Veteran forward David Perron returned to practice but Gallant did not provide an update as to his potential return.

Gerard Gallant put his team back on the ice on Monday after a day off and began preparations for Wednesday's Game 1 opening round match against the Los Angeles Kings.

Do you expect David Perron to play in Game One?

I don't know. Everybody, like I told you two weeks ago, everybody is ready to go. We'll see where it goes. It's good to see him out there, his first practice. We'll see how he goes the next couple of days.

Do you try to create your best lineup or create the best lineup to beat the Kings?

We create a lineup to win the hockey game, that's what we do every time. Not always your most talented players sometimes, but it's the guys that you put together that you think are going to win the game. I'm going to have some tough decisions. When we get done after Wednesday morning's skate, we're going to have to make our lineup and see what the best is. It's going to be tough.

So your lineup is not made up at this point?

No not at all. There's still a few question marks and guys first practice back today. We'll see where it goes.

How do you think the blue line has come together over the season?

They've come together great. We finished first in our division and we had 51 wins. Everything went pretty well for us. It's a new season now and we've got to keep battling, keep playing hard and doing what we did all regular season long: win hockey games and take it one game at a time.

How important is James Neal on the ice and in the locker room?

He's a big part of our group and he was a big part of our group all season long. Nothing is going to change with our group. We're going to go out there and work, compete and have fun. We'll see what happens here. We're playing against a real good LA team that's had great playoff experience, they're well-coached, they work hard and they compete hard. We all know the game they play. It's going to be a battle, but it's going to be fun.

James scores big goals. That's what he's done. That's what he's done since the first of the year with us when we started the franchise. The first few games he was scoring every night and huge goals for us. That's what James does. He's a big-time player and he's got experience. He's a big-time playoff player.

What impact will the William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith line have on the playoffs?

They're going to play a lot of minutes and they've been a big part of our group, obviously. To get Reilly Smith back healthy is huge for our group and our team because he does so many things for us. That will be a big line for us, for sure. But no bigger than our fourth line, our third line and our second line. We need everybody to win hockey games and that's how we've won all year long.

How important is it to be able to cause the opposition to turn over the puck?

It's about playing fast. We've talked about that all year long. When you play fast and you forecheck well, you're going to get turnovers. People turn over the puck. The NHL is games and mistakes. You have to force them to turn over the puck. If you give good players time to make good plays, they're going to make them. If you give any player very little time, you're going to get turnovers. That's what happens in our game. When we play fast and we play quick, we're a good team and we get a lot of turnovers.

On what the atmosphere at T-Mobile Arena will be like during the playoffs:

I can't wait to see it. All year long, it's been outstanding. When we come out on the ice, when they sing the national anthem, when they announce our lineup the fans are into the game. I can't wait to see it on Wednesday night because it's probably going to be double that. It's going to be great.

What is it like to know that you have a guy like Marc-Andre Fleury out on the ice?

It's awesome. When we got him in the expansion draft, we knew that we had a guy with experience. He's going to help our players and keep our players loose. I'm sure that's how Pittsburgh had done it. He's going to be a great guy for our young team to go out there and get a lot of confidence in. He's going to be awesome.