DON Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 1 hour ago, Neech said: Good to see Arber back out there! At least one of our young defenders will probably get dealt this offseason and I hope it's not him. BUT, he is likely the least skilled of them all. Of course many seem to love to see a goon dress and Hughes is talking like he dosent want to move him. His head coach might see different when he keeps taking stupid penalties. Thus Xhekaj is 9th (last) in TOL/game (even less than Lindstrom). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GHT120 Posted February 6 Author Share Posted February 6 43 minutes ago, DON said: Thus Xhekaj is 9th (last) in TOL/game (even less than Lindstrom). In fairness ... Lindstrom's TOI was inflated because he is a RHD and Savard was out for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyhasbeen Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 49 minutes ago, DON said: BUT, he is likely the least skilled of them all. Of course many seem to love to see a goon dress and Hughes is talking like he dosent want to move him. His head coach might see different when he keeps taking stupid penalties. Thus Xhekaj is 9th (last) in TOL/game (even less than Lindstrom). I see as many bad penalties from Harris. Not unusual in young defence men. Is Harris more skill? I don't see that at this point. He is better in his own end though. Wish he could move the puck. I still say Harris should be the odd man out of we move a young d. Just my thought based on every game I say ",who was that? Oh Harris , of course" He needs AHL time to get more experience and confidence moving the puck out of his end. He will one day be good with experience but I don't see great. Third pair d-men, not something we are short on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habscout Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Caufield dishes a beautiful saucer pass to Suzuki, and he puts it in the net. Habs up 1-0 ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habscout Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Slick Nick gets a rebound off the post to put the Habs up 2-0 ! Quelle surprise!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habscout Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Pezzetta scored a nice goal too. Tough to watch ex-Hab Charlie Lindgren being pulled, but I don't really blame him for any of those goals. I am very surprised at Montreal's start tonight. Washington looks listless though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_Boagalott Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 42 minutes ago, johnnyhasbeen said: I see as many bad penalties from Harris. Not unusual in young defence men. Is Harris more skill? I don't see that at this point. He is better in his own end though. Wish he could move the puck. I still say Harris should be the odd man out of we move a young d. Just my thought based on every game I say ",who was that? Oh Harris , of course" He needs AHL time to get more experience and confidence moving the puck out of his end. He will one day be good with experience but I don't see great. Third pair d-men, not something we are short on. I agree that Harris might be the lesser skilled of all the Habs young d prospects. Hopefully, he improves with experience and cuts down on his penalties and make less mistakes. However, his big positive is he can play both sides so that could be a good reason to keep him as the 7th dman. He's also unlikely to have a high contract ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomh009 Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 1 hour ago, DON said: BUT, he is likely the least skilled of them all. Of course many seem to love to see a goon dress and Hughes is talking like he dosent want to move him. His head coach might see different when he keeps taking stupid penalties. Thus Xhekaj is 9th (last) in TOL/game (even less than Lindstrom). Xhekaj is significantly more than just a goon IMHO ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomh009 Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Ovechkin is clearly the all-time best scorer ever, as the announcers said. He can even hit an open net from a stick's length away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurdBurglar Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 30 minutes ago, tomh009 said: Xhekaj is significantly more than just a goon IMHO ... There's flashes of something more there. First thing he needs to do is find a way to stay out of the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_Boagalott Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 53 minutes ago, tomh009 said: Xhekaj is significantly more than just a goon IMHO ... Yes, no doubt. I don't get when people suggest they should trade him. IMHO his ceiling could be the highest of any of their young dmen. He has great size, toughness + grit, and he has the work ethic where he keeps practicing and improving. For those reasons I think it would be insane to move him. 25 minutes ago, TurdBurglar said: There's flashes of something more there. First thing he needs to do is find a way to stay out of the box. He definitely shows flashes of more and his penalties should improve with experience along with the rest of his play, such as being on the PP. I still want to see him used on the PP how Byfuglien was used. i.e. put him out front of the other