MONTREAL — You win some, you lose some, and the Montreal Canadiens did both in Sunday’s game against the New York Islanders.
Alex Galchenyuk’s third goal of the season gave Montreal a 3-2 lead late in the game and Max Pacioretty scored into an empty net to make it 4-2 with nine seconds left, allowing the Canadiens to recapture first place in the Eastern Conference.
But the cost of the win was losing forward Brendan Gallagher, who blocked a shot with around eight minutes remaining in the second period.
Let’s examine what that means for Montreal and take a look at four other things we learned from this game:
“He was playing his best hockey…”
Canadiens coach Michel Therrien authoritatively stamped that statement with the word “obviously.”
With nine goals and 10 assists, Gallagher was on pace for 74 points this season. His previous best points per game average was 0.63 in his rookie campaign (28 points in 44 games in the lockout-abridged 2013 season).
Prior to Sunday’s game, Gallagher had missed a total of five games due to injury over the course of three NHL seasons.
In an exclusive interview with Gallagher earlier in the day, the winger told Sportsnet about his play jumping a level this season and his seemingly unbelievable threshold for pain.
“I’ve been taught from a young age that there’s a difference between being injured and pain,” said Gallagher. “If it’s an injury, you’re going to hurt the team to be out there and you’re better off sitting out. But if you can play and contribute to your team’s success, play through the pain.
“For me it’s always my hands and my feet that are a little banged up from pucks and sticks. There’s a big difference between getting injured and pain that you can tolerate. I usually don’t feel it when I get out there and play with it.”
There was no gutting it out in this instance.
Galchenyuk redeems himself with winning goal
Previous to Sunday’s game, Galchenyuk had scored on just two of his 38 shots on the season for a 5.3 per cent shooting efficiency.
In Galchenyuk’s first three NHL seasons, he had never scored on less than 11.4 per cent of his shots. On Sunday, Galchenyuk had five shot attempts and missed the net with all of them. In the third period, he had a sixth from right in front of the net and put it wide.
“It would’ve given me a lot of nightmares,” Galchenyuk said. “But I was happy to get it in the third.”
Galchenyuk’s in his first NHL season at centre. He’s been short-shifted on several occasions, and he’s currently averaging 14:12 per game which is more than two minutes less than he averaged on the wing last season.
“It’s a process with him, he’s a young player,” said Therrien. “Tonight, I thought that [Galchenyuk’s line] probably played their best game.”
The legend of Tomas Fleischmann grows
Fleischmann put the Canadiens up 2-1 in the second period with his short-handed goal at 14:09. It was Montreal’s league-leading fifth short-handed goal this season.
It was Fleischmann’s seventh goal to add to his eight assists and plus-8 rating through 22 games. This is the guy who was forced to take a player tryout with Montreal before eventually singing for one year at $750,000.
Together, with Dale Weise and David Desharnais, Fleischmann’s line has combined for 46 points.
“A couple of years ago in Florida (my first year there) we went to the playoffs and I played with [Stephen] Weiss and [Kris] Versteeg,” recalled Fleischmann after Sunday’s win. “We had kinda the same chemistry right away and we enjoyed it for like 30 games or something like that. It seems exactly the same right now and it’s fun; you’re always excited for the next game.”
Pacioretty is blown away by the contribution Fleischmann has made to the team’s success.
“He’s been huge for this team,” said Pacioretty. “I can’t believe he came in here on a tryout. I can’t even wrap my head around that because he’s such a great player and he’s a great teammate.”
Depth of Habs continues to be key to their success
Greg Pateryn waited 17 games for a chance to get into Montreal’s lineup. Since entering, he’s had a 67 per cent Corsi For rating and averaged a shade under 14:00 of ice-time per game. That’s impressive considering how heavily he’s been leaned on in the defensive zone at even strength.
“He’s a defenceman capable of being in the top six defencemen on any team in the NHL,” said Therrien in French. “He’s got huge determination, he’s doing a good job, so we’re really satisfied with the way he’s playing.”
Pateryn’s a perfect example of the depth Montreal relies on to win.
“It’s hard to understand why that’s happening, but you have to think it’s because of the atmosphere we have in here,” said Pacioretty. “Our mindset every day is ‘do the right things’. And the guys who have sat out, you normally see them moping or hear them say, ‘I should be in’, but we genuinely have not heard or seen that with this group.”
Isles swept by Canadiens for second straight season
It’s an odd thing to play a team from another division three times before the 25-game mark, and it’s even stranger to lose all three games as the Islanders have to Montreal.
The Islanders had the lead after the first period and later tied the game 2-2 with 8:07 left in the third with a power-play goal. But they gift-wrapped the win for Montreal when Taylor Beck took a goaltender interference penalty with 3:35 remaining.
After Galchenyuk scored, the Islanders still had 3:29 to tie the game, but they took a too-many-men penalty with 1:22 remaining.