As speed returns, Galchenyuk regains his rhythm
Bergevin, Julien have been stubborn about keeping talented forward on the wing
You have to wonder what kind of player Alex Galchenyuk would be today — and what position he’d be playing — if he hadn’t had a kneeon-knee collision with the Kings’ Anze Kopitar during a game in Los Angeles on Dec. 4, 2016.
Galchenyuk was leading the Canadiens in scoring at the time with nine goals and 14 assists in 25 games while playing centre on the No. 1 line between Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov. Galchenyuk missed 18 games with an injured right knee before returning to the lineup and posting two goals and two assists in five games, then re-injuring his knee against the Buffalo Sabres in the second game on back-toback nights.
Galchenyuk finished the season with 17 goals and 27 assists in 61 games a year after posting 30 goals and 26 assists while playing all 82 games as a 22-year-old.
“It was tough,” Galchenyuk said about those knee injuries after
practice Friday. “I definitely came back earlier (after the first injury) than I think I should have a little bit. I re-injured it and it wasn’t a great thing. It was kind of like two steps forward, three back. I’ve kept trying to work hard and find my rhythm and since I’ve found it I know what I can do out there.”
Galchenyuk has definitely found his rhythm recently with back-to-back games with two assists and five points in the last four games. With 16 goals and 44 points, Galchenyuk is tied for the team lead in points with Brendan Gallagher (26 goals, 18 assists) heading into Saturday’s game in Toronto (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690).
Before this season started, general manager Marc Bergevin and coach Claude Julien made it clear they don’t believe Galchenyuk can play centre and they’ve stuck to those words no matter how many centres have been injured or traded, even using Paul Byron at centre at one point instead of Galchenyuk. If there’s one thing Bergevin is, it’s stubborn, and Julien has been the same way with Galchenyuk.
“I’ve always seemed to be comfortable on the wing,” said Galchenyuk, who is playing left wing on a line with Jacob De La Rose at centre and Artturi Lehkonen on the right. “Like I’ve said many times, the position is not for me to decide.”
Julien has seen an improvement in Galchenyuk’s play this season on the wing.
“I don’t know how he always was here, but I know that when I got here last year, and he was coming off an injury, he looked like a slow player out there,” the coach said. “Really, his skating wasn’t very good and once he picked up his speed it’s like anything else … when your skating is good, the rest follows and his skill level starts to show a little bit more and he’s capable of making more plays. But there’s not too many players who can stickhandle in the telephone booth and have success.
“So he’s one of those guys that I thought when he got his skating going again things started going much better for him. At the same time, I think he wants to get better. He comes up to you and he’ll ask if there’s certain things (he can work on). We’ve been working with him on a weekly, daily basis and his attitude’s been great, so that’s where he deserves some credit.”
Galchenyuk still has work to do on his defensive game, as his team-worst minus-29 rating attests, but he has been winning more puck battles recently and playing more aggressively without the puck.
Only two players had a worse plus/minus than Galchenyuk heading into Friday’s games and both are defencemen: Oliver Ekman-Larsson of the Arizona Coyotes at minus-34 and Nick Leddy of the New York Islanders at minus-33. But plus/minus is one of those stats that needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
“You can debate that,” Julien said about the merit of plus/ minus. “But at the same time, you have to take some of it to heart. In his case, we know offensively he’s gifted and we’re working on him being better in his own end, getting pucks out and that kind of stuff.”
This has been a difficult season for the Canadiens and Galchenyuk’s name has come up regularly in trade rumours, something he admits can be a distraction.
“Obviously there’s a lot of talk but, at the same time, what can you do as a player?” he said. “If a team doesn’t want you, they don’t want you and they’ll trade you. It means some other team wanted you and traded for you. So you can’t spend too much energy thinking about that. Obviously, it’s a distraction with all the talks and the social media, but it’s part of the business and part of being an NHL player.”
And that’s whether you’re a winger or a centre.