Good news for Arber Xhekaj and the Montreal Canadiens: The defenseman returned to practice with his teammates on Saturday morning.
Xhekaj has been out of action for over two weeks.
On November 16, he left the game against the Vegas Golden Knights early after being hit hard by forward Ivan Barbashev in the second period. Watch the sequence in question here:
Xhekaj leaves the game after a hard check from Barbashev –
In 16 games this season, Xhekaj has collected three points and collected 47 penalty minutes.
Last year he missed the final weeks of the calendar due to right shoulder surgery.
Over and beyond, The Canadiens announced that forward Alex Newhook will be sidelined for 10 to 12 weeks due to a left ankle sprain against the Panthers.
Coaching training:
Attacker:
- Caufield-Suzuki-Monahan
- Gallagher-Dvorak-Anderson
- Pearson-Evans-Slafkovski
- Ylönen – Stephens – Armia
Defender:
- Matheson-Lindstrom
- Guhle-Barron
- Struble – Kovacevic
Here are the pre-game press conferences from Martin St-Louis, Sean Monahan, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kaiden Guhle and Nick Suzuki:
Comments from Martin St-Louis before the game –
Press conferences by Sean Monahan, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kaiden Guhle and Nick Suzuki –
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