KANATA | The last week has been hectic for Arber Xhekaj who has served more penalty minutes than he has played.
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Last Saturday against the Maple Leafs, he played 1:29 against 27 minutes of penalties and Tuesday against the Senators, he spent 9:22 on the ice against 17 minutes in the penalty box.
The trend reversed Saturday night against the Sens even though he threw down the gloves for a third game in a row. This time, the colossus spent only five minutes on the bench of shame compared to 19:03 on the ice. He even allowed himself to score his team’s second goal on a good slap shot in the third period.
“I just wanted to play 60 minutes, that’s all,” he said with a laugh. I didn’t think of anything else. Obviously, there are things that have happened and we can’t change anything so we just have to move forward.”
This is how he summed up his last week, he who had not met the media since he attacked Cédric Paré on Tuesday evening, after the Senators player had hard tackled Kirby Dach.
Engaged
Xhekaj has had an up-and-down training camp, but he arguably had his best game Saturday night and Martin St-Louis believes Xhekaj needed that game.
“He had a chance to be engaged the whole game. In general, I think we are winners with the repetition he has had.
Xhekaj continued to say that he would not hesitate to come to the defense of his teammates, seeing himself in the role of a big brother.
“I’m there for my teammates, if they need me I’ll be there, it’s something I impose on myself. I want to be the guy who is there for them.
“We have a young team, some talented little players, we are all there for each other and the bonds are tight in the locker room. If you bother one of us, you bother everyone. We’re not going to get pushed around this year.”
Guhle quickly at ease
Kaiden Guhle will only have this game against the Senators before starting the season due to the removal of his appendix at the start of training camp.
He himself admitted to being a little rusty at the start of the match, but then found his rhythm as it progressed.
“I touched the puck a few times in the first half of the first period and that’s what I wanted to get into the rhythm of the game.
“There is a skirmish later in the period, it helps with the fluidity. It was a good starting point for me.”
Martin St-Louis, for his part, found that the young defender had not been slowed down by the break imposed on him.
“He got into it pretty quickly,” he analyzed.
