The Department of Player Safety has Made Their Decision Regarding Arber Xhekaj's Suspension
Montreal Canadiens' Arber Xhekaj was facing a suspension after a controversial play in last night's game, and now the Department of Player Safety has a decision.
It seems the league determined there was no intent to harm the official and no suspension will be handed down to Arber Xhekaj for his actions during last night's game.
Here is a little bit of information for context. Things got heated in the second period yesterday between the Bruins and Habs.
The young Canadiens team became frustrated as the Bruins maintained a three-goal lead, namely defenseman Arber Xhekaj, who is known as an enforcer throughout the league.
A huge scrum occurred about halfway into the game after Kastelic tripped up Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson.
The larger Xhekaj immediately came to the defense of his much smaller partner, looking to drop the gloves with the Bruins forward.
From that point forward, it looked as though things might escalate into a full-blown line brawl, but ultimately only Xhekaj and Kastelic truly squared off.
The referees did a quick job of stepping in to break things up before they escalated out of hand, but Xhekaj continued throwing punches.
One of those punches missed Kastelic and accidentally connected with a linesman.
While this kind of incident often leads to an automatic suspension, it appears that the Department of Player Safety will not be taking further action against Xhekaj, as they clearly saw it was purely accidental with zero intent towards the official.
Now that this situation is behind everyone, the Habs will be looking to rebound in their next game after suffering a tough 6-3 loss to the Bruins yesterday.
| POLL | ||
DÉCEMBRE 2 | 501 ANSWERS The Department of Player Safety has Made Their Decision Regarding Arber Xhekaj's Suspension Do you agree with this suspension decision? | ||
| Yes | 419 | 83.6 % |
| No | 82 | 16.4 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Seth Jarvis | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Zach Hyman | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Sebastian Aho | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Leon Draisaitl | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Jonathan Huberdeau | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Mikael Granlund | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Brady Skjei | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Filip Forsberg | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Barrett Hayton | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Alexander Killorn | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Mason McTavish | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Jackson Blake | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Brock Boeser | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Filip Chytil | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Kirby Dach | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mario Ferraro | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Adam Fox | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Kent Johnson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dylan Larkin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Capitals | 48 | 33 | 10 | 5 | 71 | |
Jets | 49 | 32 | 14 | 3 | 67 | |
Golden Knights | 48 | 30 | 14 | 4 | 64 | |
Oilers | 48 | 30 | 15 | 3 | 63 | |
Hurricanes | 49 | 30 | 16 | 3 | 63 | |
Maple Leafs | 49 | 30 | 17 | 2 | 62 | |
Wild | 48 | 28 | 16 | 4 | 60 | |
Devils | 50 | 27 | 17 | 6 | 60 | |
Stars | 47 | 29 | 17 | 1 | 59 | |
Panthers | 49 | 28 | 18 | 3 | 59 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||