An old saying goes that a mistake is half forgiven. A dozen hours after Arber
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Martin St-Louis hadn't yet whipped out his whistle and shouted his instructions when we saw him in full conversation with the Colossus on the ice at the Brossard Sports Complex. A few minutes earlier, Stéphane Robidas, defense coach, had also exchanged a few words with him.
Photo Martin Chevalier
“I was the one who approached her. “I wanted to apologize for my penalties,” said Xhekaj when he returned to the dressing room. They had no reason to exist.”
“We were up 3-0. I lost the ball at the blue line and received a penalty in the sequence. These are two penalties that could be avoided, he continued. They told me to forget about it and concentrate on practicing. That today was a brand new day.”
Xhekaj is a defender who enjoys physical play. This allowed him to climb the ladder. It's thanks to this approach that he surprised everyone last year and secured a spot with the Canadiens despite coming out of the junior class and never being drafted.
“He is a player who will always be at stake. You don’t want to take that away from him,” St-Louis said.
The trainer then offered a comparison to another of his troops who perhaps spends a little too much time in the dungeon.
“It reminds me of [Joel] Armia, who is punished with the cane. But how often does he win pucks with his stick? St. Louis asked. You have to be careful not to handcuff them. It’s a balance, they have to understand where we are in the game.”
Find the famous line
The time remaining on the scoreboard, the score, the pace of the game, the famous momentum: these are a number of factors to take into account when it comes to playing to the limit. The famous narrow ridge can be found here.
Considering he tops the Canadian's penalty minutes list (53) despite having only played 19 games, we can assume he hasn't fully grasped where that famous line is yet.
“I have to find a way to stay out of the penalty area,” admitted Xhekaj. The coaches let me play and want me to play my style. But of course they don’t want me to underpay the team.”
Josh Anderson also knows a thing or two about physical play. He follows Xhekaj in the column of minutes spent in the cell with 51. The difference is that he has played 44 games.
“Arber has played enough games in the league to understand that [ce qu’il est permis de faire et ce qui n’est pas permis]. But we definitely don’t want him to change the way he plays,” he said.
He simply has to learn to deal with his impulses and his enthusiasm. Like anything, it's something you acquire with experience. We must not forget that the child is only 22 years old.
- Three people were missing from the training the Canadian completed before his flight to Pittsburgh, where he will play on Saturday. David Savard, Sean Monahan and Jake Evans were given leave for one-day treatment.