The Montreal Canadiens aren't trusting Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble much on the penalty kill and eventually, it could blow in their faces.
With Mike Matheson being day-to-day with an upper-body injury, the Montreal Canadiens had to make some changes to their penalty kill in the game against the Philadelphia Flyers. As a result, Lane Hutson ended up playing over 27 minutes, as he was on both special teams in addition to his even-strength minutes.
Meanwhile, Arber Xhekaj didn’t get a single second of penalty kill while Jayden Struble was on the ice for a minute and 53 seconds, nowhere near the 4:04 Noah Dobson got, or the 2:42 Hutson got. On Wednesday morning, since the scheduled practice turned into an optional skate, it wasn’t Martin St-Louis who spoke to the media, but defensemen coach Stephane Robidas.
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Asked what Xhekaj or Struble need to be able to play more when the Habs are down a man, he explained that they need more repetitions. The question then becomes: how can they get repetitions if the coaching staff doesn’t trust them enough to put them out there?
Trusting the likes of Hutson, Matheson and Dobson is all well and good, but overusing them in a season when the schedule is jammed back is not the best idea in the world. If you push those players too much, they could become overworked, and fatigue can lead to injuries. If they lose one of those three for an extended period, they’ll wish they had given Struble and Xhekaj the reps the organization knows they need, especially since they’ll have to do it without a safety net in that scenario.
There’s no news yet on when Matheson will be back. He’s still considered day-to-day, which technically means he could be in against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night, but there’s no sign that he will be.
As for Kaiden Guhle, he skated on his own on Wednesday morning, but Robidas said he had no idea where he was up to in his rehabilitation. The medical update given in mid-November said he had just undergone surgery and would need between eight and 10 weeks to recuperate. In other words, it’s a positive sign that he’s skating, but he still won’t be back for quite some time.
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