Arber Xhekaj admits it without embarrassment: he is far from playing his best hockey since the start of the season.
After having literally been in all the fights during the preparatory matches, the robust rear of the Montreal Canadiens seemed a little more hesitant during the first five games of the regular season.
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Often overwhelmed in his defensive tasks, less physically involved than usual, the 23-year-old Ontarian is not quite himself.
“I’m not too happy with my game so far, I lacked consistency,” he admitted after Friday’s training. I need to fix that and that’s what I’m focusing on right now.”
The colossus thinks he thinks a little too much on the ice.
“I was a little too much in my head and I wasn’t myself in terms of my physical game,” he explained. Playing with a little more emotion should help me.”
He would also like to have a little more stability regarding his partners in defense, but he does not have too many illusions on this subject.
“It’s difficult to create chemistry with a partner when they change all the time, but it’s going to be like that throughout the season,” he recalled. They’re going to try things and play some guys with others. Everyone can play with a little bit of everyone, it’s not too bad.”
Habs head coach Martin St-Louis welcomed this introspection on the part of Xhekaj.
“When you’re looking for answers collectively, you better look in the mirror first,” he observed. Control what you can control. When everyone does that, usually the group benefits.”
Stop the bleeding
Regardless, it is important for the Habs to get back to their good habits after two fairly unconvincing performances against the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Los Angeles Kings, Monday and Thursday.
Because when he is at his best, the Canadian can cause trouble for any NHL team, insisted St-Louis on Friday.
“We play with urgency, we bring a lot of speed, pressure, we are organized, we are connected,” he explained. Our voucher is very good. But I expect a higher low this year. And I’m not happy with the floor right now.”
“We’ve only played five games and it’s a long season,” said striker Brendan Gallagher.
“It’s just a question of consistency,” he also mentioned. We haven’t been able to find a certain rhythm and it will come, but it won’t happen by just talking about it, we have to put in the effort. The training days are important for us, we will work on certain things in the hope that it translates into tomorrow.
“It’s important for us to get results at this point, stop the bleeding and get back on the winning path,” summed up Gallagher.
CH will therefore have the opportunity to recover on Saturday, against Patrick Roy and the Islanders in New York.
“They have a simplicity to their game, they play in depth, they don’t take many risks,” St-Louis analyzed about them. It’s going to be pretty similar to yesterday [jeudi]. Having these two matches one after the other, we could perhaps benefit from it.
