They were five words delivered almost as an afterthought by Gerard Gallant when I asked the coach why he had flipped Alexis Lafreniere and Julien Gauthier starting late in the second period of the Rangers’ 5-1 depressing defeat to the Flames at the Garden on Monday.

But they were five words that will reverberate. And they could not have been an afterthought, at all.

Because after lauding Gauthier for his effort, No. 15 getting first-line time beside a struggling Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider while standing out as one of the least guilty parties in the club’s Pratfall on Broadway, Gallant said this after allowing that he was quite unhappy with the team’s first period:

“I want Laffy doing more.”