Canadiens must bring Gallagher's competitiveness to keep season alive vs. Hurricanes

MONTREAL — Brendan Gallagher would give everything he has to keep this Montreal Canadiens season alive, but he won’t be turned to in Friday’s elimination game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

For the first time since being left out of the first NHL game he was eligible to play (back in 2013), Gallagher was made a healthy scratch in Game 65 of this season. He was scratched from four other games down the stretch before sitting out the first four games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And he sat for the entire second round against the Buffalo Sabres and has missed all of this one against the Hurricanes because the Canadiens clearly feel everything the 34-year-old has just isn’t enough. 

Still, it’s hard to reckon with the notion that, even at half the allotted ice time, it wouldn’t be more than what Alex Texier and Kirby Dach have given the Canadiens over the three consecutive losses that have put them in a 3-1 hole in this Eastern Conference final. (Game 5 can be seen on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+, starting at 7:30 p.m. / 4:30 p.m. PT.)

Those two players have combined for zero shots on net, four penalty minutes and a minus-3 in declining minutes. Their efforts haven’t necessarily poor, but they also haven’t been anywhere near on par with ones they put forth in other games of this run.

And even if they were, they’d still be beneath what Gallagher gives every time he pulls on his sweater.

To know that he’s probably played his last game in the only one he’s ever worn in this league — the one he’s bled for countless times through 990 games (regular season and post-season combined) — is sad, given his contribution to the team’s ascent to where it finds itself and where it’s going in the future.

But that is the cruel reality of this business, which head coach Martin St. Louis has said on numerous occasions he takes no delight in. 

St. Louis referred to scratching Gallagher earlier this season as the hardest decision he’s had to make in his four-plus years behind the Canadiens’ bench.

Gallagher has understood, but he’s probably suffered a great deal to accept it.

“Obviously, it’s a tough situation for him, but he’s been nothing but a great teammate for every guy in that locker room (by) just putting in the work and being ready to play when his name’s called,” said Josh Anderson ahead of Wednesday’s 4-0 loss in Game 4. “He’s still got a great attitude in that locker room. He’s still chatting up the guys. But, obviously, it’s a tough situation.”

It’s got to be a torturous one at this juncture for a player who’s spent his career proving people wrong and is not getting another opportunity to do so.

Gallagher’s first opportunity came just two-and-a-half years after he was taken by the Canadiens in the fifth round (147th overall) of the 2010 draft. He made his improbable NHL debut at just 20, proving his worth immediately with 15 goals and 28 points in 44 games of the lockout-abridged 2013 season. 

Over the years to follow, Gallagher suffered devastating hand injuries in back-to-back seasons but rebounded from them impressively to notch 31 goals in 2017-18 and 33 goals in 2018-19. 

Lower-body ailments plagued Gallagher through the next four seasons, but he recovered and, after struggling to adapt to St. Louis’ tactics through the early portion of the Canadiens rebuild, he made adjustments that saw him score 21 goals and play an integral role in their clinching of an unlikely playoff berth last spring.

This season started reasonably well for Gallagher, as he collected six points through his first 10 games and averaged 13:17 through his first 25. 

But his production waned as his ice time was reduced by over two minutes per game over the final 25, and he was used sparingly down the stretch before not being used at all at the start of the playoffs.

When the Canadiens needed a spark, Gallagher provided one in Game 5 of the first-round series against Tampa. He stormed into the lineup and immediately scored on the first shot of his first shift in what ended up being a 3-2 win at Benchmark International Arena.

But Gallagher played only 10 shifts in Game 6 at the Bell Centre, only eight in Game 7 back in Tampa, and he’s been waiting for one more ever since.

It won’t come Friday night in Raleigh, and Gallagher’s next one will likely be for another team if the Canadiens are eliminated by the Hurricanes.

Sources have indicated there is interest in the player’s services elsewhere, as his contract — carrying a $6.5-million cap hit — is set to expire at the end of next season. A team like the Vancouver Canucks, who are rebuilding and need good veterans, would likely be a suitor. Especially if an asset (like a middle-rounds draft pick) was included in the deal, and the thought of a team like that later trying to earn another asset by flipping Gallagher to a contender in need of the grit and depth he could provide over a playoff run is also tangible.

He'd offer those elements to the Canadiens right now, but they’re going in another direction.

From one warrior to another

Claude Lemieux’s tragic end sent shockwaves through the hockey world Thursday, just three days after he carried the torch into the Bell Centre before Game 3.

Speaking with close friends of Lemieux’s after news of his suicide broke, they described him as looking and “seemingly feeling great” in recent interactions. Those who played — and won — with him over the course of his 1,215-game career described him as one of the fiercest competitors they’ve ever known.

“He was a warrior,” said one former teammate, who marvelled at Lemieux’s sterling playoff record.

Lemieux scored 10 goals in 20 games as a rookie to help the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup in 1986. He scored 13 goals over a 20-game run that netted him the Conn Smythe Award as MVP of the New Jersey Devils’ Cup win in 1995. 

If Lemieux was less prolific, he was no less important in the run the Colorado Avalanche went on to capture the Cup a year later. And he lifted it over his head once more with the Devils in 2000 before riding out the final years of his career in Phoenix, Dallas and San Jose.

Former Canadiens teammate Chris Chelios is one of only four players to have played more playoff games than Lemieux. He owns the record at 266, with Nick Lidstrom (263), Corey Perry (244) and Mark Messier (236) trailing.

What Lemieux had in common with all those legends was the extent to which he performed in his 234 playoff games, posting 80 goals and 158 points.

He brought much more than just points — and sometimes brought too much, crossing the line like he did with his hit against Kris Draper in the 1996 Avalanche-Detroit Red Wings series.

But Lemieux played his way and left behind the legacy of a champion.

The 60-year-old native of Buckingham, Que., is survived by wife Deborah and their four children, and our most sincere sympathies are with them and his many friends.