Quotes of the day: Bergevin

TORONTO - On the heels of the announcement that alternate captain Brendan Gallagher would be out indefinitely with a broken jaw, Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin took to the podium to field questions from the media via Zoom ahead of Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday.

Read on for some excerpts from his presser.

Bergevin's reaction to quotes from Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault regarding the play that caused the injury to Gallagher:

"I was expecting more and I'm extremely disappointed that Alain Vigneault would make a comment about a player's injury without knowing the extent of it. Brendan Gallagher will be missing an extended period of time and will be eating his meals out of a straw."

Philadelpha defenseman Matt Niskanen was assessed a one-game suspension for the hit that led to Gallagher's injury. Here's what Bergevin had to say about the decision from the League:

"[The Department of] Player Safety makes a decision - we live with it, we accept it, we move on. That's the way it is, we respect the authority. Everybody's there to try to make a point about their players and what happened, but at the end of the day, they make the call and we live with it. The sad part is, Brendan's going to miss an extended period of time, and their player will miss one game."

Gallagher had a monster night for Montreal in Game 5, scoring his first goal of the playoffs while registering three shots and three hits in 18:02 of ice time - including 4:22 with the man advantage. Bergevin had a chance to connect with Gallagher following the news of his broken jaw:

"I did talk to Brendan last night. He's a warrior, he wants to play, he wishes he could play. That's probably the toughest part for him: not being able to be with his teammates. But I believe his teammates will rally around that. He's a big part of our team and we can't replace him, but I'm expecting 20 guys to pull the same way tonight."

The GM's media op also gave him a chance to reflect on the postseason play of two of the organization's key young stars, namely Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki. Bergevin attributes Kotkaniemi's postseason success - including leading the team in goals (4) and hits (36) heading into Game 6 - to a change in attitude for the 20-year-old center:

"From day one [of summer training camp], he came in with a different mindset. And I want to be on the record on this: it's not about Marc Bergevin meeting him at the end of the year, it's not about Claude Julien, it's not about Joel Bouchard having this magic wand. It's about KK taking it upon himself, so I give all the credit to him to realize that he had to be better, and he did. And we see a KK who wants to be a Montreal Canadien, who wants to have the potential that we saw when we drafted him. I think he has a bright future ahead of him."

Suzuki, meanwhile, is tied for the team lead in points (5), leads the Habs in takeaways (9), and is second to Phillip Danault among Montreal forwards in average ice time (18:58). Bergevin is thrilled to see the former first-round pick fulfilling his potential:

"I've always said it and I'll say it again: the player makes the decision for us with his play. What I've loved so far about Nick is not just the way he's been playing, but also the moment we're at in the season. We're in the playoffs, we're playing some really tough games, physical games, and he elevated his game. A player who wins the OHL playoff scoring title, who came back from a 3-1 series deficit with Guelph, that's a character player and we're seeing it today. Hats off to Nick Suzuki for becoming the promising player everyone was expecting he'd be."