Article content continued

Gallagher is a leader for the Canadiens both on and off the ice.

“I think being a leader, there’s a lot of responsibility,” Gallagher said during a one-on-on conversation after practice Wednesday in Brossard. “I think part of it is how you relay our message to the fans, and our message to the fans is through you guys (the media) — and that’s really our outlet. So the message that we want to get across comes from us.

“You see Patch (captain Max Pacioretty) in here every day, anytime you want to talk to Pleky (Tomas Plekanec) he’ll talk to you — he’ll only give you a few words, but he’ll talk to you. That’s just part of the process of getting messages across through the media.

“For fans, this is their outlet to us and they’re going to feel the emotions that we’re feeling as players and we know how frustrating that can be at times,” Gallagher added. “They want to hear that we’re working as hard as we can to get out of it, and if we want them to continue to support us, I think it’s important that they know that.”