Gallagher set to return to Habs’ lineup
Brendan Gallagher will be returning to the Canadiens’ lineup Saturday night and everyone is hoping that he picks up where he left off before he suffered a concussion last week.
Gallagher lined up with David Desharnais and Max Pacioretty at practice in Brossard and coach Michel Therrien said he was optimistic that would be one of his lines when the New York Rangers visit the Bell Centre (7 p.m., CBC, RDS, TSN-690 Radio).
“He still has to get the final OK from the doctor but he looked good in practice,” said Therrien.
“He’s been cleared for contact but we won’t get the final clearance until the morning.”
Gallagher had a goal and an assist in last Saturday’s win over the Flyers but left the game after Luke Schenn hit him from behind in the third period.
“It was a hockey play,” Gallagher said when asked whether he felt Schenn should have been disciplined for the hit.
“He texted me after and said he was sorry but it’s a contact sport and there’s going to be hitting.”
Everyone responds differently to concussion and Gallagher, who had a previous concussion during his junior career, said he felt fine the day after the collision.
“Saturday, I felt out of it but I felt fine the next day,” said Gallagher.
“You don’t feel right, you say some funny things, I was screaming, I wasn’t really myself.”
While Galagher said he felt fine the next day, he and the team followed the NHL protocol on concussions.
“It used to be that you missed at least a week,” said Gallagher.
“There are a number of steps that you have to go through and the difference now is that you can do two steps in one day.”
So what has Gallagher been doing the past week?
“Absolutely nothing the first day,” he said.
“Then a five-minute bike ride the next day, them a 30-minute bike ride, a hard skate the next day without pucks, then a workout and a skate. Then you can get some kind of contact. But you have to follow each step and report your symptoms.”
Gallagher has been meeting on a daily basis with team physician Vincent Lacroix and he’ll provide the final okay.
Gallagher is 5-foot-8 and 180 pounds “on a good day” but he plays a fearless combative game and says he doesn’t plan to change.
“You get a little worried but I’m confident,” said Gallagher. “I’m not going to be changing my game.”
Gallagher, who has five goals and three assists and is a plus-7, said he was looking forward to playing with Desharnais and Pacioretty.
“I hope I can help but they’ve done well without me,” said Gallagher. “It’s nice to be with two good players and I enjoy playing with them.”
Gallagher’s return means that Erik Cole will line up with Lars Eller and Alex Galchenyuk. It’s a move which Cole expected and he hopes to make the most of it.
“Gally had pretty good success with them and I’ll see if I can help Lars and Chucky,” said Cole. “They’re two young players with good hockey sense.”
Cole led the Canadiens with a career-high 35 goals last season but has only two goals and two assists in 16 games.
“We expect more,” Therrien said of Cole. “I’m not going to hide it and I’m sure he expects more. He’s an important player for us. We expect him to bounce back.”
Therrien expects his entire team to bounce back after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Islanders Thursday, bringing an end to a five-game win streak.
“I think our team ran out of gas and we made some mental mistakes,” Therrien said.
“We put things in perspec- tive today and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
The Canadiens beat the Rangers 3-1 Tuesday in New York in a game most people found boring, including Rangers’ coach John Tortorella, who said if he were a fan he would have asked for his money back.
“I don’t know if it was boring, to me it was two points,” said Cole. “We played a good road game and we’re going whatever we have to do to get another two points.”
Rick Nash will miss his third consecutive game with an undisclosed injury while New York may also be without defenceman Michael Del Zotto, who left Thursday’s 3-2 shootout loss in Ottawa. The Rangers recalled Steve Eminger as a possible replacement.