Montreal Canadiens Prospect Arber Xhekaj Suspended Once Again

The Montreal Canadiens training camp was a long, gruelling, monotonous couple of weeks.

Dozens of players show up that know they have no chance of making the team and there is really a battle for a couple of bottom of the roster spots. No one really surprised and stole a roster spot from anyone so there was little drama for the nearly three week camp.

One great story that did come from the camp was the play of Arber Xhekaj.

The 20 year old defenceman showed up at the Canadiens rookie camp in September with little guaranteed. He played extremely well though and quickly earned himself an invitation to the Canadiens main training camp. He continued to play well there and got noticed in a couple of exhibition games along the way. By the end of camp, he was signed to a three-year entry level contract.

Xhekaj was sent back to the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL for the season, but will likely find himself playing for the Laval Rocket next season, if not at the end of this one.

He is having a productive season with 13 points in 16 games, but he has also drawn the ire of the OHL’s disciplinary team, which is just commissioner David Branch.

Xhekaj was suspended for five games for a viscous slew foot early in the season.

That one was well deserved, but his latest suspension is a little more debatable.

It also takes a bit of backstory to explain. Xhekaj’s Rangers and the Owen Sound Attack are bitter rivals. There was a game back in November 12th that had Attack coaches in the hallways yelling at Rangers players between periods. There was plenty of drama on the ice as well and though Xhekaj was not playing, due to the aforementioned slew foot, this is what led up to him being suspended this week.

That game on November 12th was a physical affair, and there was a scrum in the corner in the third period. Mark Woolley, a defenceman for the Attack pulled a rangers player out of the pile and fought him. There was no doubt Woolley won the fight, but there was also no doubt the Rangers player was not very interested in trying to win the fight.

After the “fight” Woolley chose to skate by the Rangers bench and taunt them.

Now, this is hockey and like it or not, Woolley is going to have to answer to someone for that taunting of the bench. Everyone knows this. This is the same sport that saw 5’8″ Paul Byron have to fight 6’0″ and 200 pound Mac Weegar because of a hit that injured Weegar weeks earlier. Byron was injured in the fight, but had to step up because of the vague “code” that exists.

Taunting the bench of your biggest rival after beating up a guy who never fights, and doing it when their toughest player is out of the lineup is not going to go unnoticed.

The two teams met again for the first time since the rough and tumble November 12th game on Friday, December 3rd.

Xhekaj was back in the lineup and the game was getting physical early on again. A teammate of Xhekaj’s pushed a player into the post after a whistle and quite the scrum ensued. This was with 4:47 to play in the first period. And look who is calmly standing in front of the penalty box as the referees sort things out:

That’s right. Arber Xhekaj and Mark Woolley are just causally chatting. At least it looks that way. It is probable that Xhekaj is talking about the “code” and telling Woolley that they too, will soon fight. It doesn’t appear hasted at all, but two veterans of the OHL knowing the inevitable and discussing their upcoming battle.

Less than a minute after the puck dropped again, these two would fight. You’ll notice Xhekaj fires a puck on net from the blue line and Woolley completely abandons his position to fight Xhekaj.

The Canadiens prospect clearly gets the upper hand in the fight and after he makes a couple of gestures that the league does not appreciate.

The weird thing about all this is that Xhekaj played two nights later when the Rangers faced the Sarnia Sting on December 5th. Then, a couple of hours before facing the London Knights on Tuesday, December 7th, the team was told Xhekaj would be suspended for an undetermined period of time.

When asked about the suspension, Branch simply said it “could be related” to the sleeping gesture Xhekaj made after knocking out Woolley.

The team was under the impression it was a one game suspension, but didn’t even know exactly what the suspension was for, let alone the duration, which is a really odd decision by the OHL.