Mea culpa: Brendan Gallagher is currently part of the solution

Mea Culpa.

8 letters put together to form two words with a simple meaning: to admit one’s faults.

Two weeks ago – on October 18, to be precise – I published a text entitled Je ne veux plus voir Brendan Gallagher sur l’avantage numérique (I don’t want to see Brendan Gallagher on the power play again).

Gallagher, after two breakout seasons and one training camp (to be kind), was incapable of producing anything on the ice. He was falling down, not shooting at the net, not creating any play and looking two seconds behind everyone else.

The Habs had played three games and Gallagher still hadn’t collected a single point. In fact, he was the only forward on the team to still have a zero in the points column.

Seeing him constantly on the first or second power-play unit made no sense to me… and I allowed myself a little flight.

But since then, Gallagher has found himself. He’s scored three goals and two assists in seven games. And – against all odds – he’s taken his place on the power play!

Last night, he was one of the only CH players to get a passing grade on my report card (not very scientific, but okay), scoring a goal (on the power play) and picking up an assist on his team’s other goal.

I’ve never been afraid to admit that I was wrong about Gallaghersince I was 20 years old.

Nothing was expected of the old line: Monahan, Pearson and Gallagher… and yet, for the past few games, they’ve been consistently the best or second-best on the team.

Gallagher has been producing at a rate of around 0.4 points per game since the end of the playoffs on the bubble. This season, he’s at 0.5 points per game. So there’s no regression this year, for now at least, and even improvement. Even if he only plays 10 to 15 minutes per game on the bottom six!

At 31 years of age and with his small frame (and numerous injuries), this is almost a miracle. It remains to be seen whether he’ll last all season…

For now, Brendan Gallagher is part of the solution, not the problem. Especially since he brings leadership, a work ethic and a way of behaving that will show the team’s young players the right way. In the words of the coach, Gallagher is planting trees whose shade will never protect him from the sun, but he’s planting them like a leader.

No, Gally isn’t giving the team $6.5 million a season, but if he keeps playing like this, buying out the last three years of his contract next summer won’t be an option, even though his real salary will be $9 million in 2023-24! So much the better!

Extension

Juraj Slafkovsky and Josh Anderson have each collected just one small assist in 10 games so far this season. They also have negative differentials.

Should they be separated or left together so as not to “contaminate” the rest of the line-up?

Should they watch a game from the catwalk?

Should Slafkovsky be sent to Laval?

What are your solutions for reviving the CH’s two forwards?

If you’d told me that on November 3, I’d be throwing flowers at Gallagher by looking at Slaf and Anderson’s clean sheet, I wouldn’t have believed you.

I hope to come back in two or three weeks and tell you that I was wrong about them too. Basically, I’m throwing a bottle to the sea or an idea into the universe with this short extension.