Montreal Canadiens right winger Brendan Gallagher is the heart and soul of the Habs lineup.
If that wasn’t already clear, it has become painfully obvious in the past few weeks.
Gallagher has been injured since April 5th when he broke his thumb in a game against the Edmonton Oilers. Since then, the Habs have had a difficult time scoring any goals and have dropped to a record of 4-9-0 in 13 games without Gallagher.
The good news is, Gallagher is progressing well in his injury recovery and should be ready for the first game of the playoffs. Of course, that is assuming the Canadiens do get into the postseason. Their record without Gallagher doesn’t bode well for their final eight games of the year, but they do have a six point cushion on the teams behind them.
While it has been a long three weeks for the team without Gallagher, he was on the ice skating for the first time on Tuesday and he has his cast off of his hand. Dominique Ducharme provided the update yesterday when he was talking with reporters.
Ducharme says Brendan Gallagher has resumed skating, his cast is off and he's doing good. Nothing changed in terms of his timeline to return from a fractured thumb.
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) April 28, 2021
Ducharme also noted that nothing has changed in Gallagher’s timeline to return from injury. That original timeline was a six week period, putting the winger’s return at May 17th. That is exactly six weeks from the night Gallagher was hurt.
The Habs last regular season game is scheduled for May 12th. The last regular season game in the North Division is slated for May 19th. That means the playoffs should begin on May 20th or 21st, which is great news for Gallagher who should be fully recovered just in time to join the team for Game 1 of the postseason.
That’s assuming the team doesn’t lose their final eight games and miss the playoffs. With their 23 goals scored in 13 games absent Gallagher, I don’t know if they can hang on to that playoff spot. If so, they’ll be in much better shape since Gallagher will be back in time for Game 1.