One of the best stories of the Montreal Canadiens 2022-23 season so far has been the emergence of rookie defenseman Arber Xhekaj. The undrafted player has taken a winding road to the NHL, and by all accounts impressed in a defensive unit stocked to the brim with rookie blueliners. Not only has he quickly established a reputation as one of the most fearsome, physical young players in the NHL, he has also flashed some more skill and ability with the puck than one might expect from someone with his profile.
It is made all the more disappointing, then, that the excitement his rookie season has inspired could be put on hold. Xhekaj left for the locker room during the Canadiens’ game against the Edmonton Oilers immediately after fighting Oilers defenseman Vincent Desharnais. The Canadiens tweeted that Xhekaj would not return for the third period of the game, and did not add any additional information on the nature of the injury. TVA Sports’ Marc-Andre Perreault did note that it’s a possible shoulder injury.
For some other notes from across the NHL:
- The Nashville Predators have announced that star forward Filip Forsberg is out with an upper-body injury. Per the team, his status is to be considered day-to-day. The loss of Forsberg, even for just a few games, is a significant one for the Predators as he is their leading scorer among forwards with 42 points in 50 games. This is a crucial stretch of their season, as they have games in hand on both the Calgary Flames and Minnesota Wild, the two teams ahead of them for the Western Conference’s second Wild Card spot. If the Predators, who are just four points out of that spot, want to keep pushing for the playoffs they’ll have to hope that this absence is a minor one for Forsberg.
- San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer is dealing with a minor illness, according to Bay Area News Group’s Curtis Pashelka. In his absence, Kaapo Kahkonen will take up number-one netminder duties for the Sharks, while Aaron Dell has been recalled to serve as a backup. Per Pashelka, the hope is that Reimer will be back in action in time for the Sharks’ game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Tuesday. Reimer is a pending unrestricted free agent who has posted an .895 save percentage in 28 games played this season.
Xhekaj is a novelty and I hope the experiment is over after today, If the Canadiens were completely healthy he’d be in the press box.
Hes been better than Edmundson and Savard
@Wilf—He’s a little more than a novelty, since he brings an amount of truculence that the Habs haven’t seen in a while. Suzuki and Caufield need somebody of substance to keep the flies off.
You’re smoking the good stuff lol i guess you have never ever watched him play what a stupid comment
How is it that we hear of those teams just ahead of the Preds in the standings wanting to improve their rosters but hear nothing of that sort from GM Poile? Either making the playoffs and being a threat to win a few series is important or else you should be selling off parts for future assets.
As the saying goes, either go or get off the pot!
@Gbear—Hey! I said that first! :( GMDP is waiting for the other guys to make all the mistakes, so that all that is left is can’t-miss deals. He’s been upping his dose of “You can’t fool me” pills for the last couple of weeks. We probably shouldn’t tell him they’re from “offshore”, aka the scenic city of Placebo. :)
@Mac – Poile would make for good Babylon Bee material. “GM orders investigation to uncover who built the mediocre team he’s in charge of”. :/
@Gbear – In the IT world, we call that an “infinite loop.”
10 GOTO 20
20 GOTO 10
Accompanied by the sound of GMDP’s wheels spinning like mad, but going nowhere fast. The only thing in recent years he can hang his hat on is unloading Sammy Spin-O-Rama, the Pizza Server.