Gallagher: Onwards and upwards

MONTREAL - For the second year in a row, Brendan Gallagher entered a season coming off a serious injury hoping history wouldn't repeat itself.

Mission accomplished.
To those who know Gallagher well, the only reason any of them might be surprised by his success in 2017-18 is because the gritty forward consistently puts his body on the line - in the corners, in front of the net, anywhere on the ice his opponents would rather he not be, and they punish him whenever he's there.
His willingness to step into harm's way to perfect a screen is likely what led to him suffering fractures to his hand on two separate occasions, but it also helps explain his career-high 31 goals and 54 points this past season.

Gallagher has always been adamant that he'd play the same way he always has no matter the consequences, and this year was no different.
"I still feel like there's a lot for me to improve on and get better at. I don't know if I've changed my game so much; I've tried to be the same player," outlined Gallagher after he was named the winner of the 2017-18 Molson Cup as the squad's top player. "What I've tried to do is just get better and learn. I've been around a lot of good people and good hockey minds. I've been able to continue to do what's made me successful and add to that, grow as a player. I still consider myself a fairly young guy, and there's a lot of room to improve."
Gallagher, who earned his 200th career point with a goal against Columbus on November 27, is the 11th player from his draft class to reach the mark. If he makes good on his promise to improve on a career season, the Habs stand to benefit immensely. Even as is, his teammates already did.

If you were to put together a spreadsheet comparing Gallagher and his teammates when it comes to Corsi (CF%), Fenwick (FF%), shots for (SF%), scoring chances for (SCF%), scoring chances goals for (SCGF%), and high-danger scoring chances for (HDCF%), as this author did, and if you were to highlight the cells in yellow where those numbers were higher when Gallagher was on the ice with a given player, well, you'd see a lot of yellow. Only a handful of Habs in each category did not benefit from Gallagher's presence.
"I just like how he plays. He's so easy to read. He plays a north-south game like myself, he digs in the corners, goes to the net, he likes to go to the hard areas," described Paul Byron, Gallagher's linemate - along with Jonathan Drouin - for much of the final quarter of the regular season. "When you're on the ice with him, you know you're going to get chances, you know you're going to be battling, you know you're going to be around the net. I think we just compliment each other really well."

Team Corsi was up nearly nine percentage points when Gallagher was skating with Byron, while the club's HDCF% was an astounding 14.55% higher as well. Drouin upped his points-per-60 production from 1.91 to 2.42 when he started centering a line featuring No. 11, recording 14 points in his final 19 games of the season.
"I think we were a pretty productive line. We enjoyed playing together. Playing with those two guys, it really simplified my game. I always enjoy playing with Paulie; I've had some success with him," praised Gallagher. "And getting to know Drou this year, I think the two of us really figured that if you work hard and find ways to get the puck on his stick, good things are going to happen. He's a special talent. Playing with those two really made my job easy."

That being said, Gallagher spent much of his end-of-season media availability lamenting his team's finish in the standings, unwilling to celebrate personal achievements while getting set to watch the playoffs on TV. But, he pointed out that the tribulations of a tough season brought one very important part of playing in Montreal to the forefront, in his mind.
"In terms of our fans, the two years I've really appreciated playing for the Montreal Canadiens the most are the two bad years I've been a part of here," concluded Gallagher, the Canadiens' 2017-18 nominee for the King Clancy Trophy in recognition of his outstanding community involvement. "Because they don't stop supporting you, they don't stop caring, and they don't stop showing up."

Advanced stats courtesy of naturalstattrick.com