teams net - lest see them try to deal with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomh009 Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Montembeault was great, but a very solid game by Xhekaj, too. And he wasn't the one taking two minors on the night, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Solid first game for Gignac who had harder defensive assignments than I expected. Slafkovsky was a bit quiet early on but those were two nice shots in the third to seal the win. More games like that down the stretch for him would be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habs Fan in Edmonton Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 1 hour ago, Sir_Boagalott said: Yes, no doubt. I don't get when people suggest they should trade him. IMHO his ceiling could be the highest of any of their young dmen. He has great size, toughness + grit, and he has the work ethic where he keeps practicing and improving. For those reasons I think it would be insane to move him. He definitely shows flashes of more and his penalties should improve with experience along with the rest of his play, such as being on the PP. I still want to see him used on the PP how Byfuglien was used. i.e. put him out front of the other teams net - lest see them try to deal with him. Excellent points, I don't think Arber is going anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neech Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Great shooting from Slaf, maybe the two nicest goals of his career so far. Why is Arber playing fewer minutes than Gignac? It seems like he's being scapegoated. Hopefully it's a part of a process and we're sticking with him, because he's shown more for me than Harris or Barron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime Minister Koivu Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Matheson finally passed the puck to Slafkovsky on the PP and BOOM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DON Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Entertaining game, lots of positives; Suzuki 6 pts in last 3 games (45pts 50gms) Great for the big kid to bury 2, wasnt sure how bad the big Wilson hit hurt him. Caufield 0 goals but 4 shots. Armia 4 shots 19:32, most of the forwards. Struble 3 shots 17:57, pretty solid play again. Montembeault 37saves 39 shots (0.949) Matheson 4pts in last 3 games (36pts 50gms) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_Boagalott Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 19 minutes ago, Neech said: Great shooting from Slaf, maybe the two nicest goals of his career so far. Why is Arber playing fewer minutes than Gignac? It seems like he's being scapegoated. Hopefully it's a part of a process and we're sticking with him, because he's shown more for me than Harris or Barron. Yep, great stuff from Slaf, I'm happy he had his 1st multi goal game. Nick has a 10 game point streak going, thats the longest since Domi. I have seen rumours that Marty might not appreciate large physical players like WiFi and if that is true in time I could see that eventually leading to him being fired. The Habs are definitely sticking with Arber. The Habs drafted Florian and in the top of the 4th rnd because they didn't' want to risk another team taking him when he should have went at the bottom of the 4th rnd. If they didn't like Arber it would be silly for them to guarantee that they end up with his lil brother. i.e Hughes likes Arber so much he made damn sure that he got Florian too. Drafting Florian like that was a brilliant move because they ended up with Bogdan too. At 1 draft in the 4th rnd the Habs likely drafted 2 decent NHL players. Both of them are steals and will probably be home run picks if not grand slams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfredoh2009 Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 15 hours ago, Neech said: Good to see Arber back out there! At least one of our young defenders will probably get dealt this offseason and I hope it's not him. Marc Dumont is also on team Xhekaj: Oh hey, look, Arber Xhekaj had yet another very good game on the blueline, as has been the case most of the season. I'm not sure when the narrative will die, but Xhekaj deserves credit for his play this year. Leads all Habs defencemen in most key metrics. https://t.co/348BwX90tl — Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) February 7, 2024 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chicoutimi Cucumber Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 2 hours ago, alfredoh2009 said: Marc Dumont is also on team Xhekaj: That is interesting...although like the metrics that proved Brett Kulak to be a top-4 D, something feels off in that cumulative assessment. On the other hand, I'm among those who believe WiFi is, or can be, significantly better than his goon typecasting. Names like Souray or Bieksa are those that he brings to mind for me - and both of those guys were similarly framed as nothing but tough guys early in their careers. 