Canadiens' St-Louis Is Not Upset With Xekaj
Montreal Canadiens bench boss Martin St-Louis made many changes to his lines and pairings at practice yesterday and today, at the morning skate. Most of those changes stuck. The sole difference was Alex Newhook joining Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach on the second line and sending Oliver Kapanen to join the Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia duo lower in the lineup.
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What Canadiens' fans are talking about this lunchtime, though, is not the lines but the defensive pairings. As expected after yesterday's practice, it was confirmed that Kaiden Guhle and Justin Barron would be dressed tonight, leaving Arber Xhekaj as the odd man out.
Some were quick to lament the decision to scratch the gritty defender, especially since Tom Wilson plays for the Washington Capitals, but the bench boss wants to keep everyone active and engaged.
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Guhle and Barron both missed some time, and St-Louis feels it's time to play them. As for Xhekaj, the coach said:
Listen, we have seven healthy bodies right now, trying to keep everybody involved you know, and to me it's game by game. Sometimes you don't have to manage it game by game because you only have six guys healthy, but when you are healthy in this league most teams carry seven. Roll guys in and out, sometimes it's not necessarily on play, sometimes guys need to play versus you know, you're upset with a player. I'm not upset with Arber, he's working on the things we're talking about and he's going to get back in but we want to give JB and Guhles who have missed some time, to get them back on.
St-Louis is obviously happy to see if the defense is back to full health and calls Guhle "a horse for this team" because of the number of minutes he plays and the fact that Barron can make some plays and move the puck.
It will be interesting to see how things go tonight. Should the Capitals' resident tough guy, Wilson, decide to start some trouble, the Canadiens' assigned protector won't be there. That being said, Wilson has been calm this season, only being assessed a few minor penalties. Meanwhile, it has now been confirmed that Charlie Lindgren will get the start against his former team.
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