Gerard Gallant met with the media following the win over Tampa Bay and said (NYR):
- That seemed like an emotional game, “That is what happens in those games, you don’t expect certain stuff. It was a chippy game, but a good game and I thought our team competed real well and played hard. It got a little chippy at times, but overall you get ready for playoffs when you see those games and some of the ones last week.”
- Do you like seeing how the team stands up for each other, “that is not how we’re going to play a whole lot of games in the playoffs, but when it happens you gotta do that and we showed up to do that and we’ll do that.”
- Any update on Trouba, “just day to day, he’s traveling with us. We’ll see what it’s like tomorrow.”
- On Tyler Motte, “that is great when those guys chip in with some big goals and work hard it’s big for our confidence for our team and Tyler played real well tonight, he had good jump and he had a lot of shot opportunities at the net, good for him. Put the pucks at the net and that is what we talked about all the time and the last game in Washington was the same thing, put pucks at the net and we got some goals and fortunately for him he got a couple of nice goals tonight and perfect for us.”
- What is the value in playing a team like Tampa at a time like this, “I don’t want the next four to be like that, but I like the way our team responded to that game and next week it’s going to be a different scenario, but we gotta play hard, we want to win every game, it’s all about trying to get two points and you look at the standings after the game and say that we are in this area and third place and see what happens. It’s about getting two points and trying to move up and see what happens.”
- Did you like how the team finished the game in the third, “I thought it was a real good third. I thought they took it to us a little bit in the third with all those penalties, we battled back in the third period and I thought we played an outstanding period, didn’t give them a whole lot of chances, scored a couple of big goals, I thought it was excellent.”
- On Lindgren, “Looked good, solid, good, definitely.”
- On the PP scoring, “that had some good looks tonight and good goals. Kreids gets a couple of goals tonight, that is huge for us and PP looked a lot better tonight.”
- On Tarasenko returning to St. Louis tomorrow, “I don’t say a word to him. He’ll be excited, I’m sure, but not just him, Mikkola is also making his return to St. Louis. I’m sure both will be excited, they were there for a long time, Tarasenko has been there for a long time with that team. It’ll be en emotional day for them, but I’m not saying nothing.”