Gallagher: 'You can't waste games'

ETOBICOKE, ON - Besting the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre has been a tall task all season long, but the Canadiens are going to give it their best shot on Saturday night as they close out the 2017-18 campaign.

That's the message head coach Claude Julien and his troops conveyed following Friday afternoon's practice session at the MasterCard Centre.
"It's the same thing we've been preaching here for the last little while. You can't waste games. It's still a privilege to play in the National Hockey League. We have one game left here together as a group. For us, we're going to do the same things we've always done," said Brendan Gallagher, who scored his team-leading 31st goal of the year in Thursday night's win over the Red Wings in Detroit. "We're going to prepare the same. We're going to come and do the things we need to do and try to win a hockey game. That's really our only focus."

The Canadiens haven't beaten Mike Babcock's contingent so far this season. Through three meetings, the Maple Leafs have outscored the Canadiens by a 14-3 margin, and posted back-to-back shutouts against their Atlantic Division rivals.
With that in mind, it's easy to understand why finding a way to secure a victory is a top priority for the Habs.
"We look at this game just like the last one we played. If you're a proud athlete, the last thing you want to do is finish badly, so we definitely want to have a good effort and do the best we can," insisted Julien, who will feature Carey Price in between the pipes on Saturday night. "We want to finish well and all we ask from our players is a good effort."
The veteran bench boss' thought process really is crystal clear right now.
"For me, [the game against Toronto] is just as important as any other day. As long as we're not done, I want to keep my focus on work," insisted Julien. "Honestly, vacation doesn't start before Sunday. Until then, I'm going to work to push the players, make the decisions that have to be made and show players that we have a game to play. It's business as usual."
No matter the result of Saturday night's contest, though, Julien's players have learned some important lessons that can serve them well going forward into the offseason - and for years to come.
"The lessons we learned, obviously there's more than one. The start of the year wasn't very good. You get behind the eight ball. It's too hard in this league to come back. Not many teams can do it. Then, there's just ways that we lost games. There's a certain commitment level that you need to win hockey games in the NHL, and if you get away from it the first shift, or a couple of shifts, it can set your season back," explained Gallagher. "For us, understanding the little details and how important they are to having success in this league as a group, could be important for us. Hopefully, we can bring them into next year."
That's something that Julien is counting on with the start of the 2018-19 campaign just six months away.
"Winning is important, but doing what needs to be done to win is even more important. You hope the guys learned something, the youngsters and the veterans alike, and realized that it's a lot more fun to win and you have to do the important things right to win," concluded Julien. "It's really about making sacrifices here and there, blocking shots, taking a hit, defending well, not being responsible for mistakes that cost your team goals and working hard to score goals and create opportunities to score goals."