Gallagher provides a TikTok diversion
Once a painfully shy teen with Giants, he’s become a social media sensation during NHL pause
Brendan Gallagher was shy once. We know it. We saw it. When Gallagher was a 16-year-old rookie with the Vancouver Giants in 2008-09 he used to answer questions for a time with shrugs and nods, and the odd grin.
His first quote in The Province was part of a story about the then-diminutive, ninthround WHL bantam draft pick trying to stick with the Giants, with Gallagher explaining: “I’ve heard that I’m too small all the way along. I just ignore it. To be here, I have to know my role first, play the role, and then try to expand on it if I can.”
Those may have been the only words he said in a five-minute interview.
Things have certainly changed after all these years. Gallagher, now 27 and a mainstay with the Montreal Canadiens, has taken to putting out TikTok videos from his Tsawwassen-area residence while we’re all practising social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His homage to TV sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s I Want it that Way scene was picked up all over social media and had people proclaiming on Twitter things like it was “the best thing that has ever happened to me,” and “Brendan Gallagher should be a Hab for life based of his TikTok skills alone.”
The Brooklyn Nine-Nine Twitter feed posted it, explaining along the way Gallagher “knows how to keep it cool, cool, cool on-and-off the ice.”
It has over 220,000 views off of Gallagher’s TikTok page.
He also did an ode to the Identity Theft scene from The Office. Gallagher once followed himself trying to help a bird that flew into his home. And this weekend he was capturing himself trying to throw a ping-pong ball from the top of a flight of stairs at his home into a hydro flask at the bottom as part of a challenge from Canadiens teammate Nick Suzuki.
It was Suzuki who coaxed Gallagher into joining TikTok during this hiatus. Gallagher’s TikTok biography proclaims himself as a “clout chaser,” and a “singer/actor.” The Brooklyn Nine-Nine homage was his first post.
“People seem to be enjoying them,” Gallagher, who put up three straight 40-goal seasons with the Giants en route to becoming the franchise’s all-time-leading scorer, explained. “I’m getting made fun of a lot. That’s what it’s meant for. I enjoy having fun at my expense. I’m OK with other people doing it. It’s kept me busy. And I will keep doing them until we’re allowed to go outside regularly again. I’m just doing them on the fly. There’s no plan, no schedule. I did the first one and I wasn’t going to post it but it took so long. It was a couple of hours at least. I had to teach myself all the editing as I went along.”
According to his deal with Suzuki, Gallagher had until Wednesday morning to sink the ping-pong ball shot or Gallagher had to capture himself doing a “crazy dance,” on TikTok. Gallagher says he started trying Saturday. He drained one Sunday morning.
“Yeah, this isn’t good for me. I have way too much time on my hands,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher does understand this pandemic from a more serious side as well. His mom, Della, is a physiotherapist at Delta Hospital.
“There’s something special about all the people who work in health care,” said the 5-foot9, 184-pound winger.
Gallagher’s dad Ian runs the Delta Hockey Academy, which is based out of Planet Ice Delta. He was the longtime strength and conditioning coach for the Giants.
Gallagher’s parents live about a five-minute drive away. Siblings Erin, Bree and Nolan are all in town as well.
Ian has always trained Brendan in the off-season and has him on a workout plan. Brendan believes he could be ready to go fairly quickly if the NHL was to start up again. Of course, that remains a moving target.
“As athletes, we’ve been on a schedule our whole lives. We’re always preparing for a particular date,” explained Gallagher, whose team was 10 points out of a wild-card spot with 11 regular-season games left when the NHL opted to take a break. “Now, no one knows what’s going to happen. The longer this goes, the less likely the regular season is to finish. Right now, if they go straight to playoffs, we’re not in the mix. If they expand the bracket, then we’d be in that scenario. You have to prepare for everything.”
Gallagher had missed 12 games this season, including 10 with a concussion. He was closing in on a third straight 30-goal season when the NHL suspended action March 12. Gallagher has 22 goals and 43 points through 59 games this season.