Training: Arber Xhekaj didn’t train like a regular

Gally took a beating last night.

He was hit in the face with a stick in the first period… a gesture which, let’s not forget, was not punished by the officials.

When you look at the sequence, it’s clear that the Capitals player should have been chased off:

Here’s hoping the veteran Canadien doesn’t suffer a more serious injury today.

That said, seeing him take a day off isn’t a bad thing since he’s played all 82 of the team’s games this season. And the CH will need him if it wants to beat the Capitals in the first round.

To be continued.

But there’s another thing we’ve been keeping an eye on at training: defensive pairings.

Because we know that yesterday, the Habs took a physical beating against the Capitals. And we also know thatwith Arber Xhekaj in the line-up, it might have made a difference…

But for those wondering, no, Xhekaj didn’t return to the CH line-up at training.

All the defensive duos remained the same… as did the attacking trios.

The only “change”: Oliver Kapanen has taken Brendan Gallagher’s (absent) place in the rotations.

We can therefore expect to see Xhekaj and Kapanen left out tomorrow if Gally can play…

Xhekaj played on March 28 against the Hurricanes and on April 6 against the Predators.

But since then, we haven’t seen him.

He’s played just five games in the last month (since March 22), and it feels like he’ll have to work really hard to get back into Martin St-Louis’ line-up.

Yes, even though right now, the CH could use a player like him in the lineup.

And that says a lot about St-Louis’ intentions towards him…

In brief

– Good point.

– Good for the Sens.

– Montreal CF training news.