SAN JOSE — Vegas Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant blasted Pete DeBoer on Tuesday hours before Game 7 of the feisty first-round series for comments the Sharks coach made about Gallant talking to San Jose’s players during games.

“For that clown to say that in the paper yesterday, it’s not right,” said Gallant, who denied engaging in trash talk with Sharks players.

“Logan Couture, I thought it was an embellishment, so I’m yelling at the referee, not at Logan Couture,” Gallant said. “The other one, Game 2, Evander Kane’s yelling at Ryan Reaves between the bench, and Evander yells and me and says, “Hey coach, when are you going to send your big guy on the ice and play him, what, four minutes?” I said, “He’s played 10 minutes every game and he’s going to play a lot more.” (Those) are the two times.

“If I’m going to be a chirper and a loudmouth, I think people know me as a coach and respect me as a coach. If he’s going to yap about that, that’s a little unclassy for me.”

Vegas coach Gerard Gallant in response to Sharks coach Pete DeBoer saying he chirps players: “For that clown to say that in the paper yesterday is not right.” Here’s his whole response: #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/MwWekG6Rv4 — Justin Emerson (@J15Emerson) April 23, 2019

DeBoer said Monday that Gallant has done a lot more talking at his players than that.

Asked if the talk — particularly through the media — dying down between the teams might favor the Sharks, DeBoer said, “There’s still chatter. Their coach is chattering. He’s probably doing the most chattering. He’s talking to our players constantly during the game, which I haven’t seen before.

“That’s probably where most of the chatter’s coming from now. The players are playing.”

Couture added Monday of opposing coaches, “There’s not many that will yell at players. But we’re in the Stanley Cup playoffs. If they think this is going to help them win, let them do it.”

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Gallant was upset Jonathan Marchessault got called for slashing Couture in the second period of Game 6 on Sunday. Marchessault watched the replay of the incident on the cube at T-Mobile Arena and was incredulous, throwing his gloves off against the glass in the penalty box.

Marchessault also chimed in on DeBoer’s comments, saying, “I guess he’s trying to get involved and get some trash talk going. I’ve never seen (Gallant) talk to another guy on the ice than us. I would not assume that.

“I know him really well and I’ve never seen him talk to another guy on the ice. I don’t know if they’re a little extra sensitive. But I doubt he would say something like that.”

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Trash talk between the players has been fairly constant throughout the series, but it is unusual for such vitriol to bubble to the surface in the hours before the series-deciding game. The winner Tuesday night will play the Colorado Avalanche in the second round.

The Sharks have never come all the way back from a three-games-to-one deficit in a playoff series, but have put themselves in position to advance to the second round after a 5-2 win in Game 5 and a 2-1, double overtime victory in Game 6.

DeBoer said Tuesday morning that lineup changes could be made, although it is unclear whether any possible adjustments would be injury or performance related. The Sharks held an optional skate at their practice facility Tuesday, so it won’t be known until closer to game time whether any changes are made.

Certainly the Sharks have a lot of things to clean up from Game 6, namely cutting down on the shots against. Vegas put 59 shots on goal Sunday, and Martin Jones needed to make 58 saves to keep his team’s season alive.

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Home sweet home? Giants, visitors at Oracle Park, tie franchise record in win “I think we can do a lot better,” Couture said Monday. “We can forecheck better, we can break out better. We can’t spend that much time in our own end. We can’t give up 59 or whatever shots it was again. Like I said, (Jones) was the reason we won that game. We scored some timely, big goals, but we can’t do that again.”

The Sharks are 3-3 all-time in playoff games at home against the Golden Knights. Only one of those games has been decided by a single goal — Game 3 of last year’s second round series when William Karlsson scored at the 8:17 mark of overtime to give Vegas a 4-3 win.

“We’ve been playing two game sevens in a row here,” Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson said Tuesday morning. “We know what’s on the line. Maybe the only thing that’s going to change is (Vegas’) desperation. That’s something that we have to be prepared for. It’s all going to be about this group in here, and what we feel we have to do to be successful.

“We can’t be scared of losing. We’re going to want to control the puck and not be afraid to make mistakes, because they’re going to happen. It’s all going to be about how you recover and how you deal with it.”