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Arber Xhekaj’s reply: Martin St-Louis didn’t seem to like it

 Auteur: dmiller
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Arber Xhekaj’s reply: Martin St-Louis didn’t seem to like it
Credit: Capture d'écran / Screenshot
Last night was a real drama.

Fans in attendance and those in their living rooms alike were stunned as Patrik Laine lay writhing in pain on the ice.

As soon as play resumed, we all expected the same thing: to see someone defend Laine and then go after Paré on the next shift, especially considering that no penalty (???) had been given to the Leafs player.

Well, that’s exactly what happened, as Arber Xhekaj (of course) didn’t hesitate for a second before rushing Paré and inviting him to fight.

Paré simply hid and refused, but that didn’t stop Xhekaj from avenging Laine as best he could by landing several blows to Paré’s head before the referees and other players could intervene.

Logically, Xhekaj was ejected from the game, but at least he’d just done what he had to do, which was avenge his teammate and show that the Montreal Canadiens are a team that sticks together.

The problem with all this was that, with David Reinbacher already in the dressing room and Xhekaj ejected from the game, the Habs found themselves with only four defensemen for practically the entire game, when not even five minutes had been played in the first period yet.

And Martin St-Louis didn’t like it one bit.

Indeed, St-Louis didn’t seem happy with this situation, as he had to organize himself with his four defensemen and Lucas Condotta, who played a few appearances as a defenseman.

It’s obviously a very complicated situation, even though it’s ideal for absolutely nobody.

Anyway, between the lines, listening to St-Louis’ press briefing, we can understand that in the end, the head coach didn’t seem to appreciate Arber Xhekaj’s retort.

St-Louis explained that he was going to think about what he was going to do with Xhekaj tomorrow during the day off, and what kind of conversation he was going to have with him.

The head coach concluded the subject by saying that he certainly wouldn’t tell the media what he was going to do with Xhekaj.

In the end, I understand St-Louis being frustrated by events and by losing two defensemen so early in a game, but seriously, I don’t see what Xhekaj could have done differently.

Clearly, if he were a forward, the consequences of losing him for the game would be far less damaging for his team, but the fact remains that last night, Xhekaj was probably the only one in a position to retaliate on behalf of the entire team against Paré.

And honestly, imagine a world where Xhekaj only visited Paré to hustle him and talk to him a bit without shoving him or fighting with him with the justification that he didn’t want to get his team in trouble.

It would be all the more maddening in Montreal this morning if no one had avenged Laine, especially in a meaningless warm-up game.

And personally, unlike François Gagnon, I don’t think you have to think beyond that when it comes to defending a teammate, as Xhekaj did last night.

And I also wonder if things would have been different if Xhekaj had visited Max Domi last Thursday to defend Lane Hutson.


Overtime

– With good reason!

– It’ll be another big mental test for the team’s youngsters.

– Indeed.

– It was exactly 20 years ago today that the Expos played their last game.

– Incredible.

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