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Dans les coulisses

Sean Monahan, Brendan Gallagher’s Phillip Danault 2.0

The Calgary Flames gave the Canadiens a first-round pick to get rid of Sean Monahan.

I don’t know about you, but that sentence still makes me smile a little when I think about it. When you look at Monahan’s impact (10 points in 11 games) on the CH’s roster this season, it seems completely absurd to think that a club would be so desperate to get rid of him that it paid a high price to do so.

I’m willing to believe that it’s not as simple as that, and that Brad Treliving thought he could improve his team by replacing Monahan with Nazem Kadri, but let’s just say that history hasn’t proven him right.

Just today, Martin St-Louis was asked about his center forward, and he couldn’t resist listing the (very) many reasons why #91 is important to his team. There’s some good stuff.

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That said, perhaps one of the most underrated impacts of Monahan’s season is the fact that he helped Brendan Gallagher get back on track. The veteran trio, which is rounded out by Tanner Pearson, is providing some excellent field hockey for the CH this season, and it’s largely thanks to Monahan’s work, who makes life easier for his trio-mates.

A bit like Kirby Dach did for Juraj Slafkovský and Alex Newhook had he fallen in battle.

And in his paper of the day, Arpon Basu made an interesting point: for Gallagher, Monahan looks like Phillip Danault 2.0, in the sense that he’s the center who best complements Gallagher since Danault’s been out of town.

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Gallagher had his best career moments alongside Danault, who wasn’t a bad player in transition and excelled defensively. Without saying that Monahan is exactly the same player (although they do look a bit alike), both guys’ profiles fit well in the middle of a guy like Gallagher, who needs someone to help him in transition.

If Gally can concentrate on attacking the net without having to control the disc on the counter-attack, he becomes a much better player. Maybe that’s why a guy like Christian Dvorak isn’t a good center for him. among other things.

At the same time, the chemistry between Monahan and Gallagher also benefits the rest of the team. If they didn’t have such good chemistry, Monahan would probably have been the one placed on the first line last Saturday, while Juraj Slafkovský wouldn’t have had that opportunity.

Dvorak’s return has put everyone in the right chair, but let’s just say that Monahan makes the allocation of chairs even easier.

One thing’s for sure, though: if the Habs want to trade Monahan between now and the trade deadline, they certainly won’t have to pay a first-round pick to do it. In fact, they’ll most likely get one if they want to trade him (and Monahan remains healthy), but at the same time, if he’s the key to Gallagher’s production, it’ll be a nice thought.

In gusto

– Joshua Roy knows his turn will come when the time is right.

– The Sharks GM clearly told his players that they’ll have to give more. Do you think Mike Hoffman misses Montreal?

– The road to the playoffs is already perilous for the Oilers.

– The finalists for the MLB individual honours have been announced. There will be very little suspense as to who the winners will be, that said.

– Attention all interested parties.