Martin St. Louis Leaving Out Xhekaj for Game 2 Is the RIGHT Call. For Now.

The spotlight after Game 1 for the Montreal Canadiens was not on the 19 players who played, but rather on 24 year old Arber Xhekaj and whether the Habs need him in game 2.

I agree with Martin St. Louis’ decision at this moment in time.

Now you might say: didn’t you see the Habs get tossed around in Game 1? How could you leave out the so-called Sheriff against Tom Wilson? I’ll tell you what I saw: I saw a team that experienced intense physical, playoff hockey for a year. For a fan who’s been around, this is what playoff hockey looks like. I wasn’t surprised, nor scared. And eventually, the Habs fought back through Guhle, Anderson, Gally, etc. In fact, the hits were 42 to 33 in favour of the Capitals, which is not a huge margin. I don’t think the lack of physicality is what cost us the game: it was our lack of offence for large parts of the game which punished us.

If you wanna bring Xhekaj into the fold, you have to ensure he’ll be disciplined. And objectively, for his TOI/game, he is taking way too many penalties. In his last 10 games, excluding fights, he got 6 penalties, 3 of them being in the 5-4 OT loss to Seattle. Now let’s compare that to the other 3rd pairing defencemen in their last 10 games: David Savard and Jayden Struble have combined for 3 penalties in their last 10 games.

For right or wrong, the referees pay closer attention to Xhekaj more than anyone else on the ice and are ready to call infractions at the slightest contact. And when it comes to playing against Ovi and the Caps, the Habs cannot afford to give them powerplay time, especially when the refs are keeping their whistles in their pockets like they have. We saw how clinical Ovi can be when he has time and space.

To take the risk of adding him to the lineup for the sake of more physicality does not make sense to me at this moment in time. Especially considering that for the second half of that game, the Caps’ physicality seemed to disappear as the Canadiens got more comfortable and created chances.

Let me be clear, I love Arber Xhekaj. I think the dimension he brings to the game is incredible, his fighting ability is among the best in the league. But right now is not the time. If things really get out of hand, I think Game 3 would be a better time to bring Xhekaj into the fold where St. Louis has the last change. Let’s revisit after Game 2. Go Habs Go.