St. Louis’ Trust in Xhekaj On Saturday Paid Off

Xhekaj is averaging just 11:09 a night as the team’s 6th defenseman. He never plays on the power play and barely any time on penalty kill, so his minutes are limited compared to every other defender on the team. Therefore, it can be hard for him to get into the groove when he plays as little as he does. The thing about being among the players who start each period is that it allows those guys to set the opening tone for how things will go for their team for the following few shifts. As a result, those guys have the opportunity to get into the game right off the hop. Meanwhile, in games where Xhekaj may be the 3rd pairing to get on the ice, it may be harder to get his feet moving to the proper pace that the game would be at if he only gets his first shift a little later in the period.

Now this wouldn’t happen for a guy who gets a lot of shifts, but for Xhekaj, who gets skipped over due to special teams or just assignments that defensemen on higher pairings have to deal with on a nightly basis.  This means after that first shift he gets, it may take a while before he can get back on the ice and get the reps he needs to be adjusted to the game’s pace. When Xhekaj doesn’t have the opportunity to get a few shifts early on it leads to him making mistakes later on because he can’t catch up to the pace as easily as the others who are playing regular shifts.

Engels told Tony Marinaro on Monday night’s Sick Podcast that he believes the real reason Xhekaj had one of, if not his best game of the season so far on Saturday was because he got to set the pace of the game early on by starting the period and feeling the trust from his coach. This gives him a lot of confidence which allows him to play his style of game the best he can. Now, Xhekaj will never bring much offence, but he can have a strong defensive game that helps his teammates get the puck out of the zone.

During Saturday’s game, Xhekaj got to play 14:00, which is nearly 3 minutes more than his season average, and it made a big difference in his game as a whole. Xhekaj was tied for most hits with Jayden Struble on the night, with 4, and he really imposed himself physically, which is what is needed of him most. The Habs defenseman also finished the night with 2 shots on goal and was a +2 on the night for only the 2nd time this season. The reality is Xhekaj has had too many nights this year where he wasn’t able to impose himself with his body and instead took bad interference penalties or had trouble getting up to the game’s speed with his sporadic shifts causing mistakes to occur in the defensive end. However, Saturday was a completely different story which started because St. Louis wasn’t afraid to start his 3rd pairing during each period on Saturday night, leading to him being able to have a shift a little more consistently and allowing him to play the game that he wants to play.

This isn’t to say that Xhekaj must start every game to be effective, but maybe St. Louis should try to give Xhekaj a few more minutes per game like he did Saturday, so that when his name is called to go out on the ice he can play his role as a physical presence with more reliability and make an actual difference like both he and his coach know he can.

Do you agree with Engels’ point that getting more ice time will allow Arber Xhekaj to be a more efficient physical defenseman?