Montreal Canadiens: Brendan Gallagher’s 30-goal season isn’t a fluke

The Montreal Canadiens won their game last night over the Detroit Red Wings, and the highlight of it had to be Brendan Gallagher scoring his 30th goal.

Who needs Max Pacioretty when you have Brendan Gallagher am I right? All kidding aside the heart and soul of the Montreal Canadiens has been the grinning agitator, and it’s not even close. But what’s made Gallagher a special player his whole NHL career is that he can frustrate you and make it difficult to do your job, and light you up for some goals afterwards.

I hate to make the comparison, as he is nowhere near as dirty or weasel-like, but this may be a similar progression to Brad Marchand in Boston. He’s public enemy number one around the NHL and does all he can to get under the skin of his opponent, and you can’t deny how well of an on-ice player he is. Marchand went through a handful of seasons hovering around the 20-goal mark but started to hit 30 in the 2015/16 as a 27-year-old. He scored 37 that year followed by a 39 and 33 goal season (which he is currently at now).

This plateau for Gallagher may not be a one-off. He’s a fighter and a competitor, and he’ll definitely be pushing to reach this milestone every year. However, that’s focusing on the future. Let’s look at what Gallagher did this season with five games left until the offseason for the Montreal Canadiens.

The Perfect Combination for the Montreal Canadiens

Gallagher started the season on a line with Jonathan Drouin and Pacioretty scoring in that opening game against the Buffalo Sabres. It didn’t stay that way for the 25-year-old as Claude Julien went through a lot of line juggling to break the Habs out of their early-season slumps. Despite that, Gallagher never stopped producing.

He spent the most time this season playing on a line with Tomas Plekanec and Charles Hudon. Breaking down his scoring this season, Gallagher had 21 goals at even strength, 8 on the power play, and a single tally shorthanded. Is there a discrepancy between his play at or away from the Bell Centre similarly to Alex Galchenyuk?

Not by much. Gallagher put up 13 goals at home while the remaining 17 came on the road, which speaks volumes considering how poor the Montreal Canadiens have been away from their rink.

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When it comes to where he scores, it would be just as you’d expect, in the dirty areas. That being said, it wasn’t just banging in rebounds. Gallagher had a fair share of deflections especially on the power play and would give teammates an option to receive a pass around the net. Looking at the specific numbers, 38% of his goals this year came from within that home plate region in the offensive zone.

Additionally, Gallagher made use of a very underrated shot to score as well. A quick wrister goal has come off of his stick multiple times this season and he’s gotten success from it, especially in the slot (where 8% of his goals came from).

If that wasn’t an option, a slap shot worked for Gallagher as well (in the same region of the ice).

Don’t feel like this is a fluke for Gallagher. He’s fired at an 11.5 shooting percentage this season which is within his career realm. The fifth-round draft pick had a percentage as high as 12.8 in his rookie year with the Montreal Canadiens and was at 9.4% in the 2014/15 season when he scored 24.

For some further validation of Gallagher’s production, his PDO (on-ice shooting and save percentage) is at a 97.4. PDO is a good way to determine whether a player or team is legitimate or having a wonky season. Wonky in the sense of over or underperforming drastically. The rule of thumb (via Rob Vollman’s ‘Stat Shot‘) is a score north of 100 indicates a player or team playing better than they actually are whereas one well below 98 implies a year of bad luck.

This is Brendan Gallagher, and as a 25-year-old, it looks like he’s knocking on the door to the prime years of his career. To make it better, he’s making $3.75 million for the next three seasons after this one ends.

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The Montreal Canadiens aren’t in a position to look at other players in the league and point at the fact that other teams have players who score less but make more. That being said, it’s still nice to see Gallagher produce at this clip on such a team-friendly contract. What’s next for the Edmonton native? Growth and more growth.

Gallagher answered Marc Bergevin‘s distress call last summer in needing players to have bounce-back seasons. It’s safe to say that he blew the doors off of that argument, and the next step is to ensure that his offence in successive years doesn’t drop or even better, improves.