Player Discussion Arber Xhekaj the Sheriff Returns Edition

Irrelevant.
You’d be surprised how relevant it is in pro sports circles.

An easy example of this would be to look at how much rope is given to a top-drafted player versus the median drafted one versus an undrafted one.
 
Those elements cannot come at the expense of basic game sense. Habs are 6-2 in the last 8gp, MSL doesn’t need to rock the boat, he’s done perfectly well fighting for a spot.

Xhekaj lost Marty’s trust. He had all season to build his case and he failed to do so. He won’t be the first player or the last to end up in this position.

The next opportunity Xhekaj gets might be his final one. He has to be patient, earn it, and keep it. He’s an undrafted player, it was always going to be uphill for him — his CV, so to speak, is nothing worth talking about.

I get why MT and MB didnt like PK's game and why they liked Webers game. I understood it, but I still liked PK Subban. But he lost MT's trust, right ? Now PKs career went downhill unexpectantly but nobody saw that coming.

Xhekaj is no PK , but I see the positives of what he brings and the negatives of his game. And for me , what he brings outweighs the negatives and so I disagree with MSL not playing Xhekaj, just like I disagreed with MT about PK. And pedigree aint $#@t at this point.
 
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He has been beaten out by Struble...

Hard to keep them both in the line-up. Struble is playing a safer game... so I kinda get it... but I miss the big guy...

I say he makes it into the line-up for the playoffs and demolishes some people!

Not only is he playing a safer game, but something that I never see mention were the amount of mistakes Xhekaj made and the type. They were not even acceptable AHL level mistakes. I can see why a coach would lose confidence in him. Think Primeau's last game with us.
 
People make me laugh about Struble. WTF does this bozo bring to the game? He's not untouchable.
Not sure who told you Struble is untouchable.
That being said, he’s a solid bottom pairing D that can fill in when we needed him. Brings a physical yet simple game style.
Not sure what you can expect more of #5-6 D
 
Those elements cannot come at the expense of basic game sense. Habs are 6-2 in the last 8gp, MSL doesn’t need to rock the boat, he’s done perfectly well fighting for a spot.

Xhekaj lost Marty’s trust. He had all season to build his case and he failed to do so. He won’t be the first player or the last to end up in this position.

The next opportunity Xhekaj gets might be his final one. He has to be patient, earn it, and keep it. He’s an undrafted player, it was always going to be uphill for him — his CV, so to speak, is nothing worth talking about.
Oh knock it off with your hatred of the guy. 30 other teams would love to have a kid like this , you can’t say that about that piece of shit Savard or even Struble.
 
Oh knock it off with your hatred of the guy. 30 other teams would love to have a kid like this , you can’t say that about that piece of shit Savard or even Struble.

Of the playoff teams, I doubt X would have played more than 50 games for most of them this season. He played 70 here.

No one "hates" him, he's just not that good of an NHL dman, yet. There's a reason why "enforcers" are almost always fwds... NHL teams can't afford to fill that novelty role with a dman.

To X's immense credit, he's clearly worked/working hard at improving his game, and may eventually be good enough to play regular top 6 minutes on a competitive roster. For now, he can't stay in the lineup on the youngest roster in the league... That's on him, not anyone else.
 
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Oh knock it off with your hatred of the guy. 30 other teams would love to have a kid like this , you can’t say that about that piece of shit Savard or even Struble.
I swear I don’t hate him. I’m actually totally agnostic about him and Struble both. I didn’t like Barron at all and I didn’t like Harris either. I like Kovacevic, though I knew he wanted to cash in as an FA and we likely couldn’t keep him.

I appreciate having a heavy hitting dman and would love if Ax was the guy but that didn’t happen this year. Maybe next year he’ll earn a spot.

I’m simply trying to make sense of the situation as if I was the coach.
 
Not only is he playing a safer game, but something that I never see mention were the amount of mistakes Xhekaj made and the type. They were not even acceptable AHL level mistakes. I can see why a coach would lose confidence in him. Think Primeau's last game with us.
Precisely.

It’s about the mistakes. Coaches take them personally when the player makes the same mistakes over and over. It’s unfortunate for all but what can you do, at some point it is on the player.
 
Precisely.

It’s about the mistakes. Coaches take them personally when the player makes the same mistakes over and over. It’s unfortunate for all but what can you do, at some point it is on the player.
Bullf***ingshit. Sorry about the french but I really get angry when people here take such a stand. Patrick Laine has been turning the puck over and over again in the o-zone, in PPs, in 5v5 always along the board, killing offense and creating dangerous situations EVERY f***ING GAME in the past month, yet Arber is untrusty because he makes some mistake a few times....

BULLSHIT
 
Bullf***ingshit. Sorry about the french but I really get angry when people here take such a stand. Patrick Laine has been turning the puck over and over again in the o-zone, in PPs, in 5v5 always along the board, killing offense and creating dangerous situations EVERY f***ING GAME in the past month, yet Arber is untrusty because he makes some mistake a few times....

BULLSHIT
MSL doesn’t have a better alternative to Laine at forward but he does have six defenders he trusts more than Xhekaj. Laine has more points and vitally GOALS over a significantly smaller number of games than Newhook, Dvorak, etc.

Take it up with Kent Hughes, who sat on his hands at the deadline.

Arber’s “few mistakes” are brutal bozo moves that drive coaches mad. Be honest and you’ll understand it
 
Yet Matheson plays 25 mins a game, curious
We don’t have better options and MM has a lot more credit with MSL than Xhekaj does.

It is curious… curious how a roster so busted can be on the verge of a playoff appearance.
 
People make me laugh about Struble. WTF does this bozo bring to the game? He's not untouchable.
He's not untouchable but he's about as good as X is. X makes a lot of defensive mistakes - as you'd expect given that he's young. They're equivalent players and I think MSL just sees Struble as the more safe option right now.

As I've said, I'd take X over Struble. I think he has more potential. But it sucks that they're both LD. It'd be perfect going forward if we could slot them both on the bottom pair. Ultimately though, we can't keep having too many left shots on the D. One of them has to go.
 
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MSL doesn’t have a better alternative to Laine at forward but he does have six defenders he trusts more than Xhekaj. Laine has more points and vitally GOALS over a significantly smaller number of games than Newhook, Dvorak, etc.

Take it up with Kent Hughes, who sat on his hands at the deadline.

Arber’s “few mistakes” are brutal bozo moves that drive coaches mad. Be honest and you’ll understand it
Kent did not "Sit on his hands during the TDL". He listened/gave the benefit of the doubt to his Captain who asked to give this team a chance and keep them together for the post season run. The onus is on the team and MSL to execute not KH.
 
Kent did not "Sit on his hands during the TDL". He listened/gave the benefit of the doubt to his Captain who asked to give this team a chance and keep them together for the post season run. The onus is on the team and MSL to execute not KH.
Teams that earn a chance usually prefer and desire trade deadline reinforcements.

Hughes didn’t acquire even a 12th forward. Not even a warm body.

That’s a conscious decision from Hughes, not a coincidence.
 
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Will Ti-Louis dress him tomorrow night if it’s a do or die?

Probably not, little napoelon of shit.
 
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