Brendan Gallagher will miss the remainder of the Montreal Canadiens series against the Philadelphia Flyers as he will undergo surgery for a broken jaw.
General Manager Marc Bergevin has confirmed that Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher suffered a broken jaw after taking a cross-check against the boards from Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Matt Niskanen during Game 5 on Wednesday. As a result, Gallagher will miss the remainder of the Montreal Canadiens series and potentially their playoffs if they are unable to stave off elimination in Game 6 on Friday.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety will have a hearing with Matt Niskanen in regards to the cross-check. It would not be surprising to also see Niskanen out for the remainder of the series, but an official decision has not yet been made.
Philadelphia’s Matt Niskanen will have a hearing today for Cross-checking Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) August 20, 2020
The hit on Brendan Gallagher came late into the third period of play on a Montreal Canadiens powerplay. The Montreal Canadiens had submitted the video below to the Department of Player Safety in order to request a review of the hit that was not called on the ice. Brendan Gallagher also signalled the referee following the play, pointing to his mouth, but no call was made. It was clear on the bench that Gallagher had lost several teeth, but it was unknown that he had suffered a broken jaw at this point.
https://twitter.com/CanadiensMTL/status/1296440583712538628
The news could not come at a worse possible time for the Montreal Canadiens as they are just coming off of a 5-3 win to push their series against the Philadelphia Flyers to 6 games. As the Canadiens look to push the series to Game 7, they will now have to do so without one of their forwards who gives it their all on a nightly basis.
However, Sportsnet’s Eric Engels has mentioned that there is still the possibility that Brendan Gallagher could return to play should the Montreal Canadiens advance to the second round of the playoffs, although this will surely be a tall order as the Canadiens traded away much of their depth at the trade deadline.
As a result, any injury can end up detrimental to the team’s success. Down 3-2 in the series, it will take a full team effort for the Montreal Canadiens to ensure that they play past Game 6 and onward, but if they showed the resilience they did during Game 5, there might still be a chance for them.