Arber Xhekaj's punishment for hit on Sam Carrick finally revealed, per sources
Arber Xhekaj is reportedly headed for a $2,500 fine, not a suspension, after his Game 3 hit on Sam Carrick, and Martin St-Louis gets to keep his physical edge intact.
That's the read from Max Lalonde of BPM Sports, with a second source backing the same outcome.
If you want to suspend Xhekaj, fine. But this too.
Anyway. Xhekaj's going to get a $2,500 fine, tops."
- Max Lalonde
ESPN's Greg Wyshynski echoed the same temperature. He'd be surprised by anything more than fines for Xhekaj and Buffalo's Josh Norris for their Game 3 actions.
His reasoning was direct. The NHL rarely suspends for sucker punches, and Norris was tied up in a scrum rather than ambushing a defenseless opponent.
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Lalonde pushed it further on social media. He flagged Buffalo's conduct as worse than the Xhekaj hit on Carrick.
Here's the eye-test moment: Sabres bodies swarming a tangled scrum, sticks in the air, a Canadiens player buried at the bottom of the pile while the officials try to peel the bench off the ice.
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Lindy Ruff loses the disciplinary edge he needed for Game 4
For Buffalo, this stings. Lindy Ruff's group was banking on the league to even the temperature heading into Tuesday night.
Instead, Sam Carrick's tormentor walks back into the lineup, and the Sabres have to absorb another night of #72 hunting hits along the blue line.
Xhekaj has played eight of the ten Montreal playoff games. He's posted one assist and a +4 in the postseason after a -8 regular season across 65 games.
The number that matters more is his cap hit. At $1,300,000, he's the cheapest physical deterrent in the dressing room.
A $2,500 fine, against that salary, is barely a parking ticket. It's the kind of price tag that almost encourages the next big hit.
That's the part Buffalo can't fix overnight. You can't legislate fear into a guy whose entire job description is to make the other team uncomfortable.
Josh Norris was Buffalo's reliable two-way center this year. He brought 34 points across 44 games before the playoffs started, and the Sabres needed him pulled into the news cycle even less than Xhekaj.
Now both should stay available. The series resumes Tuesday at the Centre Bell with Montreal one win from a 3-1 stranglehold.
The question hanging over Lindy Ruff's bench is uglier than the fine itself. If the league won't step in, who on his roster actually does?
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YESTERDAY
MAY 10, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Cutter Gauthier | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Alex Newhook | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alexander Killorn | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Beckett Sennecke | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirby Dach | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ian Moore | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||