The young defenseman for the Montreal Canadiens, Arber Xhekaj, has made such great progress this season. As Martin St-Louis directly pointed out in a recent press conference.. In addition to being a much better defender than a few months ago, the Sheriff has gained a lot of maturity.
He demonstrated this learning last weekend against the Toronto Maple Leafs, when he wisely refused to drop the gloves with Ryan Reaves, as it was clearly unnecessary at that point in the game.
To justify this refusal, he pointed to the scoreboard, which showed that the Canadiens were ahead. (We all know what happened next and the collapse that followed.)
Personally, I had absolutely no problem with what Xhekaj did.
I believe it was without malice.
However, according to former enforcer Georges Laraque, the young defenseman made a mistake last weekend regarding Ryan Reaves.
Georges Laraque mentions that Arber Xhekaj made a mistake in front of Ryan Reaves
The former Habs forward actually disagrees with me, and he believes that Xhekaj was wrong.
«The Xhekaj-Reaves incident was a turning point in the game. […]
That was Xhekaj’s mistake. […]
I love Xhekaj, he’s my guy, but if you don’t want to go because of the score, you tell him discreetly.
Because he pointed to the scoreboard, what happens is that when Reaves returns to the bench, all of his teammates see that Reaves wanted to go to war for them, and Xhekaj didn’t want to, and pointed to the scoreboard, you motivate the other team.
Now, in the locker room, the guys are ‘primed’ against each other, and now they want to win it for Reaves.»
– Georges Laraque
«Because he did that […] they used it as a motivational tool, and it changed the momentum.»
– Georges Laraque
In short, Ryan Reaves just added fuel to the fire in a press conference and shared more on this story.
«You wanna point at the scoreboard and then get rattled off for seven.. it’s a tough look.»
Ryan Reaves on Arber Xhekaj pointing at the scoreboard before seven unanswered Leafs goals.
In a press conference in the past few minutes, the tough forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs indeed publicly called out Xhekaj again.
See the excerpt in question:
And you, what is your opinion regarding the situation involving Arber Xhekaj and Ryan Reaves?
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