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Player Discussion Arber Xhekaj: The Sheriff

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CAUFIELD said:
Xhekaj is living rent free in the leafs Pre-game thread discussion. They are pissed that they have to dress Reaves just in case.

I honestly don’t want Xhekaj to fight Reaves. Xhekaj is more important to us long term than fighting unidimensional heavyweights.

It’s just interesting to see the deterrent impact Xhekaj is having on other teams, while not even being at is peak yet.
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I do and I want him to beat the shit out of him like he did with Kassian. Then you'll never hear of this again.
 
Impossible to avoid fighting Reaves. Par for the course one might say.
I have faith that he will handle himself well win or lose.
 
Habs Halifax said:
Not sure I like the Xhekaj and Barron pairing. I think they will get exposed on the road. We will see.

Our D core has so much potential but they are still very young. This is the area that will push us up or hold us back.
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They will be fine.....................that said wouldn't mind seeing the Sherriff and Struble do their thing on the 3rd pair also....

Nova_Scotia_Vees said:
Impossible to avoid fighting Reaves. Par for the course one might say.
I have faith that he will handle himself well win or lose.
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If Reaves loses to the Sherriff again, he might as well go be with the Marlies.
The guy is a joke of a player now.
At least Arber can play the NHL game.
 
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Nova_Scotia_Vees said:
Impossible to avoid fighting Reaves. Par for the course one might say.
I have faith that he will handle himself well win or lose.
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It's a shame that thugs who can't play can still affect a game. Arber will hold his own but as a Dman he is far more valuable than a 5 minute per game goon.
 
BLONG7 said:
They will be fine.....................that said wouldn't mind seeing the Sherriff and Struble do their thing on the 3rd pair also....
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I'm sure we will try various combo's on the 3rd pairing. Xhekaj seems to be focused more on the player protection area vs providing stable D. I have faith he figures that out over time as he mature more.

From the 3 (Xhekaj, Barron, Struble), I trust Struble the most in our own zone.
 
Nova_Scotia_Vees said:
Impossible to avoid fighting Reaves. Par for the course one might say.
I have faith that he will handle himself well win or lose.
Click to expand...
It's inevitable, but I am not excited to see it. Arber is tough but he does leave himself open to eat some shots. He's been built up so much that if he falls, we wll never hear the end of it. A nice tie up with no one getting hurt is fine by me.
 
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X fighting goons creates more problem for him then actually fighting. It takes away his concentration of his defensive game.

I don't trust MSL not holding any fighting against X. He talks the big talk about team toughness but in reality, the only one that can take care of business is X and last time he sent him down when he took too many penalties.

So which is it? Sacrifice some of his skill/play to protect Hutson and CC or ignore them and play a safe, sound defensive game?

Tell you what, bring in a good to deal with goons and let X play the game.
 
loudi94 said:
It's inevitable, but I am not excited to see it. Arber is tough but he does leave himself open to eat some shots. He's been built up so much that if he falls, we wll never hear the end of it. A nice tie up with no one getting hurt is fine by me.
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I wish I knew him personally and push him to take boxing lessons.

I took martial arts and while I was good at that, a boxer almost took my head off. A few weeks later, I was in his gym and learning the basics....of how to defend/take a punch and picking my spots.

X is risking his hands and head long term by punching helmets and taking shots. Tough buys like Lucic knew how to box and used his skill very effectively on the ice. I don't want X to slur his speech before he hits his 70s.
 
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HabsAddict said:
So which is it? Sacrifice some of his skill/play to protect Hutson and CC or ignore them and play a safe, sound defensive game?
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Why are you pretending that these are the only two options?

Also - Xhekaj didn't get sent down last December strictly because he was taking too many penalties. The issue was more about the kinds of penalties he was taking (he wasn't tripping guys trying to execute a poke check of hooking guys that otherwise would have gone in alone. A lot of his penalties were lazy or selfish and it was hurting the team.)

But moreso than the discipline issues, he was just making a lot of mistakes, particularly under pressure, and he didn't have the freedom to make mistakes at the NHL level, so he was sent to the AHL to iron out some issues, raise his confidence and work on his play without the puck (positionally, he was all over the place by the time he was sent down.)
 
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CAUFIELD said:
Xhekaj is living rent free in the leafs Pre-game thread discussion. They are pissed that they have to dress Reaves just in case.

I honestly don’t want Xhekaj to fight Reaves. Xhekaj is more important to us long term than fighting unidimensional heavyweights.

It’s just interesting to see the deterrent impact Xhekaj is having on other teams, while not even being at is peak yet.
Click to expand...
LOL
I hope he's able to line up one of their Right Wingers with a perfectly timed bone cruncher.
You know the kind that alters a player's zone entry strategy for the rest of the evening.
 
