Canadiens Notebook: Brendan Gallagher Says Shea Weber is a Hall of Famer

Nick Suzuki will bring young blood to the new leadership group in the captain’s absence this season.

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Brendan Gallagher highly praised Canadiens captain Shea Weber when he spoke to the media Tuesday after practice at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard.

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“You have a pretty good understanding of what happened in his career in the first place,” Gallagher said of Weber, who is not expected to play this season due to injuries and his career could be in jeopardy. “You fully understand and respect what he has done and, looking back, he was able to help me personally and almost every player on our team who had the opportunity to play with him. You just learn a lot.

“There’s everything he knows that he drives on ice that I think will make him a Hall of Famer, which is something very special to say,” Gallagher added of Weber. “You don’t mean it lightly, but I fully believe it. But it is more what he did off the court when the cameras were off, how he behaved, how he treated his teammates, how he treated the staff from his days in Nashville and the respect he had for each of the players. his teammates and how he wore it every night. So there’s a lot to learn from having the chance to play with such a guy. It is quite special and does not appear often. I think we are all very lucky to have that opportunity. “

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New leadership group

No player will wear the “C” this season in Weber’s absence. Instead, Gallagher will wear an “A” on his sweater every game and other players will rotate joining him as alternate captain.

One of those players is Nick Suzuki, 22 years old.

“In terms of what we have in that locker room, I think we have a lot of guys stepping up,” Gallagher said of the team’s leadership group. “You will see a group of guys use those letters because they are capable of filling those leadership roles. Some older men, but also some younger ones. I look at a guy like Suz, a younger player who will probably have that opportunity this year. He’s going to get that chance because the guys are already looking at him and they’re willing to follow him. You go through our lineup, I think we have a lot of guys like that. So when you talk about how we’re going to make up for the loss of websites, that’s going to be a big part of this through the committee and having a lot of guys going in the right direction and having a lot of loyal fans as well. ready to go into battle.

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“There are different kinds of ways to lead, different leaders,” Gallagher added. “It takes a group and maybe the older guys aren’t going to look at Suzy, but there are younger guys who will feel a lot more comfortable going with him than maybe going with an older guy like me. It’s natural for them and if Suzy can take the responsibility of being able to help some guys along the way, I think the older guys have a lot of respect for Suzy. But when you look at the type of example that it is going to give, there will be different types that will be able to see it as maybe: OK, I can do that, I can do that. Look at how far you have come in your few years, the work you put in, the attitude you have had, I think you are a very good example. So putting that responsibility on him is something he can handle. Obviously, we trust him a lot to be a good player. But you’re adding a bit of leadership and I think he can handle it by being that kind of role model for many young people to see and follow in the right direction. “

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New linemates

One of the biggest questions in training camp is who Gallagher’s linemates will be after the departure of Phillip Danault (Los Angeles Kings) and Tomas Tatar (New Jersey Devils).

On Tuesday, Gallagher took Cole Caufield’s place in a line with Suzuki and Tyler Toffoli. Caufield suffered an upper body injury while warming up for Sunday’s Reds-Whites game and is expected to miss a week.

“I think I’m going to play at some point this weekend, so they’ll find out (about the linemates),” said Gallagher, who will make his preseason debut Friday at Ottawa or Saturday at the Bell Center. against the senators after missing the first five days of training camp for family reasons. “I think right now, for me, it’s just about catching up after missing those days, just putting my legs under me, catching up, getting on the ice whenever I can.

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“I know there will probably be a little story around him, but for me it’s really simple,” Gallagher said of getting new linemates. “My role in this team is to be a good player. Wherever they put you on the ice, it’s a job you have to do on any given night. I’ve always had that mindset. You are playing on your own side, you want to keep the puck out of your net. You’re playing on the offensive side, you want to score. That will be the same for me and I am excited to build that chemistry with some new players. I’ve played with Phil and Tuna for a while, I have good memories, but it’s time to move on and be eager to meet that challenge. “

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Nothing to worry about

Head coach Dominique Ducharme said he’s not worried about Gallagher having to adjust to new linemates after spending most of the past three seasons with Danault and Tatar.

“He has a way of playing,” Ducharme said of Gallagher. “Even last year I remember going in a few times and at one point I had him and Toffoli with KK (Jesperi Kotkaniemi) during some games and Danault and Tatar was probably (Joel) Armia with them. But it doesn’t change the game (of Gallagher). you know what you’re going to get every night.

“I think by playing him, guys know what to expect,” added Ducharme. “They know that it will be on the disk, they know that it will be on the network. They know you throw it there, he’s going to get it back. You know how much he is going to compete, you know how he is going to score his goals. It doesn’t change … whoever he plays with will score the same kind of goals. So I’m not sure if he’s the one who needs people. I think it makes others benefit from his work. “

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Fighting for jobs

Ducharme was asked about young players like Mattias Norlinder, Kaiden Guhle and Ryan Poehling struggling to take jobs away from veterans in training camp.

“That’s part of the competition that an NHL player has to face on a daily basis,” Ducharme said. “It is not an easy league to reach, it is even more difficult to stay. I think the guys who are more experienced know it. I had some discussions with older guys that nothing is given or granted. We are going to go with what we see and who is doing better at that moment and what we need at that moment to win that game. The boys know it.

“We need to make those decisions, but we have a good group, a strong group and they understand,” added the coach. “They want to win, they want to be part of it. I think it brings competition and makes us better. “

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The lines

The White Team, made up of players who did not play in Monday night’s preseason game against the Maple Leafs, was the only one who practiced Tuesday at Brossard.

This is what the attack lines and defense pairs looked like:

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen – Ryan Poehling – Laurent Dauphin
Mathieu Perreault – Cédric Paquette – Alex Belzile
Brandon Baddock – Jean-Christophe Beaudin – Lukas Vejdemo

Alexander Romanov as Jeff Petry
Brett Kulak as Gianni Fairbrother
Xavier Ouellet by Louie Belpedio

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Reference-montrealgazette.com

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