Gallagher and Danault Re-Finding Old Chemistry

Due to an injury that kept forward Josh Anderson sidelined on the weekend, it allowed Gallagher to move up in the lineup to play with Danault and Zack Bolduc. From 2018 to 2021, Gallagher and Danault, alongside former Hab Tomas Tatar, formed one of the league’s best 2-way shutdown lines. Now that Gallagher and Danault are both over 30 years old and slowing down (massively in Gallagher’s case), the fit on a line together may not seem like the greatest idea once the Habs re-acquired Danault from the L.A. Kings on December 19th. However, with Anderson’s injury, the two oldest forwards on the team were able to show that they still have good chemistry, even if Gallagher is much slower than he was in 2021, while Danault has lost a step or two as well.

Despite the Habs playing really flat as a whole on Saturday, the duo of Danault and Gallagher actually looked like they played decently, but Gallagher wasn’t able to buy a goal on his game-leading 6 shots in the 2-0 loss to the Blues. The fact that he got so many shots in the first place was partially thanks to Danault being able to feed him the puck rushes.

On the other hand, they were on the ice for the only even-strength goal of the game, but it wasn’t their fault, as it was more an issue of a Bolduc to Jayden Struble pass before the whole defensive coverage got messed up as everyone else had left the zone. This actually may be one of the only issues with their chemistry now, as neither of them skates fast, so they won’t be able to cover for defensive mistakes like that of Struble’s. Nonetheless, Danault and Gallagher showed some nice glimpses on Saturday when there weren’t many positives to talk about.

The best was yet to come from them, as on Sunday, the two players were even better. It all started when both of them got to the front of the net as defenseman Alexandre Carrier took a shot that would tip off both their sticks on the way to going into the net. The goal was Gallagher’s in the end, but it was Danault’s first point as a Hab since he came back, as he went scoreless in his first 5 games.

From there, the two continued to connect on passes and created some offence against a heavy Dallas Stars team for most of the first two periods of the game. Unfortunately, late in the 3rd period, both players looked gassed, and it took a toll on their game and the rest of the team as well.

Despite this, the two players showed that chemistry doesn’t just go away after all these years, but they may just work better together in a much smaller role than they used to. It may have just been two games, but the Canadiens may have a duo so that Gallagher could at least have a few moments of explosiveness before the end of his contract.

How did you like seeing Gallagher and Danault back on a line together this weekend?