{"id":330081,"date":"2025-11-30T03:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T03:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/330081\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T03:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T03:16:12","slug":"arber-xhekaj-under-fire-after-a-tough-night-in-the-canadiens-loss-to-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/330081\/","title":{"rendered":"Arber Xhekaj under fire after a tough night in the Canadiens’ loss to Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo credit: All Montreal Hockey \/ NHL<\/p>\n

On a night when the Colorado Avalanche controlled the game from start to finish, several key Canadiens players really struggled.<\/p>\n

It almost felt like the Habs were always half a second late. And when that happens, it’s never a good sign. Colorado’s speed hit immediately, and Martin St-Louis’ team never managed to keep up. Even the zone exits looked heavy, hesitant, and easy for the Avalanche to anticipate.<\/p>\n

Anthony Martineau was very clear in his analysis of Arber Xhekaj’s play, writing:<\/p>\n

“I didn’t like how Arber Xhekaj handled himself on the two goals.<\/p>\n

He keeps backing up forever and leaves a massive gap between the puck carrier and himself on the first one, when he could\/should have held his blue line.<\/p>\n

He loses his man on the second.<\/p>\n

I await your anger.”<\/p>\n

– Anthony Martineau<\/p>\n

In my opinion, it’s an honest summary of a game where everything seemed to go wrong.<\/p>\n

Arber Xhekaj’s mistakes and an overall effort that wasn’t enough<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes, for his part, was left alone all night. He faced shots without real support, and although it’s the kind of game a young goaltender wants to forget quickly, he had almost no chance. Alex Carrier’s three-game road trip has been rough,<\/a> as he’s now been on the ice for a team-worst five even-strength goals against.<\/p>\n

It was one of those nights where a goalie feels abandoned, especially when every turnover becomes a scoring chance for the other team. Anthony Martineau also noted that Xhekaj backed up too much on the first two goals, which opened a huge door for Colorado.<\/p>\n

The only small bright spot was Juraj Slafkovsky. His play on Ivan Demidov’s goal was really nice to see – proof that his talent can shine even in a game that was lost early.<\/p>\n

And despite this entire forgettable night, the Canadiens return from the West with 4 points out of 6. I think any fan would have taken that before the trip, even if the way it happened leaves a strange taste. It’s disappointing, but it’s pretty much the only thing to hold onto for comfort.<\/p>\n

And honestly, I think a slap like this can sometimes get everyone back on track for what’s ahead.<\/p>\n

Previously on All Montreal Hockey<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

1 HOUR AGO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0\u00a058 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Arber Xhekaj under fire after a tough night in the Canadiens’ loss to Colorado<\/p>\n

Are you satisfied with the Montreal Canadiens’ road trip out West?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo credit: All Montreal Hockey \/ NHL On a night when the Colorado Avalanche controlled the game from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[407,265,5435,5,638,976,412,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-330081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-arber-xhekaj","9":"tag-canadiens","10":"tag-florian-xhekaj","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-ivan-demidov","13":"tag-juraj-slafkovsky","14":"tag-martin-st-louis","15":"tag-montreal","16":"tag-montreal-canadiens","17":"tag-montrealcanadiens","18":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115636482115717595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}