Vigneault defends take on Gallagher's injury: 'His mouth didn't shut up'

The Round 1 series between the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens has become as heated off the ice as it is on it.

The teams' current off-ice spat began Thursday when Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault downplayed the injury Brendan Gallagher suffered - which was later diagnosed as a broken jaw - after Matt Niskanen cross-checked him during Game 5.

"In my estimation, Gallagher got up and seemed fine, he was talking to the referees, the whole time that he was on the bench he was talking to our players for the rest of the game," Vigneault said, according to The Athletic's Arpon Basu.

"Gallagher's a very competitive player, but I don't think it's Nisky's fault he might not be as tall as the other guys, but he competes as big if not bigger than anybody else," Vigneault continued. "It just seemed (like) a hockey play that unfortunately cut him a little bit."

Niskanen later received a one-game suspension for the incident while Gallagher was ruled out for the remainder of the series. Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin didn't like how Vigneault downplayed Gallagher's injury before knowing the severity of the ailment.

"I was expecting more and I was extremely disappointed that AV would make a comment about a player's injuries without knowing the extent of it," Bergevin said Friday, per Sportsnet's Eric Engels. "Brendan Gallagher will be missing an extended period of time and will be eating his meals out of a straw, and I don't wish that on anybody, and that includes the Flyers' players."

Vigneault fired back Friday, standing by his initial comments.

"You don't like to see any players get injured. There's no doubt. But at the end of the day, I can only state the facts. And the fact was that Gallagher got up and his mouth didn't shut up for at least five minutes to the referees, the linesman, and to our bench for nearly five minutes," Vigneault said, according to Sportsnet.

He added: "So, he didn't look like he was hurt, other than it looked like he had a cut. I believe that if the Montreal medical personnel thought that it was something real serious they would have probably taken him off and brought him inside."

Vigneault and Gallagher have a bit of history. In 2014, the Vigneault-led New York Rangers were taking on the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Final. After then-Rangers forward Derek Stepan suffered a broken jaw in Game 3, Gallagher said, "he got up and was yapping and yelling, so I don't think the jaw was hurting too much."

"I've seen broken jaws before," Gallagher added at the time.

If the Canadiens win Game 6 against Philadelphia to force a Game 7, Niskanen will be back in the lineup for the winner-take-all tilt. Gallagher, meanwhile, may have surgery Friday and will be "out a while," Bergevin added.

"The authority of the NHL has made their decision and we'll live with it. We'll respect the decision," Bergevin said. "It's unfortunate that our player, Brendan, is going to miss an undetermined amount of time while their player will miss one game. I don't have more comments on it."

As part of the NHL's explanation for why the suspension is not more than one game, the league said, "the sudden and significant movement by Gallagher contributes to the fact that this blow lands on his head, rather than somewhere else on his body."

Bergevin was not a fan of that assessment.

"We agreed to disagree," he said, according to Basu.

Game 6 is set for Friday at 7 p.m. ET.

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