10 hours ago, Sir_Boagalott said: Yep, great stuff from Slaf, I'm happy he had his 1st multi goal game. Nick has a 10 game point streak going, thats the longest since Domi. I have seen rumours that Marty might not appreciate large physical players like WiFi and if that is true in time I could see that eventually leading to him being fired. The Habs are definitely sticking with Arber. The Habs drafted Florian and in the top of the 4th rnd because they didn't' want to risk another team taking him when he should have went at the bottom of the 4th rnd. If they didn't like Arber it would be silly for them to guarantee that they end up with his lil brother. i.e Hughes likes Arber so much he made damn sure that he got Florian too. Drafting Florian like that was a brilliant move because they ended up with Bogdan too. At 1 draft in the 4th rnd the Habs likely drafted 2 decent NHL players. Both of them are steals and will probably be home run picks if not grand slams. Sometimes a coach will have an issue with a player that *seems* to go beyond hockey. MSL seems like a wiser man than that, but who knows. My guess is that he set a task for WiFi - "stop taking so many penalties" - and the player's failure to do so has caused Marty to downshift toward a more punitive approach. Who knows, maybe there is something in WiFi's attitude that gets MSL’s back up. But hopefully MSL's approach is principled and fair toward WiFi, as opposed to something like Therrien's subliminally racist and clearly personal bullying of Subban. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commandant Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Wifi is putting up good numbers. The caveat to that though is the ice time and the fact that he is being sheltered with his zone starts and the opponents who he is being matched against. This indicates that he should get some more icetime and harder matchups to see how he handles it. We've already seen this year with both Struble and Kovacevic that they were putting up great numbers on the third pair, and then fell off entirely when given bigger responsibility. If Xhekaj can continue to play well in his sheltered minutes and avoid penalties, then it will be a good experiment to increase the amount and difficulty of his minutes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfredoh2009 Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 21 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said: That is interesting...although like the metrics that proved Brett Kulak to be a top-4 D, something feels off in that cumulative assessment. On the other hand, I'm among those who believe WiFi is, or can be, significantly better than his goon typecasting. Names like Souray or Bieksa are those that he brings to mind for me - and both of those guys were similarly framed as nothing but tough guys early in their careers. Sometimes a coach will have an issue with a player that *seems* to go beyond hockey. MSL seems like a wiser man than that, but who knows. My guess is that he set a task for WiFi - "stop taking so many penalties" - and the player's failure to do so has caused Marty to downshift toward a more punitive approach. Who knows, maybe there is something in WiFi's attitude that gets MSL’s back up. But hopefully MSL's approach is principled and fair toward WiFi, as opposed to something like Therrien's subliminally racist and clearly personal bullying of Subban. I do not buy into the opinion that Xhekaj is a goon. I believe that he is in the same vein as Anderson and Brady Tkachuk where he is intense and has the body type to push through the other team. I believe that playing lots of minutes in all kind of situations is the way for him to learn to stay out of the penalty box. Like Weber-like Ds, having the physicality in his toolbox makes him a great player to keep in the lineup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DON Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Most likely Xhekaj will be 3rd pairing guy on some team. Hope for a Bieksa-type but seems more like a Souray, who was not good defending but could shoot and was physical. But, we shall see if he can stay in St Louis's good books for the next 30 games and get a little PP time again. He dosent play on the PK, wonder how he would handle that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurdBurglar Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 1 hour ago, DON said: Most likely Xhekaj will be 3rd pairing guy on some team. Hope for a Bieksa-type but seems more like a Souray, who was not good defending but could shoot and was physical. But, we shall see if he can stay in St Louis's good books for the next 30 games and get a little PP time again. He dosent play on the PK, wonder how he would handle that? I think the Souray comparison is a little off. Souray had a bomb of a shot, that's pretty much all he had. Xhekaj has a decent wrist shot, but I've seen nothing in the way of a bomb that would warrant comparison to Souray in that respect. I would compare him more to younger Komisarek right now. Size, developing defensive game, will put up the odd goal and point, but won't knock your socks off with anything he really does in the offensive zone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DON Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 32 minutes ago, TurdBurglar said: I would compare him more to younger Komisarek right now. Size, developing defensive game, will put up the odd goal and point, but won't knock your socks off with anything he really does in the offensive zone. I dont think the slap shot is used as once was. And Komisarik maybe better comparable? (He just needs a Markov to carry him.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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