The enduring image I have of Brendan Gallagher is nowhere near an ice sheet.
I have watched nearly every NHL game he has ever played, and that fact alone should give me ample examples of why Gallagher will live up to the six-year, $39 million contract extension he signed with the Canadiens on Wednesday evening, ending a 36-hour melodrama where negotiations were apparently at an impasse.
The contract will expire just as Gallagher is turning 35 years old, and the doubts about his ability to maintain the remarkable effectiveness he has shown over his eight years in a Canadiens uniform are reasonable and expected. Gallagher plays a hard game, one that takes a toll on a person’s body and one that is therefore difficult to maintain.
But that’s for a normal person. And Gallagher is not normal.
He displays that lack of normalcy on the ice regularly by driving the net, battling in front of the net with players much larger than him and managing to…
