Canadiens lose to Red Wings, but Arber Xhekaj’s play represents a win in itself – The Athletic
MONTREAL — Arber Xhekaj was in a serene mood Saturday morning, knowing he would be playing later that night in what could easily be considered the Montreal Canadiens’ biggest game of the season.
He had long since left the ice after the morning skate, and Xhekaj was chatting with reporters. Jayden Struble was just coming off and entered the locker room because he would not be in the lineup against the Detroit Red Wings, with first place in the Atlantic Division on the line.
Ever since Kaiden Guhle suffered an adductor injury in the fifth game of the season, which he admitted Saturday morning first flared up in the preseason before getting worse, the battle has been on between Xhekaj and Struble for the No. 6 spot on the Canadiens’ blue line.
With Guhle returning to the lineup, the fact that Xhekaj was in shorts and a T-shirt while Struble was taking his equipment off was validation of what Xhekaj has shown over the past few weeks: his maturity and an improvement in his ability to manage games and control his own aggression.
And he was going to get to show that off.
“It’s a big game,” Xhekaj said. “It’s a game to kind of show that we should be at the top. It should be a good one.”
It was a good one, just not for the Canadiens, who lost 4-0 to the Red Wings in a competitive game. But Xhekaj continued building momentum to solidify his spot in the lineup as though he was pouring cement into that spot.
What has held Xhekaj back at times over his career is an inability to focus on the right things at the right times. Knowing he needs to be physical to stay in the lineup, he tended to take bad penalties. Knowing he was taking too many penalties, the physical play that makes him so valuable would begin to disappear. Knowing he needed to be smart with the puck and avoid turning it over, every turnover he made only led to more mistakes.
His desire to stay in the lineup has, in many ways, been his own worst enemy.
Except as soon as Guhle began skating on his own and ramping up his preparation, as soon as Xhekaj’s spot in the lineup appeared to be in imminent danger, as soon as the conditions that previously crippled him were beginning to manifest, his game improved.
And in this game, Xhekaj put all the elements that make him a desirable NHL defenceman together.
Late in the second period, Xhekaj crushed Red Wings centre J.T. Compher against the end boards twice in 20 seconds, two of eight hits he had in the game, the third-highest total of his career. But he didn’t go out of his way to make any of those hits; he just seized the opportunity when it presented itself.
Arber Xhekaj est en GRANDE forme 💥 pic.twitter.com/NDzkGvBbLa
— TVA Sports (@TVASports) January 11, 2026
“It brings a physical element to the game that not a lot of guys can bring,” Guhle said. “It’s fun to play with him, you definitely get a little bit more space when you’re out there with him.”
Guhle gave the Canadiens a full complement of healthy defencemen for the first time since he went down Oct. 16 against Nashville, and the biggest change since then has been Xhekaj’s play. Another change has been Lane Hutson playing on the left side in Guhle’s absence instead of playing on the right with Guhle. And that came about because Adam Engström’s arrival on Dec. 11 allowed Hutson to move left.
All Hutson has done since is put up 22 points in 16 games, seventh in the NHL over that span.
When Engström was taken out of the lineup and Hutson remained on the left with Alexandre Carrier, Xhekaj’s move to the right side instead of Struble was validation of the new level Xhekaj had reached.
“It’s definitely nice. It helps,” Xhekaj said before the game. “When you’re put in the starting lineup, it helps. When the coach is putting you on the penalty kill, it helps, because you can see that they’re trusting you and obviously it gives your game confidence.
“And I think when they put me on the right side, it gave me that confidence because they think I’m able to do it and they want to see if I can do it. I’ve tried to show them that I can.”
Late in the third period Saturday night, just after the Canadiens killed a penalty to Oliver Kapanen and down 3-0 with a little more than six minutes left in the game, Xhekaj was sent over the boards.
More validation.
Xhekaj had three shot attempts on that shift, and when the Red Wings tried to spring Patrick Kane on a breakaway with a hard rim around the boards as he cheated into the neutral zone, Xhekaj got back, physically eliminated Kane twice, took the puck, looked up and saw Nick Suzuki at the opposing blue line, hitting him with a stretch pass that would have given Suzuki a breakaway had he handled it.
The entire sequence displayed the best Xhekaj has to offer: the big shot, the physical play, the vastly improved puck play.
“He’s a presence, for sure,” Suzuki said. “Other teams see him in the lineup and are definitely thinking about him before the game. He’s been skating really well, moving the puck well, being physical when he can. He can bring the fighting aspect, but there’s a lot more time he’s playing defence and doing a good job with that. I’ve loved his game recently.”
Coach Martin St. Louis feels the same way. It’s been a long journey with Xhekaj, who has described his relationship with his coach as a father/son dynamic, with some instances of tough love that were widely misinterpreted.
The ultimate objective of that father/son relationship was to get the son to this point, where he is not only in the lineup with a fully healthy defence, but on the ice down three goals coming off a penalty kill on a critical shift that could get the Canadiens back in the game.
Guhle’s return to the lineup is a big boost to a team looking to make a surge in a competitive division ahead of the Olympic break. And the way Xhekaj is playing makes the group of six on the blue line that much more complete, while providing a similar boost even though he plays fewer minutes than Guhle.
Though Guhle began the game Saturday playing with Xhekaj to his right, by the second period, with the Canadiens chasing the game, Guhle was getting multiple shifts with Hutson there. This is how the Canadiens’ top four is likely to look once Guhle gets up to speed, with Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson together on the top pair and Guhle and Hutson on the second pair, with Hutson most likely to shift over to the right side.
Hutson’s production since moving to his natural left side is one reason that’s problematic, but the extent to which Carrier struggled playing on the third pair with Xhekaj or Struble is another. Carrier’s play next to Hutson, though, has been vastly improved, which tends to happen when you play that much more often in the offensive zone.
Putting Guhle back with Hutson would force Carrier back to the third pair, but the difference would be this version of Xhekaj.
And ultimately, even though the Canadiens lost a “big game” against the Red Wings with first place in the division on the line, Xhekaj’s mindset is more important.
If Xhekaj can maintain it, if he can continue to find the balance between crushing Compher into the boards twice in 20 seconds and the ability to both see and execute a stretch pass to Suzuki at the opposing blue line, the impact it will have on the Canadiens’ playoff chances will be immeasurable.
