Desharnais breaks his silence about his fight with Arber Xhekaj and his injury

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MarcO
February 13, 2023 (4:47 PM)

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Sunday afternoon, during the game between the CH and the Edmonton Oilers, we were able to see the 9th fight of the season of defenseman Arber Xhekaj. Unfortunately for him, this fight did not end well as he had to leave the game with a shoulder injury.

Xhekaj's opponent, Quebec defenseman Vincent Desharnais, was in his first NHL fight. The latter, who has only 12 games of experience in the NHL, spoke about the event after the game. According to him, the injury of the CH player is only bad luck. He did not feel, during the duel, that his rival was injured.

It was going fast. He didn't say anything. We fought and he fell. I stopped immediately. I saw him come out of the ice, he looked like his shoulder or his arm was hurting. You don't want to see that. I would never play to hurt a player.

It's just bad luck. I knew his reputation. He's fought some tough guys. He's punched a lot of the big ones. He's doing well. He's tough. But whether it's Xhekaj or Josh Anderson, I wanted to provide a spark and bring emotion." - Vincent Desharnais

A response that speaks volumes about Desharnais' great class.

The story of Desharnais, a little like that of his opponent on Sunday [Arber Xhekaj], is in fact a very beautiful one. At 26 years old, the defenseman from Laval finally got his chance with the Oilers. The 7th round pick (183rd overall) of the organization in the 2016 draft had been playing in the ECHL and AHL before this moment. According to his head coach with the Oilers, Jay Woodcroft, the young man deserves everything he gets.

Any player from Quebec that gets to play a game in the Bell Centre, it's not the Forum, but it's still special for any young person from the province to play a game here. I'm sure he's in heaven not only to have made it to the National League, but to be a productive member of our defensive brigade and play a game here in Montreal." - Jay Woodcroft

In 12 games this season with Edmondton, Desharnais has accumulated 4 assists and 17 penalty minutes.