Received the maximum allowed after a phone hearing with NHL's Department of Player Safety Friday to determine the length of his suspension.
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While many in the Canadiens organization were reluctant on Friday to discuss Brendan Gallagher‘s nasty hit from the night before, Michael Pezzetta had no qualms coming to his teammate’s defence.
“The guy’s not a dirty player,” Pezzetta said following the team’s brief morning practice at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard. “He has played over 700 games in the NHL. He has never been suspended. He plays hard, battles hard in front of the net. You just never want to see something like that happen, but the game happens fast. It’s just one of those plays.”
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Gallagher, the veteran 31-year-old winger, was on the ice for practice Friday but wasn’t made available to the media. He had a phone hearing at noon with the league’s Department of Player Safety, following his illegal third-period check on New York Islanders defenceman Adam Pelech. On Friday evening, word came down that Gallagher had been suspended for five games.
The department’s video explaining the suspension said Gallagher’s elbow “makes direct and forceful contact with Pelech’s head and it is the head that absorbs the vast majority of the force of the check.” It said the hit was avoidable, making the check illegal. Gallagher had no “relevant history” of player safety suspensions in his 723-game NHL career, which avoided a longer suspension, it said.
The team will forfeit US$169,270.85 of Gallagher’s salary, with the money going to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Gallagher received a five-minute major and match penalty for an elbow to the head of Pelech, who went to the team’s dressing room after regaining his senses. Pelech missed 21 games last season with a concussion after being checked into the boards by St. Louis defenceman Robert Bortuzzo during a Dec. 6 game.
Road to the Cup
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“I think we all saw what happened,” new Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said after the game.
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The visitors, trailing 3-1 at the time of the penalty, scored two power-play goals, only to have Montreal’s Sean Monahan score the winner, his second of the game, 80 seconds later.
Since Gallagher’s hearing was held over the phone and not in-person, his suspension was limited to a maximum of five games. The Canadiens are in Pittsburgh Saturday night (7 p.m., CBC, Citytv, TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690, 98.5 FM), their final match before a weeklong bye, during which the team won’t practise or play. Gallagher is expected to be replaced in the lineup by Jesse Ylönen, a healthy scratch the last three games.
Jake Allen is scheduled to start in net, according to head coach Martin St. Louis, who will spend the week in Connecticut with his family. Allen is coming off a 4-1 loss to Ottawa on Tuesday, although the final Senators’ goal was into an empty net.
“I’m hoping (to see) continuity,” St. Louis said. “Our third period against Ottawa and the way we started (Thursday) night. Obviously we shot ourselves in the foot with the penalties. I’m hoping to have some continuity with our team play, stay out of the box and give ourselves the best chance to finish on a good note, go on our break and hit the reset button.”
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While St. Louis did his best to come to Gallagher’s defence, stating players who aren’t intense never get penalized, he wasn’t as accommodating of Arber Xhekaj‘s gestures. The hulking 6-foot-4, 240-pound defenceman has been penalized three times — two against the Islanders — in two games since being recalled from AHL Laval. And St. Louis clearly is starting to lose patience, simply saying Thursday night he didn’t like Xhekaj’s penalties.
Xhekaj understands he must curb his enthusiasm and lack of discipline.
“I started off pretty well, but once I got those two penalties, I kind of hurt the team a little bit,” Xhekaj said on Friday. “I’ve got to figure out how to stay out of the box. The (coaches) want me to play my game obviously, but they definitely don’t want me to put the boys on the penalty-kill.”
Xhekaj, who was demoted to the Rocket in early December, said he believes some of the borderline penalties he was assessed wouldn’t have been called in the AHL.
“But they’re calling it now,” he said. “I have to find that balance. They might call them in the AHL, but I think they let things go a little bit more. Personally I think they do.”
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Xhekaj admitted his two minors against the Islanders, for high-sticking and interference, were preventable. “I’m young, I’m learning and I’m always looking to improve my game,” he said. “I’m still figuring it out.”
Monahan, David Savard and Jake Evans (therapy day) didn’t participate in Friday’s practice.
Notes: With his goal and assist against the Islanders, captain Nick Suzuki became the seventh player in franchise history to produce 60 multi-point games at age 24 or younger. He joins Guy Lafleur, Stéphane Richer, Henri Richard, Steve Shutt, Bernie Geoffrion and Mario Tremblay. … Cole Caufield on Thursday became one of 10 Montreal players 23 or younger in the past 40 years with a points streak of at least eight games. He’s the first since Max Domi, who had points in 11 straight games, during the 2018-19 season. Caufield had a goal and assist against the Islanders. He has six goals in his last seven games, improving to a team-leading 17 goals.
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2024-01-27 00:00:00Z
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