There was Brendan Gallagher, in his office, knocking in what proved to be the winning goal in this first game between his Montreal Canadiens and their Atlantic Division foes, the Buffalo Sabres.
Gallagher won the battle on the forecheck to start the play Justin Barron finished to put the Canadiens up 1-0 in the first period and, after scoring the goal to give them a 2-1 lead in the opening minutes of the third period, he put the puck on Tanner Pearson’s tape for the power-play marker that gave them the insurance they needed to walk out of KeyBank Arena with the 3-1 win that improved their record to 3-1-1 on the season.
The 31-year-old Gallagher was less than an inch away from scoring his third goal of the season into an empty net as time expired, but he and the other Canadiens veterans had already done all the necessary damage to the Sabres, who now find themselves with a 2-3-0 record.
The Canadiens are the third-youngest team in the NHL, but a team still in possession of well-seasoned shepherds who can lead them on any given night.
On some nights they’ll have to make the difference, and that was the case on this one.
Jake Allen was sensational in Montreal’s net, stemming the tides of momentum the Sabres built throughout the back half of the first period and coming up with massive saves in the second and third, when the Canadiens desperately needed them. The 33-year-old made 36 saves in all on Monday.
Allen’s 33-year-old teammate, David Savard, made five key ones in front of him.
In the 11th minute of the third period, while the Canadiens were clinging to a 2-1 lead and killing a penalty, Savard made his biggest one, kneeling in front of big Tage Thompson’s one-timer and taking the full force of it off his forearm.
He was hurt on the play but still stepped in front of Thompson’s shot again seconds later.
It knocked Savard’s skate blade off and left him helpless for another 30 seconds.
He was in pain, scrambling on one leg, and yet still willing to block more shots to keep the Canadiens out in front.
“It’s tough to put into words what he does for this team, on the ice, off the ice,” Allen told reporters on-site while Savard was receiving treatment after the game. “He’s team-first all the way.”
Savard is exactly that.
As is Allen. And the same goes for 31-year-old Pearson and 29-year-old Sean Monahan, who had an assist and won a game-high 14 of 20 faceoffs.
And then there’s Gallagher, who has always sacrificed for the greater good of the group. He may not get around the ice the way he did when he was 21, but he still gets to where he needs to go to make an impact.
Gallagher also goes to where few others are willing to, sacrificing his body to score the crucial goals he’s come up with in consecutive wins for the Canadiens.
On Saturday, the Edmonton native crashed the net so hard to score he ended up inside of it, along with the puck. And on Monday, he was an inch from Buffalo goalie Eric Comrie, with his stick poking away at a puck no one (including Comrie) knew was still live, scoring as two Sabres piled on top of him.
Gallagher bounced back up and celebrated like he had just ripped a beauty into the top shelf.
“He just scores some of the nicest goals I’ve ever seen,” joked Jake Evans. “Last game, he fell in the net. Tonight, I think everyone thought the play was done, but he found the puck.”
“He’s a leader for us and steps up in big moments and does whatever it takes,” Evans said in a more serious tone. “All the young guys, including me, can build off that and replicate the effort that he puts in.”
They can all learn from the dedication of the veterans.
None of them are perfect, but they never allow their mistakes to defeat them.
Both Gallagher and Monahan took costly penalties nearly 200 feet from their own net in this game — the former with one that Sabres forward Jeff Skinner immediately capitalized on to steal momentum the Canadiens had earned with a great start to the game, and the latter with one in the third period that forced Allen to make one of his biggest saves of the night and forced Savard to make the one that hurt him.
But Gallagher rebounded, determined to get that Skinner goal back — and he succeeded. And Monahan did his part to help the Canadiens lock up the win after Pearson scored.
Allen did the rest after going down too early to give Skinner all the room he needed to score Buffalo’s only goal.
All of Montreal’s most experienced players came through.
“The best way to be a leader is to lead by example, and they do that,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “We have a good group of veterans who pull our young players into it.”
