Cowan: Brendan Gallagher carries torch for Canadiens in Game 5 win over Tampa
The Canadiens have been leaning on their legends during this first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Before Game 3, it was Yvan Cournoyer — winner of 10 Stanley Cups — who carried the famous torch into the Bell Centre ahead of a 3-2 overtime win over the Lightning.
Before Game 4, it was Serge Savard — winner of seven Stanley Cups — who carried the torch into the Bell Centre ahead of a 3-2 Lightning victory that evened the best-of-seven series 2-2.
Game 5 was in Tampa Wednesday night and it was Brendan Gallagher who carried the torch — figuratively — into Benchmark International Arena.
After being a healthy scratch for the first four games of the series, head coach Martin St. Louis put Gallagher in the lineup in place of rookie Oliver Kapanen and the 33-year-old responded by opening the scoring at 3:00 of the first period.
It was a typical “Gally goal” as he went hard to the net and banged in a loose puck after a shot from Alex Newhook, who was on his line along with Phillip Danault. The Canadiens would go on to win 3-2 and will have a chance to clinch the series with a victory in Game 6 Friday at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
Gallagher, the oldest and longest-serving member of the Canadiens in his 14th season, definitely provided a spark Wednesday night.
He’s not a Canadiens legend like Cournoyer and Savard — both Hall of Famers — but Gallagher has become a legend for Montreal fans too young to know what it was like when the Stanley Cup parade took “the usual route” on Ste-Catherine St.
Gallagher has definitely lost a step and his body is banged up from the price he’s willing to pay to score Gally goals. But the effort level remains off the charts and Gallagher gave everything he had once again during his team-low 6:48 of ice time Wednesday night. His teammates gave him the wolf-head hat as player of the game.
The closest Gallagher has ever come to winning a Stanley Cup was 2021 when the Canadiens lost to the Lightning in the final and he realizes his career is nearing an end with one more season left on his contract.
“Every time I come to this rink I remember that feeling,” Gallagher told Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas in a post-game interview Wednesday night about losing the 2021 Cup final in Game 5 on Tampa ice.
“It’s something that sticks with you and regardless of what happens something you’ll never forget. Walking in, it goes through your mind.
“There’s nothing like it,” Gallagher added about the playoffs. “That’s why we play. It’s never going to be easy. Obviously, you’re tasked with different challenges throughout your career. It was just nice to be back in the lineup and find a way to contribute.”
Kirby Dach and Alexandre Texier also scored for the Canadiens, who have a 3-2 series lead despite getting no offensive production five-on-five from captain Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky through five games. Suzuki has no goals in the series, while Caufield has one power-play goal and Slafkovsky has three power-play goals, all in Game 1.
St. Louis broke up his No. 1 line for Game 5, putting Josh Anderson with Suzuki and Caufield, and Slafkovsky with Jake Evans and Ivan Demidov. Suzuki had no shots on goal, Caufield had one and Slafkovsky had three. But the Canadiens still found a way to win — like they’ve done all season.
Gallagher now has one more five-on-five goal in this series than Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsky combined. But the Canadiens are one win away from moving on to the second round, thanks in large part to rookie goalie Jakub Dobes, who made 38 saves in Game 5 and now has a .903 save percentage in the series, compared to the .880 save percentage for the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning outshot the Canadiens 40-24 in Game 5, including 17-6 in the third period.
Gallagher had only one shot on goal, but he made it count. After finishing his post-game interview with Bukauskas, Gallagher was mobbed by his teammates. The young players on this team look up to him like a younger generation of Canadiens players used to look up to Cournoyer and Savard.
During Gallagher’s rookie season with the Canadiens in 2012-13, Cournoyer was asked what he thought about him as a player.
“I love his style of playing for his team,” Cournoyer said. “He’s there every night and he shows the same thing every game. That’s an ideal player for a coach. You don’t have to worry about that guy. It’s a dream for a coach to have a player like Gallagher — no matter where you put him, no matter his assignment or his linemates, he’ll do his job to the best of his ability, doesn’t care about the beating he takes and he doesn’t complain.”
After 14 seasons, that hasn’t changed.
The young Canadiens players barely know who Cournoyer and Savard are. Gallagher, in a way, is their link to the team’s history.
“Every year you learn and you’re still learning the names (of the legends) and all that stuff is so important about playing here,” Gallagher said before this series started. “You have to understand it. You have to understand the history and the tradition and why being a Montreal Canadien is so special. I think as these kids get older, they’ll learn more and more about it, which is cool and special.”
Gallagher is the one passing the torch on to them.
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