Review of Habs Top Scorers 2012-13 Season: Brendan Gallagher 15 Goals

In this series of posts, the Habs Daily will present the goals of the top three scorers during the 2012-2013 campaign. In the first of three posts, we will cover Brendan Gallagher. Stay tuned for Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec.

What Makes Gallagher a Great Player?

Gallagher plays with tons of passion. He skates quickly and isn't afraid to drive hard to the net . He'll do a few side-to-side fakes, but usually drives skates North-to-South.

I also love how Gallagher celebrates his goals. He reminds me of a three year-old on Christmas the way he smiles with eyes shining bright.

What Type of Goals Does Gallagher Score?

He gets a lot of give-and go goals. Gallagher and his linemates are constantly setting each other up. Gallagher also scores in situations where other players would not, providing a unique contribution to the team. He always gives a second effort.

He also scores a lot of goals from the slot. He's always getting right in front of the other teams goalies and sometimes even behind them!

My Favorite Gallagher Goal

I like it for all the wrong reasons, but #8 in this video is my favorite Gallagher goal of 2012-2013. Pacioretty does a wrap around the oppositions net, passes out front to Subban who gives the puck right back. Pacioretty does a nice move and beats the Sens goalie five-hole Finally, as the puck is about to cross the line, Gallagher pokes it in, stealing Pacioretty's goal. He just never gives up.

Enjoy the video!

What he's lacking:

I think Gallagher's only downside is his size. He get hammered when he goes in front of the net. He still gets the job done, but if he could manage to grow a few inches it would help out!

What I predict for 2013:

Gallagher is coming of age. It's only his second season in the NHL and Gallagher is going to come out faster and stronger than last season. He managed 15 goals and 13 assists last season. This year, I predict that Gallagher will manage to score 25 goals and 30 assists for 55 points. I think he'll be getting a lot more powerplay time this year along with Galchenyuk. They both showed that they deserve it last season.

New Draft Pick With Size

What Gallagher lacks in size, McCarron has. The 6'5" player was drafted by Montreal in the first round this summer. To learn more about Montreal new giant read this: Habs Prospect McCarron.

Habs Prospect Michael McCarron: Video during the IIHF U18 Gold Medal Game USA vs. Canada

This video follows Michael McCarron, a player the Habs acquired during this year's draft. The footage is from the IIHF U18 gold medal game in April 2013. Team Canada went on the win the game against the United States but McCarron's Team USA put on a good fight. He scored during the second period at 2:30 in this video.

If you have never seen him play, this is a great opportunity to see his style of gameplay. He's a big guy and not afraid to park himself in front of the net. He's number 24.

Update on the Habs Offseason: Draft picks, Olympics

Six Habs Tryout For Olympic Teams

The Montreal Canadiens have six players trying out for their respective countries Olympic squads. That's a pretty impressive number and shows the depth of our team. Subban and Price were invited to the Team Canada camp. Galchenyuk and Pacioretty were invited by Team USA. Finally, Markov and Emelin are trying out for Team Russia, the host nation.

Other than Price Team Canada has four other goalies trying out. Robert Luongo, Mike Smith, Corey Crawford and Braden Holtby are all fighting for the two open spots with Price.

Top two Draft Picks

Montreal’s 1^st pick, 25^th overall, was Michael McCarron. The six foot five inch tall right winger is part of the United States Development squad. One of McCarron’s greatest accomplishments to date is winning a Silver Medal with Team USA at the 2013 IIHF World U18 Championships. He scored three goals and had two assists during seven games at the tournament. I'm excited about drafting McCarron primarily because he's big. The Habs definitely need some size up front and this guy can do it.

Jacob De La Rose was Montreal’s second pick. He was chosen 34^th overall. He is a 6 foot 2 inch left wing player from Sweden. He is a big hitter, but isn’t a natural goal scorer. I’m not too sure why we picked him so high, but I hope he proves me wrong. If he can check like Emelin, I think he'll be able to help us out.

To learn how All-Star hockey works see click here.

How Does All-Star Hockey Work?

The All-Star game is an annual match played in the NHL by the top players in the league. The format of the All-Star game has been frequently changing as the league tries to find a format that is most suitable for the fans and players.

To hear about PK's first All-Star game: PK is an All-Star Monster

Skills Competition

Since 1990, there has been a skills competition the day before the All-Star game. The events have varied over the years but certain events are mainstays, such as the fastest skater, determined by skating one-lap around the rink, the most accurate shot, determined by who can hit four targets in the least amount of time, the hardest shot, with pucks flying over 100 mph, and a breakaway competition.

All-Star Game

The All-Star game plays with similar rules to a regular hockey game, however, the players self-limit body contact and often play without helmets. There are three periods each 20 minutes in length and the team with the most goals at the end of the game wins. If needed there is a five minute sudden death overtime period followed by a shootout if no one scores in overtime.

Best Players

In the past, the league decided which players would make the All-Star game single-handedly. Currently, the process is more open and opaque as there is a fan balloting process, which makes it appear like the fans get to choose who the best players are, however the NHL’s Hockey Operations Department still has the final word. There are also certain rules that affect the lineup of the All-Star game. For example, every team must have at least one player present at the All-Star game. However, with 30 teams in the NHL and only 42 players at the All-Star game this means that few teams can send more than one player.

