Montreal Canadiens: In other news… Gallagher’s Regression, Roy’s Hot Start

Brendan Gallagher’s Regression Visible as he Struggles to Keep Up

There will always be a part of me that hopes Brendan Gallagher can regain his forms and return to being the consistent 20 to 30-goal threat he was with the Canadiens for the better part of nine seasons.

On a Habs team that had little either offensively or defensively, Gallagher was one of the few, if not the only consistent and reliable offensive producers, with other top contributors like Max Domi and Tomas Tatar being moved within a few seasons of each other. In spite of all the shifts Montreal has made to their lineup since axing former GM Marc Bergevin, Gallagher is still here, though thus far in 2023-24, it’s seemed to be more in spirit than anything else.

After a solid 2019-20 season, Gallagher was similarly playing at a 30-goal pace in 2020-21, with 14 goals and 9 assists before a concussion cut his regular season and iron-man streak short after just 35 games.

Since that 35-game stretch came to an end, Gallagher hasn’t been the same player, and its something most fans and analysts alike have tried doing anything they can to deny, understandably. With a goal against the Capitals on HNIC, Gallagher got the monkey off his back to start this season but I don’t think it signifies much more than that.

In Montreal’s 2021 Stanley Cup Finals run, Gallagher scored just two goals serving almost entirely as a defensive option, though he did kick off the Canadiens Game 7 win over the Leafs in round one with a shot that honestly shouldn’t have gone in, and that’s the thing with Gallagher’s performance the past few seasons.

While the occasional bright spots have been nice to see, they feel more like false hope than anything else, as even when he makes a nice play offensively it feels more like a fluke than anything, and this is coming from someone who’s been a diehard supporter of Gallagher since he rebounded offensively in the 2018-19 season.

Such was the case with his first goal of the season on Saturday against Washington. In three games to start this season, Gallagher has 1 goal, 6 shots, 1 hit, and 1 takeaway, and Saturday was the first glimpse we had of any real offensive chances, as he’s often left trailing the play or struggling to keep up on the back check.

At the end of the day, no matter how old Gallagher gets, the effort will always be there, and there are few guys who give as much as Gallagher does night in night out, but the fact of the matter is, his body just can’t keep up anymore, and its clear how much it’s frustrated Gallagher to not be able to keep up physically with your effort level.

While I’m still going to hold out the faintest hope something will change, its looks like Gallaghers $6 million AAV deal (which he earned don’t get me wrong) is going to be an eyesore on the Canadiens salary cap if this performance continues, something I’m sure fans will have something to say about.