Radulov proves his mettle as key member of Stars
Dallas coach Hitchcock says former Hab shows teammates ‘the right way to play’
Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Radulov remain good friends.
“We play Play Station online, so we keep in touch a lot,” Galchenyuk said.
Galchenyuk didn’t say who wins on Play Station, but Galchenyuk’s team beat Radulov’s team Tuesday night at the Bell Centre, with the Canadiens winning 4-2 over the Dallas Stars. It was Radulov’s first game in Montreal since leaving last summer as a free agent to sign a five-year, US$31.25-million contract with the Stars. He was limited to an assist.
When asked if it was a weird feeling being back at the Bell Centre, Radulov said: “Maybe one or two shifts at the beginning, but then it was fine.”
The Canadiens were the better team on this night, but they would be a much better team this season if GM Marc Bergevin had re-signed Radulov, who has 25 goals and 36 assists for 61 points — 18 more than Brendan Gallagher, who leads the Canadiens after scoring his 26th goal Tuesday. Artturi Lehkonen scored twice for the Canadiens and Nikita Scherbak added a single.
The beginning of the end of the Canadiens’ playoff hopes came last summer when Bergevin made what he arrogantly called final “first-come, first-served” contract offers to Radulov and Andrei Markov, then lost both to free agency. Bergevin seemed to have no Plan B and the Canadiens started the season $8 million under the NHL salary cap. Bergevin later said he offered to match the Stars’ offer to Radulov, but it was too little, too late.
Nobody has missed Radulov more than Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty, who had only 17 goals in 64 games before suffering a knee injury after four straight years of at least 30 goals. Radulov could certainly have helped Jonathan Drouin and, along with Pacioretty, the three might have formed a dynamic No. 1 line.
“I feel a lot of pride when (Radulov) scores and when he contributes offensively because I owe so much to him,” Pacioretty said late last season after Radulov scored an OT goal to beat Tampa Bay. “He’s done so much for this team and for myself, to see him get rewarded and see the energy that he plays with night in and night out is really rewarding to our group. He’s such a dynamic player; that rubs off on the rest of us. He’s a huge part of this team.”
Now Radulov is a huge part of the Stars, who are fighting for a playoff spot in the tight Western Conference.
“We felt when we signed him that he had an infectious attitude that we needed on our team and he’s very much a North American player,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said after Tuesday’s morning skate. “He hunts the puck, he’s hard on the forecheck, he’s hard on the boards. He pays the price, he’s really resilient. We just felt as a team that for us to start taking proper steps we needed that element in our lineup every day so he could show our younger players how to play, he could show some of the guys that were just emerging as players the right way to play and act. He’s been more than advertised that way. He’s really helped us elevate our deep game.
“I think he’s very much a throwback, that hockey consumes him. He knows everything going on in the league, he knows everything going on in other teams, he knows the opposition, he knows who he’s going to play against.”
For Montreal fans, Radulov was a throwback to the days of the Flying Frenchmen when the Canadiens not only won, but were also exciting to watch. Those days are gone, as the Canadiens have been both bad and boring this season.
Galchenyuk was asked if the Canadiens were fired up to beat Radulov in his Montreal homecoming.
“No, it’s not about that,” he said. “It’s trying to get a win at the Bell Centre in front of our fans after such a long road trip.”
The Canadiens did give their fans something to cheer about, which hasn’t happened often since Radulov left town.