Deciding Team Captains

The players who are selected to play at the All-Star game are allowed vote for the game’s captains. The voting is by secret ballot. Often a player from the host team gets chosen as one of the captains, for example Eric Staal in 2011 when the game was in Carolina, and Daniel Alfredsson in 2012 when the game was in Ottawa.

Drafting Players

Since the 2011 All-Star game, the teams have been selected by a fantasy draft by the team captains. The captains take turns selecting the players that they want on their teams. This differs from traditional NHL All-Star game formats, which have been either Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference, or the North America vs. the World.

References

NHL.com: NHL Skills Competition All-Time Results, 1990-2011

http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=67157

NHL.com: All-Star Game to Feature New Fantasy Draft

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=543059

NHL.com: Slap shot the weapon of hockey's hardest shooters http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=640429

NHL.com: Alfredsson, Chara named All-Star Game captains

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=612384

NHL.com: E. Staal, Lidstrom named 2011 All-Star captains

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=549747

The Anti-visor Advisor

Crosby and Full-face Protection

The Pittsburgh Penguins were looking stronger than ever this week after obtaining Jarome Iginla from the Calgary Flames.  That is, they looked stronger until Crosby took a puck in the face at 1:28 into the first game that Iginla played with the Penguins.  For now, Crosby is out indefinitely with a broken jaw.  It seems like the poor Canadian can never stay healthy, having suffered a few bad concussions the last couple seasons.

I was watching the Lang and O'Leary exchange today on TV.  Kevin O'Leary is that annoying Canadian Economist.  Did I mention he's annoying?  Anyways, they were weighing in on the Crosby injury and O'Leary says "Injuries of this sort are inevitable, they should keep researching better equipment to prevent this type of injury."  HELLO!  The type of cage that any amateur has on their helmet could have prevented the face injury that Crosby suffered.  I don't understand why NHL players aren't allowed wearing full-face protection.  It doesn't make sense.  Crosby's injury could have been prevented had he worn the same style of helmet WITH A FACEMASK that every amateur grows up wearing.

Tonight, in the Habs game versus Carolina, Bouillon took a stick in the face.  Bouillon was also wearing a visor (which only covers half the face).  He was okay afterwards, but it's just another example of the risks that professional hockey players are taking for no reason.  Implement the full-face cage!  Make it mandatory.

The Habs Make Carolina look like an AHL team

Another victory for the Habs tonight.  The win helps to secure their hold of second position in the Eastern conference.  Pittsburgh is in first place and is in the middle of a 15 game winning streak.  Carolina on the other hand is out of a playoff spot with 34 points in 35 games.

Carolina scored the first goal of the game five minutes into the contest.  Other than that brief lead, they were smothered by the Habs who outscored them 4-1 and outshot them 29-19.  Carolina only managed two shots on five powerplay opportunities!

Habs first goal was scored by Markov on the powerplay in the first period.  He took a powerful shot from the point which hit a defender and went top corner.  Subban assisted on the play, making him the league leading defenseman in points-scoring.

Halpern scored his first goal of the year.  His goal would be the game winner bringing the Habs up 2-1.  Beaulieu, Habs rookie defenseman, assisted on the play.  It was his first NHL point in his second game.

Pacioretty scored the next two goals including an empty netter.  Pacioretty's first goal of the night was a true beauty that showed his level of confidence, patience and skill.


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Armstrong Rips his First Goal with the Habs!

Armstrong scores his first tonight with the Habs versus the New Jersey Devils.  It was an important goal, bring the Habs up 1-0.  They went on to win the game 2-1.

Montreal is the Best in the East - Get Used to it!

The Habs are sitting on top of the Eastern Conference again, and this far into a 48 game season, many of the doubters are converting into believers.  The Habs have been at or near the top of the Eastern Conference all season and many non-believers have said that Montreal is not truly a first-place team and that things would get worse.  After 27 games, the Habs have managed to prove that they have more than a little luck on their side, they actually have a very deep and talented roster.

One of the keys to Montreal's success is that everyone is producing.  The Canadiens are not relying on a single line for scoring chances - everyone is contributing.  Paciorety is looking like the NHL player of the week, which he earned at the beginning of March, week-after-week.  He is playing with so much confidence it is ludicrous.  It also works.  Players like Galchenuk and Gallagher can no longer be called Montreal's rookies - though they are.  They've both proven that they can produce and are in the big league to stay.  Eller too, another youngster keeps proving that he is an NHL caliber center.  He scored twice tonight including the game-winning goal in the shootout.

At first when the Habs traded for Ryder I was very excited.  Then, I saw him play a few games and was turned off.  However, the success of the Habs seems to be wearing off on Ryder as he has really stepped it up recently.  He still only plays decently most nights, but that's at least as decent as Erik Cole, who we traded for Ryder.

Montreal's defense is also playing extremely well.  Subban, Markov and Emelin are all showing that they are amongst the league's top defensemen.  It's certainly great to be able to say that about three of our denfensemen.

In tonight's matchup against the Senators, Eller, Gallagher and Subban scored in regulation.  In overtime, Therrien trusted Galchenyuk, Desharnais and Eller to get the job done.  Galchenyuk and Eller both scored to give the Habs the win.

It's great to be able to turn on the Habs game expecting a win.  I have trouble remembering the last time I felt that way with such certainty.

Canadiens play in New Jersey on Saturday at 7PM (ET).