Montreal Canadiens right winger Brendan Gallagher might have something in common with one John Wick.
Maybe it’s a little overdramatic to say a forward with 18 points in 27 games is guns blazing like John Wick was, but it certainly feels that way with Gallagher. HE is already over halfway to matching his point production form last year, 30 points in 64 games.
Brendan Gallagher currently atop the club in points with 12 goals, which passes his output from last season already in the goal-scoring department. A big reason? He’s shooting at 14.8% compared to last years paltry 5.3%. Gallagher’s career shooting percentage hovers around 9.5%.
Shattered Hand Leads To a Broken Season
Last year was a bad season for Gallagher, but there was a real fear that the issue stemmed from a broken hand. Gallagher shattered two fingers in his right hand blocking a shot from Johnny Boychuk in 2015-16, only to break the same hand when trying to screen the goalie during a Shea Weber blast from the point.
Upon returning from the injury, there was a spark missing in Gallagher’s game, noticeable to the fans and the coach. Gallagher often found himself out of the top six, having at one point, gone two months without scoring a goal. He even got yelled at by his mother, but that was an off-ice incident. Simply put, a forgettable season for number eleven.
Opportunity For Number 11
This season, the Habs had a void on their top line. Alex Radulov, who carried first line right wing duties the previous season is now a member of the Dallas Stars. There was a question about who might fill Radulov’s production on the team. Any expectation of new acquisition Ales Hemsky filling that void quickly disappeared. Other wingers like Alex Galchenyuk, Andrew Shaw, and Paul Byron have played rotating chairs on where they land in the lineup. While Gallagher has also shuffled around a bit, he has still shown a level of consistency that leads the Canadiens in scoring during a rough first quarter of the season.
What helps illuminate Gallagher’s consistency is his six goals in losses while having nine points in wins. Unlike a lot of the Canadiens who have scored in bunches in victories, Gallagher still brings it in a loss. His points are also spread out among the divisions: five points against the Atlantic, four points against the Central, and three points each for the Pacific and Metropolitan divisions.
For example, in the toughest loss for the Canadiens this season so far, a 6-0 whipping by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Gallagher still brought his A-game with three shots, six hits, and a blocked shot despite only 12:56 in ice time. But he also brought his A game against another Original Six rival in the Detroit Red Wings.
Brendan Gallagher Shines Against Detroit
In the Canadiens game against the Red Wings on Thursday, the team was missing Jonathan Drouin and Shea Weber. In their absence, Brendan Gallagher led the way for the Habs. He scored the first goal of the game. When the Red Wings took the lead, it was a concerted effort in the offensive zone between Gallagher and rookie Charlie Hudon that resulted in the tying goal at the start of the second. Less than a minute later, Andrew Shaw would score, followed by Alex Galchenyuk later in the period. With the game in hand, Gallagher added one more for good measure. The goal raised his scoring on the season to 12 goals, six assists, for 18 points in 27 games.
While +/- is a flawed statistic, it’s interesting to look at the Canadiens top six forwards and notice that all of them are in the negative category except Brendan Gallagher. Through the struggles of October and November that pushed many to write the Canadiens off this season, Brendan Gallagher continued to play every game like it mattered. It’s why when others have struggled, he has stood tall.
Nobody is actually going to mistaken Brendan Gallagher for John Wick. But if anyone is asking if Gallagher is back? Yeah, I’m thinking he’s back.