CAUFIELD said:
Xhekaj is living rent free in the leafs Pre-game thread discussion. They are pissed that they have to dress Reaves just in case.

I honestly don’t want Xhekaj to fight Reaves. Xhekaj is more important to us long term than fighting unidimensional heavyweights.

It’s just interesting to see the deterrent impact Xhekaj is having on other teams, while not even being at is peak yet.
Click to expand...
I hope he fight Reaves , Reaves is an overpaid goon and im sure Xhekaj can flat him out and then the leafs would atleast respect us on the physical aspect of the game
 
BLONG7 said:
They will be fine.....................that said wouldn't mind seeing the Sherriff and Struble do their thing on the 3rd pair also....


If Reaves loses to the Sherriff again, he might as well go be with the Marlies.
The guy is a joke of a player now.
At least Arber can play the NHL game.
Click to expand...
If you called that a fight. X jumps him which he is great at but how many punches did either land and pushing a guy into the back of a net is not winning a fight. Tired of all this talk about what happened to Laine and what may happen. I hope they skate out to centre ice and drop their gloves and whoever wins wins.
 
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I expect them to go tomorrow - for the simple reason that Reaves likes to run around, and Arber protects his teammates.
Reaves is considered the best fighter in the league, but he's not going to rag doll a 6'4, 240 lbs powder-keg. Probably one of those spinorama fights.
MSL should be dressing Pezzetta.
Too many small guys in the lineup tomorrow.
 
morhilane said:
Don't dress Reaves and nothing will happen because Xhekaj isn't actually a goon...

I feel like Leafs and Sens (fans and teams) are just trying to stir shit so they can play the victim afterward.
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This! What laffs' and turds' fans won't admit to themselves is that X only activated after the scrubs in their lineups went after our top 6 guys. Don't hurt our players and you won't have to worry about Xhekaj. Seems simple enough,
 
HabsWhiteKnightLOL said:
I hope he fight Reaves , Reaves is an overpaid goon and im sure Xhekaj can flat him out and then the leafs would atleast respect us on the physical aspect of the game
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Frankly, I couldn't give a shit whether they respect us or not. They should be more worried about the respect we extend to them. It’s laff-able to watch them pounding their chest over beating a rebuilding team, only to bow out of the playoffs in seven games year after year.
 
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CAUFIELD said:
Xhekaj is living rent free in the leafs Pre-game thread discussion. They are pissed that they have to dress Reaves just in case.

I honestly don’t want Xhekaj to fight Reaves. Xhekaj is more important to us long term than fighting unidimensional heavyweights.

It’s just interesting to see the deterrent impact Xhekaj is having on other teams, while not even being at is peak yet.
Click to expand...

Reaves is on the spit on yourself pod today and he looks like he got into cycling and stopped lifting he's gonna get beaten to a pulp.

Can't wait
 
Team_Spirit said:
Reaves is on the spit on yourself pod today and he looks like he got into cycling and stopped lifting he's gonna get beaten to a pulp.

Can't wait
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Well I don’t think a pro like Reaves stopped lifting for real. and Xhekaj, while strong and brave , takes lots of shots while fighting. Taking blows from Reaves or Mcdermid won’t be forgiving. Xhekaj must learn to protect himself and fight intelligently.
 
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BLONG7 said:
They will be fine.....................that said wouldn't mind seeing the Sherriff and Struble do their thing on the 3rd pair also....


If Reaves loses to the Sherriff again, he might as well go be with the Marlies.
The guy is a joke of a player now.
At least Arber can play the NHL game.
Click to expand...
I can be confortable a 3rd pairing of Arber and Struble. But Arber and Barron, no thanks.

A fight Arber vs Reaves, 50%-50% who wins the fight.
The consequences : If Arber lose the fight or get injured (hand, shoulder, etc), Habs lose a 6th defenceman who is the only enforcer and a player who brings something related of playing hockey. ( )
If Leafs lose Reaves, they don't care, Reaves is nothing in their depth except fighting.

So every time there is that kind of fight, I cross my fingers. First I want Arber to kick @s but I don't want him injured. Fight might be so-so, as long as Arber is not injured. He can play the next game.
 
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Catanddogguitarrr said:
I can be confortable a 3rd pairing of Arber and Struble. But Arber and Barron, no thanks.

A fight Arber vs Reaves, 50%-50% who wins the fight.
The consequences : If Arber lose the fight or get injured (hand, shoulder, etc), Habs lose a 6th defenceman who is the only enforcer and a player who brings something related of playing hockey. ( )
If Leafs lose Reaves, they don't care, Reaves is nothing in their depth except fighting.

So every time there is that kind of fight, I cross my fingers. First I want Arber to kick @s but I don't want him injured. Fight might be so-so, as long as Arber is not injured. He can play the next game.
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Habs need someone on the 4th line who can help offset these stupid fights
 
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