Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher: A Different Breed Of Pest

The Montreal Canadiens are through to the second round of the NHL Playoffs and Brendan Gallagher‘s play in Game 6, and throughout the series, was a big reason why.

Brendan Gallagher has a well-earned reputation throughout the league as a pest and a nuisance. He’s the guy with his backside constantly in your goalie’s face, the guy chirping you through his infuriating grin, the guy taunting you for perhaps embellishing a wrist injury during a heated playoff series, the guy who seems to have gotten the better of you even while he’s sprawled out on the ice and you’re standing on top of him.

If Brendan Gallagher is your assignment, you’ll probably leave the ice frustrated, no matter the final score.

He’s not unique in that sense. Habs fans remember the antics of Maxim Lapierre, they know all too well how a guy like Brad Marchand can get under his opponents’ skin, not to mention infamous pests like Sean Avery, or former Hab Claude Lemieux.

As effective as these players can be – Claude Lemieux has a Conn Smythe Trophy to his credit – they’re rarely known as leaders in any scoring categories; much more often you’ll find them leading their clubs in penalty minutes.

Case in point, Marchand, despite being as much a scoring threat as a pest, ended 2014-15 with 95 penalty minutes and finished sixth in the league in terms of minor penalties with 39.

Brendan Gallagher, on the other hand, had just 31 penalty minutes on the season. That’s almost unimaginable for someone known to live in the crease of opposing goalies or who gets involved in every scrum, usually as the focal point. Someone who even drops the gloves when the time comes to answer the bell.

But as much as Gallagher is valuable for frustrating opponents, his competitive nature is the biggest reason the undersized forward has become a mainstay in the Canadiens’ lineup. Gallagher finished second on the team and 16th in the league in shots this season, with 254. A testament to his consistency, Gallagher was held without a shot only twice through 82 games this season.

He’s a pest with a purpose. Gallagher’s main mission isn’t to frustrate opponents, that’s just a symptom. His mission is scoring goals, or, at the very least, making it easier for his teammates to score by making life as difficult as possible for opposing goalies to make saves.

It’s a mission Gallagher takes to with a vengeance every time he steps on the ice. If the Canadiens are controlling play in the offensive, look for Brendan Gallagher to be parked at the lip of the crease, generally with someone much bigger trying to move him – usually unsuccessfully – out of the way.

When listing off the core of the Habs roster, the diminutive forward often finds himself behind bigger names like Carey Price, PK Subban, Max Pacioretty, Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec. It’s true, whenever those guys are at their best, their best may be better than Gallagher’s.

But as far as consistency goes, Gallagher’s play is hard to top, and his tenacious effort paid off in spades for the Habs in Game 6.