Peter Laviolette met with the media following the Rangers win over the Flyers and said (NYR):
- “It was a really good division game, it was almost as advertised with how we thought Philly was going to play. They are fast, tenacious, in the battles and our guys came out from the drop of the puck and had to play a certain way and they did, a really good win for us on the road.”
- On the Flyers, “they have had a lot of success this year playing a certain style, a certain brand and it’s got physicality and battle level to it, certainly a speed to it, really dynamic off of mistakes that you make in from the offensive zone or entering the offensive zone, they are back to quick coming back at us. I thought we did a really good job of trying to exploit some of that with moving pucks areas and trying to get chances off the rush, I thought that our guys were quick and we had some really good looks off the rush.”
- On the physicality, “It was a physical game and we were expecting that. That is who they are, I don’t think any of the players who were involved in much of the physicality changed their identity today, that is who they are and the way they play the game and that is what made it a real good division game.”
- On Cuylle jumping in, “one of our guys got whacked pretty good and he turned right around and…we gotta stick up for each other out there and for Will to turn around like that, we’ll kill that penalty. We missed him for the extra ten. Certainly the guys on the bench and the staff, you see somebody do that and you are real proud of them stepping up for their teammate.”
- On why he thought the Zibanejad line would mesh together, “Kreider and Zibanejad have been together so long and I was just trying to find the right fit. Blake hadn’t been tried at the start of the season and Blake has been a top-line performer for most of his career and they are really starting to generate chances. That is nice to see, there have been lots of times where I think they have played good games and had lots of looks and have hit posts and could have scored goals and generated and it hasn’t happened for them and it’s nice to see the results go that way and bulid off of.”
- On the penalty disparity, “I think it’s hard out there, the guys move so fast. I wish we had a few more PPs, there are things that got called back there that I wish got called the other way, but the game is over. I know the game moves fast and they do their best to call what they see, I really liked our PK. We had six and I’m not saying that ours weren’t penalties, but I think it’s gotta go the other way as well. I thought the PK did and unbelievable job really limiting things and down ice pressure, it was tough to enter and when they did enter we were in the lanes, quick to attack as well and try to interrupt with what they were doing in their set up and when we did some things taken care of that came to the net, Igor was real on point tonight.”
- On killing a lot of penalties the past two games, “I wish we were a little more detailed with some of the things we were doing with our stick and we talk about it all the time. Will’s, we’ll kill that one and so there are some games where it’s a little more and we talk about keeping it down. They are not the type of penalty where it’s a complete retaliation penalty, we are trying to engage in battles and with that, the sticks are down and you try to dislodge pucks and sometimes, a couple of times, you end of catching the feet and going to the box for it. I’d like to see it come down for us and tell them the same thing, in the same sense, they are competing like crazy out there on pucks and people.”