“I didn’t like the punishment at Xhekaj.” -Martin St. Louis

Arber Xhekaj was already leading the NHL heading into the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning with 38 penalty minutes. He extended his lead by spending another nine minutes in the box in this 5-3 loss to the John Cooper Gang.

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Sometimes too much is not enough. Xhekaj, who inherited the title of Sheriff as well as Wifi, has often fallen into indiscipline this season. This was the case again against the Lightning.

Lots of power

In the third period, player No. 72 responded with great force in an altercation with Tanner Geno in front of Samuel Montembault’s net. Chikaj received a four-minute penalty for roughness, compared to only two minutes for Jano.

“I didn’t like Xhekaj’s penalty,” Martin St. Louis said. We were fast, we had just scored two goals and it was now a two-goal game. If we score another goal, you never know. But we didn’t give ourselves that chance on penalties at the end of the match. »

Jake Evans also visited the penalty box late in the third period.

“We have to pay attention to our discipline,” goalkeeper Samuel Montembault said. In the third, we were able to get back into the rhythm and got a penalty in the offensive zone (Evans). They scored from there, and it was practically over, because we didn’t have a chance to get the goalkeeper out. »

More fragile

St. Louis described his team in a press conference as more fragile.

“When you score a goal in the first half of a match, it’s not easy at all,” he recalls. We are a fragile team at the moment, we have lost a little bit of confidence. It wasn’t bad in the first half. »

“We found ourselves a little bit in this match. There was no player who was hiding after the first. It’s easy when it’s not convenient to hide. In life, you are judged when things don’t go well. I liked that there was no man hiding. “They wanted to be part of the answers. We fought until the end, but the penalties were boring. However, we found ourselves in a very big hole (4 to 0).”