3PM: Gerard Gallant spoke after practice and said (NYR):

• How are you feeling today, “I feel good…besides this chest cold.”
• What do you need more of, “more goals, obviously. First two games were great, five goals, five goals and then we’ve got two in the last three. We just gotta get more people there, I thought we had some decent chances and Schmid made some saves, I thought that it was his best game because I thought we had some chances against him…but just gotta get more goals and….again, we played our best hockey the last couple of years with our backs against the wall, so hopefully we’ll be ready to come out. It was good, I like the way the guys were today, nobody is down, just get up and be ready to play our best game.”

• Is it as simple as more pucks and bodies to the net or is there more to it, “there’s more to it. They are playing a good, really swarming d-zone coverage and working hard, five guys down low. I think we still pass up too many shots and we still don’t get the second and third chances in our zone, so we gotta do more of that. And, again, they are playing really well and doing a good job. We gotta initiate it tomorrow night.”
• How much does the experience from last year benefit you, “we’ll see (laugh). It definitely helps…we went through it last year and I don’t think our guys are going to quit tomorrow night, I think we’re going to come out and play our best game of the series and work real hard and get it back to a Game 7. It’s one game at a time, but I think that tomorrow night we’ll be ready to go.”
• Are today’s line changes supposed to be a spark or trying to fit players together, “more of that, but a little bit of both. I want to mess Lindy up and make him change his lines again (laugh). It’s a little bit of both, but more the latter part.”
• Do you need to find a way to get Tarasenko more ice time, “been saying that to the guy the whole time, the PP he plays the second unit, so but I’d like to see him play more, but I also want guys to take it. When we get opportunities, make me play you more. I’m not trying to jab at him because he’s been good, but I want guys to come out there and say ‘make me play 18 minutes, make me play 20 minutes. We’ve done that the first two games, but haven’t done it near as well the last few. And he’s going to be an important part, our backs are against the wall, let’s go play our best game and take it one game at a time.”
• Are you thinking of changing up the PP, “we might (smile)…we might…I’m not telling you (laugh). We talk about it all the time, honestly. Maybe we changed it last night and didn’t get a PP in the third period. I’m not going to give away our secrets, obviously, but there have been conversations about different things and different units.”
• What do you think your role is in trying to get the team ready for tomorrow, “you sound like the guy behind the bench last night, a Ranger fan (laugh). Coaches are important, you get your team ready to play their best. I’m going to go in there and do what I always do and I’m not going to change a thing, we’re going to do what we do and hopefully we come out and play our game. I’m not going to go in there and give one of those big speeches that I haven’t done in two years, I’m going to prepare them the same way we always prepare them. Hopefully a little bit more urgency in our game and get ready to go play.”
• Do you sense the guys pressing during the game, “definitely, for sure. Guys want to score, guys know that they are top players and they are not scoring, but that is the playoffs and what it’s all about. You go to every series and the team that is probably losing now, a lot of coaches, players and a lot of teams are saying the same thing, we gotta get our top guys to score…they play hard, they’re playing well, all good people, they did it for us last year and they are going to try and do it again tomorrow.”
• On getting the crowd into it with a good start, “that’d be real good, get off to a great start and just keep it going and do what we can do.”

1:05 PM: The Rangers are using the following lines at practice today: (Dan Rosen)

• Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Vladimir Tarasenko
• Alexis Lafreniere, Vincent Trocheck, Patrick Kane
• Artemi Panarin, FIlip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko
• Jimmy Vesey, Barclay Goodrow, Tyler Motte