It's a double-edged sword for Arber Xhekaj, as his toughness and willingness to defend his teammates is why he earned a spot on the Canadiens. The problem for Xhekaj is that his toughness has taken him out of the lineup too many times to stay reliable. For starters, Xhekaj has many injuries to his shoulders from his physical play. However, this preseason he has a new trend of getting kicked out of games early. The first game misconduct was against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night when he defended the Patrik Laine knee-on-knee hit, and now on Tuesday night, he received a game misconduct for hitting Tim Stutzle in the head.
Arber Xhekaj received a major and a game misconduct for this hit on Tim Stützle pic.twitter.com/zWlRtTdGjt
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 2, 2024
The reactions were mixed about the severity of Xhekaj's hit. Many argued that it wasn't his shoulder that hit Stutzle at all, but Stutzle's own stick rode up and caught him in the face. Xhekaj escaped suspension after he mauled Pare, but I don't think he will get the benefit of the doubt on this one. I think it was just the stick riding up and Xhekaj isn't at fault, but the Department of Player Safety will see this as a slap in their face after letting him off with the Pare incident.
It's a big-picture problem for Xhekaj. As we all know, the Canadiens' blue line is deep, and Xhekaj was likely already fighting for a spot on the left side. The Canadiens were considering putting Kaiden Guhle on the right side to fit in Xhekaj and Lane Hutson, but they could be rethinking that now. Regardless, Xhekaj may not be available for the season opener depending on the suspension length. If Martin St. Louis puts together a blue line for the first game and he likes how it looks, Xhekaj could have trouble finding his way back into the lineup.