Habs’ Gallagher won’t let injuries change his game
Despite recent injuries, don’t expect Habs’ pint-sized buzzsaw to change how he plays
The Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher has always known only one way to play hockey.
There’s a short YouTube video from the 2002 Brick Super Novice Tournament featuring Gallagher, who not surprisingly is one of the smallest kids on his Edmonton team. He’s also the hardest working. Gallagher scores one goal on a wraparound while falling to his knees and then celebrates wildly. He scores another on a breakaway while crashing into the goalie and driving both him and the puck into the net. The referee waves the goal off with the announcer on the video saying: “The official is right there signalling no goal and I’m not sure why.”
Really? The guy must have been from Edmonton.
Now at age 24, Gallagher is trying to play the exact same style of game, but having his left hand shattered twice in the last two seasons by slapshots has made it more difficult. Gallagher missed 17 games last season after being hit by a blast from the New York Islanders’ Johnny Boychuk and missed 18 games this season after being hit by teammate Shea Weber. Those are two of the last guys in the NHL you want to get hit by with a shot.
“It’s just different,” Gallagher, who is wearing extra padding on both of his gloves, said after practice Wednesday in Calgary
about the mental and physical impact the injuries have had. “It’s about strengthening it and just getting comfortable because you have surgery and it obviously changes things a little bit. But I’m confident it will come.
“It’s something for me to learn from and try to figure it out. When I assess my game, there’s been spurts this year where I haven’t played that well. But I think for the most part I feel
like I’ve been playing the same way I always have. I just haven’t been beating goalies.”
Gallagher, who has seven goals in 49 games, didn’t score in Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks, but did have a team-leading seven shots while logging 18:56 of ice time. With Alexander Radulov out with a lower-body injury the last two games, Gallagher has been promoted to the No. 1 line with Max Pacioretty and Phillip Danault.
Radulov skated lightly at practice Wednesday and is unlikely to play against the Flames Thursday (9 p.m., SNE, SNW, RDS, TSN Radio 690), while Tomas Plekanec and Brian Flynn are out with upper-body injuries.
Gallagher said coach Claude Julien gave him a little pep talk a few games after taking over from Michel Therrien. Julien told Gallagher he wasn’t concerned about his play because the 5-foot-9, 182-pounder was still getting chances.
The always soft-spoken Gallagher knows he can’t change the game that got him to the NHL. He admitted not feeling great when he first returned to the lineup on Feb. 12, but has felt better in each of the nine games since and scored last week against Nashville, ending a 10-game drought that started before the injury.
And yes, some opponents have been targeting his left hand.
“They’ll go for the area, which is fine,” Gallagher said.
“But I have the protection. I just have to have the confidence that it will hold up.”
At Gallagher’s size, it’s remarkable his game has been able to hold up through every level he has played going back to that novice tournament.
“At each level I went up, it was the same message from my dad and coaches: ‘Don’t change your style of play,’ ” Gallagher said. “Even going back to when I went from bantam to midget or midget to junior, people told me I wasn’t going to be able to do it, but I didn’t really understand why not. I did it before ... I just continued to play that way regardless of the size of the players. If you work hard, good things will happen.”
Work ethic is something that can never be questioned about Gallagher. His left hand will never be what it was, but thankfully, as a right-hand shot, it’s the top hand on his stick. The confidence boost from the new coach will help after Gallagher’s role was diminished somewhat with the arrival of Andrew Shaw as a free agent this season.
Whatever role Gallagher has, he plans to keep playing the same way he has since novice.
When asked if he has seen the YouTube video from that 2002 tournament, Gallagher said: “I’ve seen it a couple of times. Every once in a while, my buddies who haven’t seen it before will find it and they’ll laugh about it.
“The excessive celebrations is kind of what they like. I’ve got that out of my game, I think.”
That’s the only thing that has really changed.