Lane Hutson was a few weeks shy of his ninth birthday when Brendan Gallagher played his first game with the Canadiens.
It was Jan. 22, 2013, and Gallagher picked up an assist in a 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers at the Bell Centre.
Gallagher has now played 808 regular-season games with the Canadiens over 13 seasons and 71 more in the playoffs. At 32, Gallagher remains the heartbeat of the Canadiens and he showed it again in the last game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break in the NHL schedule, scoring two goals in a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Super Bowl Sunday.
Gallagher has 14 goals this season, putting him on pace to finish with 21. Only two Canadiens have more goals: Cole Caufield with 26 and Nick Suzuki with 15. Suzuki is averaging 19:32 of ice time per game, Caufield averages 17:54 and Gallagher averages 13:42, which ranks 11th among Canadiens forwards.
“He’s been here for a long time,” Hutson said about Gallagher after the Canadiens practised in Brossard Tuesday for the first time following the 4 Nations Face-Off break. “He’s been kind of the heartbeat of the team. He drags guys into the fight. Even when I was younger watching what he was doing, battling all the time, really setting the pace and playing a big part in some of those really successful Canadiens teams. To see him still going and still being really effective, it’s awesome.
“I just like his attitude,” Hutson added. “He’s a funny guy, but he’s also detailed. He’s dialled in and he lives and breathes being a Canadien.”
Jake Evans has been Gallagher’s teammate for six seasons and is one of his closest friends.
“You know what you’re getting out of Gally,” Evans said after the loss to the Lightning. “It’s always 100 per cent effort. He’s going to the dirty areas and tries to drag all of us with him. Even if he’s not scoring, he’s still making a positive impact on this team and doing some great things. It was great to see him score some goals tonight, but it’s not just that. It’s just the way he battles and gets everyone going.”
Gallagher has two more seasons after this remaining on his six-year, US$39-million contract with an annual salary-cap hit of US$6.5 million. Former Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin — not a soft and cuddly character — came close to tears twice when talking about Gallagher after signing him to that contract.
“He means a lot to our hockey team,” Bergevin said that day. “Since Day 1 I became a general manager, he’s been on our team. I mean you saw in the playoffs (in 2020). He got cross-checked in the face (suffering a broken jaw) and he wouldn’t want to miss a shift … he didn’t want to leave. You have guys in the past I’ve seen, they get a slash, they got a fingernail missing and they’re finding a way not to play.
“This guy is just everything you want about a hockey player,” Bergevin added. “That’s what I love about him. There’s not many Brendan Gallaghers in the National Hockey League. He’s a special one. You love him on your team and you play against him you just don’t like him. He’s special. He’s a hockey player through his bones and that’s what I love about him.”
Is Gallagher overpaid now? Yes.
Was he underpaid earning US$3.75 million when he had back-to-back seasons of 31 and 33 goals in 2017-18 and 2018-19 while playing in all 82 games both years? Yes.
Gallagher has earned every single dollar he has received from the Canadiens with his compete level and work ethic every shift of every game. That has taken a toll on his body, with Gallagher missing 104 games over four seasons, starting in 2019-20 when he had 22 goals in 59 games and was on pace for his third straight 30-goal season before being sidelined with a concussion.
Gallagher only missed five games last season because of a suspension for an illegal check to the head of New York Islanders defenceman Adam Pelech. He has played in all 56 games this season and is showing that when healthy he can still produce — even with limited ice time.
Does Gallagher consider himself to be the heart and soul of the Canadiens?
“For me, my job is to show up every day and be someone that my teammates can count on,” Gallagher said after the loss to the Lightning. “I’ve always done that. I’ve taken a lot of pride trying to be healthy, in the lineup and there for my teammates. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. But respect is something that you have to earn every single day that you’re at the rink. It’s not something that comes easily.
“As a guy that’s been here for a while, been through a lot of different situations, I think yeah, maybe at a time like this, it’s important to be a guy that can be looked at in how to handle these things.”
Gallagher is still the heartbeat of the CH.