Back on New Year's Eve in a game versus the Carolina Hurricanes, Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher was forced to leave due to an injury. After the game, the sustained injury was reported to be a concussion. Although initially knocked down on a hit by Canes forward Jordan Staal, the injury appears to be right after as his teammate Ben Chiarot accidentally caught him with a knee to the head.
After missing the next four games, the Canadiens' medical staff deemed Gallagher ready to go on January 9th for a game against the Edmonton Oilers. All appeared fine during the game, as Gallagher logged 17:19 minutes of ice time and didn't show any signs of symptoms. However, soon after the game ended, it was announced that Gallagher was experiencing headaches and was being looked at to see if it was concussion related. Considering Montreal had been struggling in his absence yet was still in the middle of a tight race for the playoffs, questions rose on whether or not Montreal had rushed Gallagher back into the lineup.
Gallagher has denied that he or the team ignored symptoms to get him back into the lineup early, stating that he felt ready at the time to return to game action.
“Their job is to obviously get me healthy so I can go out and do my job, and the hardest thing for them is they need me to be 100 percent honest every morning with how I'm feeling. And I was. I came in every day and told them how I was feeling, and I was pretty much, a couple days after the original hit in Carolina, I felt fine. So I didn't report any symptoms to them. I felt good. I was able to go through my skates, and there were no alarming issues that I noticed anyways with myself. After the game (against EDM on Jan. 9) was really the first time I had to report something. So they can only work with what I'm reporting back to them and they didn't have anything to go off. You put no blame in them, obviously they're going to let me play. And if I go back, I'd probably say the same thing, because I felt ready to play.”
-
On a lighter note, Gallagher also told press that former teammate and current Chicago Blackhawk Andrew Shaw reached out to him after the Carolina game telling him not to come back early. When Gallagher returned for the Edmonton game and was announced out yet again, Shaw again reached out to tell him he's an idiot.
As of now, Gallagher remains listed as day-to-day. He has been skating but hasn't yet been cleared to play. Since experiencing headaches against the Oilers, Gallagher has gone on to miss the more recent six games his team has played. Gallagher has continued to be his usual productive self with 32 points in 41 games this year. However, due to the fact the Habs currently find themselves 10 points back of a playoff spot, it seems likely the team will take an overly cautious approach with Gallagher this time around.
