The feisty rookie forward — who has five goals and three assists — left Saturday night’s game early in the third period after taking a hit from Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn.

Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said Gallagher was already “feeling a lot better,” though he stressed that the club will follow league protocol and make sure he’s fully recovered.

“We never want to put a player’s health in danger,” Therrien said after Sunday’s practice. “When he gets back in the lineup, he will be healthy.”

Under the NHL’s new rules this year, a player who suffers a concussion no longer has to remain inactive for seven days, but must pass a series of tests. Gallagher had one concussion while playing juniors.

When asked whether Schenn’s hit should get a second look by the league, Therrien said it’s not for him to decide.

“I honestly hope that all body checks like this are reviewed,” he said. “I have nothing else to add.”

Gallagher had a goal and an assist against the Flyers before getting hurt, helping the Canadiens to their third straight win, 4-1.

Forward Max Pacioretty, who also left Saturday night’s game after getting cut by a skate as he drove to the net, was treated with stitches and was back at practice Sunday.

Pacioretty has a history of quickly returning from injuries, but he said he wasn’t feeling 100 percent and would see how he felt on Monday before deciding if he can play against Carolina later that night.

Defenseman P.K. Subban, out with the flu, and Gallagher were the only players missing from Sunday’s practice. Subban could also sit out of Monday’s game.

Carey Price, meanwhile, is feeling better after his own bout with the flu, but backup Peter Budaj could still get the start in goal against the Hurricanes.

The Canadiens travel to New York to face the Rangers on Tuesday. Goalie Robert Mayer, called up from Hamilton of the AHL on Saturday to back up Budaj, was sent back down.

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Two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday that the NCAA is scheduling meetings to discuss specific allegations with individuals who are believed to have committed violations found during the inquiry. Some meetings will take place Monday, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the NCAA nor Miami authorized them to reveal the developments publicly.

The reviewing of specific findings is a sign that the investigation phase is ending, meaning Miami may finally receive its notice of allegations letter in the coming days. Typically, schools review at least one draft of the notice before it formally arrives.

The NCAA does not comment on ongoing investigations. Miami’s statement throughout the investigation has been that it is cooperating and not commenting further.

Earlier this month, Miami coach Al Golden told the AP that he did not expect the university to be surprised by the NCAA’s findings.

“We just want to receive the notice,” Golden said. “The day we do that is the day we take a big step forward. I don’t think there’s any question that will be a release. And the good thing there is we don’t anticipate any shock or any surprise.”

Miami’s receipt of the notice of allegations is simply the end of one phase of the process.

Up next would be the sanctions phase, when the actual penalties against the Hurricanes would be handed down. Typically, schools and individuals named in the notice of allegations have 90 days to file a response to the NCAA’s findings, all of which would be reviewed by the committee on infractions — which operates separately from the NCAA’s investigative arm.

If the notice of allegations is, in fact, looming, that means Miami may find out its punishment by perhaps May or June.

Some of the sanctions have already gone into effect, since they were self-imposed. Miami’s football team has missed three postseason games — two bowl games and what would have been an appearance in this season’s Atlantic Coast Conference championship game — in response to the investigation, and Golden is holding back a number of scholarships from the 2013 roster as well.

The Miami investigation may go down as one of the most complex in the NCAA’s history.

For starters, the principal whistleblower is Nevin Shapiro, a former booster who’s serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme. Virtually all of the individuals who were named by Shapiro in his detailed claims that were published by Yahoo Sports in August 2011 are no longer at the university, and several of the people to whom the NCAA wanted to talk simply refused during the inquiry.

The NCAA inquiry started several months before that August 2011 article.

Shapiro’s tales were wild and sordid, with claims of him giving dozens of coaches, players and recruits things like cash, memorabilia, strip-club outings, yacht rides and even paying for prostitutes. In an interview in 2011 with Miami CBS affiliate WFOR, Shapiro predicted that his claims would lead to Miami’s football program getting the “death penalty” — the sanction where the NCAA would basically shut down the program.

Most of Shapiro’s claims involved the football program, though others also involved the Hurricanes’ men’s basketball team.

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