Brendan Gallagher: “We take nothing out of moral victories, expectations were to win this series”

The Habs’ playoff run ended last night with a heartbreaking 1-0 loss in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was the fifth game where the Montreal Canadiens faced elimination during these playoffs, however even another stellar performance by Carey Price couldn’t stop the insane momentum of the almost-$20-million-over-the-salary-cap Bolts. An emotional Brendan Gallagher responded to questions as best he could post-game, complimenting his team on their dedication this season, while still emphasizing their disappointment.

“You know I played a lot of really good teams with a lot of really good guys. It’s hard right now, I’m sorry. We’ve got so many players that have worked their entire career to get to this point and it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

Gallagher was then asked what he’d like to say to his teammates.

“Just thank you. Every single guy gave everything they had every single night through this run. You look at our group, obviously there are a lot of more talented teams. There are a lot of teams that do a lot of things, but there’s no team that is stronger as a group and the resiliency that we showed — it’s just a good team to be a part of.”

Gallagher went on to say the Habs fully believed they would win the Stanley Cup this year, and don’t take solace in the fact that they surpassed expectations of fans and critics.

“We take nothing out of moral victories. At the start of the year, we sat down as a group. Our goal was to be here. We expected to be here. Regardless of what people thought of our team, the expectations were to win the series.

“I know we probably surprised a lot of people, but the expectations were to be the team celebrating right now and that’s why it hurts so much. We would tell you guys all the time how much we believed. You know, I wasn’t lying. We believe in this group. Like I said, it’s just a tough pill to swallow.“

Brendan Gallagher concluded the post-game press conference by pointing to the future, and learning from the heartbreaking loss.

“As painful as this is right now, sometimes you need to feel this to call yourself a champion. I wish it wasn’t the case, but maybe this is the journey we needed. It stings for sure, but you take more from a loss than you do from a win. If we’re able to learn from this experience, on the positive side, maybe we can be better off. But right now, I don’t know what to tell you. It stings.“

We’d like to thank the Habs for bringing Montreal back to life. We all believed in this team, and we will never forget this.

Go Habs Go!

A video of the press conference can be seen below.

Phillip Danault et Brendan Gallagher s'adressent aux médias via Zoom en direct.

Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher are addressing the media live via Zoom.#GoHabsGo https://t.co/nK4RTnzxop

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) July 8, 2021

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