Eight hits: Arber Xhekaj manages to stay in the lineup

Mathis Therrien
Eight hits: Arber Xhekaj manages to stay in the lineup
Credit: Twitter screenshot

The Montreal Canadiens really didn't put on a good show last night, after entertaining us so much earlier in the week.

A 4-0 defeat at the Bell Centre in an extremely important game for the standings against direct rivals from the Atlantic Division is not exactly ideal.

The Habs were certainly unlucky, but they also played a rather mediocre game overall.

All the players in Martin St-Louis' squad were pretty ordinary, except for one, who really stood out last night with a solid performance.

I'm talking about Arber Xhekaj.

Indeed, the Habs' #72 probably played the best game of his career last night, as he was involved and intense in every one of his appearances.

He served up eight (!) body checks in the game, representing almost a third of the Canadiens' 27 total.

Xhekaj's 12:34 of playing time felt like 20 minutes because he was all over the ice as soon as he stepped on the ice.

Not only was he physically involved, but he also created great chances on forward and defended well throughout the game.

In short, this is exactly the kind of performance the Habs need from Xhekaj, and it's exactly what he needs to do to keep his place in the Habs line-up.

It's with this kind of game that Xhekaj will once again become indispensable to the Canadiens, as the team needs such a menacing physical presence.

Even if it didn't wake the Habs up enough yesterday to get the win, Xhekaj still fulfilled his role to perfection.

And most importantly, Xhekaj achieved this performance playing on the right, which is not his natural position.

Kaiden Guhle was on his left on the third pair, and it worked out really well.

This really opens doors for both Xhekaj and Martin St-Louis if #72 is able to perform like this on his opposite side.

Let's see how Xhekaj performs in the next few games, but for the time being, there's no chance of him losing his place in the lineup.


Overtime

– Ouch.

– Flyers to watch.

– Very cool!

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