Brendan Gallagher arrived with the Canadiens in January 2013, and that season, the Montreal club made the playoffs, although it was brief.
A year later, the Canadian reached the Eastern Conference final against the New York Rangers, and the following season, the club reached the second round of the playoffs.
At 31, Gallagher still doesn’t have a ring on his fingers, but the oldest Canadian has still experienced the fever of the euphoric springs in Montreal, and for this reason, he finds the current end of the season a little painful.
“Of course it’s difficult,” he admitted after Saturday night’s game at the Bell Centre. You can ask this question to all the players in this league, and it will always be the same answer: the playoffs are where we all want to be.
“Everyone wants to be there when it counts. What’s more, the last time we took part, we found ourselves in the Stanley Cup final. We haven’t been back since…”
When you taste something like that, you want to be able to go back as quickly as possible.
Brendan Gallagher
As soon as possible, it won’t be in April, that’s for sure. In the meantime, Gallagher, like everyone in Quebec, realizes that the 2021 series are starting to be a long way off. The Carey Prices, Shea Webers and other Phillip Danaults, undoubtedly the most important actors in this story, have long since left, and the return to happier days is taking a detour on the way to reconstruction, with all the orange cones that this suggests.
From the crop of the last final match against Tampa in 2021, at the beginning of July, there are only six left, including Gallagher himself, who is still trying to see the glass half full these days.
“The matches remaining in our season cannot be wasted,” he added. We know that we are not going to play in the playoffs, but these last games are important, because we will have to use them in order to be able to start the next season on the right foot. We need to send a message to the rest of the league, we need to get people talking about us. »
With 10 more games on his schedule, the Canadian finds himself in roughly the same place as he was a year ago in the standings. But this harsh reality does not undermine the optimism of Gallagher, who believes that he and his group have made progress this season.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Brendan Gallagher
“The other teams say it, it’s more difficult to play against us this season… If we compare with the previous season, I think we have made progress, we are all very optimistic, but of course there remains way to go. Despite this progress, it remains important to continue to take steps forward between now and the end of the calendar. »
The Canadian’s next game is scheduled for Tuesday evening at the Bell Center, again against a top team, this time the Florida Panthers. Then, in order, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs will arrive to conclude the week.
While fans are having fun with an imaginary abacus and others are already dreaming of the draft and the opening of the market to free agents, Brendan Gallagher only wants to concentrate on the present, with a view to building a future best.
“We’re going to face good teams until the end, and that’s good for us,” he concluded. We want to take part in competitive matches like these. It’s good for the future. »
A holiday, then a team photo
As expected, the Canadiens players were given training leave on Sunday, perhaps an opportunity to watch Franco Zefferelli’s classic on the life of Jesus again, a viewing that takes a good day. The CH players will return to training Monday morning at the Bell Center, and will take advantage of the opportunity to have their portrait taken as part of the traditional end-of-season team photo.