PREDICTIONS FROM OUR EXPERTS | Take part in the RDS Grand Pool
MONTREAL – Arber Xhekaj will take all the blows that will allow him to contribute to the Canadian’s success without complaining.
He adopts the motto of carrying high the torch that the bruised arms of the elders have handed over to the younger ones. And will make it a point to hand it over, when his arms are in turn badly bruised, to the young people who will come to take over.
From the opening of training camp to his last skates of the season, it is the blows and setbacks associated with his passion for hockey that bruise his arms.
But once away from the locker room and the ice, Xhekaj’s arms don’t get any respite. Because as soon as he has the opportunity, the giant defender dives under his cars with the same enthusiasm as he dives into a scrum along the boards or in the center of the ice.
And the results are the same.
“You should see what I look like after spending hours under a car changing a transmission or doing other small and large repairs. My arms are cut here and there. And I have black arms,” says the young defender with a laugh.
Black sludge, we will understand. But black nonetheless.
“My friends often look at me and shake their heads and always ask me why the hell I am embarking on such mechanical challenges when it would be much simpler – and often more effective, he admits frankly – to give these principals to real people. mechanics. But I don’t want to. I can’t stop trying. Last summer I managed to change a transmission under one of my cars. And I succeeded! Although my arms were covered in grease, oil and small lacerations, I was so proud of my move when I realized it worked that it quickly made the wounds and dirt disappear,” said Xhekaj with a broad smile of satisfaction plastered on his face.
This passion for cars and mechanics Arber Xhekaj reveals it in one breath as an answer to the question: what lesser-known facet of your personality would you like to share with your supporters?
German women, he hastens to add.
Mercedes that he goes on before I have time to finish writing: German!
And not just any Mercedes. Models rolling off the assembly lines in the 1990s.
It must be said that there is perhaps also a bit of genetics which explains this passion, because mother Xhekaj (Simona) works in the mechanical workshop of a Costco in Hamilton.
Nothing less!
Speaking passionately about his “collection” and all the time he spends repairing, cleaning, polishing and pampering his cars, Arber the house.
“I wouldn’t want people to think that I just want to show off and show that I live in a parallel world. I have around ten cars, it’s true, but the overall value of these ten vehicles is less than the price of a new one. I’m looking for older cars. Plus tricks that I then have fun patching up. I am therefore very far from wanting to “flashy” when I proudly drive my car. I’m just proving that I managed to repair them. And with the way I look when I come out from under one of my cars, it would be very difficult to flash I assure you…”
Last summer, Arber Xhekaj and his brother Florian gave their father Jack a brand new Mercedes. Not sure Dad will let son take care of the oil changes…
