Arber Xhekaj fires bold warning at Buffalo players ahead of Game 4
Arber Xhekaj didn't hold back this morning, taking direct aim at the Sabres just hours before the Canadiens host Game 4 at the Bell Centre.
His message was simple. Buffalo crossed a line, and Montreal answered.
- Arber Xhekaj
The Canadiens did exactly that. They took the last two games by a combined 11-3, flipping a series that opened with a Buffalo win in Game 1.
Montreal sits up 2-1 after dropping the opener 4-2 on the road. Two straight responses with real bite have changed the tone heading into tonight.
The regular-season backdrop matters here. Buffalo finished with 109 points and a 50-23-9 record, ranked first in their division grouping.
Lindy Ruff's Sabres keep losing the after-whistle battle
Montreal closed the season at 48-24-10, three points behind. Same division, same playoff bracket. They went 7-3-0 over their final 10 to nobody's relief in Buffalo.
The four regular-season meetings split 2-2, with both teams winning once on the other's ice. None of that prepared the Sabres for what's happening now.
The defenseman's comments aren't locker-room filler. They're a public flag planted by a player whose job already includes the rough stuff Buffalo's complaining about, dropped the morning of a possible 3-1 hole.
Lindy Ruff's group has to figure out how to win a scrum again. Every loose puck, every dead-puck moment is tilting Montreal's way, and Martin St-Louis hasn't had to lift a finger.
You watch this series and it feels like one team booked a vacation while the other packed boxing gloves. Guess which is which?
The pressure changes shape entirely if Buffalo loses tonight. Down 3-1 on the road, with a heavyweight on the other bench running his mouth and backing it up.
If the Sabres don't answer on the ice in Game 4, the talking won't matter much.
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LIVE
MAY 12, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zach Benson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Bowen Byram | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | - | - | - | |
| Phillip Danault | - | - | - | |
| Jakub Dobes | - | - | - | |
| Noah Dobson | - | - | - | |
| Jordan Greenway | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||