the other team comes out harder when it was 3-0, they started to come back and battle hard, 3-1, sorry. The other team has something to do with it too, I like the way we played in the first.”