In Hainsight: Gallagher Is Like Any Other Player

Before the start of the season, Kent Hughes and Martin St.Louis both spoke to the media, emphasizing the need to see some progress from both the team and the individual players. They also added that there had to be some accountability and consequences to how players performed. In his first complete season behind the bench, St.Louis carried on taking stock of what he had on his hands, and for the most part, errors went unaddressed, the coach saying he didn’t want to “overcoach” his players.

Now, however, St.Louis knows exactly what he has on his hands some players found out what happened if the coach didn’t like what he saw. Joel Armia was waived before the start of the season and sent down to Laval, sure he came back up quickly, but it was all down to injuries, as for Arber Xhekaj, he had an extended stay in Laval after coming back from injury. The Habs’ brass said he needed to work on his defensive game and take fewer penalties.  Right-shot defenseman Justin Barron is once again in Laval because his decision-making and his defensive play are not up to par, even though the Habs’ depth chart is rather shallow when it comes to right-shot blueliners. And then, there’s Brendan Gallagher…

For years, Gallagher has delighted fans with his grit, his dedicated play, and his ability to contribute offensively. Nobody expected the 2010 fifth-round pick (147 overall) to have such a career. He burst into the league the same year  Alex Galchenyuk did, and even though most people expected the third-overall pick to have a great career, it’s Gallagher who stuck around and became a mainstay in both the line-up and in the fans’ hearts.

After giving his all to the team for so many years and doing it while playing a very rugged game, the veteran’s body has been beaten down quite a bit, his speed, which has never been his strong suit, has diminished, and he lost the linemates he was so comfortable and efficient with back in the 2021 offseason. Since then, Gallagher hasn’t been the same, and the deficiencies in his game, which were patched up by Philip Danault’s presence, have been much more obvious.

Marc Bergevin signed him to a six-year deal worth $39 million back in 2020. Had his age and physical fitness not caught up to him, it would have been a good deal, but age waits for no man. Gallagher is now 31 years old and playing for a coach who preaches concepts that don’t particularly work with the veteran’s style of play. With his offensive production free-falling, the Edmonton native is bouncing around in the line-up, but his place is now in the bottom six, something which he seems to be struggling to accept.

While Gallagher’s cap-hit is way too high for the points he puts up, he used to at least be a perfect example to follow for the young Habs, a player who could show them how to be a real professional hockey player, but this year, he appears to be frustrated and takes questionable decisions on the ice. In the last month, he’s been suspended for five games following an illegal hit to the head of New York Islanders’ defenseman Adam Pelech, and on his return to play, he took yet another selfish costly penalty, something that has happened a few times already this season.

It’s sad, but hockey is a sport of result, and even though Gallagher has tied Serge Savard as the Canadiens’ all-time points leader, ranking 36th with 412 points in Saturday’s game, Canadiens’ fans have a very short memory, except for when it comes to their 24 cup wins. If Gallagher continues to produce as little as he does and take costly penalties, they will want to see him be held accountable. They could cope with the lack of production while he was the epitome of what a role model should be, but their patience is wearing thin, and if that goes, so will the fans’ support and perhaps even Martin St.Louis’.

Gallagher’s contract makes him pretty much untradeable, and it’s hard to imagine Kent Hughes deciding to bury a man who has bled red, white, and blue for over a decade in the AHL. Eventually, the only way to avoid that might be to buy out his contract. Hockey is a business and no matter what a player has done in the past, decisions are taken on the performance provided now. Gallagher is like any other player and needs to accept his current role and show that he can still be an excellent leader and a positive influence on the young Habs.