Montreal Canadiens: Brendan Gallagher’s Value More Evident in His Absence
Montreal Canadiens right winger Brendan Gallagher has long been referred to as the heart of the Habs.
Over the past few years, he was the team’s top goal scoring threat and played on one of the league’s best two-way lines with Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar. Everyone knew he had a lot of value and was deserving of his new six year contract extension at $6.5 million per year.
The Canadiens did go out and add a lot of depth at right wing last offseason. They traded Max Domi and a third round pick for Josh Anderson. They signed Tyler Toffoli to a four year contract. They had Cole Caufield waiting in the wings, knowing he was going back to college for another year, but that it would be his final year of NCAA.
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It would have made sense if you questioned if this would push Gallagher down the team’s depth chart a little bit. When Anderson and Toffoli stepped into the lineup and looked even better than advertised, and Caufield was putting up Hobey Baker Award numbers in college, it appeared that maybe this team had enough options at right wing that they wouldn’t miss Gallagher as much as they once did.
Well, in his absence, his value to this team has been proven to be as great as ever.
Gallagher suffered a broken thumb against the Edmonton Oilers on April 5th. Including that game, the Canadiens had scored 28 goals in their previous eight games. That’s an average of 3.5 per game and enough to give an NHL team a chance to win every night.
Without Gallagher, the team simply can’t find the back of the net the same way. They have played 12 games without Gallagher in the lineup, and have scored 22 goals which is just under two per game. Not so surprisingly, they are just 4-8-0 since Gallagher went down with injury.
Gallagher doesn’t put up superstar offensive numbers, he has 14 goals and 23 points in 35 games this season. That’s had him on pace for a 33 goal and 54 point season over a full 82 games. That’s good, but it is not elite offence.
So, why do the Habs miss Gallagher so much? It’s the offence he brings combined with his defensive play. His line with Tatar and Danault scored at a decent rate but they play against the best players on the other team and shut them down every night. Gallagher’s line outscores the opponent’s best players and allows the rest of the Canadiens to play against weaker competition.
That’s what the Canadiens miss most right now. The ability to be comfortable knowing Gallagher’s line is going to take away the other team’s best and that the rest of the Habs forwards will have an easier matchup.
We already knew this about Gallagher but we also thought this year’s Habs team was much deeper than recent iterations. In Gallagher’s absence, it has become painfully clear that he is still the heartbeat of this team and is quite possibly their most valuable player.