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Player Discussion Arber Xhekaj: The Sheriff

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WeThreeKings said:
They're not trading him - they are just trying to get him to not take a bunch of stupid penalties. I don't think he gets benched if his penalties were him being physical, but lazy high sticking penalties and stick infractions are things you can't do especially if its been something you've been told to work on.

He will be fine - plenty of time to figure it out.
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Do you think that he could play 10 pounds lighter and reshape himself into a better skater as a result? He would still be a deterrent at 230 for me.
 
VirginiaMtlExpat said:
Do you think that he could play 10 pounds lighter and reshape himself into a better skater as a result? He would still be a deterrent at 230 for me.
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He should attempt to lose a few and get his skating/agility up if he wants to be a regular. He's always a little bit behind the play in his end. While experience will help in that regard, the league keeps getting faster and he'll need to keep up.

That's why it's hard to take some posters seriously when they are begging Guhle to add 20-25lbs in the offseason. That would be detrimental to his game.
 
He played a garbage game after being called up. He was rightly benched.

That doesn’t mean MSL hates him
It doesn’t mean he’s going to be traded

Who the hell knows what’s going on behind the scenes? Maybe Wifi was arrogant and get sent down. Maybe he’s not as coachable as a guy like Slaf… maybe he just had such a bad game MSL decided enough was enough.

He’s a young player learning the game. People seriously need to relax.
 
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WeThreeKings said:
Oh wow - Arber talks to Marty and apologizes for his bad penalties.

Non issue has non issued.
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Did Struble had to apologizes after his bad penalty that led to the first goal or his terrible giveaway at the blueline?

Guess being good friends with the Boss’s sons his paying dividend.
 
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If only we had real reporters, they could be asking Hughes why did they call him up now? They sent him down in part because of the dumb penalties from what I understand, yet in the last 9 games he racked up 30 pims, does that sound like someone that was getting the message?

Unless it was to showcase him, I don't understand why they called him up when he was helping Laval so much yet still clearly having issues in the AHL.
 
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Hannibal said:
Did Struble had to apologizes after his bad penalty that led to the first goal or his terrible giveaway at the blueline?

Guess being good friends with the Boss’s sons his paying dividend.
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I missed when Struble was sent down to Laval to fix that issue, got called up and then proceeded to bang out 3 penalties in 3 periods?

You are asking for Xhekaj to not be held accountable for doing the very indisciplined things he was sent down to get out of his game.

Marty allows players to play through their mistakes, which is why after 2 penalties in 2 periods he was still playing until he got a 3rd one that was equally as silly and needless.

I get you love the player but be objective here. He earned his demotion, he earned his promotion and earned his benching.

Jordan Harris is also good friends with the Boss's sons and he just got scratched for 2 games straight for Xhekaj, who apparently MSL hates and wants to see fail so he can trade him.
 
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I think the Xhekay-MSL relationship is badly damaged. The kid should had played at AHL level most of last season to learn the game at pro level. We know why he was kept with all the injuries and trades. Fans fell in love with hoim because of his physical prowess and fighting skills. But he was piling up bad penalties, game after game. He had a good taste of NHL hockey last season before being injured in a useless fight with Desharnais. This year , he was playing pretty badly before being injured by a good body check from Barbashev, a non-fighter. His demotion to Laval was the proper decision. He was (and still is) pretty pissed off to have lost NHL $$$ . I would not be surprised if he is playing still subpar and taking dumb penalties to get out of MTL.
 
HuGo Sham said:
lol I agree with you though.
Emotional response. hope the kid succeeds here.
we need him
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He will be fine - the kid is cut from the right cloth.

Took his demotion to Laval seriously and played well.

Even if he ran into the same issues up here, he took accountability and talked to Marty. That's accountability, ownership and someone who cares.
 
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Lafleurs Guy said:
He played a garbage game after being called up. He was rightly benched.

That doesn’t mean MSL hates him
It doesn’t mean he’s going to be traded

Who the hell knows what’s going on behind the scenes? Maybe Wifi was arrogant and get sent down. Maybe he’s not as coachable as a guy like Slaf… maybe he just had such a bad game MSL decided enough was enough.

He’s a young player learning the game. People seriously need to relax.
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Or Maybe he's not MSL's type of hockey player
 
Lafleurs Guy said:
A guy who takes three penalties after being called up from the AHL isn’t anyone’s hockey player.
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It's not just about taking three penalties, it's about taking bad penalties.

The guy is a monster. He could simply play hard and finish his checks, clean up the front of the net, and throw his weight during scrimmage.

Right now, punching a guy out of the blue on the sideline or crosschecking someone when there is no play around him, that's totally useless. Its not scaring anyone. If he keeps doing that, other teams will deliberately provoke him into taking these stupid penalties. It will become part of the gameplan.

You can play hard and be smart about it, and force the other teams to go after you. Let them retaliate and take the penalties.
 
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Gallagher attempted to take a man's head off and it nearly cost us the game but he isn't on an entry-level contract so will that mean that he gets a pass as a first-time offender or does that mean that he gets some games in the press box and the young kids on the roster get to see vets getting equal punishment for their actions?
 
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OldCraig71 said:
Gallagher attempted to take a man's head off and it nearly cost us the game but he isn't on an entry-level contract so will that mean that he gets a pass as a first-time offender or does that mean that he gets some games in the press box and the young kids on the roster get to see vets getting equal punishment for their actions?
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MSL is basically an idiot but Arber needs to clean up this aspect of his game though.
 
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