4 PM: Gerard Gallant spoke after practice and said (NYR):

• Why did you change up the PP units, “just trying to get em going a little bit, get it back to where it should be. We gotta get more chances, gotta create more and, again, we played against one of the best PKs in the league last night, they did a good job. We’re just a little stale and hopefully get more going, put them in a little bit different position, some of the guys. It should be good.”

• Did you want to get Panarin and Zibanejad back together, “Definitely, yea, definitely. When it was successful and going real good early in the year Mika was in his spot and Bread was coming down the outside. We’ll try some of that stuff, they can switch into different spots.”
• On Kane’s spot on the PP being near the goal line, “we’re going to do different things with that, depends on what day it is, what team you are playing, there are different things. Sometimes you got the guy in the bumper, sometimes you’ve got the guy right at the net front, sometimes you put him on the goal line, depends on who we are playing.”
• On what kind of player you want in that bumper spot, “Sometimes when it’s pressure you got a guy there to relieve some of the pressure. I mean, we haven’t scored a lot of goals from the bumper, it’s probably 3-4 this year because usually Mika is the guy on the other side, but when you get teams with a lot of pressure you find that bumper guy and he’s got to be an outlet sometimes.”
• How big of a difference can the PP make for you in a playoff series, “special teams are huge in the playoffs, there is no doubt. We got some time to work with it and get it. I mean it’s still pretty good, 23%, it’s not that bad, but overall we just want to get a little bit of a fresher look, try some different units and hopefully they’ll work.”
• On playing Carolina again being sort of like a playoff series, “we still gotta get to the playoffs. You look in the paper today and…you still gotta work, play your game and they are fun games to play. I didn’t think we competed hard enough last night, we talked about that, I thought Carolina came in here and played a great game, they were fast, in our face, forced us to make mistakes and I thought they had a real good game and we just got to be better, we gotta be a little faster, a little quicker and harder on the boards and get our game back. We had four real successful games at home, different types of teams, but Carolina gave us a good test last night.”
• On bringing a work ethic against Carolina, “like we did in the past, the playoffs last year, we had a great series against them. It was an outstanding series, the two games earlier this year that we beat them we played really well. There is a recipe to beat that team, but they are a good team, they got 100 points, they are a good team.”
• On it being a tough match up in the playoffs no matter what, “if we are lucky enough to get there it’ll be a battle no matter who you are going to play and I’m sure, if we are lucky and fortunate to get there, the team playing us will look the same way and say ‘that is a good team over there.”
• On Kane’s role on the PP, “he can be anywhere, he can make plays from the goal line, make plays from the half wall, it depends on the other guys. It’s not just flexibility for Kane, it’s flexibility for Mika and all of our guys. There are five pretty skilled high end players in that PP right now and then you have a few other guys on the other unit that are pretty good, too. There is talent there, we just have to find the right chemistry. Sometimes we pass too much and aren’t looking for the shot quick enough and that is what happens. Once they get going like they did in the prior 4 games to last night things will gel a lot better.”
• How do you balance how dynamic these guys can be with having them play simple, “that is what we are working on everyday.”
• On Vesey, Goodrow and Motte, “Most nights they are real good. They scored last night, but I thought they could have been better. Like our whole team, we weren’t quick enough, weren’t hard enough last night and not just singling out that one line, I’m singling out the whole team. That was the difference in the game.”
• On Lindgren and Motte, “maintenance days, they’ll both play tomorrow…..probably be a lot of that coming up with playoffs getting close and guys do that type of thing.”

12:45 PM Tyler Motte and Ryan Lindgren didn’t practice today with what the team called maintenance days. (Brooks)

The Rangers PP units being used today were (Brooks)

• Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Patrick Kane, Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin
• Vincent Trocheck, Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jacob Trouba