Arber Xhekaj was already leading the NHL with 38 penalty minutes before the visit of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He extended his lead by spending nine more minutes in the penalty box in that 5-3 defeat to Jon Cooper’s gang.
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Sometimes too much is like not enough. Xhekaj, who has inherited the nickname Sheriff in addition to Wifi, has often fallen into indiscipline this season. This was the case again against the Lightning.
The Lightning players celebrated their second goal, Nick Paul’s first of the game, at 7:15 of the first period. Photo USA TODAY Sports
Too much power
In the third period, the number 72 reacted too violently in a scrum with Tanner Jeannot in front of Samuel Montembeault’s net. Xhekaj received a four-minute penalty for roughness, compared to just two minutes for Jeannot.
“I didn’t like the penalty for Xhekaj,” said Martin St-Louis. We had pace, we had just scored two goals and it was now a two-goal game. You never know whether we will score another goal. But we didn’t give ourselves that chance with our penalty shootout at the end of the game. »
Jake Evans also visited the penalty box towards the end of the third period.
“We have to pay attention to our discipline,” said goalkeeper Samuel Montembeault. In the third half we managed to get back into the rhythm and conceded a penalty in the offensive zone (Evans). From then on they scored a goal, the game was practically over because we didn’t have a chance to take out the goalkeeper. »
More fragile
At a press conference, St-Louis described his team as more fragile.
“When you score on the first shift of a game, it’s never easy,” he remembers. We are a fragile team at the moment, we have lost a bit of confidence. It wasn’t bad in the first half. »
“We found our way a little bit in this game. There was no player hiding after the first game. It’s easy to hide when it doesn’t feel right. In life you are judged when things don’t go well. I liked that no one was hiding. They wanted to be part of the answers. We fought until the end, but the penalties were boring. However, we were in too big a hole (4 to 0). »