The Real Reason Martin St-Louis Benched Arber Xhekaj During Yesterday's Game Is Revealed
Despite the Montreal Canadiens' solid victory last night at the Bell Centre, there was a notable event involving Martin St-Louis and Arber Xhekaj.
In fact, two actions by Arber Xhekaj drew attention.
The first was his mistake on the goal scored by Will Smith, which gave the Sharks a 3-2 lead in the second period. The second was the subtle message he tried to send to Martin St-Louis.
Martin St-Louis Benches Arber Xhekaj After Will Smith's Goal
It had been a while since we had seen something like this with the Canadiens, but Xhekaj was indeed benched for the entirety of the second half of last night's game.
Martin St-Louis wanted to send him a message.
Another interesting detail: it's rare to see a player who has been "benched" by his head coach do this, but during a commercial break, Xhekaj decided to hop on the ice to skate a bit and stretch his legs.
I loved seeing that.
Stu Cowan
When asked about the reason for St-Louis' decision to bench Xhekaj, journalist Stu Cowan responded:
Going back to Xhekaj's decision to skate during the commercial break, it's something you rarely see, but personally, I think it simply showed Martin St-Louis, "Hey, I'm staying ready if you need me."
And not, "I'm going to stretch my legs because my head coach is letting me rot on the bench," as some interpreted it.
I just think it's a head coach doing a bit of hard coaching with a young player at the right moment.
I have absolutely no problem with it, and I'm convinced Xhekaj will come back stronger in the next game!
