Gerard Gallant met with the media following the win in Game 6 and said (MSG):

• On the game, “real good, I thought Jersey came out early in the game and took it to us a little bit the first 4-5 shifts and after that I thought we played real good hockey. Big guys stepped up, big difference.”
• On Shesterkin, “he was outstanding, again.”
• Was that the response you were looking for, “definitely, they battled hard, competed hard, went to the blue paint and got some goals. When your backs are against the wall you play your best game and I thought they did tonight.”

• On getting to the middle of the ice to score, “we talked about getting hungry and getting to the blue paint, that was the biggest thing we talked about before the game, we didn’t get there enough and tonight we got there and got some opportunities and things worked for us.”
• What do you think was different for the big guys stepped up, “Desperate hockey, I guess. I can’t really say Kreider, he has 6-7 goals right now, definitely the other guys, but Mika has played good all series, he’s played great defensive hockey. Before the game I think they had 11 goals in five games, so Mika has done a great job and we got more from our guys, they attacked more, their mentality was ‘you know what, we’re down 3 games to 2, we gotta have more attack, we gotta score more goals and they went out and played hard and found a way to score some goals on the kid.”
• On the line changes and Tarasenko, “he was good, played well and you try and get everybody playing well and when you make line changes you are hoping for the best. We’ve done it a lot during the season and tonight it probably paid off a little bit.”
• How big was it to go into the first intermission tied rather than down one, “it was big, the PP looked really good, they moved the puck, had some good scoring chances and that goal was a huge goal, for sure.”
• On the mindset of being tied rather than down 1, “when we talked before the game it was about trying to  win every period, break it down as one shift at a time, one period at at time. I thought we did that real well and obviously the next goal was important when we are down 1-0, but I don’t think it changed our mindset of what we were going to do.”
• What allows the team to come through in these elimination games, “They’ve got some character and some pride and they didn’t like the way the last three games went, obviously, we got outplayed so tonight was a chance to redeem ourselves a little bit and now we give ourselves a chance for a Game 7 and that is huge for us.”
• How liberating was it for Zibanejad to actually score, “everybody wants to score, so it’s huge for him. He’s one of our top players obviously and we talk about him all year long and he wasn’t playing bad in any of the games, but guys like to score and he’s a big-time player for us and it was a big goal for us.”
• Was it important that Schmid got pulled, “I just want the goals, I don’t care if it chases Schmid or whoever. It was about what we’re going to do tonight and not worry about what they are going to go. Obviously the kid played great in the other games and I’m not saying he didn’t play good tonight, but he didn’t have much of a chance on some of our goals, he was screened and we put it up over his glove. We made some good shots tonight and had better opportunities.”
• On Shesterkin trying for the empty net, “go for it. (Smile) As long as they didn’t score I was happy with it.”