Gerard Gallant is a breath of fresh air

Gerard Gallant is a breath of fresh air.  When he talks about the New York Rangers you can see why players like to play for him.  He treats them like adults and professionals.   He always tries to accentuate the positive and is generally forgiving of mistakes.  Not so much after Monday’s dreadful loss to the Calgary Flames.

He spoke after practice and was very blunt about the team’s performance, focusing specifically on the first period when the team was outhustled, outchecked, outplayed and ultimately, outscored.

In the morning he did something he rarely does, he went to video to show them specifically what they did wrong.  Gallant admitted that he is not a big “video guy,” but “you pick your spots, last night was a perfect time to do it, even though you don’t ever want to do it…you’ve got to show them negativity once in a while. I’m a big positive guy, keep pushing positive, positive…we didn’t like what we seen in the first period and we wanted to correct some mistakes.”

About Lafrenière

In his post game comments Gallant specifically said that he wanted more from Alexis Lafrenière, something reporters seized on. Gallant took great pains to compliment the young forward.  “He’s got skill, he’s got talent, but you gotta grow, you gotta keep getting better.”

He said it’s not just Lafrenière.  “He’s not alone, there’s a lot of guys…I coached against the Rangers for a few years..you come in here and say that’s a good team, a skilled team, but you got to get grittier…I didn’t like the way we battled for pucks…we have to become a man’s team.   We have to respond in big games.”

Redefining grit

Gallant also redefined what he wants when looking for more grit.  It’s not the number of hits. Even though the Rangers outhit Calgary, he said that was meaningless. “I don’t go by those stats.  we had hits, but those pucks that came from our defensemen to the half wall and we lost those battles…that’s what I’m talking about…too many times it stopped at the blue line and went back in our zone. And those little fancy plays through your feet that don’t work most of the time, when they work they’re pretty to see and it looks good but we didn’t have the battle level and the awareness in the first period. ”

He made a point of saying it wasn’t just the kids, but also his veterans and you knew he was talking about players like Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad.  “They’re good players, they’re talented players and the skill guys gotta buy into the system too.   They gotta chip the puck once in a while.  I don’t mind guy making some plays in the offensive zone,   and sometimes it get turned over. At least you have a chance to get back and play good defense. When you’re turning pucks over inside our blue line a lot of times those end up as grade A chances and that’s what happened in the first period.”

David Quinn redux

It’s interesting that the very issues raised by Gallant are the same issues that tormented David Quinn for three years.  Taking the body, not getting too fancy, making  careless plays…that’s what we heard from Quinn for years.

The difference is that Gallant always finds something positive, even in a whupping like the one they took on Monday.   He made a point of saying that it was the first period that was their worst and it set the table for the rest of the game.  He also talked about his disappointment and the players’ disappointment in how they came out, and also talked about the first game after a road trip factor.

Compare that to Quinn’s comments after a loss to the Golden Knights last season.  “I don’t like our mentality, we’re way too risk oriented.  We just didn’t play a very sound, structured game. And you know I thought we really fueled their offense…it was really too much of a pond hockey feel in a lot of ways.”  There’s a difference. It may be subtle, but there is a difference.

Gallant also is not the kind of coach who cuts the ice time of players who make mistakes.  He doesn’t punish his players, something that we saw quite often from his predecessor.  It’s a refreshing approach and we will have to see if it is an effective way of getting through to his players. The question is whether it is possible with the Rangers’ DNA to make the change from a finesse team that would rather make the fancy play instead of just pushing the puck forward.

When the new coach speaks you can see that he was a player himself and a player who found success through working hard.  If anything sums up Gallant’s approach to his players it’s when he said, “They’re gonna make mistakes, but we can’t make as many as we made last night.”