The Montreal Canadiens improved their record to 4-0-1 as they defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2 for their third consecutive win. Once again the Canadiens put forward a balanced attack as the goals were scored by four different players while no one had a multi point night. The fact that the Canadiens have been able to roll four lines and receive contributions from each of them has been a story in of itself. In fact there have a number of factors leading to the Canadiens early season success. There is Al Montoya’s early strong performances in goal to the bottom six factoring in on the offense. Shea Weber living up to expectations to the improved powerplay. Alexander Radulov silencing any doubters and Artturi Lehkonen’s excellent play in both ends of the ice. Nathan Beaulieu is making the most of playing on the first unit with Weber to Andrei Markov and Jeff Petry combining to make a formidable second duo. There is no shortage of storylines and headlines. However, it seems that the play of Alex Galchenyuk has gotten somewhat lost in the narrative.

Galchenyuk finished the end of the 2015-2016 season on a torrent pace as he finally became the team’s number one center. Expectations were high coming into the 2016-2017 season as it was presumed that he would continue where he left off, centering Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher on the Canadiens first line. Head coach Michel Therrien confirmed that this was indeed his plan at the team’s annual golf tournament in September. Unfortunately for the line, Pacioretty missed most of training camp due to the World Cup of Hockey and so it took a couple of games for the trio to regain their rhythm. Galchenyuk though was ready to play from day one. His play has been very consistent and he has rarely taken a shift off.

With a goal and four assists and sporting a five game consecutive point streak to start the season, Galchenyuk is tied for the team’s lead with Gallagher, Pacioretty and Weber. It almost seems as though it is a very quiet five points since he has not had a multi point night. What has been impressive about Galchenyuk is how strong he has been in his own end, breaking up plays and starting the offense. In training camp he successfully spent time on the penalty kill as it further strengthened his defensive awareness and kept him involved in all aspects of the game. So far in the regular season he has seen a couple of shifts when a man down and perhaps he will further grow into this new role. As per usual, Galchenyuk’s passes are on target and his rare shifts with Radulov have fans drooling for more. His gorgeous goal though has fans wishing that Galchenyuk would shoot the puck a little more often as he only has eight shots on net through five games and none against Boston.

Galchenyuk leaves Doan in the dust and snipes it for a 4-0 #Habs lead pic.twitter.com/k9i4cyTQRD

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) October 21, 2016

Galchenyuk has struggled in the faceoff circle as he has won just a third of his draws taken. This has been remedied by having Gallagher take all of the faceoffs on the right side of the rink as through the first couple of games the first line was spending too much time attempting to regain possession after a lost draw. There is little doubt that Galchenyuk will continue to work on this weakness, especially with Muller on staff to help.

Canadiens general manager will need to make a decision soon as to what kind of contract he should offer the upcoming restricted free agent. The previous round of contract negotiations were long and had Galchenyuk letting go of agent Igor Larionov during talks. In his fifth season, Galchenyuk has finally become a bona fide number one centerman in the NHL. Bergevin would do well to lock him up and reward him early, as he has previously done with Gallagher. There is little doubt that Galchenyuk is one of the cornerstone’s of the Canadiens franchise, especially considering the lack of depth down the middle. With no disrespect to Saku Koivu, the team has been lacking a big and true number one center since the mid 1990’s. Galchenyuk was drafted specifically to fill that role and while he was brought along slower than anticipated, he is here and ready to assume the responsibility. Here is a scary good thought, Galchenyuk has still not realized his full potential. He will only continue to get better and that is a very good thing for the Montreal Canadiens.

The Habs play Monday night at the Bell Centre against the Philadelphia Flyers. I will come back to edit with the lineups and five questions.

Cheers & follow along!
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