It is obvious whenever you watch Brendan Gallagher play that he is trying his hardest for the Montreal Canadiens organization. He wears his shirt on his sleeve. It is part of what makes him so effective at this stage of his career and a fan favourite in Montreal. He knows his role, and he works very hard to execute his goals, team and individual. With the fact that over the past couple of seasons of him adding veteran leadership to his list of hockey skills, he does so very tactically and doesn’t do much without a purpose. He’s a smart player, who does everything with a plan in mind. And what that plan tends towards more often than not is drive the net, crash the crease, take the rock to the rack.
Brendan Gallagher is the Montreal Canadiens Hope for 2024-25 Anyway
To go along with the intangibles, let’s take a look at some stats. The purpose for our statistical analysis will be two-fold. First of all, it will be how Gallagher has done at maintaining his successful scoring rates, efficiency, and effectiveness. Next, we will add some notes and comment on how it is he is performing this year. Look at his line statistics and how he compares to his teammates.
Gallagher is a part of the most commonly employed line of the team along with Josh Anderson and Jake Evans. They are over 85 minutes as a line this year, and have an xGoals% of 48.5. That value isn’t great, but is probably a result of the lack of continuity of the forward group as a whole. Studying the stats of the three of them, if we look at points per 60 minutes, we begin to see Gallagher’s value. He sits at 2.2. Anderson is down to 2.0 and Evans even lower at 1.6. Therefore, compared directly to his linemates, he does outperform them.
Gallagher Still Gets it Done Game-After-Game
Individually, Gallagher already has seven goals, through 17 games. In 14:25 of average ice time, it is a decent scoring rate. Furthermore, twice in his career he has been a 30-goal scorer. Both those seasons he was at nearly three-and-a-half shots or so per game. This year he has 32. Not quite at the same pace. But now for Gallagher, it is more about winning his matchup shift-in, shift-out. He still goes hard to the net. And pays the price for it. Moreover, when he is not up to usual antics, he is playing a responsible veteran role. That involves taking the high-guy, and playing smart positionally.
Brendan Gallagher still provides decent value as a third liner for the Montreal Canadiens. His style allows him to easily synch up with his linemates. Also, with his veteran reliability, it is tough to find any cracks in his proverbial armour. If Montreal is going to turn it around, they can count on Gallagher providing the club a push in the right direction.
Montreal currently sits in eighth position in the NHL’s competitive Atlantic Division. Expectations are out the window for this season, unless they can turn it around very soon. If they do, count on head coach Martin St. Louis having Gallagher as an ally in that pursuit of respectability. It’s tough to know how much Gallagher can continue to produce in the future. However, he has never received a lot of ice time, having a career mark of 15:34 through his 13 seasons in the La Bleu Blanc Rouge for the Edmonton, Alberta product. For an original fifth-round draft pick back to the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Gallagher has carved out a pretty consistent career, with 225 career goals and 435 points in 769 games. A player like this keeping things positive will pay off in spades in the attitudes of the young forwards in the lineup as they develop for the future.
Main Photo Credit: Eric Bolte – USA TODAY Sports
