Arber Xhekaj admits it without embarrassment: He is far from playing his best ice hockey since the beginning of the season.

After being involved in literally every fight in the preseason games, the Montreal Canadiens appeared a little more hesitant in the first five games of the regular season.

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The 23-year-old Ontario native is often overwhelmed in his defense duties, less physically involved than usual and not quite himself.

“I’m not completely satisfied with my game so far, I lacked consistency,” he admitted after training on Friday. I need to fix this and that’s what I’m focused on right now.”

The Colossus thinks he thinks a little too much on the ice.

“I was a little too much in my head and I wasn’t physically myself,” he explained. It should help me play with a little more emotion.”

He would also like to have a little more stability with his defensive partners, but he doesn’t have too many illusions about it.

“It’s difficult to create chemistry between a partner and a partner who changes constantly, but it will stay that way throughout the season,” he recalls. They’ll try things out and play some guys with others. Anyone can play with anyone, that’s not so bad.”

Habs head coach Martin St-Louis welcomed this introspection from Xhekaj.

“When you’re looking for answers together, it’s better to look in the mirror first,” he noted. Control what you can control. If everyone does that, the group usually benefits.”

Stop the bleeding

Regardless, it’s important for the Habs to get back to their good habits after two underwhelming performances against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Los Angeles Kings on Monday and Thursday.

Because when he’s at his best, the Canadian can cause trouble for any NHL team, St-Louis emphasized on Friday.

“We play with urgency, we bring a lot of speed and pressure, we are organized, we are networked,” he explained. Our voucher is very good. But I expect a higher low this year. And I’m not happy with the ground at the moment.”

“We’ve only played five games and it’s a long season,” said striker Brendan Gallagher.

“It’s just a question of consistency,” he also said. We have not managed to find a certain rhythm and it will come, but we cannot achieve it by just talking about it, we have to make an effort. The training days are important for us, we will work on certain things in the hope that it will be implemented tomorrow.

“It’s important for us now to get results, stop the bleeding and get back to winning ways,” concluded Gallagher.

CH will therefore have the opportunity to recover against Patrick Roy and the Islanders in New York on Saturday.

“Their game is simple, they play deep, they don’t take a lot of risks,” St-Louis analyzed about them. It will be pretty similar to yesterday (Thursday). If we have these two games in a row, maybe we could benefit from it.

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