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NEWARK, N.J. — A good leader should never ask people under them to do what he or she wouldn’t do themselves.

That’s part of what makes the Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher a very good leader.

Gallagher is only 5-foot-9 and 181 pounds, but he’s never afraid to go to the dirty areas of the ice to battle for the puck or score a goal. He gives 100-per-cent effort every shift and he won’t back down from anyone — not even 6-foot-6, 223-pound Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman, who Gallagher dropped the gloves with during a game last month at the Bell Centre for a David vs. Goliath fight. It was the seventh fight of Gallagher’s NHL career.

“You don’t really think … it’s just something that happened,” Gallagher said after the Canadiens’ morning skate Tuesday in New Jersey when asked about that fight. “He was upset about something that happened before and it just kind of happened, it’s part of the game. We talked about it in the penalty box and there’s a lot of respect there.”