Montreal Canadiens: The silver lining of the season

Although the Montreal Canadiens have lost a lot of games this season, watching the revival of Brendan Gallagher’s offensive game has been worth it.

By the end of the first period, the Montreal Canadiens were down 4-0. It was safe to say that the game was already over at that point despite the fact that the Habs tried to climb back in the third. It was a 6-4 hockey game by the final buzzer and the team’s 30th loss but first regulation loss since February 17th.

On the bright side, Brendan Gallagher scored…again. His individual effort in the second period to cut across the crease and put the puck past Keith Kinkaid gave him his 24th goal of the season tying his career high from the 2014/15 season. It’s funny really. During the offseason when Marc Bergevin was asked about his plans to add more goal scoring to the lineup, he would mention that the team was banking on players having bounce-back seasons.

Gallagher has been the only one to answer the call in that department. Regardless of the state of the game, he would give it all he’s got on the ice and open the scoring for the team. It’s been a repeated line this year, but it’s too bad cloning players isn’t possible. If everyone on the Habs fired at the same frequency every night, who knows where they would be at by this point of the season.

It’s been nice to see the younger players step up and contribute, but there’s no doubt that Brendan Gallagher has been the silver lining of the 2017/18 season. Thankfully he’s under contract for another three years at an incredible cap-hit of $3.75 million.

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A main critique of the Habs roster, save for the many comments on the blue line which in many ways are deserving, is the size of the players. The thing is, Gallagher may not be the biggest player, but he makes you work for your space.

He competes and works hard on the forecheck and the backcheck and if an opponent comes away with the puck while Gallagher is on the ice, you know they’ve worked for it (or they just got a lucky break, but that doesn’t happen as often as you think).

Now that Gallagher has hit 24 goals, why stop there? With 16 games left in the regular season, there is ample time for the Habs to have something they’ve had every full season since the 2011/12, ignoring the 2012/13 shortened season: a 30-goal scorer. It’s usually been Max Pacioretty to hold on to that mantle with other players such as Erik Cole in 2012 and Alex Kovalev in 2008 reaching that total.

Despite the lack of goal scoring at points on this roster, Gallagher reaching 30 for the first time in his career could be the cherry on top of the silver cake the agitator has made for himself this year. ‘

Next: Enemy’s Insight – Finding Something to Play For

What do you think is the silver lining of the season? Can Gallagher reach 30? Let us know in the comments below.