Canadiens' Arber Xhekaj finding comfort zone in depth role

BROSSARD, Que. — There was a sequence in last Tuesday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets that was perfectly indicative of Arber Xhekaj’s improvement this season, and it came long before he threw his last right-hand cross at Tyrel Bauer’s head.

It was in the ninth minute of the second period when Xhekaj set up a great one-timer opportunity in the offensive zone for Adam Engstrom and then hustled back into position in his own end to simultaneously deny a zone entry and a hit from Viggo Bjorck. In both instances, Xhekaj steadied himself, chose the play he was going to make before the puck arrived, and executed to perfection.

The pass to Engstrom was the best of several decisions Xhekaj could’ve made in that situation, and it led to a quality scoring chance. And everything he did immediately after that led to the Canadiens continuing one of their only good sequences of the game — and led Bjorck back to the Jets’ bench worse for wear after bearing the brunt of a collision he initiated.

That had to feel good for Xhekaj, who was one of roughly five Canadiens who didn’t need a hard look in the mirror after that history-making loss. 

He was as effective in that game as he had been in each of the 13 games he’d appeared in before it this season, and he’s been just as good since, providing more evidence of just how comfortable he’s become in the role he had so much trouble nailing down last season.

Just 10 days prior to the game against the Jets, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said, “Arber’s play of late is the best I’ve seen Arber play in the NHL.”

Ten months prior, Xhekaj wasn’t playing much at all in the NHL, leaving him admittedly frustrated.

After following up the best summer of his career with an outstanding training camp, Xhekaj felt he had put himself in pole position to win the tight race to what he thought would be a permanent lineup spot on a deeper Canadiens blue line than he’d played on since signing out of junior in 2021. But nothing ended up going the way the player thought it would once the season started. 

Xhekaj was short-shifted, played for under 12 minutes in 42 of his 65 games, and he was scratched from 17 games. 

“Obviously it was playing with my emotions,” Xhekaj admitted during a conversation with Sportsnet last Monday. “When I came into the league, I had a pretty long leash. But a big part of that was where the team was at. Then we got better and I felt like every year it was getting cut shorter and shorter, which was unexpected in a sense because when you become a veteran, your leash usually gets longer. But in my case, it was the way our team was headed; it had to get cut shorter fast because our team was heading uphill faster than anyone thought.”

With that, the pressure he put on himself to do more with less naturally increased. 

That pressure blurred Xhekaj’s focus. He searched for the balance between allowing the game to come to him and proving he could go out and take it, but despite his best effort, it proved elusive for most of the season.

A strong run at the end — and an injury to Noah Dobson — gave Xhekaj runway through the first six games of the playoffs.

But it got cut before Game 7 versus the Tampa Bay Lightning, upon Dobson’s return. And then, after playing all seven games against the Buffalo Sabres, Xhekaj was pulled out for all five games of the Eastern Conference Final versus the Carolina Hurricanes.

Of the entire experience, Xhekaj said, “It’s a hard topic to talk about, but I let it affect me while I was going through it.” 

“I know it’s normal, but you can’t let it affect you,” he added. “I came into camp flying, then started playing less and less, then getting scratched. I was letting it affect my game and then thinking I had to do more.”

Now Xhekaj’s just playing — and playing as well as we’ve ever seen him play.

His usage hasn’t changed much. He’s been under 12 minutes in seven of his games, barely over 12 in two others, and he’s maxed out at 14:26.

But Xhekaj is doing exactly what he hoped to in his time on ice.

“I’m just playing pretty simple hockey, moving the puck when I see a guy open,” he said. “I think my stick details have been really good. I watched a lot of video over the summer on stick detail from my last year and previous years, and the way it compares to now is night and day. The system really helps. We didn’t change much on the defensive side, but we changed some things that make it that much clearer on everyone’s assignment, so that obviously helps my game.”

Xhekaj looks confident and comfortable. To borrow a popular Quebecois expression, “Il est sur son X,” which means he’s found his place.

A big part of that is just having lived and learned.

“It comes with experience,” the 25-year-old said. “You’ve gotta go through it to know what it’s like. I think I just had to experience that to kind of realize how much leash you’re getting or not getting is not what matters. I just take it a day at a time and don’t really put stress on myself anymore or worry about stuff I can’t control. It’s all about how I play the game. If I play 10 minutes, I’ve got to play the best 10 minutes, and that’s how I look at it now. Every shift, I’ve gotta try to get something out of it, and I think it’s helping the team this year.”

For St. Louis, who sat Xhekaj from only one game because he said he needed to get Engstrom back into one after the 22-year-old sat for a stretch, there’s no doubt about it.

“I don’t think he’s trying to do too much,” the coach said last week. “He’s not running around. He gets his hits when they’re there, but he’s not just looking for that. So, he’s definitely more calculated. It’s not one thing, but it’s looking really good. And now it’s just the consistency of it, and so far, he’s giving us that.”

Xhekaj is also playing regularly on the penalty kill, and he’s spending less time in the box for fighting.

The tilt with Bauer was his first since Jan. 13, and he followed it up with one against Liam O’Brien after scoring on the NHL’s hardest shot recorded for a goal this season in a win over the Utah Mammoth Thursday.

The six-foot-four, 240-pound heavyweight hasn’t been avoiding it. But as he pointed out, plenty of players have been avoiding him, making it just one more aspect of play he doesn’t need to chase.

The benefit of that has been not having one extra layer of distraction before each game.

“It’s not like you can completely ignore it. You’ve gotta be ready for it,” Xhekaj said. “You can’t just be out to lunch and then something happens. I’ve just found a good balance of just trying to keep my emotions in the game and put everything I have into the game. If something happens, it’s part of my job. I like to stand up for my teammates; I like to do it for my team, so I don’t mind at all.”

What Xhekaj prefers, though, is to be playing consistently well and contributing to the Canadiens’ success in any way asked of him.

That sequence in the second period of the Jets game is one of many strong ones Xhekaj has put together to help them to a 11-3-3 record, and it typified just how far he’s come since last season.